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I was wrong, we need crypto

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Re: I was wrong, we need crypto

#251

Post by john_moscow »

defaultname wrote: post #227
john_moscow wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Aside from a billion dollars+ in trade blocked when the protest -- having achieved nothing terrorizing the residents of Ottawa and blasting horns/setting off fireworks around the clock I don't think, it is entirely fair to blame it all on one side. What the government could have done is meet with the protestors and solve the problem diplomatically. Agree on a reasonable compromise, like suspending some restrictions…

YouTube videos are not citations. No one is going to watch them or try to read the tea leaves of some third party's interpretation. The literal demand of the organizers of the group (a separatist and a white supremacist) were that the government resign en masse. The trucks are emblazoned with "Fuck Trudeau" flags and signs. The rhetoric coming from the various participants has been aggressive and apocalyptic. No, Tru…

The linked video has ~750K views and features Benjamin Dichter, one of the 3 convoy leaders, outlining 2 very realistic demands:

1. Abolish federal vaccine mandates for border crossing.

2. Abolish ArriveCAN - the app used to track health/vaccination status during border crossings.

Both are very specific demands. Both will have close to zero effect on the actual COVID deaths. Both are within the federal government's jurisdiction. Both are extremely hard to defend in the public's eye. So what does the government and the news agencies do? Completely ignore the reasonable take, pick up much crazier demands made by a different person, that are easier to refute, and play the usual guilt by association game, implying that everyone against the mandates are supporters of the nuttiest imaginable cause.

Re: I was wrong, we need crypto

#252

Post by jqpabc123 »

danaris wrote: post #184
jqpabc123 wrote: post #150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The only reason crypto exists is because others needs don't match yours. The desire and *idea* behind crypto is reasonable. It's just that the implementation falls way short of the idea.

The biggest mismatch in "needs" here is the apparent "need" of some people to be able to conduct substantial financial dealings without any government being able to either see what's going on or step in if it's blatantly illegal, while most people consider that to be detrimental to the overall functioning of a healthy society. If you don't want to be part of our modern society, then please go find a way to do so away…

* ... apparent "need" of some people to be able to conduct substantial financial dealings without any government being able to either see what's going on ...*

And crypto mostly fails in this regard. Blockchain maintains a permanent record of everything that goes on for anyone to see.

Re: I was wrong, we need crypto

#253

Post by defaultname »

mardifoufs wrote: post #233
MichaelZuo wrote: post #207

Discussing the politics of a country that the vast majority of HN readers do not understand in-deth in response to a rant by someone else who also only has cursory understanding is adding useless noise to HN. Canada has never been about ‘life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness’, bar a small minority. In many areas it is closer to the EU than the U.S. In fact these rants are self-defeating as they convince ever mo…

Yet Europeans and canadians are allowed to discuss American politics and even completely trash American values repeatedly. It's funny to see canadians be so defensive when someone else does it to us when we are usually extremely smug about doing exactly the same to our southern neighbors. And by the way no, sorry but that's absurd. There's a huge line between being a freedom gun loving American and being against enac…

"but it's not representative of the electorate"

The two parties supporting this measure got 8,862,977 votes. Every other party together got 8,287,006. And the best part still is that the Conservatives and BQ get to vote against this measure specifically because they know it will pass. It's a free vote where they get to claim overreach while also not suffering by defeating the measure and the ensuing problems end up being placed in their laps. That's how adversarial parliaments function.

So your claim about the electorate was simply wrong, even if we ignore that it is fundamentally ignorant in the way Canadian government even functions.

Re: I was wrong, we need crypto

#254

Post by jqpabc123 »

louloulou wrote: post #231
jqpabc123 wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What happens if the biggest player has an unlimited supply of money they can just mint at will and use it to drive up the price that you pay? What happens if they also also get to see your order before it is executed and have every opportunity to insert their own in front of yours just to drive up the price that you pay (aka "front running")?

> What happens if the biggest player has an unlimited supply of money they can just mint at will and use it to drive up the price that you pay? That's the situation we are in with fiat currency. That's what central banks do.

With one big difference --- centrals banks are motivated by overall economic benefit rather than private, personal gain.

