Re: Guest Post - Fork, bitcoin, the sticking of the former in the latter.

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Shoulda probably put quotes around "trust an incredibly shady Russian bitcoin mining enterprise", heebie. Anyhow this could lead to the Winklevii and Mark Andreesseen (I think?) losing just loads and loads of money, which would be some funny shit.


Posted by: Beefo Meaty | Link to this comment | 06-18-14 1:35 PM
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oh please oh please oh please


Posted by: Gonerill | Link to this comment | 06-18-14 1:41 PM
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Patents, trademarks, quotes, or none. Who can really say.


Posted by: heebie-geebie | Link to this comment | 06-18-14 1:42 PM
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They should send that Newsweek reporter out to find the person who runs GHash and ask them if they intend to be on the up-and-up.


Posted by: Beefo Meaty | Link to this comment | 06-18-14 1:43 PM
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They should send melis.


Posted by: snarkout | Link to this comment | 06-18-14 1:55 PM
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Saw this yesterday. Not seeing anything in the value chart ...yet. Are most holders simply clapping louder at this point?


Posted by: JP Stormcrow | Link to this comment | 06-18-14 2:00 PM
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But they say they're good guys...

"Our investment, participation and highly motivated staff confirm it is our intention to help protect and grow the broad acceptance of bitcoin and categorically in no way harm or damage it. We never have and never will participate in any 51% attack or double spend against bitcoin."


Posted by: JP Stormcrow | Link to this comment | 06-18-14 2:08 PM
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And if you can't trust things people say about themselves on the internet what can we trust?


Posted by: JP Stormcrow | Link to this comment | 06-18-14 2:09 PM
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"It's time for a hard fork"

Or, you know, just... not promoting cryptocurrencies?


Posted by: essear | Link to this comment | 06-18-14 2:25 PM
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The real loser here is the legacy of tradition and student-athleticism that was the Beef O' Brady's Bowl. The champions are having their victories devalued.


Posted by: Robert Halford | Link to this comment | 06-18-14 2:30 PM
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Time for some BitPopcorn.


Posted by: Nathan Williams | Link to this comment | 06-18-14 2:32 PM
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9: But then how will we usher in the libertarian techno-utopia? As far as I can tell we need cryptocurrencies, 3D printers, and Tor and everything will be super-peachy.


Posted by: togolosh | Link to this comment | 06-18-14 2:33 PM
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This sounds like a problem that was totally inevitable, and also was never mentioned as a potential problem by any of the anti-Bitcoin pieces I've read over the last couple years.


Posted by: Cryptic ned | Link to this comment | 06-18-14 2:37 PM
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I thought Bitcoin (which I never totally understood) was already dead after the MtGox thing (which I also never totally understood.)

I think the new currency for the libertarian utopia should be what MtGox was originally designed for: Magic the Gathering cards.


Posted by: rob helpy-chalk | Link to this comment | 06-18-14 2:50 PM
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13 was my thought also.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 06-18-14 2:54 PM
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14: Then we need a Pokemon Williams Jenning Bryan to give a speech about bicardism.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 06-18-14 2:56 PM
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THAT NEW SINGLE BY POKEMON WILLIAMS IS BANGIN'

JENNING BRYAN LOOKS SO HOT IN THE VIDEO.


Posted by: OPINIONATED GRANDSON | Link to this comment | 06-18-14 2:59 PM
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I think the 51% problem is secondary to the problem of "how the fuck does it make sense to use a currency who's value fluctuates like the heart-rate of a chipmunk on Froot Loops?"

Now, if somebody could come up with a cryptocurrency that could enable cheap, anonymous transactions while maintaining parity with the US dollar, that might actually be useful.

Maybe some enterprising Central Bank could pull it off, and get rich off seigniorage. Bank of the Cayman Islands, perhaps.


Posted by: Spike | Link to this comment | 06-18-14 3:12 PM
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But DogeCoin is OK, right?


Posted by: k-sky | Link to this comment | 06-18-14 3:37 PM
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Much stable. Very confidence.


