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Traffic From Syria Disappears From Internet

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31–40 of 140 posts

Re: Traffic From Syria Disappears From Internet

#31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can memorize the keys to a bitcoin account and carry your wealth with you in your head until you get to a place with an internet connection. Better that than diamonds in tubes of toothpaste.

Go on :) Lets see how long it will take, and how many times you will be able to reproduce it without error. qWoXWwQQQyVF69SkJfGgG/x9ehR8NQmXwDvLxMbh2iALkGe0nd+NiFgvtXseoHn0 mEfjKXDbMMY7wyU8Xv1yNQGYw/V+pnfG/qiw8dirIF5jQOQprS/5YWt2Ts803pzu Y8V+FhMHoKtKozHKemH6THRQ0QbasdlO21+uwk7HGtKZh60NSEre+90I9GNEE8lO Vjq1r5YwdHpe7VZAyAYdJOJCS2wKKh7yJowOBLReyF7nR+hKw4ZAXibmg0/WM6tF tcccKbNPZZDYt9han1SsiCFew/6dUNoa5Qt+Q9wiDrZ9YLqRduUL…

how about S6c56bnXQiBjk9mqSYE7ykVQ7NzrRy

https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Mini_private_key_format

Re: Traffic From Syria Disappears From Internet

#32
post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What would you suggest people put their money in then? Gold? Guns? The problems you describe are problems for just about every currency right now. How much of your money do you have in cash, and how much is in the bank? Do you think you will still be able to use the bank in a situation like the one you describe?

I will coin two phrases now: 1. Venomsnake's law - every discussion on Hacker's news degrades to bitcoins. 2. Goldilocks apocalypse - every goldbug, bitcoin miner and similar depends on the crash of civilization in just the right way that everything will be the same but his economic decisions will put him on top with the pure strength of speculation. Whatever assets you have the federal government will be able to con…

To be fair, even gold (and as I'm loathe to put in the same category, bitcoin) speculators aren't really relying upon a full-out goldilocks apocalypse for their assets to appreciate, just a continuation of the current trend of currency devaluation of the U.S. dollar. I think you're right that if something really bad happened (read: worse than 2008 or 2001) then the men with guns would take your gold and your bitcoins (though honestly, they probably won't give a shit about the bitcoins) has they've done before and will do again.

Re: Traffic From Syria Disappears From Internet

#33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can memorize the keys to a bitcoin account and carry your wealth with you in your head until you get to a place with an internet connection. Better that than diamonds in tubes of toothpaste.

Go on :) Lets see how long it will take, and how many times you will be able to reproduce it without error. qWoXWwQQQyVF69SkJfGgG/x9ehR8NQmXwDvLxMbh2iALkGe0nd+NiFgvtXseoHn0 mEfjKXDbMMY7wyU8Xv1yNQGYw/V+pnfG/qiw8dirIF5jQOQprS/5YWt2Ts803pzu Y8V+FhMHoKtKozHKemH6THRQ0QbasdlO21+uwk7HGtKZh60NSEre+90I9GNEE8lO Vjq1r5YwdHpe7VZAyAYdJOJCS2wKKh7yJowOBLReyF7nR+hKw4ZAXibmg0/WM6tF tcccKbNPZZDYt9han1SsiCFew/6dUNoa5Qt+Q9wiDrZ9YLqRduUL…

Tattoo perhaps? Laser-printing onto contact lens? Any other ideas?

Re: Traffic From Syria Disappears From Internet

#34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

1) We're heading closer and closer to a world where none of this bullshit(pardon my Frank) can happen. 2) You think REGULAR currencies have much more value than cryptocurrencies during these types of crises? 3) If Syria hypothetically still has a working "intranet" but not a working "internet", then Bitcoin will continue working just fine for them while they're not connected to the rest of us. After the Syrians re-co…

If we dropped you into the middle of Syria right now, would you rather have: 1. $10,000 in USD currency 2. $10,000 USD equiv in gold 3. $10,000 USD equiv in bitcoin I'm pretty sure the only practical answer is (1). That pretty much answers your question (2).

Interesting. But if 1. Was not available would you rather have 2. Or 3.?

