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17th June 2020, 01:18 PM | #601 |
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17th June 2020, 01:38 PM | #602 |
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THE TRUE PURPOSE OF BITCOIN
The Sodinokibi / REvil extortionists that struck Lion recently, encrypting and exfiltrating the beverage giant's corporate data want US$800,000 ($1.24 million) in ransom, a sum that will double in two days.
The Herald has viewed the ransom note which points to a hidden transaction site hosted on a Russian network where victims are asked to pay the REvil / Sodinokibi criminals. READ MORE: • Beer shortages possible after Lion brewery shut down following cyber attack • Lion ransomware attack: Speights back online, but supply problems continue for other beers • Lion: Ransomware attack causing significant problems • Cyber attack at Lion brewery disrupts supply of beer To obtain decryptor software that the ransomware criminals promise will work and not delete or corrupt the scrambled files, Lion is required to buy $800,000 worth of the Monero cryptocurrency, either directly via an exchange, or by first obtaining Bitcoin. Monero uses an obfuscated public ledger, making it difficult to see the sender of the funds, and the destination and amount of the transaction. The transaction site offers a live chat window for contacting the ransomware criminals, which contains a message threatening the publication of the corporate data copied. "This is while hidden post, but it will be published after time expired. If you don't pay anyway, we publish download link for all your confidential files. "You will lose reputation for clients, get different penals because you didn't protected personal data, your competitors or other people from public will use your financial data in their interests. If you don't want that, I recommend you pay money in time. Behind paywall, the New Zealand Herald should not paywall this. Bitcoin and all cryptos should be made illegal on New Zealand based servers as the true horror of cryptos is exposed. And it is true, New Zealand pubs are devoid of stock. https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/...ectid=12340812 |
17th June 2020, 03:06 PM | #603 |
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I know the distribution manager for Lion and his life is a nightmare.
Thank you Satoshi Nakamoto and the hideous entourage who are wiping out the planet and the pleasures of existence. Only a fast descent to intrinsic value, zero, for all cryptos, will save cyberspace now. |
17th June 2020, 04:54 PM | #604 |
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Pls. Ransomware is here for years. And there is no warranty you get anything if you pay. When you get ransomware, you treat is as data loss. You restore from backups, and go on. Usually it's not the servers, which are the problem. Those are usually backed up. The problem is all the workstations and executive notebooks. These usually are not backed up, and bunch of interns will spend days to reinstall them all.
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17th June 2020, 05:35 PM | #605 |
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17th June 2020, 05:54 PM | #606 |
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Weasel words. Even if every website published precisely accurate figures (an obvious impossibility given that not all Bitcoin miners are registered companies who have to declare their costs) since costs vary over time the figures are expected to vary. That doesn't justify your assertion that the numbers have ZERO reliability.
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A short introduction to Bitcoin mining difficulty
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Bitcoin has just posted its biggest mining difficulty increase in nearly 2.5 years.
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17th June 2020, 11:43 PM | #607 |
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"The process by which banks create money is so simple that the mind is repelled. Where something so important is involved, a deeper mystery seems only decent." - Galbraith, 1975 |
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30th June 2020, 07:42 PM | #608 |
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crypto increasingly used for speculation not store of value
Crypto Research Report Predicts $397K Bitcoin Price by 2030
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1st July 2020, 11:37 AM | #609 |
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Bookmark that link. It predicts a price of $19,000 by the end of the year (less than 6 months to go) which would mean that this time it took only 2 years to regain its peak price.
Of course, that article is just so much crystal ball gazing and if any part of the article is suspect then all of it is suspect - including the parts you highlighted. |
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1st July 2020, 01:55 PM | #610 |
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There has been very close correlation with wall street for 2020. This is new and maybe suggests institutional uptake?
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1st July 2020, 03:12 PM | #611 |
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Sorry but I have to disagree. They made projections based on a presumption of increased market penetration. That may not happen, but the parts I highlighted are already happening.
