josephagoss

Edit: ok not 100% sure of the solution, but I think that there should be a way for the government to stop people putting their life savings into Bitcoin.

This is quite positive and in line with how ASIC (our SEC in Australia) are treating these types of assets.

Both are quite opposite to the way China is handling ICO's and crypto currency in general.

Less than 1% is possible on a reputable exchange.

It's entirely possible to put $1,000 in, end up with $995 of bitcoin, sell when that doubles to $1,990 and get out $1,980.

Then you have tax :)

I am in Australia but I am able to sell for less than 1% quite easy. I think it's easier for Americans.

Also you shouldn't have to worry about slippage with bitcoin unless you're selling $1,000,000+ in one go.

If you observe the order book orders put in at limit around a volume of $100,000 will fill at the limit within minutes or on lower volume exchanges like the ones in Australia you'll be filled at the limit within a few hours at that size.

I wonder how many of these exchange hacks are inside jobs by the founders as part of a sophisticated long con?

From what I have read people are using Bitcoin more and more for purchases.

https://blog.bitpay.com/bitpay-growth-2017/

I could easily be wrong here, from the article it sounds like the remaining power reserves are only enough to correctly orientate Voyager to allow for its communications link to be pointing towards Earth.

If so and Voyager only has enough power to do some minor rotations of the probe for three more years it's unlikely that there is enough power to actually change its overall trajectory, even if fired all at once.

BTW thanks for your comment, it was nice to hear Carl Sagan again :)

Not sure about this incident, but I recall there was an incident earlier this year or late last year where there was major price action and evidence of someone DDOS'ing some exchanges.

And if not DDOS, it's entirely possible that these exchanges are not able to handle the rush of people logging in to buy the dip. I don't think any of these exchanges have the throughput of something like NASDAQ, not yet anyway.

Is this true, I heard it a while ago: They will be forced to release the same financial information to the public as public companies do once they have too many investors however they do not have to go public in the sense of floating their stock.

I don't agree that people having some investment in Bitcoin without ever holding Bitcoin is a disadvantage.

Once of the things we used to talk about years ago with Bitcoin was that by the time Grandma owns Bitcoin in some way, it would be via several layers on top.

And we were not talking about technology layers like LN, we were discussing that eventually financial products would be built on top of Bitcoin.

I see this as the market maturing and even die hard Bitcoin fans should see this as a good thing.

It's unrealistic to expect everyone that interfaces/holds value in Bitcoin to actually use the raw layer itself.

Two reasons you should not short Bitcoin.

1) Actual legitimate Bitcoin payments are increasing and real.

https://blog.bitpay.com/bitpay-growth-2017/

2) Even if this whole thing does collapse, never short something like Bitcoin unless you have unlimited cash to support such a short. Even if you're right, can you continue to sustain your short if the peak is $100,000 a coin before the collapse? (And the new bottom is $10,000, still higher than right now)

If the price goes there, can you afford the short?

Two interesting arguments the article discusses.

1) Will customers be able to sue JPMorgan Chase & Co. due to facilitating institutional trading customers access to these futures, when the CEO said that Bitcoin is a scam/fraud?

2) When the futures clear, you basically end up with dollars, which is odd to an extend as a future in oil will literally give you oil once it clears.

___________

On 1 I think that as long as those institutional trading investors are given a prospectus stating that Bitcoin could be a scam, invest in these futures at your own risk, it should legally shield JPMorgan Chase & Co.

The only time I can imagine JPMorgan Chase & Co. would be on the line is if they wrote an prospectus that said this is a good investment whilst the CEO is out in public talking about how much of a scam it is.

On 2, I would say this stops the CME Group Inc.'s futures exchange having to find a way to deal with actually running Bitcoin withdrawals that could open up hot wallet hacks, etc.. and in the long run this should bring down the overhead (fees) on the futures.

In addition what is the point of getting actual Bitcoin once the future clears? Obviously these customers do not want actual Bitcoin. I would say a future that ended with actual Bitcoins would scare away a lot of possible customers.

To be fair a lot of us stay away from these Tethers.

I think there is a place for a 1:1 backed currency on the blockchain, but I'd rather see Governments actually print for example USD and AUD onto something like an ERC20 Ethereum token.

This would add real fiat to the blockchain which is important, as in the end all taxes are paid in fiat. (It would be nice to be able to go directly into AUD for all crypto currencies, rather than the mess I have now which is to use an intermediate crypto currency like Ethereum or Bitcoin to move in and out.)

