"People who do math don't have credit card debt."

[redpoint5]

Just listened to a Planet Money episode on Bitcoin Losers on my 13hr drive to Great Falls, MT. Apparently there is no way to retrieve your money if you don't know your "private key". One guy threw away a computer that had bitcoin worth $200,000,000 today. I had thought about buying bitcoin when it first came out, but I figured it would for sure collapse. I still think that, but I could have made a tidy profit beforehand.

The currency is unsustainable for several major reasons. First is the enormous energy required to process transactions. Another is that currency isn't worth anything long term if the government doesn't bless it. Finally, currency needs to depreciate to "solve" debt problems. Bitcoin appreciates in value since it cannot be created, but can effectively be destroyed by misplacing the private key.

Bitcoin is dead, it just doesn't know it yet. Long live blockchain.

[freebeard]

I read the White Paper after 2008 and really believed in it. But I felt like I was behind the curve on mining, and didn't know what would happen with capital gains so I didn't act. If I put $50 in now I might get $250, big whoop.

OTOH Bitcoin lost in land fill are like collector cars burnt up in Southern California, it just drives up the price of the ones left.

[Fat Charlie]

Originally Posted by Xist

I found an article about Kodak creating their own cryptocurrency, their stock went up 60%, and someone commented: "Kind of funny that a washed up company mentions blockchain/crypto and its stock increases over 100%, while a highly profitable business that is one of the leaders in blockchain (IBM) keeps struggling to stay level."

Kodak's move is predictable, and derivative. It's already been done, and done better:
Long Island Iced Tea Soars After Changing Its Name to Long Blockchain (21 Dec 17)
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/artic...ong-blockchain

Alas, irrational exuberance doesn't go on forever:
Blockchain Makeover Of A Penny Stock (10 Jan 18)
https://seekingalpha.com/article/413...er-penny-stock

Kodak's move smells like Iced Tea's desperation wrapped around store credit or in game currency with "For Photography" stamped on the box.

[Xist]

Ecomoddercoin! Ecomodder Blockchain! :P

[freebeard]

No, Kodak's move is legitimate. They aren't using it as a currency but as a token. Photographers can register their works on the blockchain and defend their rights or participate in a marketplace.

The scams are things like ICOs and futures derivatives markets.

[Xist]

"On Wednesday, Ars Technica found documents that suggest the KodakOne platform and associated digital money is just a rebranding of a failed earlier project from WENN that licensed paparazzi photos." https://www.buzzfeed.com/ryanmac/exp...AK#.mwvW93o6Ld

[freebeard]

Thanks. Ars Technica is authoritative.

The part I'd heard about (and commented on) is KodakOne, but...

Kodak announced that it would be launching its own digital money, Kodak Coin, while one of its licensees was showing off a bitcoin mining device called the Kodak KashMiner, a specialized computer that’s used to earn bitcoin.

This is just contributing to the heat death of Universe.

“It’s mind-bogglingly stupid,” said Weaver. “Why would you need a dedicated cryptocurrency to pay for stock photos? I’m pretty sure most photographers want actual cold, hard money.”

It’s mind-bogglingly stupid to confound passing tokens in information processing with a economic payment system. There are valid use cases for a distributed ledger.

[Xist]

Back on-topic, I took the GRE, did well, and started putting together everything to apply for grad school, but somehow I confused deadlines, I have until the fifteenth, not the thirty-first!

Good thing my scores did not take thirty days, like they said they might! Hopefully it does not take five days to send them to another organization, like they said they might, especially since the screen said I ordered on the 10th, but the e-mail confirmation said the 11th!

I just need to find people willing to say they know me, I am a good guy, and I need to become an SLP. Is it too late to know people, convince them I am a good guy, and that I need to become an SLP?

Hey, what was the original topic?!

[redpoint5]

Originally Posted by freebeard

There are valid use cases for a distributed ledger.

Agreed. Electronic currency on a distributed ledger will be the future, but I don't think Bitcoin can be saved. Some successor will come along that solves some of the problems it has.

If the US $20,000,000,000,000 debt were in bitcoin, it would be growing even worse given the natural deflation of the currency as more demand for an ever decreasing amount drives the price up.

A good currency is simply a vehicle for distributing stored wealth and labor. It shouldn't be valued as a collectors item due to its scarcity, but instead change ownership rapidly as transactions, which is what a strong economy does with money. Bitcoin doesn't do this, and that's the biggest flaw.

[jamesqf]

Originally Posted by redpoint5

A good currency is simply a vehicle for distributing stored wealth and labor. It shouldn't be valued as a collectors item due to its scarcity, but instead change ownership rapidly as transactions...

Rapidly? I don't know about that: I still have some of the money (the electronic accounting, of course, not actual coins & bills) that I earned up to 30 years ago, stashed in 401(k) and mutual funds.