SURVEY: Cryptocurrency--would you invest?

[FreddieRoyle]

4 hours ago, Craig krup said:

Register with Alphaville! 

 

Now I'll make some comments in the hope that everyone can accept that this singular use is fair dealing. The piece seems to me to be compelling. If you don't find it productive of at least some disquiet then you really are part of the "prophets, disciples" group that they refer to. The blockchain experts very obviousl - below - can't explain the value of the thing they have expertise, that's before we go anywhere near the "I've invented money, please give me things for it" morons. Ripple's big cheese was very obviously under-clad. Yesterday we had "crypto" exchanges talking about regulation of the "on" and "off" ramps for the "currencies". F-F-S. Why then wouldn't I just buy cheaply in pounds, if the state is going to acquire advanced notice that this was something I wasn't keen on doing. 

 

It's all sh*t. You're not going to be rich without effort. There isn't a "buy and dump" option here. Move along. Work hard producing goods and services people actually want. Save hard and invest wisely. 

 

One thing I will say, Radio 4 had a Inside Business prog on the Digital Nomads. One had "clients" and paid another to "manage her diary" - she emailed her appointments to New Zealand from the UK and another mindless biff entered them on the diary. She paid £22.50 an hour for this. I laughed when she quoted her prices in dead old man money. Anyway, there may well be a new economy in the sense that retards can employee personal trainers with what they've earned giving head massages to retards who've made bad vegan food. So, yes, the economy is changing. There's a sub-group who seem, with small seed capital in the form of welfare benefits or Tristran's trust fund, to have created what amount to local enterprise networks. So long as none of them ever buy anything that someone who can function would buy it could go on for ever. 

 

The FT. Register!!!!!

 

We've written before about how blockchain is a belief system, complete with prophets, disciples, traitors, rituals and schisms.

But recently, faith in the technology appears to be ebbing.

Normally, we would have to make our own arguments - or at least turn to othercynics - to explain why this might be happening. This time, we find ourselves able to turn to blockchain insiders themselves to undermine the technology.

 

Yesterday, a panel of blockchain experts gave evidence on the technology to the British Parliament's Treasury Select Committee. The panel included Ryan Zagone, director of regulatory relations (yes, that's apparently really a job title) at Ripple, the company behind the ultimate leap-of-faith-demanding centralised digital currency, XRP.

Mr Zagone gave the committee the usual spiel about the need for a bridging currency for cross-border payments (which we've previously debunked). He also told us that 120 financial institutions had signed up to “the Ripple network”. And then he said:

The banks we see on the network are not using XRP. Right now we're looking down the road at how they can expand their reach through XRP.

That's right! No bank is using the digital currency designed for banks. That doesn't stop it currently being assigned a market value of $32.5bn (more than Twitter's market capitalisation).

Also on the panel was Chris Taylor, chief operating officer at Everledger, a company that is trying to use the blockchain to track (and miraculously “protect”) diamonds and other assets. Here's an excerpt from his contribution:

It's the same as any system - it's garbage in, garbage out. So you've got to make sure that the participants that you're allowing to contribute to the network are trustworthy.

He said it, not us. A blockchain is the same as any system. If you feed garbage into it, it will feed garbage back out to you. And if you accidentally feed garbage into it, you can't change it, because immutability!

Mr Taylor continued:

Blockchain doesn't solve everything. It doesn't solve entirely problems that couldn't be solved in other ways. But we believe blockchain solves the problems that we're solving in a better way than traditional database technology can provide.

Compelling stuff, no?

And then there was was Dr Grammateia Kotsialou, a blockchain researcher at King's College London, whose current work is focused on “designing voting systems with good properties applicable to the new emerging technology of distributed ledgers (blockchain)”. She said:

Blockchain voting systems might use blockchain technology but not in its full extent, for example they could store only the final result on the blockchain so you can have a permanent record of the final result. But this does not guarantee that the votes have not been altered before they go on the blockchain.

And poof! Just like that, she has eviscerated the entire argument for using blockchain to combat voter fraud. (Keeping a permanent record of the final result is not only possible without blockchain, but also doesn't really strike us as the key issue here.)

The final person on the panel was a little different: Martin Walker, director of think tank the Center for Evidence-Based Management, who believes there is “little to nothing” in terms of demonstrable benefits from the technology.

Mr Walker has spent most of his career working in IT in banking and formerly worked at R3, a “blockchain for business” consortium that most of the major banks are members of. But R3 now appears to also be losing the faith; the chief technology officer has called blockchains “inappropriate for many banking scenarios”. Mr Walker was full of corkers, like:

Over and over again there have been these magic-wand, pixie-dust things come along... If 10 per cent of what I’ve heard heard in my banking career had come true, we would have the most amazing banks that run their infrastructure for a pound a week.

It sounds like the pixie dust is starting to wear off.

(Full disclosure: FT Alphaville participated in this inquiry and gave written evidence, jointly with Walker, to the committee.)

by the time I had finished reading this waffle my Cryptonite XCN holdings had gone up another 180%. 

 

3 cheers for cryptos! Now, what custom options to plump for on the new pair of his and hers Mercs?

