In addition to various streams that are like re-streams of freely available OTA content, there are a lot of channels that are cable only, some of which will be premium channels on any cable package. Access to such channels by established cable companies requires very expensive licensing agreements, and those license fees are passed on to the consumer.
Whether you like existing copyright laws or not, this company is quite clearly breaking them. The lawsuit will not go well for them. Although they are probably not located anywhere where US law enforcement is likely to bother them, their domains will be seized, their apps removed from easy distribution and their US bank accounts frozen....
So if I download a copy of your software, your company is cool with me using and redistributing it in any way I see fit? I don't have any contract at all with you.
1) Know Your Customer laws designed to fight money laundering. Try opening a bank account, or getting a credit card without providing DOB and address information.
2) If you don't provide the verification details, you aren't allowed to use the service. (And Coinbase is no different than any other reputable exchange. Unless you're doing in-person trades, you can expect to be uploading scans of your drivers license and/or utility bills.)
3) Exchanges tend to have fiat transfer options only for the countries they are based in. Transferring cash to a foreign exchange is difficult, if it's possible at all. And where it *is* possible, those exchanges tend to have the same KYC and reporting obligations.
Cryptocurrencies are pretty much impossible to regulate, by design. However, exchanges are as much about fiat as crypto, and fiat systems are heavily regulated.
Mining is a requirement to secure the blockchain -- without large amounts of compute work, the chain is vulnerable to attack. As far as "tulip prices", it's supply and demand. For Bitcoin to be a medium of exchange, it has to see widespread use, and there are (potentially) only 21 million -- if it succeeds, each full coin is going to be crazily expensive. But you don't need to buy a whole coin, portions are fine. Currently you can buy a "bit" (A millionth of a BTC) for around a penny.....
Bitcoin GPU mining has been unprofitable for nearly 5 years or so.
But there are many other cryptocurrencies out there, many of which are not based on Bitcoins SHA256 proof of work that are still profitable to GPU mine and won't see ASIC support any time soon, if ever.
I believe the most common one right now is Ethereum, but there are likely others.
The amount of mining required by Bitcoin is flexible, and at some point it will have grown to the point where it is no longer makes financial sense to increase it, and it will plateau.
There are 'billions of people' with $10K of bitcoin? Do tell!
There are thousands of people with $10K of bitcoin, and billions with none. Many may eventually be quite happy with $5 or $10 in current value.
And once the speculation ends, guess what happens to the value?
At some point, what people are willing to pay for Bitcoin will equal what others are willing to sell it for, and the price will plateau, much as the price of gold has plateaued.
And if Bitcoin does die, I've had a hell of a time. I'm always fascinated at the number of people who are absolutely, 100% sure that Bitcoin won't work. I've watched them come and go for nearly 10 years. Bitcoin is still here. I'm not 100% sure it will succeed, but it's taken everything thrown at it so far.
How can it "succeed"? All it does is move money from one person to another person. It doesn't create any value, it just redistributes money.
Don't tell Visa, Mastercard, PayPal or Western Union. They seem to think that transferring value from one person to another can be quite profitable. Don't burst their bubble.
And we lost the war over the word "hacker" a decade or more ago.
"Crypto Currency" or "Crypto" as a shorthand might not be the best label, but it's the one that has stuck. Get used to it, because all the whining and begging in the world isn't going to change it.
I think crypto currencies will succeed, TBH. I'm less sure about Bitcoin specifically, these days.
But I can't think of a single set of circumstances where Bitcoin hasn't failed, but isn't highly valuable. It might fail and become worthless, I'll grant that possibility. But if that is not the case, then the current value can only be a small fraction of the long term.
$100k-$500k is just a number pulled out of my ass, tbh. But I don't think it's unreasonable. If Bitcoin is a success, that means it is going to see widespread global use. Whether that is for online person-to-person payments, a value store for the rich, currency for the poor, all of that, or something else. But there will only ever be 21 million tokens to go around, and several million of those are already irretrievably lost. For billions of people. $100k is only another 10X away, and there is still at least that much more potential growth. Do I agree with McAfee that it will hit $1 million by 2020? No. But I'd bet real money that in 5 years, Bitcoin is worth well in excess of $100k, OR less than $1. Probably more, but less would not surprise me. I see virtually zero chance that it's between those two (arbitrary) values.
I have used Bitcoin as a currency -- I have exchanged it directly with others over the Internet, in exchange for hard (And legal!) goods. I expect to do so again in the future, either with Bitcoin, or whatever replaces it. But with the recent meteoric rise, and the developing issues with extremely high fees and slow transactions (which are problems already solved by other crypto currencies) I'm more about hanging on, and seeing where it goes.
And for the record, I didn't sell my house to buy in. But I wish I had done so a year ago.:) I'd be ok being a rich fucking idiot, and hindsight is easy.
If you are mortgaging your house to buy Bitcoin, you're a fucking idiot. You deserve the very real chance of losing everything, but your family doesn't.
