Bitcoin has the Bitcoin Network behind it. Without it, "one bitcoin" is just an entry in a database. With it, you can transfer value around the world at relatively low cost and relatively high speed. This is a useful service, and it is backed by real hardware and software. The same logic applies to other cryptocurrencies. To the extent they are *useful* they have value, just like FedEx and electric utilities are useful services.
I see the travel and tourism board has more work to do:-).
Note: I grew up in NYC, but moved away when I finished college. The dirt didn't bother me, but the crowding did. Now I live on 3 wooded acres near Atlanta, and am much happier.
No, New York City is way too massive, even for Google.
They are just finishing expanding to a second full city block in lower Manhattan, because they outgrew the data center hub that occupied the first one. For comparison, Manhattan has the equivalent of ~1400 full city blocks. It is an irregular island, and has a big hole in the middle called Central Park, but that's roughly how many there are of the size the two they own. The Wall Street area, which is about 2 miles south of the Googleplex, is the equivalent of ~100 city blocks in area, and the buildings are much taller on average, so they take up a lot more floor space.
This film brought in $850M in worldwide box office, and beat the other Thor films by 50% domestically. At worst they lost a little home video income. It is not like the pirate audience wouldn't have downloaded it next month anyway. It just came earlier than expected.
Normally the pirate version comes out as soon as the physical Blu-Ray disks are being distributed to stores. It only takes one person to borrow it long enough to make a copy, and it gets out. Typically this happens a week or two before the on-sale date. If digital downloads come out before that, it gets pirated even earlier.
Manning is the 4th Democrat to file for this office so far. The primary in May will weed out which one will end up in the general election, and it probably won't be her. Given the office is held by a well-respected two time Democratic senator, she probably doesn't have the traction to replace him, even with major name recognition.
If her ultimate goal is book sales for her life story, running for office is a great way to keep her name in the news. Otherwise, being released, she's yesterday's news.
> Nothing in Bitcoin's pricing is set by scarcity driven economics.
The capacity of the Bitcoin Network to transfer value is finite. It is set by the number of coins available to move x market price and space for transaction in the blockchain. Demand to use that capacity is what sets both the price of a coin and the transaction fees.
> Creators ought to be able to control their creations
No creator creates things entirely by themselves. Writers draw on the public domain for the language they use, and many of the plot themes for fiction. They have past inventors to thank for their tools, whether it be pencil and paper or laptops and text editors. It is only fair that if they draw from the goods society hands them to work with, they eventually give back to society so the next generation can build on their work.
If you mean "we" as in people, Musk wants to go directly to Mars and start colonizing, as soon as the mid- to late- 2020's, (whenever his BFR starts realistically will be flying.
A much more efficient route is to use electric tugs for cargo delivery, and set up a "Transit Station" in a cycling orbit between Earth and Mars. That way you only need to put it in position once, and use it many times. The tugs and transit station both use asteroid rock for shielding, water, and propellants. This cuts down how much you need to launch from Earth. Building tugs and asteroid mining will take longer to set up, but a BFR or New Glenn rocket will help with those tasks.
For research purposes, what has been proposed is a "Variable Gravity Research Facility" (VRGF). This consists of a backbone truss, similar to the one on the ISS, and movable modules that can be positioned as needed for various g-levels. The truss can also vary the rotation rate as needed. It would allow testing multiple g-levels in parallel. The main levels we want to test are Lunar, Mars, and various levels between 0 and 1 g for long term crew missions. We also want to test how plants respond to various levels.
A rotating wheel gives you the same gravity level all the way around. That's good once you figure out how much gravity we humans need to stay healthy, but for research we want to test all different amounts.
Their list left off Stratolaunch Systems, which has built the world's largest airplane (400 ft wingspan) out of parts from two used 747's, plus a new carbon fiber body. It is intended to carry rockets up to 500,000 lb under the wing so they can get about twice the payload compared to the same rocket from the ground. The carrier plane has already started taxi tests in the Mohave desert, and is expected to reach first flight in 2018. Launching rockets may come later in the year or next year.
Airplanes are highly reusable and relatively cheap per flight by rocket standards. If the first rocket stage is also recovered (which it won't be for the earliest rockets), it should be an economical launch system. The company is funded by Paul Allen, co-founder of Microsoft, who has more than enough money to see this through.
