People Don't Change.
( or if/when they do, they change very very very very little )
Their true character doesn't change. That is formed as a child growing up.
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People Don't Change.
( or if/when they do, they change very very very very little )
Their true character doesn't change. That is formed as a child growing up.
Of course people change. Are you the same person you were 10 or 20 years ago? I know I'm not.
But doesn't look like it matters any more, so who gives a shit.
I honestly don't even know if that was him, but assuming it was. I put out the word, and assuming he looked me up. Nobody else in this country would be have that much hatred towards me. And honestly, that hatred is warranted. Decent chance he went to hell and back after I broke up with him, so can't blame him.
I am the same person I was 30 years ago. I've learned a lot since then. I'm wiser. But most definitely, at my core, I am the same good person with the same good values I was 30 years ago.
And so are you.
Yes, the core inherint values stay the same, but as you said, we become wiser as we age.
I don't have a problem with his core values. That's the whole reason I fell in love with him. He has a lot of pent up anger in him, and grew up at an early age, same as me. Since he was about 10 or 11 I think, he was the man of the house. I don't know exactly when his parents split up, but he grew up young.
Again, none of this matters any more anyway. I searched, I found, I basically got told to go fuck myself. End of story.
I'm surprised (and I'm not alone) why the Bitcoin posts haven't found their own thread, courtesy of an effective Moderator
As I remarked, many posts agoMoney is generally accepted to be a store of value, a medium of exchange and the unit of account. Most of the posts here have had Matt asserted that as a medium of exchange Bitcoin is THE future (and Bruce agrees); not only that, Matt believes so much that it is a store of value that he is hording Bitcoins. Meanwhile bucknaway believes that it's such a miniscule unit of account that he has a few jingling in his pockets as he saunters down the street, no doubt sporting The Look.Quote:
Bitcoin is merely one of the emerging ways of transacting which rely on Blockchain which will revolutionise aspects of banking. However its value to the ordinary punter (ie. those of us who don't deal drugs or kiddy porn) is probably limited for the time being
However Bitcoin was merely the first embodiment of the Blockchain technology - and first-movers don't always last, especially in technology. Remember Sony and betamax? Machine code, Fortran and Cobol?
The latest edition of Wired magazine has a long article sayingI'd be pinning my hopes (and fortune) and something backed by those companies and Linux Foundation rather than on a first-mover whose founder wants desperately to retain his anonymity.Quote:
Several major companies from across both the technology and financial industriesтАФincluding IBM, Intel, and Cisco as well as the London Stock Exchange Group and big-name banks JP Morgan, Wells Fargo, and State StreetтАФhave joined forces to create an alternative to the blockchain, the global online ledger that underpins the bitcoin digital currency.
Overseen by the not-for-profit Linux Foundation, this open source project aims to build blockchain-like technology that can bring a new level of automation and transparency to a wide range of services in the business world, including stock exchanges and other financial markets.
Blockchain is to Bitcoin..... as the internal combustion engine is to the automobile.
Anyone, including you or I........ or the US military and God combined...... can make a new blockchain.
But Bitcoin is POWERED BY the bitcoin blockchain.
The bitcoin network is now more powerful than the top 30 supercomputers in the entire world..... *combined*.
Good luck "competing" with that.
This announcement by JP Morgan and company... sounds like a press release from the National Typewriter Manufacturers Association saying, "We're about to develop a brand new model of typewriter that will compete with the word processor."
Oh.... and in the past 3 months, my net worth doubled again. So... there's that.
They're a day late and a dollar short. They've gotten caught with their pants down. And they're terrified of being considered obsolete overnight.... literally.
So far, over $1 Billion has been invested in Bitcoin Blockchain infrastructure and supporting technologies. Super smart people clearly see that bitcoin is the future..... and they've been investing millions and millions of dollars in venture capital into building the entire ecosystem supporting bitcoin. See http://cointelegraph.com/news/115595/1- ... astructure
Oh. And in the past 3 months.... my net worth doubled again. So.... there's that. :-B
( not only mine, of course, but everyone in the world that's invested in bitcoin )
What other investment has gone up 206819% in only 5 years? ( 2,068 times its original value )
Any? In the history of mankind?