IF Bitcoin succeeds, a value of $100k-$500k is almost certain (As a floor. No one really has a clue what value a successful Bitcoin will plateau at over the long term.) -- Too many people and not enough supply for it to be otherwise. But Bitcoin is not yet a sure thing. Crypto in general may end up a failed experiment. Bitcoin specifically could implode, and be superceded by a different crypto. And even if it does succeed -- Bitcoin has had serious drops in the past -- seeing your investment drop to 25% of current value, and not recovering for 2 years is entirely possible.
If you've got some spare cash, and it won't cause irreparable harm if it disappears completely, sure, invest that if you think Bitcoin will succeed. But no more than that.
If Bitcoin manages to be successful and achieve widespread adoption, it will necessarily need to increase in value, due to it's scarcity.
What we are seeing could be a bubble, but it could also be due to adoption. Volitility was very low for 2015 and 2016, and with the exception of a few short dips, has been fairly consistently up in 2017.
If Bitcoin is successful, it will eventually find an equilibrium, and plateau, much like gold has.
I will admit to not having read the math in the article. But the power numbers stated might not be unreasonable. The Bitcoin network is currently calculating around 12 exahashes per second, and the computers that do the bulk of the heavy lifting are based on purpose built ASIC chips. They are literally incapable of doing anything but mining Bitcoin (or some other cryptocurrency that shares the Bitcoin proof of work algorithm)...
The newest ASIC miner -- the AntMiner S9 boasts an efficiency of 0.098 watts per gigahash. 12 exahashes is 12,000,000,000 gigahashes, or around 1.18 gigawatts. 24/7.
This is something brand new and nobody can predict its behavior.
I think the odds are pretty good right now in Bitcoins favour, but it's not yet a sure thing by a long shot. The current run up might well be due to wider adoption, but it is also quite likely to see a severe correction in the next year. If it does, it might recover as it has done many times in the past. Or it might not.
Slashdot Mirror
Hint: The "Hackers and hacking is a good thing, don't let those nasty crackers tarnish our name!" camp lost.
Their channel listing: https://www.setvnow.com/channe...
In addition to various streams that are like re-streams of freely available OTA content, there are a lot of channels that are cable only, some of which will be premium channels on any cable package. Access to such channels by established cable companies requires very expensive licensing agreements, and those license fees are passed on to the consumer.
Whether you like existing copyright laws or not, this company is quite clearly breaking them. The lawsuit will not go well for them. Although they are probably not located anywhere where US law enforcement is likely to bother them, their domains will be seized, their apps removed from easy distribution and their US bank accounts frozen....
So if I download a copy of your software, your company is cool with me using and redistributing it in any way I see fit? I don't have any contract at all with you.
1) Know Your Customer laws designed to fight money laundering. Try opening a bank account, or getting a credit card without providing DOB and address information.
2) If you don't provide the verification details, you aren't allowed to use the service. (And Coinbase is no different than any other reputable exchange. Unless you're doing in-person trades, you can expect to be uploading scans of your drivers license and/or utility bills.)
3) Exchanges tend to have fiat transfer options only for the countries they are based in. Transferring cash to a foreign exchange is difficult, if it's possible at all. And where it *is* possible, those exchanges tend to have the same KYC and reporting obligations.
Cryptocurrencies are pretty much impossible to regulate, by design. However, exchanges are as much about fiat as crypto, and fiat systems are heavily regulated.
Mining is a requirement to secure the blockchain -- without large amounts of compute work, the chain is vulnerable to attack. As far as "tulip prices", it's supply and demand. For Bitcoin to be a medium of exchange, it has to see widespread use, and there are (potentially) only 21 million -- if it succeeds, each full coin is going to be crazily expensive. But you don't need to buy a whole coin, portions are fine. Currently you can buy a "bit" (A millionth of a BTC) for around a penny.....
Bitcoin GPU mining has been unprofitable for nearly 5 years or so.
But there are many other cryptocurrencies out there, many of which are not based on Bitcoins SHA256 proof of work that are still profitable to GPU mine and won't see ASIC support any time soon, if ever.
I believe the most common one right now is Ethereum, but there are likely others.
safeguarding our elections.
That makes me feel soooooooo confident.
wasting all the power?!!
The amount of mining required by Bitcoin is flexible, and at some point it will have grown to the point where it is no longer makes financial sense to increase it, and it will plateau.
There are 'billions of people' with $10K of bitcoin? Do tell!
There are thousands of people with $10K of bitcoin, and billions with none. Many may eventually be quite happy with $5 or $10 in current value.
And once the speculation ends, guess what happens to the value?
At some point, what people are willing to pay for Bitcoin will equal what others are willing to sell it for, and the price will plateau, much as the price of gold has plateaued.
And if Bitcoin does die, I've had a hell of a time. I'm always fascinated at the number of people who are absolutely, 100% sure that Bitcoin won't work. I've watched them come and go for nearly 10 years. Bitcoin is still here. I'm not 100% sure it will succeed, but it's taken everything thrown at it so far.