Originally Posted by Samson
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1st July 2020, 03:17 PM | #612 |
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1st July 2020, 03:27 PM | #613 |
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2nd July 2020, 02:47 AM | #614 |
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That's not what I said. But the destabilization of fiat currencies caused by speculation was one of the things Bitcoin was supposed to be free of.
Bitcoin was invented in response to the 2008 finance crisis, which was largely caused by speculation in US housing markets. The inventor apparently naively thought that a highly deflationary 'currency' that governments can't control would not be seized upon by those same speculators. Or perhaps he knew exactly what he was doing, and had figured out a way to get rich by attracting them.
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2nd July 2020, 04:56 AM | #615 |
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I actually think profit for Nakamoto was the main reason for creation of BTC. The rest of the lore is just advertisement.
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2nd July 2020, 05:40 AM | #616 |
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2nd July 2020, 05:56 AM | #617 |
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2nd July 2020, 09:33 AM | #618 |
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2nd July 2020, 12:12 PM | #619 |
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Bitcoin sucks.
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2nd July 2020, 01:24 PM | #620 |
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Bitcoin won't be dying off anytime soon. When it does it will be because a better crypto took it's place.
I'm curious how many people participating in this thread have actually bought/mined bitcoin or used it to purchase something. |
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2nd July 2020, 01:58 PM | #621 |
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2nd July 2020, 07:27 PM | #622 |
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I did try panning for gold once (in 1970), but apart from that haven't mined anything. Nor have I ever bought 'crypto', stocks, or bonds. However I have used a few million dollars worth of fiat currency to purchase things.
You may have heard of it - very easy and fast transactions, stable price, secure, efficient, trustworthy and accepted pretty much everywhere. Also comes in a physical form for those times when you just want to make a quick payment without fiddling with electronic devices. |
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2nd July 2020, 08:01 PM | #623 |
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We don't even know if he is a person. One thing is pretty certain though, he isn't who he pretends to be. So we know he is a fraud.
But was Bitcoin originally intended to be a scam? We may never know, but I suspect not. Bitcoin 'fixes' all the things libertarian anarchists said was wrong with fiat. This suggests that the designer was himself a libertarian anarchist - and so did not understand what he was creating. He was so focused on trying to get free of 'evil' government fiat that he didn't consider how evil an anti-government currency could be. |
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2nd July 2020, 08:06 PM | #624 |
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oops! dup deleted
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2nd July 2020, 10:35 PM | #625 |
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[Note: I don't own bitcoin (or fraction thereof), have never owned bitcoin (or fraction thereof), and will probably never own bitcoin (or fraction thereof)]
Have you read the paper where Satoshi Nakamoto presented the theory of the blockchain and introduced bitcoin? The author seemed quite sincere and earnest in their intent to solve the 'double-spending problem' via blockchain and for people to actually use bitcoin as currency to buy pizza or whatever. I can't imagine how he could have predicted that speculation on bitcoin would lead to the bitcoin purchase price of a pizza in the past being equivalent to millions of dollars later. |
2nd July 2020, 10:51 PM | #626 |
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3rd July 2020, 05:15 AM | #627 |
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3rd July 2020, 05:19 AM | #628 |
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3rd July 2020, 09:49 AM | #629 |
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It would be years before bitcoin would be worth a cent - let alone a dollar.
Exactly. Sure, the inventor may have thought that it would be nice if bitcoin became worth money (and was maybe entranced with the idea of a currency that was beyond manipulation) but you can be sure that it wasn't his primary motivation. For a true geek, being able to come up with an answer to the Byzantine Generals problem would be a reward unto itself. |
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3rd July 2020, 10:29 AM | #630 |
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I see bitcoin as a very simple video game implementation from a sophisticated, innovative engine (called blockchain). It's so simple that the first party user doesn't even play it- their computer plays it and collects tokens as it wins. An interested third party user can exchange something (usually fiat currency but sometimes a good or service) for a password granting exclusive access to a token or fraction of a token. Bitcoin is both stupid and visionary. Why would anyone want these tokens earned by the computer player? Why do people want hats or whatever in online games? Bitcoin evolved into a tulip bulb investment simulator. I'm sure this analogy can be improved.