I read it at https://www.space.com/39096-in... . But that's because space systems engineering is my profession, and I keep up with such things. When I said "making the news", I mean the news sources the average public sees.
In 1972, there were less than 200 active satellites in space ( https://media.tumblr.com/tumbl... ). Today that number is about 1500, and those satellites are larger and more capable. But communications, weather, navigation, and definitely military satellites don't make headlines. Missions with people, and "firsts", like flying past Pluto, do. That gives the public a skewed idea about space. All the people getting satellite TV and radio, GPS, and weather reports are benefiting from space, even if they don't realize it.
Even human missions don't make the news once they are routine. Three astronauts just came back from the Space Station. Did that make the news? Probably not.
Whoever he/she/they are, they have an estimated 800K bitcoins, from being the first miner, in the days it was easy. We know those coins have never moved since being mined, because the blockchain tracks every transaction. So they would have become a billionaire for the first time, when the price peaked in Nov, 2013, then again in Mar and Apr of 2017 when it crossed $1250/BTC.
It is always possible those early coins are lost, or the private keys intentionally destroyed. It is also possible Nakamoto is waiting until they can buy HSBC, just because they can. The message in the Genesis Block (the first one in the blockchain) is "The Times 03/Jan/2009 Chancellor on brink of second bailout for banks", so they are not a fan of banks.
> Bitcoin has nothing about it making it inherently valuable and relatively stable like a home in most areas.
The Bitcon *Network* has value because it performs a useful function for some people (electronic financial transactions). "Bitcoins" are merely data entries in the blockchain database of transactions. But since the only way to use the network is by having some bitcoins, demand to use the network creates a value for the coins.
Think of "1 bitcoin" as 1/16.5 millionths share of the usefulness of the network. Depending what your needs are, that piece of usefulness may be worth the market value, or it may not. Everyone's needs are different. Then speculators come in and buy up fractions of that usefulness, thinking it will be worth more in the future. But they do that with every other commodity on the market.
It is the Bitcoin Network that performs a useful function - enabling financial transactions person-to-person electronically. Since you need bitcoins (the data entries in the blockchain) to use the Network, demand for the first creates a value for the second.
It's hard to claim networks have no value. If you read Slashdot you are using and probably paying for one. We can argue all day long about the *specific* value of the Bitcoin Network. Market price is often wrong about that. But to say it has no value at all I think is misguided.
> Rocks off the ground have more intrinsic value than Bitcoin.
There is no such thing as intrinsic value. All value comes from meeting the needs and desires of people, and what people are willing to give in exchange for meeting them. Since everyone is different, values vary according to who you ask, or even the same person at different times. I used to value books a lot, and still have over 3000 of them. But about a decade ago I nearly stopped buying them, and now mostly get e-books. There are more searchable, and take up less room.
Even in a single transaction, like buying a hamburger, you have opposing values at the same time. I value the hamburger more than the cash in my pocket. The fast food place values the cash more than the hamburger. If those were not both true, the purchase would not happen. But the hamburger can't be intrinsically worth both more and less than the cash at the same time. Each party has different values, so it is not an intrinsic property of hamburgers like mass.
Congress' job is to write laws. Committee hearings are part of the process of determining what new laws, or changes to existing ones, are needed.
Yes, the Equifax breach is in the past, and can't be changed. That's not the point. The point is what future changes can be made to prevent things like this in the future. Note that the hearing's title is "Protecting Consumers in the Era of Major Data Breaches" - plural breaches, with more to come in the future. Equifax is just a really good example of what can go wrong.
Personally, I would rather that personal data was not all stored in big databases, making them attractive targets to be hacked. Split the data up, so that users hold part, and business hold part, and you need both parts to make it readable.
I'm a space systems engineer (i.e rocket scientist). Of course you can land on the Moon with a 3 MN engine. You just require a 1.5 MN landed weight and 50% throttle capability. The throttle capability is to adjust landing deceleration to make a 0 m/s @ 0 elevation stop. Given the Moon's surface gravity, 1.5 MN --> 900 ton landed mass. That's a *big fucking landed mass* by NASA standards, but that idea is built in the BFR's name.