Re: Traffic From Syria Disappears From Internet

#35
post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What would you suggest people put their money in then? Gold? Guns? The problems you describe are problems for just about every currency right now. How much of your money do you have in cash, and how much is in the bank? Do you think you will still be able to use the bank in a situation like the one you describe?

I will coin two phrases now: 1. Venomsnake's law - every discussion on Hacker's news degrades to bitcoins. 2. Goldilocks apocalypse - every goldbug, bitcoin miner and similar depends on the crash of civilization in just the right way that everything will be the same but his economic decisions will put him on top with the pure strength of speculation. Whatever assets you have the federal government will be able to con…

Not if you're a subsistence farmer out in the boonies with a bunch of hidden, unregistered guns. :P

As for gold though, it takes a long-term view of the apocalypse. In the immediate aftermath, no one will care about gold. Guns, food, etc will all be at a premium. It might take a decade or so for people to care about gold, and even then enough of the population will probably be dead that gold can be had by looting for jewellery that no longer has an owner.

Re: Traffic From Syria Disappears From Internet

#36
> There is civil war.

There is NO civil war in Syria.

There is a campaign of terrorism waged by NATO, specifically Turkey , Qatar, Isreal, UK, France to secure the transit for the South Pars/North Dome gas field.

http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2012/08/20128513344...

What's at stake? About $200 billion annual output between Iran & Qatar. That's about $360,000 per SECOND.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Pars_/_North_Dome_Gas-Con...

Global Research has the best analysis out there:

http://www.globalresearch.ca/search?q=syria

Re: Traffic From Syria Disappears From Internet

#37
post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Re-merging does not work like that. All Syrian transactions will effectively be reversed. That's assuming that they managed to mine anything, with such a small fraction of the usual computing power available.

The difficulty level adjusts to the mining power. And only transactions that were double-spent will be reversed, since nodes will re-broadcast transactions from the short chain onto the long chain, and those that weren't double spent will be accepted.

There's another important class of transactions that are reversed: mining outputs. In order to accept a payment from someone while isolated from the network, you have to carefully check that all the coins they're sending you were generated before the split, or else those coins will evaporate at some point in the future.

Re: Traffic From Syria Disappears From Internet

#38
post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If we dropped you into the middle of Syria right now, would you rather have: 1. $10,000 in USD currency 2. $10,000 USD equiv in gold 3. $10,000 USD equiv in bitcoin I'm pretty sure the only practical answer is (1). That pretty much answers your question (2).

Interesting. But if 1. Was not available would you rather have 2. Or 3.?

Obviously 2. Bitcoin is pretty useless if you don't have a dependable electrical grid or internet. I'd rather have $10,000 in USD, EUR or GLD than $1M in Bitcoin in a war zone where I had no other funds. Heck, I'd rather have gasoline or coffee than bitcoin.

Re: Traffic From Syria Disappears From Internet

#39

There is civil war. And cables will always be delicious target for any party. No bank transfers for the fleeing elite or being able to deal with external affairs, total blackout for the defender (military and police have their own systems usually so the ruling party is not that affected) The situation in Syria is dangerous. A failed state in that location ... Arab Peninsula in the 2013 is the Balkans in 1913 ...

And this is what bitcoiners and similar don't understand. It's not like your internet connection will remain happy and stable while the rest of the world goes to hell around us. Telecomms will be a first-class target, and most systems have some pretty central points of failure that would make juicy (and easy) targets. In such a situation, if you've chosen to use an electronic cryptocurrency dependent on things like r…

"And this is what bitcoiners and similar don't understand."

Replace "bitcoiners" with "crypto-anarchists" and your argument is more plausible. I like bitcoin, but I have never considered it the answer to a civil war type situation. In those situations, wealth is equivalent to utility (food, gas, water, and yes, guns).

Re: Traffic From Syria Disappears From Internet

#40
What disturbs me is how many people in other countries (like the USA) feel that this type of thing could never happen here. However, it seems that even in the US the internet could be controlled by the government/army if they so desired and various proposed 'internet control' legislation packages seem to push us one step closer toward that possibility.
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