Wouldn't hold your breath. The entire point of bitcoin is to remove banks and the government from the equation, so JP Morgan starting up their own crypto-currency probably wouldn't be received too well. That, and there's simply too much infrastructure and companies built around bitcoin now for it to fail, or for anyone to compete with it.Quote:
Originally Posted by kommentariat
Media and companies alike love to talk about "blockchain technology", but that doesn't even make sense. It's just a P2P network (remember Napster?) that passes a bunch of messages around using 3 different encryption algorithms. However, people have decided those messages are worth a fair bit of money. Plus people love to talk about all the "possibilities" of the blockchain, but no, it's purely a financial network. You can now store 40 bytes of additional information with each transaction, but that's as far as it goes, and there's zero chance that limit will be getting changed any time soon -- the blockchain is already large enough and keeping it as small as possible is a huge debate at the moment.
You can start your own crypto-currency any time you'd like though. There's thousands of them, and I think it only costs about $30 to get a developer to make you your own blockchain for you. Have fun getting any traction though. Competing with bitcoin would be the equivalent of a new search engine competing with Google. Many have tried, and they all failed.
I agree with your major sentiments. However, as the saying goes, God is in the details. And most of your details are incorrect. :)Quote:
Originally Posted by cdnmatt
The first paragraph is very correct.
The second paragraph is so untrue.... factually incorrect.... I don't know where to begin.
Omg. :-s Blockchain technology is the biggest breakthrough technology since the invention of the electronic *computer*.... yeah, the first computer in the world...... and the invention of the *internet* itself.....
There is a reason why all the media talk about it so much. The reason is because they are interviewing experts. And that's all the experts are raving about. Why? Because they are experts.
Blockchain technology does NOT even use any encryptionat all. Lord...... Where to start.
Blockchain technology uses recursive cryptographically signed transactions.... *signed* *cryptographically* and done *recursively*..... in a *chain* of *blocks* of transactions. Thus, the name, Block Chain. It uses Zero encryption. The chain is spread far and wide on an uncensorable p2p network ( similar to bittorrent; still going on stronger than ever before; still unstoppable by any government in the world ), tho it uses its own network, obviously.
The breakthrough in the history of the world is that we now have an *absolutely* *irrefutable* record, or log, or ledger. The most powerful organizations in the world --- in a combined effort --- cannot alter it. This tech, *obviously*, is already being used to record everything from land and real estate ownership.... to votes in elections.... to ownership of shares of stocks and other assets... to actual detailed *smart* contracts which are *self-enforcing* !! This is not a prediction. There are now thousands of companies already doing this. Many of the founders are among my friends. Google the word, ethereum for just one example of the world changing while you were napping. See https://www.ethereum.org
That "40 bytes of additional information with each transaction" you mentioned is completely irrelevant. First, the amount of data that can be attached to any transaction is unlimited. We now simply store any data in a separate p2p network and store only the hash of that data in the actual bitcoin transaction itself. Thus, someone can store 1 million terabytes of additional data within one bitcoin transaction if they want to.
Also, the recent debate about how to increase the block size has nothing to do with storing more data per transaction. It's about storing more transactions per block. This is absolutely essential and absolutely everyone agrees that it *will* happen.... because usage of bitcoin is growing so much so quickly. There is zero debate that this *will* happen. The only debate is about the exact method of implementing the block size increase. This block size increase *will* happen within the next 12 months, guaranteed.
This increase in the size of each individual block..... also has absolutely *nothing* to do with the overall size of the entire blockchain. The overall size of the entire blockchain is irrelevant at this point. We now use abbreviated indexes.... you can think of them as periodic "ledger summary" records. This way, the entire blockchain doesn't need to be loaded or read by apps. It only needs to be read, and summarized, by a server. But there's still never any fear of mistakes... because the "miners" ( the computers which process transactions ) *always* use the entire blockchain. Thus, transactions cannot happen unless they are valid. So, nobody is concerned about the overall size of the blockchain in full.... and they never will be. As it increases in size, storage capacity increases faster. And it's still a quite tiny file size... considering what it does.
