smashem

Face-to-face social gatherings - parties, dinners, clubs, meetups

Membership organizations - country clubs, professional associations, alumni networks, charitable boards

Personal introductions and referrals - being introduced through mutual acquaintances

Cultural and civic participation - involvement in local institutions, community organizations, religious groups

Also ex-Base! Gee whiz.

18 years ago: https://www.reddit.com/r/WTF/comments/6hc3w/comment/c03udg0/

> "This code is reserved for future use."

> For when AT&T, Comcast, TimeWarner, et. al. have succeeded in their plan to make the interweb a toll-road. "Oh, you want your packets to go to reddit.com? That will be $0.00015/per."

Redditor had the right idea, just wrong names.

> It's really difficult to build agentic applications on top of Bitcoin.

That's because brain power is being corralled around entities that seek to maintain their control as toll keepers of financial transactions. They have to modernize and they must do it through centralized blockchains to maintain their control.

Ethereum is a scam.

Low interest environments exist because liquidity is growing in the financial system. As that liquidity escapes into the consumer system, which it always does, it causes inflation.

That's why there's layer 2 solutions like Lightning to scale bitcoin's usability.

And application-level solutions like Cash App.

I don't use E2E encryption to evade my government. I use E2E encryption to protect myself from criminals and malicious actors. Oh, government == malicious actors ??

And how about relative to M1 money supply?

You've earned yourself a promotion.

> National governments are the source and the only legal creators of money.

And those closest to the money printer benefit. And hint, the average joe is furthest from the printer. The future of the average joe is stolen via currency debasement and inflation, but those closest to the printer get richer.

You really believe that the USD, as the world's reserve currency, doesn't require its military to keep it that way.

There are server farms within the military, so by proxy, the USD does require server farms. Then the private financial institutions have server farms.

True, the USD just requires violence and cohersion.

End the FUD https://endthefud.org/

Tangentially, anyone tried dry sauna therapy sessions at night before bed? It's helped me tremendously with sleep and more. It's a bit considered a luxury, but maybe you can find a gym or spa membership that's low cost.

Sounds like an interesting theory. Who will be the ones that do the productive work that pays for UBI?

4 weeks of primary on-call.

It's systems + networks analysis.

Factories, ports, and transportation were limited or shuttered completely. Warehousing and storefronts saw the same.

Impairing these network nodes, all at relatively the same time and in great numbers, had gigantic consequences.

And if the supply network is severely damaged, it ultimately means supply will go down.

Excellent. Hope it works out long-term.

These companies should focus more on Bitcoin + Lightning. Keep It Stupid Simple.

* Decrease reliance on Visa.

* Instant, cross-border payment settlement.

* Other features like money streaming.

Succinctly nailed it.

"Control" is such an interesting word in this case.

Funny, I left Amazon two weeks ago because WFH burned me out. I'm currently taking a sabbatical.

* Zoom fatigue is real.

* I find it much harder to collaborate with peers.

* I feel like less of a part of the company. Not being in the office, so I'm no longer seeing that busy bee activity on the floors, not able to mingle with other people from other teams, not seeing new faces, no team activities, and no desk with my name on it. It's a very isolated feeling.

* I find it even more Groundhog Day. To wake up from bed, walk a few steps to my desk, and start plugging away. Yeah, commuting can suck, but at least there's more stimulation and "life" to it.

* Deadlines, at least from my perspective, got even more ridiculous since WFH started.

So much BTC FUD on HN - it's kind of disgusting.

Just look back at all of the fallen economies. They fall from inflation.

"Although the Emperor Constantine (reigned AD 306-337) is considered by many to be among the greatest of the later Roman emperors, he was unable to fix the failing Roman economy. The inflation persisted for nearly two hundred more years, during which time taxes were massively increased. Internal problems were further compounded by the economic situation, such as the concentration of wealth in fewer and fewer hands, which often led to mob riots. Eventually, the Roman government was unable to pay its armies, which then often turned their swords on Rome itself. In the end, it was primarily Germanic tribes, such as the Goths and Vandals, who dealt the final death blows to Rome, but that would not have been possible if Rome’s economy were not weakened by a particularly excessive and long lasting inflationary cycle."

https://dailyhistory.org/What_Role_Did_Inflation_Play_in_the...

"The Ottoman economy was disrupted by inflation, caused by the influx of precious metals into Europe from the Americas and by an increasing imbalance of trade between East and West. As the treasury lost more of its revenues to the depredations of the devşirme, it began to meet its obligations by debasing the coinage, sharply increasing taxes, and resorting to confiscations, all of which only worsened the situation."

https://www.britannica.com/place/Ottoman-Empire/The-decline-...

"Wampum is a traditional shell bead of the Eastern Woodlands tribes of Native Americans... Eventually, the Colonists applied their technologies to more efficiently produce wampum, which caused inflation and ultimately its obsolescence as currency."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wampum

"The Nazis planned to bomb Britain with clouds of forged bank notes."

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smithsonianmag/nazis-planned-...

I could go on and on..

> Because increasing the demand for electricity more than necessary increases the cost to all of us––both the direct economic cost in our electricity bills and the environmental and societal costs. This is true whether the energy is renewable or not.

If my mining operation is completely disconnected from the grid, how will that have any impact on grid supply pricing? (not focused on the upfront capital or operational costs, just the mining energy itself)

#1, correct. Nothing wrong with energy consumption. In fact, there is a relationship between GDP growth and energy consumption growth, in general. That's not to say we don't need more efficient energy usage, though, but bitcoin has been and always will be driving that forward.

#2, yeah, bitcoin is driving renewable energy innovation. bitcoin demands renewable energy, and the industry must supply it. It's great for the industry. Renewable companies need to embrace it or they will miss out on great growth opportunities.

#3, yes. Bitcoin is moving towards the edge of the grid, looking for the cleanest, cheapest, and most abundant sources of energy.

All economies eventually fail due to inflation and central planning.

I'm not saying we don't need national currencies, but bitcoin is the perfect hedge against central banking.

It just depends on which parts of the system you're focused on.

We'll continue to bridge the gap between monetary -> electrical energy. A bitcoin is a store of monetary energy, and the bitcoin network is readily available. We're building solutions on top of the network to more quickly and easily convert that monetary energy to electrical energy.

It's somewhat analogous as converting readily available wind (kinetic energy) to electrical energy. There is a large gap between the two forms of energy, but we're continuing to close it.