Posted by: JP Stormcrow | Link to this comment | 06-18-14 3:40 PM
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||

The perfect outfit updated.

(It does in fact retain a critical component of the original perfect outfit.)
|>


Posted by: k-sky | Link to this comment | 06-18-14 4:27 PM
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A paranoid view would be that if Russians own Bitcoin mining and establish it as a reliable currency (yeah, it's a stretch) it works as an attack on the dollar. If it doesn't, a lot of suckers may still put money in it that can be stolen for Putin's retirement.

So, win-win.


Posted by: DaveLMA | Link to this comment | 06-18-14 5:07 PM
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||

Hey lazytariat, particularly kermit roosevelt, jr, I'm looking for a time-series chart that shows drug costs as a portion of overall US health care expenses. something like this chart of healthcare CPI vs overall CPI, but with drug prices broken out.

|>


Posted by: rob helpy-chalk | Link to this comment | 06-18-14 5:30 PM
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That's Beef 'O' Brady's, Halford. I expect you to show more attention to detail when it comes to trademarks.


Posted by: snarkout | Link to this comment | 06-18-14 5:35 PM
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I think the 51% problem is secondary to the problem of "how the fuck does it make sense to use a currency who's value fluctuates like the heart-rate of a chipmunk on Froot Loops?"

Because Bitcoin has 3 constituencies: criminals, for whom the value fluctuation is a cost of relative anonymity, idiot speculators, who think it's a virtue, and tech/cyberprivacy evangelists, who overlook the risk in favour of sticking it to the man.


Posted by: Ginger Yellow | Link to this comment | 06-18-14 5:46 PM
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14: Finally, my day has come.


Posted by: Cyrus | Link to this comment | 06-18-14 7:08 PM
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23: You want the National Health Expenditures, they do precisely that. I'll try to find you the latest.


Posted by: Minivet | Link to this comment | 06-18-14 7:08 PM
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PDF, page 3, the bottom half. There's also a .csv file (third link down) if you want to make a chart more easily, but it's zipped and isn't labeled as clearly.

(Kermit tends to know more than me, but I respond quicker.)

I assume you're looking for total expenditures rather than CPI, which is price per standardized unit and doesn't take utilization into account.


Posted by: Minivet | Link to this comment | 06-18-14 7:13 PM
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23: Check your email, helpy chalk. Whatever your purposes in seeking the data, keep in mind that, in a hypothetical optimally efficient U.S. healthcare system, the proportion of spending on pharmaceuticals would actually be higher than the status quo, not lower. Mind you, the spending would be distributed very differently than today, but still.


Posted by: kermit roosevelt, jr. | Link to this comment | 06-18-14 7:18 PM
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It never rains but it pours.


Posted by: kermit roosevelt, jr. | Link to this comment | 06-18-14 7:19 PM
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I'm sure it's been linked here before, but the Shit Bitcoin says on Reddit Twitter feed is always good for a laugh:

https://twitter.com/shit_rbtc_says


Posted by: Barry Freed | Link to this comment | 06-18-14 7:46 PM
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Because Bitcoin has 3 constituencies: criminals, for whom the value fluctuation is a cost of relative anonymity, idiot speculators, who think it's a virtue, and tech/cyberprivacy evangelists, who overlook the risk in favour of sticking it to the man.

That's the problem. Those are all niche markets. There is a much bigger market out there called "people who don't want to pay 3% of the cost of online purchases to VISA." But Bitcoin is too wrapped up in its own libertopian fantasies to actually meet that need.


Posted by: Spike | Link to this comment | 06-18-14 8:05 PM
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Everything about Bitcoin makes me wonder, should I put in the time to learn what Bitcoin is? Or just wait for it to completely collapse. I guess I should at least learn about crypto-currencies.


Posted by: fake accent | Link to this comment | 06-18-14 9:09 PM
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I have seen it before, but that twitter feed is a great laugh.

"Infinitely divisible" means it cannot be scarce..