Re: I was wrong, we need crypto

#255

Post by jqpabc123 »

koonsolo wrote: post #201
jqpabc123 wrote: post #10

... we need crypto Did someone say otherwise? Crypto is an attempt to fulfill a broad yearning for financial freedom. The problem is, as it currently exists --- it just doesn't deliver. Crypto doesn't displace trust, it misplaces it. Instead of trusting government and regulated banks, you end up trusting the unregulated gatekeepers to the block chain --- the exchanges. Who is making sure these gatekeepers are not sel…

> trusting the unregulated gatekeepers. Mine your own coins, and buy stuff with crypto. I don't see why you need to pass through gatekeepers. And when you can buy things with crypto, there is also another end that sells things for crypto. Ok, maybe it's a minority, but it serves the niche pretty well.

The people who sell you stuff usually need guidance on pricing and they will usually want to quickly move the money to a more stable currency once the sale is made.

For all this, they go to the gatekeepers.

And likewise, you need to decide if the price you're about to pay is reasonable and fair. And for this, you go to the gatekeepers --- because there is no reasonable alternative.

Crypto can't escape the influence of the exchanges in the same way fiat can't escape the influence of government.

Re: I was wrong, we need crypto

#256

Post by defaultname »

john_moscow wrote: post #251
defaultname wrote: post #227

Earlier quoted context omitted.

YouTube videos are not citations. No one is going to watch them or try to read the tea leaves of some third party's interpretation. The literal demand of the organizers of the group (a separatist and a white supremacist) were that the government resign en masse. The trucks are emblazoned with "Fuck Trudeau" flags and signs. The rhetoric coming from the various participants has been aggressive and apocalyptic. No, Tru…

The linked video has ~750K views and features Benjamin Dichter, one of the 3 convoy leaders, outlining 2 very realistic demands: 1. Abolish federal vaccine mandates for border crossing. 2. Abolish ArriveCAN - the app used to track health/vaccination status during border crossings. Both are very specific demands. Both will have close to zero effect on the actual COVID deaths. Both are within the federal government's j…

The video was made February 15th, weeks into the blockade, and long after it was painfully clear that the public was turning dramatically against the convoy. At this point the Premier of Ontario and the federal government were openly discussing measures to squash the occupation.

A week earlier the organizers had quietly dropped their memorandum of understanding's insurrection demands.

"Completely ignore the reasonable take, pick up much crazier demands made by a different person"

What I described were the demands in effect by the organizers for weeks. In interviews with convoy participants, zero of them seemed to believe that removing a border vaccine requirement (completely and utterly irrelevant given that the US government has their own mandate that makes Canada's extraneous) would be enough for them to go home.

Re: I was wrong, we need crypto

#257

Post by jqpabc123 »

mateuszf wrote: post #242
jqpabc123 wrote: post #239

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's what central banks do, and a lot of cryptocurrencies. Yes, so crypto is just like fiat but without regulations or safe guards or insurance. It's very very hard to do though with Bitcoin. It's hard to manipulate the quantity of bitcoin --- not so hard to manipulate the price of bitcoin.

> Yes, so crypto is just like fiat but without regulations or safe guards or insurance. That's why I'm not a fan of crypto in general, only of Bitcoin > It's hard to manipulate the quantity of bitcoin --- not so hard to manipulate the price of bitcoin. True, but I guess it's easy to do that with every small market. I'd imagine the bigger the market capitalization, number of participants the harder it would be to mani…

True, but I guess it's easy to do that with every small market.

It's pretty easy when you can mint Tethers and keep the price pegged at $1 USD no matter how many you print and use them to buy/inflate the price of bitcoin.

Re: I was wrong, we need crypto

#258

Post by mardifoufs »

defaultname wrote: post #253
mardifoufs wrote: post #233

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yet Europeans and canadians are allowed to discuss American politics and even completely trash American values repeatedly. It's funny to see canadians be so defensive when someone else does it to us when we are usually extremely smug about doing exactly the same to our southern neighbors. And by the way no, sorry but that's absurd. There's a huge line between being a freedom gun loving American and being against enac…

"but it's not representative of the electorate" The two parties supporting this measure got 8,862,977 votes. Every other party together got 8,287,006. And the best part still is that the Conservatives and BQ get to vote against this measure specifically because they know it will pass . It's a free vote where they get to claim overreach while also not suffering by defeating the measure and the ensuing problems end up…

The NDP's support was very weak but even then, my point was not about the Canadian parliament works. I'm very familiar with how our elections work, you just missed my point.