Your last paragraph is generally correct. Except that if you pay a clone-bot to create your own altcoin for $75, it won't work. And it won't be a secure network. ( I can explain all the reasons why, if you care to know. ) To create an alternate blockchain crypto-currency, you'd need to pay an expert at least $2000. Alternatively, you could create a colored coin altcoin ( which piggybacks on top of the normal bitcoin blockchain ) for free or for a tiny tiny expense. ( Happy to teach people how to do that as well, if people are interested. )
Bitcoin's Future Shape: between $13,000 and $120k per bitcoin - BTCUSD TradingView
https://www.tradingview.com/chart/BTCUS ... -and-120k/
Price Today: http://preev.com
Do you remember what the price was yesterday? :p
Bitcoin is hardly the first P2P network ever invented, so it's not new technology. It just got repurposed for financial transactions. All it is is just a bunch of small messages being passed around, and getting stored on everyone's computer / server that's running a full node.
Yes, it does use encryption, specifically SHA512, RIPEMD160, and ECC secp256k1 curve. All three of those algorithims needs to be broken in order to "break bitcoin", which isn't going to happen any time soon. It also uses BASE58 encoding, but that's not encryption. If you'd like, you can learn all about the protocol here -- https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Protocol_specification
No, the data is not unlimited. Aside from the actual transaction details itself (inputs, outputs, etc.) the limit for additional data is 40 bytes per-transaction by using OP_RETURN. You can not add more arbitrary data than that, as miners won't confirm the transaction if you do. Those data storage sites add a small hash to the transaction keeping it within the 40 byte limit, then add additional data in-house on their own system(s) associated with that hash.
Ethereum has not realistic use. Loads of people love to talk about "smart contracts", but there is no actual realistic use case for them from what I can tell. Besides, it's been years and they still haven't even done anything much with it. I don't understand what you'd use it for. So when you're signing a business contract, you have to hire both a lawyer and Python developer now? Your average Joe can't use Ethereum.
Yes, the size of the blockchain very much matters. It's already at the point now where Bitcoin Core is only really for merchants who have a dedicated server, as installing Bitcoin Core on your average desktop / laptop is quite the resource hog and takes about 2 or 3 days to download the entire blockchain. That's why it's such a heated debate. If the blockchain gets too bloated, full nodes will continue to drop off the network (already happening), and only people with a good amount of resources will be capable of running full nodes, opening the door to the possibility of centralization sometime in the future. Granted, there's SPV nodes and a chance of the lightening network coming in the future, but full nodes are required to keep the bitcoin network running.
Yes, it's very cheap to get your own alt-coin and blockchain. Just view the Services section of bitcointalk.org and there's always people offering alt-coin creation services for small amounts like 0.01 BTC. All you do is download a copy of the Bitcoin Core source code from Github, change a few variables like the port# and address prefixes, and voila, you have your own coin.
Omg. I'm not even going to reply to that. Other than to say, Nearly everything you just said is NOT true.
It seems as though you're not *intentionally* trying to mislead people... It's just that you are very very very confused about how all these things work.
Implying that the Bitcoin network is "just another P2P network".... is like calling an Airbus A350.... "just another object that flies.... just another kite.... a kite that we all decided to ride on."
Total utter nonsense. Not worthy of a response.
Look up in a Websters dictionary the difference between the words, "encryption" and "cryptography". Both words contain similar letters. But I assure you, they are *very* different things. The bitcoin network and bitcoin protocol use ZERO encryption. Geez. Use google.com man.... ( Side note: Ambien and Ambiance are also not the same thing. #:-s )
I'm not even going to touch on your total ignorance of the meaning of what a "smart contract" is.... much less what they are used for. Other than to say: They have absolutely *nothing* to do with attorneys *nor* bloody Python. omg :-s
And if anyone were to, "take a copy of bitcoin core and change a few variables", .... they would end up with a totally insecure and hackable blockchain network. Know why? No. I didn't think so.
