sparkie

78 ms·

691.
by sparkie 8y ago
At the point where 51% attacks are happening, it's fair that coinholders lose value. The alternative is that they are able to offload their bags onto some other greater fool who will lose the value instead.
692.
by sparkie 8y ago
> Distinguishing having a de-jure monopoly on force vs a de-facto monopoly on something else is not a useful practical difference to make. It depends how the monopoly comes about. Many de-facto monopolies arise as a result of governmen
693.
by sparkie 8y ago
> This is what you choose to believe, to maintain your internal consistency in your own ideology. Dude, they're completely different. A corporation has to provide services people want to use of their own volition. A government takes
694.
by sparkie 8y ago
They both have to manage finances, but governments are spending other people's money. A corporation is people risking their own money on profitable ventures. How you can think they are in any way similar is beyond me. Governments hav
695.
by sparkie 8y ago
Governments and corporations are very different. A corporation needs to generate profit. If they don't profit, their shareholders don't get paid! If they continually don't profit, they go out of business and lose the investme
696.
by sparkie 8y ago
A corporation is a person, but it's a legal fiction. The corporation is simply a gathering of non fictitious people who come together to collaborate and earn revenue as a collective. Each of those people pays taxes from their salaries
697.
by sparkie 8y ago
I didn't conflate them but specifically pointed out that my opinion on media coverage does not imply denial of science, and my complaint is specifically about media coverage of "global warming", not necessarily the science it
698.
by sparkie 8y ago
"Extremes" need putting into perspective. Around the dawn of human civilization (12,000BC), Britain was connected by land to Europe via Doggerland and the Nile was completely dried out. By around 6000 BTC, the Nile was flowing and
699.
by sparkie 8y ago
> I’m not fully grasping what you are implying here, mind explaining further? Bitcoin catches the interest of low time preference people who want to be able to store assets (accumulate capital) in a way that a government could not come a
700.
by sparkie 8y ago
Certainly not with our existing type systems. It might be possible if somebody could come up with a new system with the vau calculus at its core rather than lambda calculus (as Hindley-Milner etc. are). I think it would be a dead-end with
701.
by sparkie 8y ago
He clearly didn't value it highly enough at the time. You're implying that if he didn't accidentally lose his private keys, he would've had the nerve to hodl it till now and wouldn't have cashed out when it was valu
702.
by sparkie 8y ago
"Blockchain" is a database, but bitcoin is much more than its storage backend. The reason you can't simply replicate it is due to the monetary policy. In a world where anyone can make their own cryptocurrency, and we have &qu
703.
by sparkie 8y ago
Venmo has the prerequisite that you have a bank account. That excludes a massive portion of the human population from the get go, and puts various obstacles in people's way depending on their background. Acquiring bitcoin will become i
704.
by sparkie 8y ago
Bitcoin is going to drive research into renewable (cheaper) energies faster than all of the G20 combined. The reason is simple: Mining profitability is measured in Hashes per Joule. Increasing hashes means bringing down the price of mining
705.
by sparkie 8y ago
If only he was using a trustless cryptocurrency rather than a "trusted" custodial entity, he would never have had that problem.
706.
by sparkie 8y ago
It's easier because it doesn't require any sign-up. You simply download some compatible software and you're ready to run. Every other of the 87 services requires sign-up, which means filling out forms and uploading photos of
707.
by sparkie 8y ago
The Byzantine Generals problem was "unsolvable" until Satoshi Nakamoto sidestepped it to make Bitcoin work. You don't need perfect solutions to have practical applications. It's such a stupid argument against LN. I can m
708.
by sparkie 8y ago
It's also reversible. With bitcoin, it might take a bit longer, but transaction are non-reversible after a few confirmations. Any other system can reverse payments even 6 months down the line. Sucks for businesses.
709.
by sparkie 8y ago
"significant time?" The author dismisses it in a single paragraph because of a single chart which shows that stagnation is not only among the lowest earners. Yet the same chart clearly shows that the same level of stagnation is
710.
by sparkie 8y ago
> However, wages (like all other prices) in a market are set by supply and demand. This should be the case, but minimum wage laws completely screw up the market. The unintended consequences of minimum wage result in almost the opposite e
711.
by sparkie 8y ago
I work in the FMCG industry, and we treat supply is effectively unlimited. You will constantly have suppliers begging you to buy more, and to buy new products as they expand their range. However, as a trader, you will only ever buy what y
712.
by sparkie 8y ago
Bitcoin doesn't punish late adopters, it just does not give them the same advantage as the earlier adopters. Somebody who adopts Bitcoin today will still have a major advantage over somebody who adopts it in 10 years from now, but it
713.
by sparkie 8y ago
No it couldn't. A majority of hashing power attempting to change monetary policy spins off a forked coin which does not have economic value because it does not have economic users. If the overwhelming majority of bitcoin users (98%+) w
714.
by sparkie 8y ago
I think here's your answer: It isn't just about the tech. This is what most "blockchain" enthusiasts get wrong. They think it is just about technology, and thus, they can come up with "a better bitcoin." They&#
715.
by sparkie 8y ago
Energy is created to meet demand. It is not consumed to meet supply. The exception to the latter is where excess energy is created because a method of energy production is created to meet peak demand , but generates more energy than is nee
716.
by sparkie 8y ago
An early adopter will always have an advantage over somebody who gets on board later. The only way you could prevent this is by actively punishing early adopters. Good luck achieving adoption if you try this.
717.
by sparkie 8y ago
A government can steal your gold an outlaw it, as the US government did in 1933. They can also try to outlaw bitcoin, but they have a bit more trouble stealing it.
718.
by sparkie 8y ago
Trump ties with Russia -> this is fake news
719.
by sparkie 8y ago
> If there was a causal connection, you'd expect the US to have a much better quality of life than, say, Sweden. I leave it to you to judge that. I don't think you've been to Sweden to make that claim, and perhaps you&#x27
720.
by sparkie 8y ago
> I'll never understand the hardcore libertarians - it's indistinguishable from sociopathy to me. Yet every example we know of where trade has had the fewest obstacles (Britain during Victorian reign, Hong Kong under UK rule, J

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