The comment I was replying to was assuming some sort of mass Canadian consensus/unity w.r.t to the situation which is obviously not the case, because as the figures you cited yourself show, trudeau doesn't have a very strong democratic mandate. I'm not saying the majority thinks this or that way, I'm saying the GP cannot assume a consensus.

Also if you are actually saying that the conservative party is just voting against because they know that it will pass, you probably missed the parliament debates of the past 2 weeks. Because they have been very very vocally opposed to what trudeau is doing. Much more so than at any other point during the pandemic.

If anyone is playing politics it's the NDP since they basically condemned trudeau while still voting in support, since they can't afford an election right now.

I don't know why you'd think that there's no opposition to such a radical measure (you are basically saying that even the CPC is not actually opposing this?!). I guess it's in line with the trend I've been seeing online of canadians ramping up the rhetoric against the protests

Re: I was wrong, we need crypto

#259

Post by defaultname »

mardifoufs wrote: post #258
defaultname wrote: post #253

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"but it's not representative of the electorate" The two parties supporting this measure got 8,862,977 votes. Every other party together got 8,287,006. And the best part still is that the Conservatives and BQ get to vote against this measure specifically because they know it will pass . It's a free vote where they get to claim overreach while also not suffering by defeating the measure and the ensuing problems end up…

The NDP's support was very weak but even then, my point was not about the Canadian parliament works. I'm very familiar with how our elections work, you just missed my point. The comment I was replying to was assuming some sort of mass Canadian consensus/unity w.r.t to the situation which is obviously not the case, because as the figures you cited yourself show, trudeau doesn't have a very strong democratic mandate. I…

"you just missed my point"

No, I didn't. You pointed out the number of votes between two parties to demonstrate mandate. Only the actual numbers betray a completely different situation. You don't get to casually claim that one whole set don't matter because it makes your story work better.

"NDP since they basically condemned trudeau"

Again you're speaking like you don't know how politics work in Canada. How else do you think they will frame it? They know that if it is not passed, armies of trucks (parked just outside the city in a set of farmer fields) will return back to Ottawa, and yes they would be blamed for that, and there would be consequences. So they support it while (perhaps rightly) pointing out that it is only necessary because of bungling by Trudeau. That's what they do.

Do you think 100% of Liberals and NDP support this? I have no doubt you'll say no, that you actually think most of them are against it. Now here's a better question - do you think 100% of Conservatives and BQ are against this? The notion is simply absurd, and both parties have leaned heavily on extraordinary powers historically. There are countless examples of Conservatives in particular demanding extreme responses to, for instance, aboriginal blockades. Historically the Conservatives have been a very law and order party.

And the emergency action should never have been necessary. My province, Ontario, has a literal army of officers, heavy equipment, and penalties and measures to squash this occupation at the outset. There was a bit of negligence, territorial behaviour, and perhaps intentional blindness, that led to it becoming such a problem.

Although it is a bit rich that the #1 reason given for opposition to the motion is that the motion was successfully used to clear Ottawa. Basically that now that the problem is superficially resolved, now it isn't necessary. Not that it was never necessary.

Re: I was wrong, we need crypto

#260

Post by datadata »

jqpabc123 wrote: post #65
dylkil wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The second problem is some of the smartest people in the world rather point out its flaws than recognise the potential and help fix the flaws

Smart people recognize that the base premise is simply unworkable. The idea that anyone can create money out of electrons is really no better than the idea that anyone can create money out of paper. There is no real reason to believe the first will be any more successful than the second. There are close to 10,000 different cryptocurrencies currently in use. And the number is increasing all the time. You don't have to…

Why do you see the large number of cryptocurrencies an argument supporting their value going to zero? This is like saying that the number of websites is still going up, therefore the value of the internet will go to zero. A more charitable analysis would look at the number of users of cryptocurrency, and especially the number of users of the most prevalent cryptocurrencies, which is indisputably rising.
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