Never?
America has always been 'freedom for those with the most power to restrict the freedom of lesser people'. Seriously, many of the original colonies were specifically founded because people's home countries were not cracking down on other groups enough for their tastes. They couldn't handle the multiculturalism or religious freedom (for others), or couldn't handle all those 'workers are people who can vote' stuff getting in the way of businesses. So they wanted a place that would be safe for oppression.
I read it as making fun of they hypocrisy in the right's view of self determination. Freedom freedom freedom, till it comes to women controlling their own bodies or sexuality, then it is evil evil evil.
I would also be curious what the actual numbers look like.
The system and its usage though suggests most of it is going to trading. The fees have been going going up, making small transactions less and less viable, and more and more of the traffic has been going to the exchanges. BTC isn't very good at anything other than large transactions that lock in quickly but can take time to process.
It is only a way to avoid taxes or embezzle funds as pictured by people who do not know much about either and have only ever worked W2. They kinda hope that if enough people say 'no more taxes' and invest in their cryptothingie the various governments will just give up and stop collecting them or something.
Isn't that the main use of cryptocurrencies though? The main industry that has popped up around and using the coins seems to be the 'exchanges' were various amature currency traders try to out-algorithm each other and profit off a steady flow of people trying to jump on the bandwagon.
It is questionable how much of it is even alt-coin. GPUs are increasingly used in all sorts of number crunching situations, meaning they are increasingly going to marketing and business analytics departments, not to mention increased usage in healthcare/insurance/etc.
Well yes, 'full stack' exists, and it can work pretty well. It all depends on the project's needs.
The OP is correct in that pretty much all layers of development have gotten more complicated and specialized over the years, but in a way they have also gotten simpler and less specialized too. The people who develop the various technologies have generally taken a 'minimum necessary complexity, scale up from there' approach which has made the barrier for getting useful functionality out of things pretty reasonable.
A good full stack developer knows a few technologies from each layer well enough to link them all up and produce something that does the job. It will not be as fancy as something produced by a UI expert, or as high availability as something put together by a database expert, etc, but if the project does not actually need that level of design or fancyness then having a full stack person or two can get you what you need with the flexibility to shift people around.
True, science themed mysticism in and of itself doesn't have to be a bad thing, but I think in this case it really did not work esp for a work people are describing as 'hard science fiction'. It was mostly used as a power up, with magic level technology completely outclassing things below it. I guess it kinda worked with the defeatism theme of the series, but it meched really poorly with the use of repetition.
I think it is less 'greed' and more 'arrogance'. Speculators generally know it is a scam, but they believe they can manipulate it quicker and better than other investors. People think they are smart and other people are stupid, and are hoping to profit based off that belief.
From a speculator's perspective they are identical. It does not matter if the mining is done by the company releasing the coin or by 3rd parties, they are still created and traded in similar manners.
Yeah, I would more describe it as science fantasy, there was a lot of mysticism involved. It reminded me of the stuff I read on conspiracy theory sites about how 'science actually works'.
It is sci-fi for people who don't read sci-fi. It is about what I would expect out of a 50s sci-fi writer with a few bits of updated pseudo-science and quantum woo and some serious social axes to grind.
If you do try it, the first book is actually reasonably good, but I would not recommend the second and the 3rd was a serious slog that I wanted to throw across the room multiple times.
The cost to transact is going to be the real killer. Cryptocurrency is computationally mind boggling expensive to work with compared to other alternatives, requiring specialized hardware and significant power. Mining primes the pump, but long term transaction fees need to cover the cost of the incredibly inefficient system, a system built from the ground up to BE inefficient and thus expensive for people to process.
The currency you can pay your taxes in is the one most people are going to want to stick with. It is one of the reasons gold and silver hold the misty eyed place that they do. They did not get so popular because of some inherent trait, they got popular because states started demanding that taxes be paid in them (instead of grain, work, or whiskey), so all of a sudden everyone needed gold or silver.
Yeah, but all Lightning really does is put the transactions back in the control of some gatekeepers. If one is going to do that, might as well just go back to Visa and Mastercard.
*nod* he is probably in the camp that sees the increasing centralization of BTC as an opportunity for a new batch of big players and is having dreams of becoming the next Chase Bank or Mastercard, while assuming that he will be able to slam the door behind them again.
Well, there is 'getting around it' mechanically and 'getting around it' legally. The people doing the money laundering had found loopholes that kept the activity out of the automatic view. The overall results were illegal, but they take advantage of individual steps which are legalish.
Ahm, actually, it is a form of magic mind control. While yes, people have free will, people tend to underestimate just how much advertising affects us, with people who believe that it does no being especially vulnerable.
I think the person's point was that the person who wrote the original piece was treating it like theft, them viewing people's actions in terms of how much money they should be making and accusing people who negatively impact that prediction as thieves.
*nod* in some ways one can see the adblock stuff as a bit of a referendum on how welcome these forces are on the internet. The original piece starts with the assumption that the internet needs people like them, but it is not all that clear. The internet they want needs people like them, but it got along fine before that crowd started monetizing the 'net, and a lot of the changes which resulted from their interest are not always viewed as positive.
So this whole 'if you do not do things our way, we will pick up our toys and go home' has the opposite intended effect for a lot of people, many of us do not like what they have done...
Slashdot Mirror
Never? America has always been 'freedom for those with the most power to restrict the freedom of lesser people'. Seriously, many of the original colonies were specifically founded because people's home countries were not cracking down on other groups enough for their tastes. They couldn't handle the multiculturalism or religious freedom (for others), or couldn't handle all those 'workers are people who can vote' stuff getting in the way of businesses. So they wanted a place that would be safe for oppression.