Ok. I've wasted enough time trying to educate one person who obviously doesn't want to be educated. Time to ignore any more.
If anyone *else* has questions..... I'm happy to help and answer them.
Now I am going to try out the board's Ignore feature for the first time. I won't be able to see anything Matt says from this point forward.... But... I would strongly warn anyone to not believe, and not take at face value, anything Matt says about Bitcoin. Better to ask me, or use google search for yourself.
Just because people say all kinds of crap on the Internet, doesn't make it true. Especially ads advertising services for a fee.... on a forum like bitcointalk. omg
Follow what the *real* experts in the field say..... not including me.... Google and follow everything people like.....
Andreas M. Antonopolous,
Gavin Andresen, and
Jeff Garzik
....say.
Bruce,
As a veteran of the ups and downs of speculative investments over the past four decades, your enthusiasm is both understandable and familiar.
For you it is also very dangerous, financially..
Do you have a clear idea as to the price level at which you would liquidate your position?
You probably do. The hazard is that when investors who are heavily fixated on one product achieve their price ambitions, they become so confident that king Midas is smiling upon them that they change the plan and set a higher goal. They become over-confident.
And when the price eventually goes south, they struggle to accept that their golden goose is past it's eat by date, and convince themselves that the downturn is a buying opportunity, often levering themselves with borrowed cash, secured on their homes - which they end up losing..
By all means have a flutter on Bitcoin, but keep your investments widely spread, and don't bet a cent more than you can afford to lose..
Great advice in general.
Remember tho, bitcoin is not a stock and has nothing in common with stock ownership.
Also.... I can't "afford to lose" one cent. ;)
There was another egotistical maniac on this board some time ago named 'Ikarus' who, oddly enough, sounds very much like you: same use of bolding to finally announce to the entire world that you will not waste your oh so very precious time on a debater who, strangely enough, has differing opinions than yourself. And thus, as he did often, he cried once and for all, for all to know, that he had no more time for such a plebeian ... and so, sayonara.Quote:
Originally Posted by bruce_nyc
He also considered himself to be a financial guru of the highest order.
I have no idea whether you are he - dressed as Bruce_NYC ... but the childlike picking up one's scattered toys is remarkably the same.
I've used only one handle here..... ever, and everyone knows who I am. I've met a quarter of the active users here in person.... and I've offered to meet all the rest. I have no need whatsoever for a fake persona.... unlike many others apparently.
Also, I most certainly do not consider myself any kind of a financial guru. Those are your words..... Most definitely not mine. I am not a financial guru and I don't give financial advice. The only thing I do occasionally is describe my own strategies. But that should never be construed by anyone to be advice.
Also, I haven't picked up my toys and gone anywhere. I'm still here.... and happy to answer questions.
But, yes, I do refuse to help Matt any more because if he's too lazy to even google what he's claiming to be a expert on.... and posting *incorrect* information for all to read.... then denying the truth when it's presented to him.... It is obviously a *grand* waste of time ---- for him, for me, and for all of you.
There is absolutely nothing wrong or childish about refusing to engage with such a person. In fact, it's probably the most mature thing any adult can do.
The only reason I stated it publicly is: (1) So people won't wonder why I've stopped responding to his inane nonsense messages. And.... (2) To make it very clear that I do not endorse any advice or information coming from him. That's all.
I've never placed anyone else on ignore..... no matter how annoying and irrelevant and childish their posts are.
I wasn't just referring to stocks - people speculate on all manner of things, from gold to fine wines, and it is clear that your interest in holding Bitcoin is driven by speculation - to make an easy profit - rather than an altruistic desire to create the perfect vehicle for monetary transactions.Quote:
Remember tho, bitcoin is not a stock and has nothing in common with stock ownership.
In which event, stop holding Bitcoin and stick to helping others avoid getting fleeced by cyber-hoodlums..Quote:
Also.... I can't "afford to lose" one cent
It is both. And it serves both purposes *exceedingly* well.Quote:
Originally Posted by Old git
How is a 205500% increase on my investment something I should stop doing....?Quote:
Originally Posted by Old git
I'm always teaching people how to avoid getting fleeced.... That's why I tell people to avoid buying stock, avoid buying real estate, avoid holding fiat currency or anything denominated in fiat currency, avoid gold, silver, diamonds, etc. ( which all have their price controlled ), and definitely avoid investing in a business.