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3rd July 2020, 12:49 PM | #631 |
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3rd July 2020, 02:21 PM | #632 |
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I have heard of fiat currencies. There are a lot of different ones. Some used far more than others. Over time they have been prone to many of the things you highlighted earlier such as offshore accounts, tax evasion, gambling, consumer loans, and speculation. I've heard there has been instances of fiat money becoming worthless practically overnight. I've also heard that these currencies and the exchanges between them have been manipulated in the past for personal profit at the expense of everyone else.
Mind you, I'm not against fiat currency, nor am I a bitcoin cheerleader. In fact from what I've seen maybe just one person in this thread could be reasonably considered a bitcoin cheerleader. I just find the constant predictions of its death and some of the arguments made against it to be a bit over the top. |
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3rd July 2020, 06:56 PM | #633 |
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Bitcoin as originally envisaged is pretty much dead. It has become just another 'asset class', buoyed up by speculators looking to make money from nothing. Nobody talks about it being used as a cash replacement anymore, because it has failed in that role. As a means of getting free from the evil government it is a double-edged sword - unstable, rife with fraud and criminal behavior, and no protection for victims (libertarians probably think that's fine, but Bitcoin won't achieve the wider adoption they yearn for without fixing these flaws).
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Bitcoin is only backed by the 'invisible hand' which never seems to be around when you need it. Bitcoin does nothing about stopping criminal activity - it actually enables it. Bitcoin has always been far more volatile than any major currency, making it a frustrating medium of exchange (but great for speculation).
Originally Posted by Scopedog
We should remember that Bitcoin (or any cryptocurrency) is not blockchain. Most of the flaws in Bitcoin would remain even it had a different carrier. Some of its flaws are the result of not considering evil intentions, others are due to not understanding how economics works. Blockchain is not responsible for any of that.
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If 'Satoshi Nakamoto' really wanted Bitcoin to be the solution he talked about, you would think he would have made at least some effort to predict how it would behave. Bitcoin is highly deflationary by nature, which any economist can tell you is a bad thing. It doesn't take a genius to figure out what would happen to the price if it was widely adopted, nor to calculate the amount of electricity required. My bet is he was so enamored by his own cleverness that he didn't even bother to do the sums. |
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5th July 2020, 09:55 AM | #634 |
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Humans, especially creative ones, don't always think through all variables or contexts and Satoshi Nakamoto was under no regulatory, moral, ethical, legal, or peer review concerns and restrictions when coding the blockchain and bitcoin program. I think Nakamoto, intentionally or unintentionally, invented a paradigm (cryptocurrency) that can now be subjected to discussions and pressures regarding regulation, morality, ethics, legality, and peer review. I think the risks from bitcoin's anarchic inception (distinct from it's almost immediate anarchic use) is primarily a risk for cryptocurrency users and traders who have very little precedent or consensus to base decisions and predictions on (distinct from the risk to people who are targets of criminal acts paid for in cryptocurrency). I think bitcoin and cryptocurrency is still it's own distinct paradigm and hasn't succeeded in expanding or influencing the fiat or 'traditional' currency paradigm. This is why I say it's evolved into a tulip bulb investment simulator.
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5th July 2020, 08:37 PM | #635 |
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6th July 2020, 04:51 AM | #636 |
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6th July 2020, 04:55 AM | #637 |
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6th July 2020, 05:02 AM | #638 |
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6th July 2020, 05:03 AM | #639 |
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6th July 2020, 10:23 AM | #640 |
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I always got more of an occupy wall street, don't trust the banks because they print their own money vibe.
There is something to be said for the notion that there is fundamentally no differences between left wing anarchism and right wing libertarianism so it can be hard to tell the difference in a case like this. |
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