The Bitcoin/Crypto Thread

[xenon]

Crypto seems to have a pretty strong correlation with the market right now. Inflation hedge, it is not.

[Jolly]

And in other news...Walmart is getting into the market...

[Axtremus]

So ... how is everybody's crypto investments doing?

Just came across this:
https://www.cnbc.com/2022/02/05/bitcoin-a-lifeline-for-sex-workers-like-ex-nurse-making-1point3-million.html

A good, practical use case for cryptocurrency? You be the judge.

[Klaus]

Privacy would be a concern in that use case. Bitcoin payments are very public. There are ways to obfuscate source and destination, but it's not easy.

[xenon]

@axtremus said in The Bitcoin/Crypto Thread:

So ... how is everybody's crypto investments doing?

Just came across this:
https://www.cnbc.com/2022/02/05/bitcoin-a-lifeline-for-sex-workers-like-ex-nurse-making-1point3-million.html

A good, practical use case for cryptocurrency? You be the judge.

This is just a way to circumvent laws you don’t agree with.

[LuFins Dad]

@xenon said in The Bitcoin/Crypto Thread:

@axtremus said in The Bitcoin/Crypto Thread:

So ... how is everybody's crypto investments doing?

Just came across this:
https://www.cnbc.com/2022/02/05/bitcoin-a-lifeline-for-sex-workers-like-ex-nurse-making-1point3-million.html

A good, practical use case for cryptocurrency? You be the judge.

This is just a way to circumvent laws you don’t agree with.

They aren’t laws. It’s private companies like PayPal saying no thanks…

[xenon]

@lufins-dad said in The Bitcoin/Crypto Thread:

@xenon said in The Bitcoin/Crypto Thread:

@axtremus said in The Bitcoin/Crypto Thread:

So ... how is everybody's crypto investments doing?

Just came across this:
https://www.cnbc.com/2022/02/05/bitcoin-a-lifeline-for-sex-workers-like-ex-nurse-making-1point3-million.html

A good, practical use case for cryptocurrency? You be the judge.

This is just a way to circumvent laws you don’t agree with.

They aren’t laws. It’s private companies like PayPal saying no thanks…

This is a vague statement from the article, but it seems like PayPal and venmo didn’t want to be part of sex work transactions.

Knox describes herself as “one of the most outspoken sex workers, particularly for crypto.” Her interest kicked off in 2014, which is when she says several vendors, including PayPal, Square Cash, and Venmo, shut down her accounts because of red flags related to sex work.

Knox describes herself as “one of the most outspoken sex workers, particularly for crypto.” Her interest kicked off in 2014, which is when she says several vendors, including PayPal, Square Cash, and Venmo, shut down her accounts because of red flags related to sex work.

I’m guessing that’s a legal and moral decision.

[Axtremus]

Another use case for cryptocurrency.

North Korea: Missile programme funded through stolen crypto, UN report says
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-60281129

[xenon]

@axtremus said in The Bitcoin/Crypto Thread:

Another use case for cryptocurrency.

North Korea: Missile programme funded through stolen crypto, UN report says
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-60281129

If you don’t have ethical qualms about it - the crypto scene is one big bug bounty right now.

Lots of money to be made exploiting weak code.

[Axtremus]

https://www.vox.com/the-goods/22922511/crypto-nfts-sports-betting-money-hobby

Money as a hobby.

"Why (mostly) 20- and 30-something dudes made crypto and sports betting their personality."

The wealth gap among holders of bitcoin is 100 times worse than the US economy: the top 0.01 percent control 27 percent of the 19 million bitcoin currently in circulation.

Not surprised, though probably the first time I see the crypto "wealth gap" called out.

[xenon]

@axtremus said in The Bitcoin/Crypto Thread:

https://www.vox.com/the-goods/22922511/crypto-nfts-sports-betting-money-hobby

Money as a hobby.

"Why (mostly) 20- and 30-something dudes made crypto and sports betting their personality."

The wealth gap among holders of bitcoin is 100 times worse than the US economy: the top 0.01 percent control 27 percent of the 19 million bitcoin currently in circulation.

Not surprised, though probably the first time I see the crypto "wealth gap" called out.

This feels timeless:

They seemed to work in tech or finance, mostly, and had come to connect with others over the thing they loved most in the world, the wild force driving the feeding frenzy of people storming the bouncer to get inside: money, and making it as quickly as possible

And some of these guys have been making insane amounts of money.

[Axtremus]

https://www.vice.com/en/article/akvnba/moviepass-20-wants-to-track-your-eyeballs-to-make-sure-you-watch-ads

MoviePass 2.0, the idea is to let the users earn cryptocurrency by watching advertisements on their phone, the cryptocurrency can then be cashed in to watch movies in theaters. Proposal includes using the phone’s camera to track your eyeballs to make sure you’re actually watching the advertisements.

[Axtremus]

From: https://www.elsalvador.com/opinion/caricaturas/alecus/caricatura-de-alecus/897117/2021/

(credit: Alecus)

I saw that cartoon while looking at https://blog.dshr.org/2022/02/ee380-talk.html

[Axtremus]

The Boston FED and MIT released their findings on initial research into a central bank digital currency (CBDC):

https://www.bostonfed.org/news-and-events/press-releases/2022/frbb-and-mit-open-cbdc-phase-one.aspx

The Federal Reserve Bank of Boston and the Digital Currency Initiative at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology today released the findings of their initial technological research into a central bank digital currency, or CBDC. The published research describes a theoretical high-performance and resilient transaction processor for a CBDC that was developed using open-source research software, OpenCBDC. This collaborative effort, known as Project Hamilton, focuses on technological experimentation and does not aim to create a usable CBDC for the United States. The research is separate from the Federal Reserve's Board's evaluation of the pros and cons of a CBDC.
…

Project Hamilton (open-sourced): https://www.bostonfed.org/publications/one-time-pubs/project-hamilton-phase-1-executive-summary.aspx

[xenon]

This whole digital currency thing is confusing.

The central bank effort would be all about modernizing the payment system and creating some extra efficiency in the system. It would probably destroy some value for banks - but may create net benefit for Americans.

Even though it's called digital currency - it's very different from the likes of Bitcoin. That's about sidestepping the state altogether on the topic of currency.

These are very different things.

[Axtremus]

https://www.cnbc.com/2022/03/09/heres-whats-in-bidens-executive-order-on-crypto.html

Biden signed executive order on cryptocurrency.

[Copper]

The Biden administration also wants to explore a digital version of the dollar.

What could go wrong? I'm sure Mr. Biden will do something wonderful.

[Horace]

I wonder how many levels deep you have to go under Biden before you reach the first person who has a clue about crypto.

[taiwan_girl]

QUOTE
U.S. President Joe Biden signed an executive order on Wednesday calling on the government to examine the risks and benefits of cryptocurrencies.
UNQUOTE

Why would this be an executive order? Seems kind of goofy. Would an executive order be needed to set up a team to look at this?

[taiwan_girl]

US Department of Labor basically says "no" on having crypto currency in a 401K plan.

(https://www.natlawreview.com/article/cryptocurrency-401k-plans-might-be-more-crypto-nite-says-dol-its-latest-release)