One has to wonder why the ECB is spending time on things that reduce systemic stability.
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It's not really competing against bitcoin so much as the "digital yuan", and even then, it seems to be a solution in search of a problem. The PBC has an obvious reason to want a currency it can control completely, regardless of the implications for consumer trust. The ECB, not so much.Apparently, the ECB is planning to launch a "digital euro" to compete against bitcoinComment
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A search of Google suggests the England ODI team recently beat Sri Lanka and Pakistan. I know they're not amazing teams, but it doesn't seem like the kind of form that would merit the ECB desperately trying something like this to distract everyone.Comment
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Bumping this because of this video on the gaming auction scam.
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Very interesting - what's amazing is that the exact same people were also behind the coin bubble 30 years ago (and were prosecuted for it), and have used the same tactics to create a new market.Originally posted by Snake Plissken View PostBumping this because of this video on the gaming auction scam.
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This isn't really a bitcoin story but this is the best place for it. The bitcoin cruise ship community (it's a great read)
https://www.theguardian.com/news/202...droidApp_Other
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I've been meaning to post that.
I would have liked more detail on the crackpot ideas the libertarian crypto tycoon pitched to the experienced sea captain (though removing the ship's engines while it was floating and occupied was a good one to pick).Comment
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As with many stories about techno-libertarian fantasies, the tale of the Satoshi begins in an all-male, quasi-frat house in San Francisco in the late 90s.Originally posted by ursus arctos View PostComment
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Off-topic in the context of barmy libertarian crypto tycoons, but I loved the editorial correction note at the end about the five course dinners to be served on the Ambience. I bet the editor was grinning his or her head off, knowing exactly what the readers would assume about the cruise company PR team who presumably complained about the earlier version.
Also I have a vision of the cruise passengers, as they re-embark after visiting each port of call, being regaled with chants of “You’re going home in a f***ing Ambience”.Comment
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Presumably that's not her real surname. When I search it on my work PC it gives me a warning about "adult content".Elwartowski and his girlfriend, Nadia SummergirlComment
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I was just in a meeting of people from my trade (freelance editing), and someone raised the notion of getting paid in Bitcoin for work done for overseas clients. Seems an unnecessarily complicated idea to me, but has anyone else had any experience of this?Comment
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I find myself curious about the mid to late 90's here. How much of this lurch towards libertarianism is fueled by the end of the cold War, and the end of the need to do things vaguely properly because of the threat of Russia.Originally posted by Hot Pepsi View Post
Films from this era seem to be mostly about how unfulfilling office work is and frat boys commiting sexual assault for the laugh.Comment
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You may be onto something.
The Cold War appeared to offer an existential threat to civilization that required widespread acquiescence. It also provided a unifying point of focus for the left - nuclear disarmament.
Big business was fully in support of the Cold War, of course, for multiple obvious reasons. And they spent a lot of money to make sure US religious and educational institutions were on board too. (That's not just a conspiracy theory. It is well-documented.) And that in term reinforced the social status of the white guys who ran all the big companies and played golf together and sent their kids to the same prep schools, etc. They were willing to tolerate unions and taxes up to a point because what else where they going to do, move the factory to China or Mexico? Hah!
Vietnam exposed the lie that it was ever really a National mission or "shared sacrifice." The class of people who were running the war were, with a few exceptions, not dying in it. And that's just looking at "our side" of it. Counting the millions of people killed or hurt in southeast Asia, the sacrifice of the US ruling class is completely negligible.
But that's over now and this new generation of Silicon Valley libertarians/technodouchebags don't care about anything but their own wealth and grandeur. They're happy to collaborate on the War on Terror, but I don't think they really care about it because the terrorists, such as they are, don't represent any kind of threat to their business model. They'll happily collaborate with the Chinese ruling machine too. They don't care because there's nothing in for them to care.
They can't offer a vision, nationalist or otherwise. Even Trumpists with all of their flags and big eagle decals on their pick-up trucks (and veneration of the goddamned Spartans of all people) don't really have any kind of idea of sacrifice for the greater good. It's just pure resentment and hate. We call them fascists, and in some ways they are, but really they're more like feudalists. They're not nearly organized enough to be proper fascists and the people that have the real money, including Trump himself, don't give a fuck about anything other than themselves. Not even The Empire. Say what you like about the tenets of National Socialism, dude, at least it's an ethos.
And they've completely degraded Christianity into the fucking prosperity gospel which would be hilarious if it weren't so destructive.
And they have the audacity to claim that its those leftist post-modernists who don't believe in anything. Of course, they haven't a clue what post-modernism is all about.
That's a long-winded way of saying that there's not much for young people to latch onto as a big cause or something to care about if even religion has been turned into another marketing grift.
