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The Bitcoin whitepaper is hidden in every copy of macOS

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Re: The Bitcoin whitepaper is hidden in every copy of macOS

#441

Post by midmagico »

neilv wrote: post #45
Skyy93 wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Currently the only impact Bitcoin had is burning a large amount of electricity. I would not say this is a particular worthy technology to safe. There would be far better ideas like Transformers in AI or 5nm chip technology.

And facilitating organized crime, terrorism, and investment scams.

Bitcoin specifically, even at the height of Silk Road, and at Bitcoin's nearly weakest-by-comparison point, has been and is cleaner by proportion when compared with virtually all countries' grey markets in terms of what proportion of its economy is used for crime.

The crime trope is ancient, old, and has been repeatedly debunked. The evidence for its prevalence simply isn't there—because Bitcoin is not anonymous.

Re: The Bitcoin whitepaper is hidden in every copy of macOS

#442

Post by midmagico »

throwaway290 wrote: post #244
infamouscow wrote: post #209

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You may not be aware of how Bitcoin has consistently aided people facing extreme and dire circumstances worldwide, caused by the sanctions you seem to hold in high esteem. Every time you cheer for sanctions, you're cheering for the suffering and death of the most vulnerable people in the world under the guise that somehow a miracle will arise and the malnourished and starving will topple an already oppressive regime.…

Any way around sanctions that helps me send money to my family in Russia is a way that is exploited by the dictator orders of magnitude more, maintaining the situation where my relatives need financial help in the first place (to say nothing about undermining world peace etc). Yes it is unfortunate.

It does not have the kind of liquidity, nor anonymity, which could be successfully used at any significant scale whatsoever, and there's no point to it given the USD is a convenient, anonymous, trivially falsifiable source of funds which are fully launderable.

Re: The Bitcoin whitepaper is hidden in every copy of macOS

#443

Post by midmagico »

colestantiago wrote: post #70
it_citizen wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And funding North Korea.

don't forget ransomware enablement and burning the planet up with mining.

Heavily debunked nonsense trope..

https://medium.com/@nic__carter/comments-on-the-white-house-...

Re: The Bitcoin whitepaper is hidden in every copy of macOS

#444

Post by viridian »

alex_sf wrote: post #432
alchemist1e9 wrote: post #425

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe take others advice and stop commenting on this topic because everything you said is wrong. I’ll contradict all your points using specific personal examples of my usage. I’ve bought Bitcoin many times without any KYC. In old days localbitcoins and these days ATMs in many countries. There aren’t any “exchange in the coins path”. I’ve exchanged paper fiat currency at Starbucks, in a hotel lobby. The wallets I use…

> Maybe take others advice and stop commenting on this topic because everything you said is wrong. Oh lord. > I’ve bought Bitcoin many times without any KYC. In old days localbitcoins and these days ATMs in many countries ... There aren’t any “exchange in the coins path”. I’ve exchanged paper fiat currency at Starbucks, in a hotel lobby. Sure, ok. Now take just one tiny step forward. Think about what happens next. Th…

Despite being nominally on your side in this discussion, the way you reply makes me actively wish I agreed with you less, because you are so hostile and abrasive.

This is no way to talk to other human beings.

Re: The Bitcoin whitepaper is hidden in every copy of macOS

#445

Post by alchemist1e9 »

viridian wrote: post #444
alex_sf wrote: post #432

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Maybe take others advice and stop commenting on this topic because everything you said is wrong. Oh lord. > I’ve bought Bitcoin many times without any KYC. In old days localbitcoins and these days ATMs in many countries ... There aren’t any “exchange in the coins path”. I’ve exchanged paper fiat currency at Starbucks, in a hotel lobby. Sure, ok. Now take just one tiny step forward. Think about what happens next. Th…

Despite being nominally on your side in this discussion, the way you reply makes me actively wish I agreed with you less, because you are so hostile and abrasive. This is no way to talk to other human beings.

A civilized discussion would certainly be much more productive. I can easy address the claims made and they are false.

If this poster actually knew how much experience I have with all the topics they profess such knowledge about I’d hope in that case they could be more mature.

Probably one of the must outrageous statements was to try and lecture me on the function of central banks. I’m intimately familiar with the US financial system and the function of central banks. I’ve extensively discussed Bitcoin with a very senior researcher of the Fed and was also directly involved in preparing private presentation to the ECB in Frankfurt. The central banks themselves are very concerned about how competitive Bitcoin is with fiat currency.

