elmar

The Myth of "Macroeconomics"

https://mises.org/wire/myth-macroeconomics

I think that nobody questions that the main factor for this meteoric rise in valuation was Steve Jobs it just proves that the entrepreneur and is vision are the main factors on the growth of companies.

For me Paul Graham is a very rare breed of people that manages the delicated symbiosis between academic Vs entrepreneur - theory Vs real life - gut feeling Vs mathematical analysis.

Is overwhelming contribution to the Startup culture will only be well understood by future historical analysts.

all this sounds a little fishy, Deutsche Bank as at the moment $60 Trillion exposure on derivatives, it's a financial bomb ready to explode any time, wonder if this occurrence is in any way related to the high derivative exposure.

Portugal’s gas and electricity the most expensive in Europe

https://algarvedailynews.com/news/8958-portugal-s-gas-and-el...

Portuguese with highest standardized energy bills in the EU http://www.theportugalnews.com/news/portuguese-with-highest-...

>(and also enabling things like money laundering, drug trafficking, etc.)

"Darknet markets are no longer a major use of Bitcoin, accounting for less than 1% of Bitcoin transactions in 2017"

https://blog.chainalysis.com/crypto-crime/

and the developers of the software what would be the legal standing if they are residents of countries like the USA?

could they be persecuted as facilitators of the ilegal distribution?

"illegal pornography, can render the mere possession of a blockchain illegal."

I see this as a very strong legal attack vector on full nodes and cryptocurrencies, probably a way around it, is to only allow meta information on a cryptographic form, even then the owner can publish the view key publicly.

A drastic solution is to just prune or don't even allow metadata.

> You might find Blockstack interesting.

I didn't know this project I normally hate ICO's (including the original Ethereum ICO) from what I have read on the information you so kindly shared it looks like a much more sensible approach to the distributed permissionless application problem, let's see how it goes.

> There really isn't any argument for why flying cars aren't much more difficult than self driving vehicles.

On a software level Self-flying aircraft are much more simple than self-driving cars, there exist today technologies to have 100% safe self-flying vehicles similar to small electrical planes capable of 1 to 2 passengers, it's much more a regulation challenge.

> However engineering decisions 'on genesis' was over 3-4 years ago and at that time doing a blockchain with smart contracts was already challenge on itself. It's not really fair

Sorry when I heard about Ethereum plans 4 years ago, I tough it as a terribly bad idea then (I didn't invest because of this, I should have invested stupid me) in 2013 the increase size of blockchain was already an ongoing problem, I simply tought if a decentelized ledger is already problematic to store, let's put a lot of more information on it, it's madness..

My view, of course, every decision as a trade-off, everything i say is controversial

- The main ledger and smart contracts should be separated, everyone smart contract is public, why??

the smart contracts should be run on several specific sidechains. Why if I buy a crypto kittie everyone as to know and store the transaction for all eternity.

Wait sharding is coming, yes but will reduce the security guarantees.

the eclipse and the "event horizon" images are somewhat similar.

visually an eclipse is just a 'Black Hole in the Sky' :)

> black hole of awesome stuff

that loses your funds, that is the bad part.

the image in the article is really appropriated, the Turing complete VM of ethereum is a black hole of bugs, on the Genesis, some really bad engineering decisions were made and probably now is too late to change it.

Link without pop-ups http://archive.is/V0xLB

It's a review of a book that is crammed with adulteries, alcoholism, betrayals, broken friendships, deportations, deprivation, drug addiction, executions, humiliation, illicit abortions, imprisonment, murder, Nazi atrocities, starvation, torture chambers, treason and worse.

Bitcoin can only be slowed down not stopped other centralized cryptos like Ripple can be shut down.

Updated post with source - Yves Smith @yvessmith

"If you are using either Uber or Lyft, stop. Now. You are contributing directly to the growth of the precariat and the debasement of work. The fact that you use an app to distance yourself from the exploitation of desperate and not very savvy drivers doesn’t change the nature of what you are doing." Yves Smith @yvessmith

a business model based on the lack of mathematical and financial skills of the participants.

This study only confirms the unspoken word for many years. Looks like these ride-sharing services are a race to the bottom, the only ones that are better off are the users.

> So does USD by that measure.

I speculate that the net result scaled for size is much bigger in Bitcoin :)

With what the military complex is paid? With what are drugs bought and sold?

.... ....

If we follow Bill logic, the guns that are used in school shootings were bought using US dollars so the US dollar is responsible for the deaths.

I thought it was so self-evident that no explanation was needed.

and also Bitcoin as saved many lives, just look at the astonishing quantity of Bitcoins that have been given to charity.

Probably the major cause of deaths in the world is the US Dollar, and BTW Bill is totally outdated everyone doing something fishy as moved to Monero by now.

"Minority Report"

> And how does your Kenyan/North Korean/Syrian person buy gasoline/rice/paper with this asset?

Ideally, the seller would accept the cryptocurrency directly, that is what is happening on Venezuela that the country currency is completely worthless. Another not ideal option is to have local gateways that convert to local currency.

> Meanwhile, drug cartels, They are still using dollars maybe Monero, but if the technology is good enough that the goverments can get informations on the transactions or censor it, offcourse bad actors will use it, technology is not inherently good or bad is what people do with it. Personaly I am worried with the 3 Billion that don't have financial services not a small minority bad actors that already does their business using Fiat currencies.

> first world millenials and financial investors are in possession of ~100% of this technology. They are shaping it to further their gains, scamming the naive, and undercutting legitimate sanctions and laws.

That is a really problem and personally I think that the solution will be the creation of new blockchain protocols that have the genesis on developing countries.

Imagine that you want to hire a woman that is a blog writer on a radical Musulin country (where woman don't have the right to property) how you are going to pay for the services.

Imagine that you want to hire a remote software developer from North Korea.

Imagine that you want to send a donation to Wikileaks or similar organization that is banned from using the financial system.

Imagine you are a Syrian war refugee that wants to cross borders without the fear of your wealth being confiscated.

Imagine that you belong to a small ethnic minority and the government is confiscating your assets.

Imagine that you live in rural Kenya and the nearest bank branch is 50km away.

an old one from 2000 but detailed and probably some information still relevant.

Cortney Love does the math

https://www.salon.com/2000/06/14/love_7/