This is the chart for 1 month.... ending today. As you can see, my investment of $0.22 per bitcoin has gone up. In fact, in the past 30 days, it's gone up another 41%.
If anyone is still wondering what Brucie and Matt are wittering on about, here is a recent guide to IT-speak:
[attachment=0:2z4acwoz]21-12-2015 9-09-51 AM.png[/attachment:2z4acwoz]
Aw, bitcoins, the first tulips of the 21st century. :YMDAYDREAM: http://d.pr/1jZmC
A better example would be the dot-com craze..... or Wall Street's fabricated derivatives. Even at its height, the Amsterdam Stock Exchange, well-established in 1630, wouldn't touch tulips. The speculation in tulip bulbs always existed at the margins of Dutch economic life.
But the best example of all..... is the US Dollar.... which has lost 97% of its value since the Consumer Price Index began tracking its real value.... in 1913.
That's the world's largest Ponzi Scheme: The US Dollar
Anyway, bitcoin is very different in the fact that nobody can create any more. There will never be more than 21 million bitcoin. That's why we continue to use smaller and smaller fractions of a bitcoin.... for transactions.... as the value of each bitcoin continues its journey to the moon. A cup of coffee used to cost 13.5 bitcoins. Today a cup of coffee costs 0.0068965517 bitcoins.
Now, the world is beginning to standardize on "bits". 1 bit = 0.000001 bitcoin
So a cup of coffee might cost 5605 bits today.
It wouldn't surprise me if the USA decided to make it an offence for its citizens to hold bitcoins.
The US Congress has already declared bitcoin explicitly legal. The IRS has also officially endorsed bitcoin.
This is from 2 years ago.... but it's still somewhat accurate.... despite being written by Forbes.... http://www.forbes.com/sites/kashmirhill ... the-world/
Thailand's central bank ( Bank of Thailand ) has since retracted, or "clarified" their stance on bitcoin. They say that it's perfectly legal to buy it, sell it, hold it, accept it, or spend it...... in Thailand..... ( as long as you're not exchanging it for a foreign currency for others without a license ). Even exchanging bitcoin for baht, and vice versa, is legal in Thailand without any special "money transmittal" license.
Hahaha. I'm loving the way you just make stuff up and then try to pontificate it as fact. The IRS hasn't officially endorsed anything.
In truth, terrorism may be the nail in bitcoin's coffin, given that the EU is already looking askance at its use in transferring funds to and from ISIS. Oh, and just because something's legal at the moment, doesn't mean it'll remain legal in the future.
I've also been following with interest how the US reporting requirements have now made foreign banks reluctant to accept US citizens as customers and many in Central and South America are already refusing to open new accounts and closing down ones that are held by Americans.
Quote:
Originally Posted by bruce_nyc
Nout Wellink, has called dealings in bitcoins a bubble that is тАЬpure speculationтАЭ and тАЬhypeтАЭ and тАЬworse than the tulip maniaтАЭ of the seventeenth century because тАЬat least then you got a tulip [at the end], now you get nothing.тАЭ (from your Forbes link above)
Please resist the urge to copy an hypothesis word for word without acknowledging the original writer. For instance, this sentence is copied from Bloomberg Business ..... http://www.businessweek.com/2000/00_17/b3678084.htmQuote:
Originally Posted by bruce_nyc
Mr Mike Dash wrote this, and should given credit for the analogy.
I suppose this is not an official statement. I know. I made it all up. https://www.irs.gov/uac/Newsroom/IRS-Vi ... y-GuidanceQuote:
Originally Posted by Tobi
Those that bitcoin hurts the most... will search for any excuse to attack bitcoin. That is true. They will say that it's used by criminals. But the facts get in the way. 99.99% of all criminal transactions are conducted in cash. So..... they are going to need to outlaw cash first.... in order to maintain any sort of a logical excuse that makes sense to the public. They are feeling *very* threatened by bitcoin.... as they lose their monopoly on the world's money.
