boc

32 ms·

361.
by boc 5y ago
Just a reminder that in the 19th Century we killed off billions and billions of passenger pigeons until they went completely extinct. They were the most abundant bird in North America and we literally killed them all. Humans causing massive
362.
by boc 5y ago
"The process is the vaccine" aka manufacturing the vaccine is the hardest part. Saying that Pfizer is just a partner of the "real" vaccine developer downplays the importance of manufacturing to a significant degree. It&#
363.
by boc 5y ago
This is a great way to frame the issue.
364.
by boc 5y ago
Lawrence, KS or Fayetteville, AR
365.
by boc 5y ago
I understand crypto perfectly and I strongly believe that it's ultimately useless. The difference is that I have no financial incentive to tell everyone I know about crypto, whereas you certainly do. I'll leave it up to the audien
366.
by boc 5y ago
Just in case you aren't catching on here, cryptocurrencies are not the future. They are just digital tulips - beautiful to look at and comprehend, but separate from any meaningful contribution to the economic system. You can still get
367.
by boc 5y ago
Couldn't agree more - love seeing Boards of Canada getting some exposure here. IDM in general is such a fascinating genre.
368.
by boc 6y ago
Fair - it's hard to get accurate info on the sum value of the transactions. Even if every transaction was a full bitcoin, it's still only $17B per day. Or still just six tenths of one percent of what JPM processes daily.
369.
by boc 6y ago
Just to bring some perspective, JP Morgan alone transfers the equivalent of the U.S. real gross domestic product each week. $2.8T per day, just by one bank. Bitcoin+all of crypto combined is nowhere close to that scale. Bitcoin sees around
370.
by boc 6y ago
Cocaine is a highly inelastic good. Bitcoin is highly elastic. It's trivial to ban goods with elastic demand.
371.
by boc 6y ago
There was a new, recent study that showed that the mRNA vaccines were still 90% effective among healthcare workers during the big surge in December/January period when the variants were certainly present.[1] This doesn't mean the
372.
by boc 6y ago
When 99% of people say "good for the environment" it's implied that the point of protecting the environment is to sustain human life on Earth. Nuclear conflict is not compatible with sustainable human life.
373.
by boc 6y ago
I think that's correct, but I think the broader point is that unlike gold or real estate or other long-term stores of value, bitcoin has a few improbable but catastrophic ways to rapidly lose value. Also don't put it past the CCP
374.
by boc 6y ago
> Just last week, the United Nations alleged that North Korea was funding its nuclear weapons program using funds from hacked cryptocurrency exchanges, alongside other thefts. The U.N. believes that over $300 million in crypto assets hav
375.
by boc 6y ago
It's good until it's not. A successful quantum attack on a bitcoin address would end it permanently - sure we might be "decades" away from that, but we also knew it took years to make a vaccine until Moderna/Pfizer
376.
by boc 6y ago
Nobody is going to be left in the dust. There's zero chance the global market moves to bitcoin, and there's zero chance that you'll ever live in a country where it's the primary form of currency. Everyone who thinks that
377.
by boc 6y ago
What makes people uncomfortable is that the US is a democracy, and the leaders are chosen by the population. China's military and social power is wielded by a very small group of elites in the CCP, which makes it hard to trust. The nat
378.
by boc 6y ago
Agreed. It's the difference between deflationary assets and inflationary currency. Bitcoin's core, fundamental problem is that it's deflationary. Therefore it will never be useful for economic transactions, because any societ
379.
by boc 6y ago
And that's how you'd get a nice, friendly visit from the Sixth Fleet.
380.
by boc 6y ago
IF that's the goal, a Neutron Bomb[1] would be far more efficient. From Wikipedia: "Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory director Harold Brown and Soviet General Secretary Leonid Brezhnev both described neutron bombs as a "
381.
by boc 6y ago
Bitcoin was a brilliant technical solution to a problem that was already solved centuries ago by legal institutions and contracts. The introduction of bitcoin has had basically zero real economic impact on the macro economy, which to me is
382.
by boc 6y ago
Great arguments. Bitcoin is a solution without a problem.
383.
by boc 6y ago
Trump continued (and even increased) the drone killings, but removed the reporting requirements. Calling it the "Obama-era drone killings" ignores the unprecedented amount of killings under the previous administration. Source: ht
384.
by boc 6y ago
That scenario makes no sense in the real world because the US government would just regulate/ban it before it got to that point. Once BTC even starts to threaten the sovereignty and power of the USD, it's game over for Bitcoin and
385.
by boc 6y ago
More than Pfizer?
386.
by boc 6y ago
Maybe they'll just release a RISC which lets you mine bitcoin with your Tesla or Powerwall, and use that as a selling point.
387.
by boc 6y ago
With all due respect, Nick Szabo is a computer scientist, not an economist or an economic historian. Personally I'd recommend "The Ascent of Money: A Financial History of the World" by Niall Ferguson for a more complete look
388.
by boc 6y ago
Because the US had a new spy satellite program that took its place.
389.
by boc 6y ago
It's not an extreme reaction to see a company like Robinhood bending to the will of its real customers, aka Citadel, and concluding that they were both running out of liquid money because they allow instant trading for new users AND
390.
by boc 6y ago
It's worth noting that "American" styles like v60 pour-overs, chemex, and cold brew iced coffee often have more caffeine per typical serving than traditional espresso drinks.

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