[bartender100]

JPMorgan Chase is seeking to patent a system for using distributed ledgers as a way to facilitate and reconcile financial transactions, newly-released filings show

 

https://www.coindesk.com/jpmorgan-seeks-patent-blockchain-powered-interbank-payments/

 

Now what would they want by patenting a bunch of Tulips 

 

Meanwhile with this steady flow of news, ETH is up over 100% this last 30 days

[Craig krup]

30 minutes ago, bartender100 said:

JPMorgan Chase is seeking to patent a system for using distributed ledgers as a way to facilitate and reconcile financial transactions, newly-released filings show

 

https://www.coindesk.com/jpmorgan-seeks-patent-blockchain-powered-interbank-payments/

 

Now what would they want by patenting a bunch of Tulips 

 

Meanwhile with this steady flow of news, ETH is up over 100% this last 30 days

 

If every various tweak, flavour and iteration can be patented then - essentially - you don't have a defensible advantage. 

 

Besides, in the UK you have to show an inventive step to a sceptical examiner. The US patent office is funded by the fees. They'll grant anything and leave you to defend it, and the courts to establish the (supposed) inventive step. 

[Craig krup]

44 minutes ago, bartender100 said:

Meanwhile with this steady flow of news, ETH is up over 100% this last 30 days

Explain to me how an economist would account for this. 

 

Now explain how a psychologist would account for this. 

 

Now explain how a professional gambler would construe it. 

[bearpolar]

8 hours ago, seancbk said:

 

Well aside from all the young people with degrees in computing of course.    Not sure how you think blockchain developers manage to do their jobs without being highly proficient coders. 

Incidentally.... from ComputerWorld 3 days ago.

Blockchain development is now the hottest skill in the freelance job market, growing more than 6,000% since this time last year and putting it on pace to be the new “cloud” of the 21st Century, according to a new report. - https://www.computerworld.com/article/3235972/it-careers/blockchain-moves-into-top-spot-for-hottest-job-skills.html

The median income for fulltime blockchain developers in the U.S. is $140,000 a year, compared to general software developers, whose annual median pay is $105,000, according to Matt Sigelman, CEO of Burning Glass Technologies.

Kind of makes me want to go back into full time dev work.

 

Just as a matter of interest, how many of your friends are in the 20-30 age range?
 

 

Please don't trigger craig krup with salaries this high.. remember he only makes 29,000$ a year from a life time of easy baby boomer investing.

 

Let me do it instead. Hey craig, im up over 6 figs this last month.. which i withdraw mostly into fiat and real estate.. You having fun buying rice on sale?

 

cue an other 300 words reply that i won't even see

Edited May 4, 2018 by bearpolar

[bartender100]

7 hours ago, janclaes47 said:

 

Only an ignoramus would consider blockchain technology and crypto currencies the same thing.

 

 

Only a fool would be believe they are not connected

[janclaes47]

1 hour ago, bartender100 said:

Only a fool would be believe they are not connected

Only a fool would not know the difference.

 

Blockchain doesn't need a crypto currency to exist.

[bearpolar]

3 hours ago, janclaes47 said:

Only a fool would not know the difference.

 

Blockchain doesn't need a crypto currency to exist.

https://globalnews.ca/news/3977745/ethereum-blockchain-canada-nrc/

 

blockchain is a ponzi

 

canadian gov is using it to steal funds

 

i bet you didnt know that having transparency means a being in a ponzi.. even if no currency is involved!

LISTEN TO ME, i was born in the easiest decades to make tons of money and now im making 29,000$ a year for my efforts!

[janclaes47]

3 hours ago, bearpolar said:

https://globalnews.ca/news/3977745/ethereum-blockchain-canada-nrc/

 

blockchain is a ponzi

 

canadian gov is using it to steal funds

 

i bet you didnt know that having transparency means a being in a ponzi.. even if no currency is involved!

LISTEN TO ME, i was born in the easiest decades to make tons of money and now im making 29,000$ a year for my efforts!

Another one who doesn't know the difference between blockchain technology and on the other hand crypto currencies.

 

You have 3 guesses which of both Ethereum is.

 

To make it a bit more easy for you.

 

https://blockchain.<deleted>/what-the-faq/blockchain-cryptocurrency-difference/

 

What’s the difference between blockchain and cryptocurrency?

Part of the confusion around what is blockchain versus what is cryptocurrency is due in part that the terms have come into use. Instead of being introduced by formal definition, the term blockchain developed from “chain of blocks”. Cryptocurrency is a sort-of portmanteau of “cryptographic currency”. But the fundamental difference between these concepts has to do with how distributed ledger technology is used.

Keep reading for a clearer idea on blockchain and cryptocurrency.

[metisdead]

An off topic profane post has been removed:

 

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Posts commenting on moderation have now been removed.

Edited May 6, 2018 by metisdead

[FruitPudding]

On 5/5/2018 at 3:18 AM, janclaes47 said:

Only a fool would not know the difference.

 

Blockchain doesn't need a crypto currency to exist.

Ethereum blockchain needs ETH, by design.

 

My truck needs diesel, by design.

 

The internet needs money to be paid. Try accessing the internet with a bunch of carrots, see if AIS gives it to you.

 

You can create a blockchain to run on USD. Some will use it, others won't.

 

 

[FruitPudding]

On 5/4/2018 at 7:01 PM, Craig krup said:

Explain to me how an economist would account for this. 

 

Now explain how a psychologist would account for this. 

 

Now explain how a professional gambler would construe it. 

 One of my stocks went up 100% in a year. The other went up 10%. Another went down 5%.

 

ETH is more volatile. So what? 

 

To answer your questions:

 

1. They found a way to undermine the foundations our economy was built upon. Oh shit.

2. Why the hell did I become a psychologist?

3. I'm making money.