Yes. I quoted that one sentence. I thought it was obvious.... since it's not my writing style at all. Sorry. I'll cite my sources more carefully for you next time.Quote:
Originally Posted by Smiles
Yes. You did. That statement is not an endorsement. Here, let me help you with the dictionary definition of the word endorsement.Quote:
Originally Posted by bruce_nyc
Quote:
"an act of giving one's public approval or support to someone or something".
Hahaha. I'm so enjoying your made-up "facts". Nope. 99.99% of all criminal transactions are not conducted in cash, almost half of all criminal transactions are in fact some form of barter. Oh, and perhaps you think the estimated $1bn of business conducted via the Silk Road before it was closed down was handled in huge wads of 500 euro notes too, huh? =))Quote:
Originally Posted by bruce_nyc
I have to ask, have you ever worked at Enron by any chance? You really remind me of those desperate types who try to rope people into an MLM, pyramid or Ponzi scheme just before it collapses.
This is a great little intro to.... "What is Bitcoin?"
[youtube:149j5o9o]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gc2en3nHxA4[/youtube:149j5o9o]
You did not quote it, you stole it to use it as your own.Quote:
Yes. I quoted that one sentence. I thought it was obvious.... since it's not my writing style at all. Sorry. I'll cite my sources more carefully for you next time.
True 'quoting' implies a step further, i.e. specific acknowledgement. You used it in order to sound like a Knowledgeable Person - and thus to impress on others that you are in fact 'knowledgeble' when you are in fact nothing but a user of other people's writings. That is to say, a fraud.
Now one wonders, how much more have you used to impress.
Yes. That statement from the IRS officially acknowledges bitcoin as a legal asset and recognizes it for tax purposes. That's as official as it gets.
It's explicitely legal in the USA. There's no doubt about it. You guys can split hairs about the term ( endorses, acknowledges, recognizes )... but you can't change the facts.
It's also now explicitely legal in Thailand too. But whether local governments have gotten around to recognizing it yet or not, bitcoin is used everywhere on earth every day.
Oh, and as for some reporter calling bitcoin "a bubble"....
Opinions are like assholes. Everybody's got one.
I defy you to produce the evidence to support that assertion. It's pure hyperbole, the sort of nonsense we expect from religious converts - which clearly you are.Quote:
Originally Posted by bruce_nyc
Hahahaha. Of course we can, Walter Mitty, seeing as you are just making these "facts" up.Quote:
Originally Posted by bruce_nyc
There are a thousand ways to obtain the information you seek. Google.com is always a good tool to try... if you know what terms to enter.
Check out these for a start.....
Bitcoin Transactions
http://bitcoinglobe.com
Bitcoin Ticker Live Transactions
http://bitcointicker.co/transactions
Realtime Bitcoin
http://realtimebitcoin.info
Blockchain Visualisation
http://bits.coinlaunch.com
BitListen - Bitcoin Transaction Visualizer
http://www.bitlisten.com
Transaction Visualizations | Bitcoin Links
http://www.bitcoinlinks.net/tag/transac ... alizations
More Information and Endorsements of Bitcoin
https://www.weusecoins.com
You don't have to take my word for it. As you can see with your own eyes, Bitcoin is used everywhere on earth every day.
The height of the vertical bars indicate the volume of transactions occurring at that very moment.
Click on the pics to enlarge them.....
Spoken like a man who likely has as many assholes as he does opinions.Quote:
Originally Posted by bruce_nyc
You're right. I encounter *many* in life... They're everywhere.
Most of them right behind you.Quote:
Originally Posted by bruce_nyc
Yes. In fact, they're usually far behind me.... in almost every way. ;)
There's nothing wrong with having opinions Smiles - provided they are my opinions that everyone is having.Quote:
Originally Posted by Smiles
Bruce is supposedly an expert IT consultant who's been in the industry for 37 years, but doesn't even know a smartphone is a computer, so wouldn't worry about it too much.