Empact

14 ms·

121.
by Empact 5y ago
There's a big difference between a solution which requires you to use a custodial service, and one which gives you the option of non-custodial service - the latter allows for a much greater ability to hold custodial services accountabl
122.
by Empact 5y ago
"a Frankenstein's monster created by mating civil libertarianism with austerity." — UC San Diego sociologist Neil Gong They manage to name the two contingents that are out of power and have nothing to do with the crisis, libe
123.
by Empact 5y ago
As for policy consequences, how about this one: The United States directly and indirectly funded the Wuhan laboratory, and so bears some responsibility for the virus. It also appears Fauci and others were aware of the deficiencies of the in
124.
by Empact 5y ago
Fyi, it was predicted very early on. The first reply to Satoshi’s announcement email to the cypherpunks mailing list criticized the idea as unscalable. Satoshi implemented an early version of payment channels in Bitcoin Core around version
125.
by Empact 5y ago
Why the bitterness? You could blame the politicians just as well for the climate disaster, or the corporations, why the wealthy?[1] What do you know of their family life or love of dogs? I think the rich are not who you think - if you put l
126.
by Empact 5y ago
Examples of common causes left out: nephritis, stroke, diabetes, alzheimer’s, septicemia. Source: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1P5b9GdVsNx3DPywLluwE...
127.
by Empact 6y ago
I disagree. Consider the housing bubble - it was tipped off by the response to the internet bubble, low rates from the fed so that people would borrow to get the economy moving again, e.g. by buying housing. Low rates result in more lending
128.
by Empact 6y ago
I expect economics textbooks in the future will refer to this time as the time this question was settled: were shells and gold money because of their intrinsic ability to be used as jewelry etc., or was it jewelry because their other proper
129.
by Empact 6y ago
The bubbles I've observed have been a product of or exacerbated by artificially low interest rates and the money printing that enables them. If Bitcoin achieves its goal, it will remove or reduce the power of the government to print mo
130.
by Empact 6y ago
It's funny to me that deflation being bad is an orthodoxy despite the paucity of evidence for this. Can you point to a deflationary episode that was harmful? Japan had the "lost decade" of slow growth, but is slow growth bad?
131.
by Empact 6y ago
> There is no single reason for bitcoin to exist Just from my lifetime: Hyperinflation in Venezuela and Zimbabwe. Inflation in Argentina. The housing bubble. The internet bubble. Banker bailouts. Our current everything bubble.
132.
by Empact 6y ago
I think your definition is faulty: are you aware of shell money? This served as money enabling international trade for thousands of years[1], and can you say these shells have intrinsic uses?[2] These shells had value because of their prope
133.
by Empact 6y ago
Without dollars there is: advocacy, open source contributions, and sweat equity - as many ways to participate as there are social and creative avenues. Incidentally, some but not all of these are vaunted as the noble ways to participate in
134.
by Empact 6y ago
That’s strange because I see it essentially in reverse of that: To change the Bitcoin price, vote with your dollars, going long or shorting. You will materially impact the order book and resulting price. Other ways exist: starting a company
135.
by Empact 6y ago
Bitcoin is an asset that is designed to become a currency.
136.
by Empact 6y ago
For those looking to avoid alzheimer’s / dementia, there’s evidence linking it to metabolic dysfunction, and intermittent fasting has been shown to help in mice. https://www.discovermagazine.com/health/the-growing-
137.
by Empact 6y ago
> commodities in general check the same boxes without the awkwardness of Bitcoin To name a few properties, commodities can not be transferred anywhere in the world quickly and at low cost in a censor-less fashion, can not be transported
138.
by Empact 6y ago
It’s an incorrect assumption that mining follows the local energy mix: Electricity is the main cost of mining, so miners compete in minimizing their electricity costs in order to maintain profitability, including by co-locating mining facil
139.
by Empact 6y ago
> At the risk of sounding a big tinfoil... What you describe is how assets acquire monetary value: people start buying them not because they want them but because other people will want them. Then they don’t sell them because they know o
140.
by Empact 6y ago
Tax carbon, and you’ll influence all industries broadly and fairly, rather than taking on the venal task of searching out who doesn’t deserve or make good use of their emissions, according to us. https://citizensclimatelobby.org&
141.
by Empact 6y ago
D3 is also stored in fat, and released as fat is metabolized.
142.
by Empact 6y ago
As a Bitcoin Core contributor[1] and recent Ham radio adopter, the author mistakes a key point: > This lack of a gate keeper means that there is no one to soften the user experience. This is true of Ham radio[2], but it is not the case w
143.
by Empact 7y ago
Silver's scarcity is less than gold but its practical portability and exchangeability is a bit greater than gold, because typical units of exchange align with practical amounts of metal (coin-size, rather than gram-size). However, now
144.
by Empact 7y ago
In some cultures it's common to provide funerals for stillborn babies. Perhaps this part of the reason why. https://americanpregnancy.org/pregnancy-loss/stillborn-survi...
145.
by Empact 7y ago
Based on what I last heard from merchants that accept it (e.g. Bitrefill), it's about tied with Ethereum for second in payment volume, after Bitcoin.
146.
by Empact 7y ago
Not having read the article but having participated in Bitcoin "production" a decent amount[1], I see a lot in common between Bitcoin and the organization of the intentionally non-hierarchical Quakers. Quakers, despite being relig
147.
by Empact 7y ago
Key quotes for me: > Dr. Woolf said one of the findings showed that the excess deaths were highly concentrated geographically, with fully a third of them in just four states: Ohio, Pennsylvania, Kentucky and Indiana. > “What’s not los
148.
by Empact 7y ago
“We hold these truths to be self-evident” - intellectually lazy, or a claim whose verification or refutation is left to the reader?
149.
by Empact 7y ago
Fair enough, it’s possible, but I maintain: the model proposed would have been operative always and everywhere, so would we not expect this to be occurring all of the time? Would history not be very different, with no middle class (our midd
150.
by Empact 7y ago
According to the chart below, housing, food and beverage and other costs are up > 56% over the last 20 years. Granted, for many things in society, prices have declined thanks to manufacturing advances and trade, etc. The difference is be

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