Posted by: Minivet | Link to this comment | 06-18-14 9:34 PM
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God, so many gems on that feed:

It's good to die for Bitcoin, we die together on the moon
Enough bitcoin can get you laid more easily than facebook ever could have.
If not for the regulations, government monopoly on law and courts, I would at least already have the remainings of my money from Gox.
The insanity of certain segments of the [bitcoin] community is an asset, not a liability.
any changes in the bitcoin protocol could possibly end up with people in some countries being dragged out of their houses and being killed
With a brief explanation I tell them this [$1 bitcoin tip] could someday pay for this child to go to college.
How can bitcoin usage grow if the motto is "don't invest more than you can lose"?
only another $200 more to go and I can break even!
If everything fails I'm thinking of going to a drug dealer and borrowing 10k [to buy bitcoin] and paying it off in 2 months or so.
In an alien visitation scenario, Bitcoin will be what redeems us as a species.
Investments and wives really don't go together, except when it's time to cash out and spend your hard earned cash on useless women luxury
I am writing a PDF that contains meditation quotes by bitcoin thought leaders, motivational phrases to read once a day.

Posted by: teofilo | Link to this comment | 06-18-14 11:26 PM
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For heebie:

Andreas is a bitcoin whore, because he sees it as a solution for one of the largest problems terrorizing mankind today: corruption

Posted by: teofilo | Link to this comment | 06-18-14 11:31 PM
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"The insanity of certain segments of the community is an asset, not a liability."

Mouseover?


Posted by: ajay | Link to this comment | 06-19-14 3:34 AM
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And if you can't trust things people say about themselves on the internet what can we trust?

They're all dogs, you know.


Posted by: chris y | Link to this comment | 06-19-14 4:42 AM
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Thanks to Kermit and Minivet! That is exactly the kind of useful information I wanted!


Posted by: rob helpy-chalk | Link to this comment | 06-19-14 10:23 AM
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That's the problem. Those are all niche markets. There is a much bigger market out there called "people who don't want to pay 3% of the cost of online purchases to VISA." But Bitcoin is too wrapped up in its own libertopian fantasies to actually meet that need.

That's my friend who co-runs a small game studio. He hopes for a way to avoid parasitic transaction costs, whether VISA or PayPal. He wants Bitcoin to stop fluctuating in value so much.


Posted by: Cryptic ned | Link to this comment | 06-19-14 10:27 AM
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I have now read more about bitcoin than I had before. I'm never sure how much time to spend on the writings of lunatics, morons and thieves. On the one hand, they are lunatics, morons the thieves. On the other hand, they run the world.

In any case, even minus the volatility, the investment value of the bitcoin seems diametrically opposed to its value as a standard currency. If its value is constantly rising, you have price deflation relative to the currency, which is the worst possible outcome. I don't get this at all.


Posted by: rob helpy-chalk | Link to this comment | 06-19-14 11:45 AM
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38: Dogs use dogcoin. Dogecoin is a human thing.


Posted by: fake accent | Link to this comment | 06-19-14 11:51 AM
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I'm going to be somewhere in the vicinity of Venice next week. I assumed I would need to acquire some euros but I guess Dogecoin might be the thing.


Posted by: essear | Link to this comment | 06-19-14 11:56 AM
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I don't think there is a rational case for holding them as an investment. There's a greater-fool appeal-- right now, many bitcoins are purchased in China, probably because there are few above-board opportunities for taking money.

I hadn't understood how serious of a shenanigans problem a majority miner posed. It's still a really cool protocol for payments, but I think is unstable without an authority of some kind.


Posted by: lw | Link to this comment | 06-19-14 12:10 PM
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13 gets it exactly right.


Posted by: urple | Link to this comment | 06-19-14 12:15 PM
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I found a print shop in San Francisco that takes Bitcoin, Litecoin, and Dogecoin. It has bad reviews.


Posted by: Minivet | Link to this comment | 06-19-14 7:11 PM
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Re: 44, I thought Australian finance dude John Hempton's musings about Chinese real estate explained some interesting things about distortions in China's savings rates, but I don't know enough to say how accurate it is.


Posted by: snarkout | Link to this comment | 06-19-14 7:14 PM
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