The obvious reason for BC's attraction is that it shares the same properties as gold: limited supply, inoxydable, barely falsibiable (except for gold plating of tungsten ingots).
*PLUS*
In some respects, BC is even better than gold: zero weight, invisible, unseizable.
It can still be (slowly) mined at no cost, in winter as a byproduct of heating.
It is a tax haven, immune to government greed.
*BUT*
Unlike precious metals, BC is artificial: Science and technology will never create new precious metals, but Computer Science can create infinitely many clones of bitcoin, so that the claimed rarity is an illusion.
I expect the birth, within a few months, of some new BC look-alike, easier to mine, backed by some wealthy individual able to offer a large choice of goods and services: enough to start a real ecosystem, but of course, imitations will emerge to compete.
The original Bitcoins will then be forgotten, and by the way, so will be the dollar.
If you have anything to hide,
1- store it on an external server, not your own laptop.
2- make it untrackable by steganographic encoding.
No encryption, no passphrase, no lawyer, no 5th amendment: privacy at last!
Lagarde is right and wrong:
Raising the debt limit now may prevent immediate nasty consequences.
But it will cause much nastier consequences in the (not so) long term.
Runaway debt leads to collapse or war or both.
Unfortunately, any responsible politician suggesting debt restraint would incur electoral defeat.
Pardon my total ignorance but, presuming human skin cells also have a membrane, why aren't they also destroyed in the process?
It reminds me of this old mystery (to me at least) of why the stomach does not digest itself.
"Wikipedia is this amazing global cultural phenomena"
I would say that Wikipedia is a phenomenon in collective low pass filtering.
It is essentially an opinion repository from which emerges a consensus delivered to the masses.
Truth is another more elusive story.
Zero-cost high-speed trading is a sure way for the privileged on-site trader offices to slowly skim the world's wealth into their pockets.
This ever increasing generalized diversion can only be offset by runaway debt and money creation.
Beyond a certain threshold, debt leads to economic crash as in 2008.
Ironically, the short term response has been to hide behind increased debt, leading to the unavoidable disaster that we shall soon observe, unless you believe in miracles.
If there had been a worldwide minuscule (Tobin) tax on trading, this grand theft could not have occured and the subsequent debt-induced crash might have been avoided.
Of course, the thus enriched world financial elite which ultimately controls all political decision making will never tolerate such a tax which would render high-speed trading useless.
Let us fantasize about how a matter-symmetric universe would evolve.
I bet it would be very morphogenetically boring: no structure, no stars, no life.
If it was symmetric, it would not have created us to comment on it.
It is asymmetric because we are here, and conversely.
I am semi-reliably informed that if you're talking about Virii, you're more likely to be talking about lots and lots of men
Well, you are poorly informed then!
"Virii" does not exist at all.
The plural of "vir" (man) is "viri" (men), even if there are lots and lots of them.
I am beginning to feel proud to be a nerd: people stink!
There is absolutely no way the latin plural of virus could be "virera" or "virii" (yuck!).
"virus" belonging to the second declension, its plural should be "viri" except that the word virus in latin is purely collective (like air or fire) and *never* used as a plural.
The english meaning ~(dirty little bug) is far removed from the original generic latin meaning of poison so that it is actually a different concept which can be pluralized. Thus it is no longer a latin word and the plural should be spelled viruses.
(Sorry, I speak better latin than english)
Luckily for the thief, the theft happened in HSBC and not in Switzerland.
The theft happened in HSBC-Geneva.
And Geneva is still in Switzerland.
The thief, Hervé Falciani, openly escaped to France.
The french minister Eric Woerth who used the list is guilty of concealment according to swiss law and faces arrest if he travels there even on official business.
Such programs are straightforward implementations of not-so-subtle mathematical formulae.
A first year CS student could do it as a midterm project.
I would do it for fun and for free.
Getting a six figure salary for such a trivial and essentially harmful pastime is an extravagant privilege.
The solution to overpopulation is not for the most enlightened people to to commit suicide, it is to help them dissuade masses from overbreeding like rabbits.
Half a dialogue is not the same as half a monologue!
The greek origin of dia-logue means across-speech.
Half a dialogue would be one-way speech, and guess what, that is called a monologue.
Slashdot Mirror
The obvious reason for BC's attraction is that it shares the same properties as gold: limited supply, inoxydable, barely falsibiable (except for gold plating of tungsten ingots).
...
*PLUS*
In some respects, BC is even better than gold: zero weight, invisible, unseizable.
It can still be (slowly) mined at no cost, in winter as a byproduct of heating.
It is a tax haven, immune to government greed.
*BUT*
Unlike precious metals, BC is artificial: Science and technology will never create new precious metals, but Computer Science can create infinitely many clones of bitcoin, so that the claimed rarity is an illusion.