If you want to do a suicide burn and higher landing acceleration, the landed mass goes down. For example, 1.3 Earth gravities (which is the Earth takeoff acceleration) works out to 235 tons landed mass given 3 MN full thrust. With a fast landing, you would throttle *down* from max thrust to meet the landing condition. That's a more reasonable landed mass, but still pretty big.
If it is an intense hailstorm, maybe you shouldn't be driving anywhere. Living in the southeast, we get torrential thunderstorms sometimes. People just pull over until it stops, or slow way way down.
Bitcoin's purpose is to transfer value, either in space or in time. It is not useful in itself, just like US dollars (the paper kind) are only useful in themselves for snorting white powder. Their usefulness comes in being able to trade for other things. Bitcoin is especially useful when the trade is over long distances with barriers in the way. Paper dollars are most useful in immediate local trade. They each have their niche.
Since the supply of bitcoins for immediate purchase is limited, their market value is mostly determined by current supply vs demand. The rise in price causes some bitcoins which were in long-term storage to get unlocked, eventually balancing demand.
Universities just need to cut out the middlemen, and produce their own journals, using the money they now spend on expensive subscriptions. Academics already do most of the work (authoring, reviewing, editing), what's left is mostly administrative work, which library staff are able to handle.
In the 12 months ending July, 2017, solar supplied 70.1 TWh out of the 4058 TWh used in the United States. This is 1.73%, and is triple the value from calendar 2015 (23.0 TWh). I'm not sure what level you consider "down in the noise", but it has reached a quarter of hydroelectric, which surely you consider a major power producer.
> - Trucks: short range trucks are going to appear in a couple of years,
Overhead catenary wire power is already being tested with trucks in Scandinavia and Germany. Even just on main highways it would allow the trucks to save their battery power for the ends of the trip.
Slashdot Mirror
Bitcoin has the Bitcoin Network behind it. Without it, "one bitcoin" is just an entry in a database. With it, you can transfer value around the world at relatively low cost and relatively high speed. This is a useful service, and it is backed by real hardware and software. The same logic applies to other cryptocurrencies. To the extent they are *useful* they have value, just like FedEx and electric utilities are useful services.
I see the travel and tourism board has more work to do :-).
Note: I grew up in NYC, but moved away when I finished college. The dirt didn't bother me, but the crowding did. Now I live on 3 wooded acres near Atlanta, and am much happier.
No, New York City is way too massive, even for Google.
They are just finishing expanding to a second full city block in lower Manhattan, because they outgrew the data center hub that occupied the first one. For comparison, Manhattan has the equivalent of ~1400 full city blocks. It is an irregular island, and has a big hole in the middle called Central Park, but that's roughly how many there are of the size the two they own. The Wall Street area, which is about 2 miles south of the Googleplex, is the equivalent of ~100 city blocks in area, and the buildings are much taller on average, so they take up a lot more floor space.
This "flamethrower" is just a weed-burning torch with a modified case to hold the tank. That's what he should call it.
https://images-na.ssl-images-a...
This film brought in $850M in worldwide box office, and beat the other Thor films by 50% domestically. At worst they lost a little home video income. It is not like the pirate audience wouldn't have downloaded it next month anyway. It just came earlier than expected.
Normally the pirate version comes out as soon as the physical Blu-Ray disks are being distributed to stores. It only takes one person to borrow it long enough to make a copy, and it gets out. Typically this happens a week or two before the on-sale date. If digital downloads come out before that, it gets pirated even earlier.
Manning is the 4th Democrat to file for this office so far. The primary in May will weed out which one will end up in the general election, and it probably won't be her. Given the office is held by a well-respected two time Democratic senator, she probably doesn't have the traction to replace him, even with major name recognition.
If her ultimate goal is book sales for her life story, running for office is a great way to keep her name in the news. Otherwise, being released, she's yesterday's news.
> Nothing in Bitcoin's pricing is set by scarcity driven economics.
The capacity of the Bitcoin Network to transfer value is finite. It is set by the number of coins available to move x market price and space for transaction in the blockchain. Demand to use that capacity is what sets both the price of a coin and the transaction fees.
> Because right now they won't be currencies, nothing I've seen suggests they can scale to the necessary number of transactions.