Those extra transactional costs really screw with a lot of us.

I'm a massive bitcoin + crypto currency fan but even I think these assets are probably not the best for your typical doomsday scenarios.

I completely agree especially regarding older workers willing to branch out on their own terms.

I've often found startups (anyone and any organization really) will often present their opportunity as very one sided to an extent. "This is what we offer, this is what is required and no, you have no wiggle room here".

I've also found as I've aged and have more financial stability I'm less likely to get suckered into an arrangement that really doesn't benefit me.

Also as I've aged I am less likely to fall into the FOMO trap. (Fear of missing out.)

Just my 2 cents.

Every refrigerated container I've seen has its own cooling unit and does not use the trucks power.

Most people in the scene were warning people away from Bancor due to the large amount of money being raised. Generally large raises will result in a massive fall regardless of the teams performance short term.

Also it was never clear how their token fit into the future of the CryptoCurrency ecosystem.

It always seemed like an ICO-token without a purpose, looking to invent one.

Thing is most of these dapp ideas would gain a larger network effect and be more efficient just by using ETH.

A private blockchain spread across for example, several organizations, may be a good vehicle for sharing a database in such a way that all parties know it can't be falsified.

For example, you could use a different consensus algo and enable each organization to have one vote, one mine and this would enable sharing of data that you want to ensure hasn't been modified.

This model could connect possibly thousands of different organizations together with a trustless setup.

For testing smart contracts in a private environment.

We use them for testing smart contracts in a private and controlled setting.

I think that anyone in markets such as Bitcoin or Ethereum should be getting out now. It's obvious that we're at the peak and the bubble is soon to pop.

The quality of the XPS 13 is very poor. The coil whine is so bad that I had to use noise cancelling headphones just to be not distracted by it.

For a $2,100 AUD laptop it's a joke. Their quality control is non existent.

    $5 worth of Bitcoin to make a single transaction using Bitcoin!

Fees will come down with Bitcoin based LN or another network like Ethereum. Give it time this is still early days.

    it is clearly inferior to US Dollars in every way.

This is categorically false. For some tasks US dollars are great but a lot of people are into BTC for the whole decentralized store of value thing. And honestly it does "decentralized trust" pretty well.

    Bitcoin is a scam, block chain is all hype, and everyone involved
    with Cryptomania is going to look silly when the music stops and
    someone has to eat the soggy biscuit.

This is a bit of a leap isn't it?

Here is an idea for your chores, make your own family coin on Ethereum, make an exchange rate that the family pays to the kids, etc.. (1 family coin for $1) then you now have a decentralized home currency that will cost a few cents to move.

Or if you're not interested in a funky project like that, just use Ethereum for now instead of BTC for micro transactions. I regularly pay 5 cents to move money around in Ethereum.

I do believe both BTC and ETH have bright futures.

> If you have the impression that serious cryptographers are knee deep in the problem space of trying to make sure cryptocurrencies are actually secure, revise your expectations.

I'd say the teams behind Bitcoin core, Ethereum and especially Zcash can hold their weight to a certain extent.

It's still very early days though and there is a lot more serious research that needs to be done.

I'm not saying that they are perfect, some of those teams have made mistakes, but it's still a cutting edge field so it will take time for more experts to get involved.

The ZCash team are one of the most academic teams out there (for cryptocurrencies), which is a very good thing. The more serious cryptographers that get involved in cryptocurrency the better.

Should STEM be seen as desirable though?

It is one of those careers where you either make it before you are 25 or you are replaced.

STEM fields are extremely ageist where at 25 and onwards you have to look over your shoulder and watch out for the next 16 year old taking your job.

STEM for this reason is stressful and non sustainable.

Being in STEM and much older than 25 I feel that perhaps I made the wrong decision getting into STEM. Perhaps a people orientated career would have lasted me longer. I haven't been replaced yet, but can feel it coming...

What about using tabs that render as spaces in the IDE?

> Which is in a real currency.

It's not about being a real currency or not. It's about what is the legal currency of that particular nation. Notice how they are not pegging the amount to the Australian dollar?

What is the alternative?

What does it mean to practice programming vs just programming?

> and see through bullshit easier.

This one resonates with me quite a bit.

It is much easier to take advantage of young inexperienced people.