I read it as making fun of they hypocrisy in the right's view of self determination. Freedom freedom freedom, till it comes to women controlling their own bodies or sexuality, then it is evil evil evil.
I would also be curious what the actual numbers look like. The system and its usage though suggests most of it is going to trading. The fees have been going going up, making small transactions less and less viable, and more and more of the traffic has been going to the exchanges. BTC isn't very good at anything other than large transactions that lock in quickly but can take time to process.
Taxes are self reported regardless of where you get your money from. If you defraud the IRS they might not notice, or they might.
It is only a way to avoid taxes or embezzle funds as pictured by people who do not know much about either and have only ever worked W2. They kinda hope that if enough people say 'no more taxes' and invest in their cryptothingie the various governments will just give up and stop collecting them or something.
Isn't that the main use of cryptocurrencies though? The main industry that has popped up around and using the coins seems to be the 'exchanges' were various amature currency traders try to out-algorithm each other and profit off a steady flow of people trying to jump on the bandwagon.
USD is backed by being the only currency you can pay your taxes in.
Yeah, I read it as 'there are enough sheep with enough money for the wolves to be interested'.
It is questionable how much of it is even alt-coin. GPUs are increasingly used in all sorts of number crunching situations, meaning they are increasingly going to marketing and business analytics departments, not to mention increased usage in healthcare/insurance/etc.
Well yes, 'full stack' exists, and it can work pretty well. It all depends on the project's needs. The OP is correct in that pretty much all layers of development have gotten more complicated and specialized over the years, but in a way they have also gotten simpler and less specialized too. The people who develop the various technologies have generally taken a 'minimum necessary complexity, scale up from there' approach which has made the barrier for getting useful functionality out of things pretty reasonable. A good full stack developer knows a few technologies from each layer well enough to link them all up and produce something that does the job. It will not be as fancy as something produced by a UI expert, or as high availability as something put together by a database expert, etc, but if the project does not actually need that level of design or fancyness then having a full stack person or two can get you what you need with the flexibility to shift people around.
True, science themed mysticism in and of itself doesn't have to be a bad thing, but I think in this case it really did not work esp for a work people are describing as 'hard science fiction'. It was mostly used as a power up, with magic level technology completely outclassing things below it. I guess it kinda worked with the defeatism theme of the series, but it meched really poorly with the use of repetition.
I think it is less 'greed' and more 'arrogance'. Speculators generally know it is a scam, but they believe they can manipulate it quicker and better than other investors. People think they are smart and other people are stupid, and are hoping to profit based off that belief.
From a speculator's perspective they are identical. It does not matter if the mining is done by the company releasing the coin or by 3rd parties, they are still created and traded in similar manners.
I was actually rather amused at how low their bar for 'not scam' was in that the coin only had to make it on to an exchange in order to be legit.
Yeah, I would more describe it as science fantasy, there was a lot of mysticism involved. It reminded me of the stuff I read on conspiracy theory sites about how 'science actually works'.
It is sci-fi for people who don't read sci-fi. It is about what I would expect out of a 50s sci-fi writer with a few bits of updated pseudo-science and quantum woo and some serious social axes to grind. If you do try it, the first book is actually reasonably good, but I would not recommend the second and the 3rd was a serious slog that I wanted to throw across the room multiple times.
The cost to transact is going to be the real killer. Cryptocurrency is computationally mind boggling expensive to work with compared to other alternatives, requiring specialized hardware and significant power. Mining primes the pump, but long term transaction fees need to cover the cost of the incredibly inefficient system, a system built from the ground up to BE inefficient and thus expensive for people to process.
The currency you can pay your taxes in is the one most people are going to want to stick with. It is one of the reasons gold and silver hold the misty eyed place that they do. They did not get so popular because of some inherent trait, they got popular because states started demanding that taxes be paid in them (instead of grain, work, or whiskey), so all of a sudden everyone needed gold or silver.
Yeah, but all Lightning really does is put the transactions back in the control of some gatekeepers. If one is going to do that, might as well just go back to Visa and Mastercard.
*nod* he is probably in the camp that sees the increasing centralization of BTC as an opportunity for a new batch of big players and is having dreams of becoming the next Chase Bank or Mastercard, while assuming that he will be able to slam the door behind them again.
The dark market uses for BTC kinda mirrors its regular market usage, meaning it isn't used much there either outside small circles of people.
Well, there is 'getting around it' mechanically and 'getting around it' legally. The people doing the money laundering had found loopholes that kept the activity out of the automatic view. The overall results were illegal, but they take advantage of individual steps which are legalish.
Ahm, actually, it is a form of magic mind control. While yes, people have free will, people tend to underestimate just how much advertising affects us, with people who believe that it does no being especially vulnerable.
I think the person's point was that the person who wrote the original piece was treating it like theft, them viewing people's actions in terms of how much money they should be making and accusing people who negatively impact that prediction as thieves.
*nod* in some ways one can see the adblock stuff as a bit of a referendum on how welcome these forces are on the internet. The original piece starts with the assumption that the internet needs people like them, but it is not all that clear. The internet they want needs people like them, but it got along fine before that crowd started monetizing the 'net, and a lot of the changes which resulted from their interest are not always viewed as positive.
So this whole 'if you do not do things our way, we will pick up our toys and go home' has the opposite intended effect for a lot of people, many of us do not like what they have done...