The top 5 currencies are processing about 3 million transactions per day: https://bitinfocharts.com/comp...
That is about 2% of VISA's network average, and Bitcoin Cash alone can scale up to ~11 million per day.
Those 5 currencies have the equivalent value of South Korea's M1 money supply.
> Creators ought to be able to control their creations
No creator creates things entirely by themselves. Writers draw on the public domain for the language they use, and many of the plot themes for fiction. They have past inventors to thank for their tools, whether it be pencil and paper or laptops and text editors. It is only fair that if they draw from the goods society hands them to work with, they eventually give back to society so the next generation can build on their work.
Yes, the ISS isn't set up to control such a large rotating object. You want a separate orbiting facility.
If you mean "we" as in people, Musk wants to go directly to Mars and start colonizing, as soon as the mid- to late- 2020's, (whenever his BFR starts realistically will be flying.
A much more efficient route is to use electric tugs for cargo delivery, and set up a "Transit Station" in a cycling orbit between Earth and Mars. That way you only need to put it in position once, and use it many times. The tugs and transit station both use asteroid rock for shielding, water, and propellants. This cuts down how much you need to launch from Earth. Building tugs and asteroid mining will take longer to set up, but a BFR or New Glenn rocket will help with those tasks.
For research purposes, what has been proposed is a "Variable Gravity Research Facility" (VRGF). This consists of a backbone truss, similar to the one on the ISS, and movable modules that can be positioned as needed for various g-levels. The truss can also vary the rotation rate as needed. It would allow testing multiple g-levels in parallel. The main levels we want to test are Lunar, Mars, and various levels between 0 and 1 g for long term crew missions. We also want to test how plants respond to various levels.
A rotating wheel gives you the same gravity level all the way around. That's good once you figure out how much gravity we humans need to stay healthy, but for research we want to test all different amounts.
Their list left off Stratolaunch Systems, which has built the world's largest airplane (400 ft wingspan) out of parts from two used 747's, plus a new carbon fiber body. It is intended to carry rockets up to 500,000 lb under the wing so they can get about twice the payload compared to the same rocket from the ground. The carrier plane has already started taxi tests in the Mohave desert, and is expected to reach first flight in 2018. Launching rockets may come later in the year or next year.
Airplanes are highly reusable and relatively cheap per flight by rocket standards. If the first rocket stage is also recovered (which it won't be for the earliest rockets), it should be an economical launch system. The company is funded by Paul Allen, co-founder of Microsoft, who has more than enough money to see this through.
I read it at https://www.space.com/39096-in... . But that's because space systems engineering is my profession, and I keep up with such things. When I said "making the news", I mean the news sources the average public sees.
In 1972, there were less than 200 active satellites in space ( https://media.tumblr.com/tumbl... ). Today that number is about 1500, and those satellites are larger and more capable. But communications, weather, navigation, and definitely military satellites don't make headlines. Missions with people, and "firsts", like flying past Pluto, do. That gives the public a skewed idea about space. All the people getting satellite TV and radio, GPS, and weather reports are benefiting from space, even if they don't realize it.
Even human missions don't make the news once they are routine. Three astronauts just came back from the Space Station. Did that make the news? Probably not.
Whoever he/she/they are, they have an estimated 800K bitcoins, from being the first miner, in the days it was easy. We know those coins have never moved since being mined, because the blockchain tracks every transaction. So they would have become a billionaire for the first time, when the price peaked in Nov, 2013, then again in Mar and Apr of 2017 when it crossed $1250/BTC.
It is always possible those early coins are lost, or the private keys intentionally destroyed. It is also possible Nakamoto is waiting until they can buy HSBC, just because they can. The message in the Genesis Block (the first one in the blockchain) is "The Times 03/Jan/2009 Chancellor on brink of second bailout for banks", so they are not a fan of banks.
> Bitcoin has nothing about it making it inherently valuable and relatively stable like a home in most areas.
The Bitcon *Network* has value because it performs a useful function for some people (electronic financial transactions). "Bitcoins" are merely data entries in the blockchain database of transactions. But since the only way to use the network is by having some bitcoins, demand to use the network creates a value for the coins.