Bitcoin has more utility nowadays than dollar funds. It can be converted to almost any currency anywhere almost instantly and can be used by consumers with no friction via instant funded prepaid debit cards worldwide.

This poster brings up legacy payment systems that can’t even remotely compete with Bitcoin on the technical merits.

Re: The Bitcoin whitepaper is hidden in every copy of macOS

#446

Post by ninkendo »

midmagico wrote: post #440
ninkendo wrote: post #381

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Git (and any merkle tree) already implements a tamper proof linked list, there’s no reason to burn electricity in a proof of work algorithm to accomplish this. Controlling who gets to put things in it in a decentralized way isn’t as important as many people think, at the end of the day almost all applications (other than currency) can just use a central authority to publish hashes.

Pardon me while I git push -f..

You should probably reread git’s documentation if you think git push -f rewrites any commits. It doesn’t. It makes new commits and re-assigns the named branch to track the new commits you just pushed. It rewrites branch names, not commits.

It is impossible (without finding a SHA collision) to rewrite a commit in git.

And before you say “yeah but how do you know which SHA sums are the right one if you don’t trust branch names”, please reread the final paragraph of the post you replied to.

Re: The Bitcoin whitepaper is hidden in every copy of macOS

#447

Post by dingosity »

eru wrote: post #211
dingosity wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Tech isn't about fun any more. It's about making huge stacks of cash. We used to build things because it was fun and half-way artistic. Now we only build things if we think we can convince a VC to give us cash for it. Though... I suppose this isn't exactly the venue to encourage people to do things simply for the joy of it. [Also... you kids get off my lawn!]

> Now we only build things if we think we can convince a VC to give us cash for it. Huh? Just because some person A somewhere builds something for cash, doesn't mean that there's no person B somewhere else building something for fun.

what was the last thing you built for fun?

Re: The Bitcoin whitepaper is hidden in every copy of macOS

#448

Post by em-bee »

kolinko wrote: post #437
em-bee wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

we don't know the harm, because we don't know how many women encountered this image and may have been made uncomfortable because of it. we also don't know how many men felt encouraged in their sexism upon encountering this image. while the image didn't make men sexist, it undoubtedly helped normalize that view among those coming across it during their work. context matters. if you read playboy at home, that's on you,…

How could one be even remotely uncomfortable because of it? The part that was cropped looks like a normal portrait photo.

fair question. i haven't looked at the picture to closely.

how about if someone recognized the phto as coming from playboy and making a remark about that and some men laugh about it. a women knowing why they are laughing could feel uncomfortable about that.

Re: The Bitcoin whitepaper is hidden in every copy of macOS

#449

Post by crtasm »

simondotau wrote: post #430
crtasm wrote: post #428

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You seem to have the idea that the intended outcome was to prevent people seeing the image (it's going to be online forever, no chance of that), while I believe it was for people to stop using it in the places I described, as a part of scientific papers, etc., and help bring about a wider discussion of such imagery. e.g. see the final quote in this piece https://www.insidehook.com/daily_brief/arts-entertainment/ho...…

The documentary is literally called "Losing Lena" and tried to advocate for the removal of a meme image from an academic context. And it did so by immensely amplifying its exposure in a mainstream context. The supposedly "deeper" part of their argument is even more pathetic, maternalistic, infantilising nonsense. Are they seriously claiming that women are so fragile that they will forego pursuit of their intellectual…

...wow.

Re: The Bitcoin whitepaper is hidden in every copy of macOS

#450

Post by chclt »

ninkendo wrote: post #381
chclt wrote: post #262

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Meh, being able to synchronise an append-only tamper proof linked list and control who gets to put what on it in a decentralized way is pretty cool. Not to mention it's far easier to implement with limited means, than 5nm chips, or large tansformer models. (Also implementing money on it does seem pretty intelligent -- its a scarcity device -- peoble just seem to do stupid stuff with it)

Git (and any merkle tree) already implements a tamper proof linked list, there’s no reason to burn electricity in a proof of work algorithm to accomplish this. Controlling who gets to put things in it in a decentralized way isn’t as important as many people think, at the end of the day almost all applications (other than currency) can just use a central authority to publish hashes.

> Git (and any merkle tree) already implements a tamper proof linked list, there’s no reason to burn electricity in a proof of work algorithm to accomplish this.

Thats why the word "and" is there in my sentence

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