They can join the military, but even US military recruiters have switched to selling it as a route to self-improvement or education/career opportunities. They're not trying to sell the mission, really.*
They can go get a job/career, but most of those suck, as we all know, because job satisfaction or enjoyment is just an inefficiency to be culled. That's what Office Space and Fight Club are about. A lot of those people get into drugs. That's what Trainspotting is sort of about.
Or they can be part of one of these libertarian/anti-vaxxer asshole collectives where the big shared mission is to ensure everyone gets to be as big of an asshole as they like. From there, it's not hard to see where bullshit about being an "Alpha Male" (or interest in MMA) comes from.
Or they can join QAnon, but that's really more like an old fashioned cult that promises simple solutions to a chaotic reality. Not much new there other than the ability to recruit on the internet.
My great fantasy would be that climate change could be a galvanizing mission that could unite large numbers of people. I suppose it already has, but I can't see how either the US or any other rich or large country is going to embrace it at the highest levels of power the way we embraced anti-communism.
And I don't think it is all bad. My experience talking to young people is that they want to reject the old way of doing religion. They're smart enough to know that anyone offering simple answers is full of shit and they want to talk about Big Ideas and want to be part of something bigger than themselves.
*I've mentioned before that there's a microgenre of films from the 90s and early 2000s about US soldiers at the end of the Cold War through the first Gulf War. Jarhead, Three Kings, Buffalo Soldiers. Maybe there are more but those are the ones I know. Each of them focus on soldiers that joined because they couldn't figure out what else to do with their lives and find that the military doesn't provide many answers either.
They're neither heroic and inspirational like the WW2 films nor harrowing and traumatic like the Vietnam films. The characters are just confused and their experiences are often surreal. They can't even unify around their shared hatred of the war, because there isn't much of a war going on. It just kinda sucks, but not enough to build character.
Stripes and Private Benjamin, from the 70s have similar set-ups, but they end up with the characters finding meaning and purpose in the Army. It is interesting that slapstick comedies about Army life were produced so soon after the end of the US involvement in southeast Asia and Apocalypse Now.
I tend to avoid them, but it seems like the 21st century military movies have tried to combine the WW2 and Vietnam film themes. They present the protagonists as heroes, while acknowledging PTSD. Hurt Locker for example. The more recent films about WWII and WWI like Dunkirk or Saving Private Ryan are like that too. They try to show the horror, but still make the outcome look heroic.Last edited by Hot Pepsi; 09-09-2021, 16:38.Comment
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Unnecessarily complicated is a good description, as you would need to find some place to hold the Bitcoin and/or convert it back into "fiat currency". Either of which also involves transaction costs. I could see it as a way around currency controls in certain places, but would then wonder whether one is incurring any potential liability for aiding and abetting their evasion.Originally posted by Jobi1 View Post
And that's before one gets into the pricing issues connected with such a volatile asset (though the lead times for editing are generally shorter than those in fields where this becomes acute.
I can see it being attractive to crypto enthusiasts, but then they could always buy crypto with fiat payments.Comment
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I would rather be paid in diamonds.Comment
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It does seem crazy, given there are so many more 'normal' banking ways of getting paid by overseas clients (I use Wise – formerly TransferWise – where possible, seems a good service).Originally posted by ursus arctos View PostComment
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So, about those exclusive NFTs then...
https://twitter.com/GeoffreyHuntley/status/1461322836165885954
(Love the comment "Either the greatest art heist in history or literally nothing".)Comment
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Didn't I pitch a Barcelona NFT idea to you over the summer?Comment
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I think you did, and the gig is now open as the contract with Ownix was terminated with immediate effect after the arrestsOriginally posted by Incandenza View PostComment
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I've spoken recently to our local bank branch manager who told me that he dabbles successfully in Bitcoin and also to someone specialised in risk assessment for a major Spanish bank who wouldn't touch it with a bargepole. So I don't know what to think.Comment
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I’m starting to think I am against it on principle.
I don’t want money that cannot be taxed. Money should be taxed. Either way, I’m going to be paying taxes so I want my money in a currency that my government will accept.
I also want my deposits protected by FDIC.
Not only that, money should be a public resource, I.e, let’s nationalize the banks. I read that somewhere.
I also have read that crypto is supposed to be great because it’s so portable and easy to transfer, compared to other assets. But people are getting into it as an “investment,” which suggests the liquidity isn’t that important.
Besides, diamonds, gold, large amounts of heroine, great art, etc, aren’t really *that* difficult to sell or move quickly. At least, according to many, many films and TV shows.
But if I were rich enough to be able to invest in something so risky, I’d invest in something actually productive. Like a business. Or just buy land or rental properties. That holds value and is useful for somebody.
Crypto just seems a solution in search of a problem.Comment
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