Think of "1 bitcoin" as 1/16.5 millionths share of the usefulness of the network. Depending what your needs are, that piece of usefulness may be worth the market value, or it may not. Everyone's needs are different. Then speculators come in and buy up fractions of that usefulness, thinking it will be worth more in the future. But they do that with every other commodity on the market.
It is the Bitcoin Network that performs a useful function - enabling financial transactions person-to-person electronically. Since you need bitcoins (the data entries in the blockchain) to use the Network, demand for the first creates a value for the second.
It's hard to claim networks have no value. If you read Slashdot you are using and probably paying for one. We can argue all day long about the *specific* value of the Bitcoin Network. Market price is often wrong about that. But to say it has no value at all I think is misguided.
> Rocks off the ground have more intrinsic value than Bitcoin.
There is no such thing as intrinsic value. All value comes from meeting the needs and desires of people, and what people are willing to give in exchange for meeting them. Since everyone is different, values vary according to who you ask, or even the same person at different times. I used to value books a lot, and still have over 3000 of them. But about a decade ago I nearly stopped buying them, and now mostly get e-books. There are more searchable, and take up less room.
Even in a single transaction, like buying a hamburger, you have opposing values at the same time. I value the hamburger more than the cash in my pocket. The fast food place values the cash more than the hamburger. If those were not both true, the purchase would not happen. But the hamburger can't be intrinsically worth both more and less than the cash at the same time. Each party has different values, so it is not an intrinsic property of hamburgers like mass.
Congress' job is to write laws. Committee hearings are part of the process of determining what new laws, or changes to existing ones, are needed.
Yes, the Equifax breach is in the past, and can't be changed. That's not the point. The point is what future changes can be made to prevent things like this in the future. Note that the hearing's title is "Protecting Consumers in the Era of Major Data Breaches" - plural breaches, with more to come in the future. Equifax is just a really good example of what can go wrong.
Personally, I would rather that personal data was not all stored in big databases, making them attractive targets to be hacked. Split the data up, so that users hold part, and business hold part, and you need both parts to make it readable.
I'm a space systems engineer (i.e rocket scientist). Of course you can land on the Moon with a 3 MN engine. You just require a 1.5 MN landed weight and 50% throttle capability. The throttle capability is to adjust landing deceleration to make a 0 m/s @ 0 elevation stop. Given the Moon's surface gravity, 1.5 MN --> 900 ton landed mass. That's a *big fucking landed mass* by NASA standards, but that idea is built in the BFR's name.
If you want to do a suicide burn and higher landing acceleration, the landed mass goes down. For example, 1.3 Earth gravities (which is the Earth takeoff acceleration) works out to 235 tons landed mass given 3 MN full thrust. With a fast landing, you would throttle *down* from max thrust to meet the landing condition. That's a more reasonable landed mass, but still pretty big.
If it is an intense hailstorm, maybe you shouldn't be driving anywhere. Living in the southeast, we get torrential thunderstorms sometimes. People just pull over until it stops, or slow way way down.
Bitcoin's purpose is to transfer value, either in space or in time. It is not useful in itself, just like US dollars (the paper kind) are only useful in themselves for snorting white powder. Their usefulness comes in being able to trade for other things. Bitcoin is especially useful when the trade is over long distances with barriers in the way. Paper dollars are most useful in immediate local trade. They each have their niche.
Since the supply of bitcoins for immediate purchase is limited, their market value is mostly determined by current supply vs demand. The rise in price causes some bitcoins which were in long-term storage to get unlocked, eventually balancing demand.
Universities just need to cut out the middlemen, and produce their own journals, using the money they now spend on expensive subscriptions. Academics already do most of the work (authoring, reviewing, editing), what's left is mostly administrative work, which library staff are able to handle.
In the 12 months ending July, 2017, solar supplied 70.1 TWh out of the 4058 TWh used in the United States. This is 1.73%, and is triple the value from calendar 2015 (23.0 TWh). I'm not sure what level you consider "down in the noise", but it has reached a quarter of hydroelectric, which surely you consider a major power producer.
Source: https://www.eia.gov/electricit... (last row, last column)
> - Trucks: short range trucks are going to appear in a couple of years,
Overhead catenary wire power is already being tested with trucks in Scandinavia and Germany. Even just on main highways it would allow the trucks to save their battery power for the ends of the trip.