I expect the birth, within a few months, of some new BC look-alike, easier to mine, backed by some wealthy individual able to offer a large choice of goods and services: enough to start a real ecosystem, but of course, imitations will emerge to compete.
The original Bitcoins will then be forgotten, and by the way, so will be the dollar.
My two cents
What are dollars? Do they have any value (like being able to exchange them for gold or bitcoins)?
If you have anything to hide,
1- store it on an external server, not your own laptop.
2- make it untrackable by steganographic encoding.
No encryption, no passphrase, no lawyer, no 5th amendment: privacy at last!
Lagarde is right and wrong:
Raising the debt limit now may prevent immediate nasty consequences.
But it will cause much nastier consequences in the (not so) long term.
Runaway debt leads to collapse or war or both.
Unfortunately, any responsible politician suggesting debt restraint would incur electoral defeat.
MBAs *and Government* should mind their business and no more.
Pardon my total ignorance but, presuming human skin cells also have a membrane, why aren't they also destroyed in the process?
It reminds me of this old mystery (to me at least) of why the stomach does not digest itself.
What the hell is a dollar?
"Wikipedia is this amazing global cultural phenomena"
I would say that Wikipedia is a phenomenon in collective low pass filtering.
It is essentially an opinion repository from which emerges a consensus delivered to the masses.
Truth is another more elusive story.
Knowledge is the art of filtering the relevant data out of this inflated mess.
By that definition, there is very little knowledge around.
Zero-cost high-speed trading is a sure way for the privileged on-site trader offices to slowly skim the world's wealth into their pockets.
This ever increasing generalized diversion can only be offset by runaway debt and money creation.
Beyond a certain threshold, debt leads to economic crash as in 2008.
Ironically, the short term response has been to hide behind increased debt, leading to the unavoidable disaster that we shall soon observe, unless you believe in miracles.
If there had been a worldwide minuscule (Tobin) tax on trading, this grand theft could not have occured and the subsequent debt-induced crash might have been avoided.
Of course, the thus enriched world financial elite which ultimately controls all political decision making will never tolerate such a tax which would render high-speed trading useless.
Probably as popular as Pablo Escobar, and for similar reasons.
Let us fantasize about how a matter-symmetric universe would evolve.
I bet it would be very morphogenetically boring: no structure, no stars, no life. If it was symmetric, it would not have created us to comment on it.
It is asymmetric because we are here, and conversely.
I think I think, therefore I think I am.
I am semi-reliably informed that if you're talking about Virii, you're more likely to be talking about lots and lots of men
Well, you are poorly informed then!
"Virii" does not exist at all.
The plural of "vir" (man) is "viri" (men), even if there are lots and lots of them.
I am beginning to feel proud to be a nerd: people stink!
There is absolutely no way the latin plural of virus could be "virera" or "virii" (yuck!).
"virus" belonging to the second declension, its plural should be "viri" except that the word virus in latin is purely collective (like air or fire) and *never* used as a plural.
The english meaning ~(dirty little bug) is far removed from the original generic latin meaning of poison so that it is actually a different concept which can be pluralized. Thus it is no longer a latin word and the plural should be spelled viruses.
(Sorry, I speak better latin than english)
Glow-in-the-dark slippers would be more useful.
Luckily for the thief, the theft happened in HSBC and not in Switzerland.
The theft happened in HSBC-Geneva. And Geneva is still in Switzerland.
The thief, Hervé Falciani, openly escaped to France.
The french minister Eric Woerth who used the list is guilty of concealment according to swiss law and faces arrest if he travels there even on official business.
You think you think in English but I think you think in Mentalese just like everyone else.
Just wondering what "not severely tortured" would feel like.
And a more detailed explanation can be found starting there:
http://mhalb.pagesperso-orange.fr/kivu/eg/index.htm
an unexplained blank spot in an otherwise comprehensive public database draws more attention to you than leaving it there in plain view would.
This is why the view should not be blanked or blurred but replaced by an ordinary looking fake.
Such programs are straightforward implementations of not-so-subtle mathematical formulae.
A first year CS student could do it as a midterm project.
I would do it for fun and for free.
Getting a six figure salary for such a trivial and essentially harmful pastime is an extravagant privilege.
The solution to overpopulation is not for the most enlightened people to to commit suicide, it is to help them dissuade masses from overbreeding like rabbits.
Sailing vessels can go faster than the wind, why shouldn't a car be able to?
Still, that smells fishy!
Half a dialogue is not the same as half a monologue!
The greek origin of dia-logue means across-speech.
Half a dialogue would be one-way speech, and guess what, that is called a monologue.
Maybe pilots are bored because they are useless?