How can it "succeed"? All it does is move money from one person to another person. It doesn't create any value, it just redistributes money.
Don't tell Visa, Mastercard, PayPal or Western Union. They seem to think that transferring value from one person to another can be quite profitable. Don't burst their bubble.
If I shit gold I'd be rich.
If you crapped gold, your net worth would increase by around 35 grand each time you took a dump.
That's how logic works. You might also note I have not anywhere asserted that Bitcoin is a sure thing, now or in the past.
:fistbump:
And we lost the war over the word "hacker" a decade or more ago.
"Crypto Currency" or "Crypto" as a shorthand might not be the best label, but it's the one that has stuck. Get used to it, because all the whining and begging in the world isn't going to change it.
Check the context. " If Bitcoin succeeds "...
I think crypto currencies will succeed, TBH. I'm less sure about Bitcoin specifically, these days.
But I can't think of a single set of circumstances where Bitcoin hasn't failed, but isn't highly valuable. It might fail and become worthless, I'll grant that possibility. But if that is not the case, then the current value can only be a small fraction of the long term.
$100k-$500k is just a number pulled out of my ass, tbh. But I don't think it's unreasonable. If Bitcoin is a success, that means it is going to see widespread global use. Whether that is for online person-to-person payments, a value store for the rich, currency for the poor, all of that, or something else. But there will only ever be 21 million tokens to go around, and several million of those are already irretrievably lost. For billions of people. $100k is only another 10X away, and there is still at least that much more potential growth. Do I agree with McAfee that it will hit $1 million by 2020? No. But I'd bet real money that in 5 years, Bitcoin is worth well in excess of $100k, OR less than $1. Probably more, but less would not surprise me. I see virtually zero chance that it's between those two (arbitrary) values.
I have used Bitcoin as a currency -- I have exchanged it directly with others over the Internet, in exchange for hard (And legal!) goods. I expect to do so again in the future, either with Bitcoin, or whatever replaces it. But with the recent meteoric rise, and the developing issues with extremely high fees and slow transactions (which are problems already solved by other crypto currencies) I'm more about hanging on, and seeing where it goes.
And for the record, I didn't sell my house to buy in. But I wish I had done so a year ago. :) I'd be ok being a rich fucking idiot, and hindsight is easy.
If you are mortgaging your house to buy Bitcoin, you're a fucking idiot. You deserve the very real chance of losing everything, but your family doesn't.
IF Bitcoin succeeds, a value of $100k-$500k is almost certain (As a floor. No one really has a clue what value a successful Bitcoin will plateau at over the long term.) -- Too many people and not enough supply for it to be otherwise. But Bitcoin is not yet a sure thing. Crypto in general may end up a failed experiment. Bitcoin specifically could implode, and be superceded by a different crypto. And even if it does succeed -- Bitcoin has had serious drops in the past -- seeing your investment drop to 25% of current value, and not recovering for 2 years is entirely possible.
If you've got some spare cash, and it won't cause irreparable harm if it disappears completely, sure, invest that if you think Bitcoin will succeed. But no more than that.
If Bitcoin manages to be successful and achieve widespread adoption, it will necessarily need to increase in value, due to it's scarcity.
What we are seeing could be a bubble, but it could also be due to adoption. Volitility was very low for 2015 and 2016, and with the exception of a few short dips, has been fairly consistently up in 2017.
If Bitcoin is successful, it will eventually find an equilibrium, and plateau, much like gold has.
I'm laughing all the way to the bank.
Which is not how the tulip bubble happened. You couldn't point at anything, as what bubbled was a poorly regulated tulip futures market.
Tulip mania had more in common with the 2008 mortgage crisis that with Bitcoin.
Capital gains taxes aren't that complicated.....
(sale value - (purchase value + trading fees)) * tax rate.
Why would the IRS care, as long as you are following the rules?
If anyone thinks they are going to make their Bitcoin millions and not pay the government their cut, they're an idiot.
Are you actually getting any referrals for your link spam?
I will admit to not having read the math in the article. But the power numbers stated might not be unreasonable. The Bitcoin network is currently calculating around 12 exahashes per second, and the computers that do the bulk of the heavy lifting are based on purpose built ASIC chips. They are literally incapable of doing anything but mining Bitcoin (or some other cryptocurrency that shares the Bitcoin proof of work algorithm)...
The newest ASIC miner -- the AntMiner S9 boasts an efficiency of 0.098 watts per gigahash. 12 exahashes is 12,000,000,000 gigahashes, or around 1.18 gigawatts. 24/7.
How is Bitcoin a lottery ticket?
then
This is something brand new and nobody can predict its behavior.
I think the odds are pretty good right now in Bitcoins favour, but it's not yet a sure thing by a long shot. The current run up might well be due to wider adoption, but it is also quite likely to see a severe correction in the next year. If it does, it might recover as it has done many times in the past. Or it might not.