Posts by waxwing@mastodon.social
(DIR) Post #9kkeU5fdBv2V7lIqf2 by waxwing@mastodon.social
2019-07-11T20:39:28Z
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@Sosthene @giacomozucco @nvk @Jack @SBR2 So I can explain why ETH is better than BTC here now?
(DIR) Post #9klxd5isSUEKBDmqLg by waxwing@mastodon.social
2019-07-12T11:48:43Z
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@Sosthene 👍
(DIR) Post #9l1m8SkMsHkl1tHTbE by waxwing@mastodon.social
2019-07-19T12:33:28Z
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Just visited r/BitcoinUK on reddit for the first time in ages.Unsurprisingly, most of the first page is discussions of (a) how difficult it is to deal with banks cashing out/in, and (b) people worried about taxes.Kinda depressing really.
(DIR) Post #9l3kU1bUf4ehcpCgy0 by waxwing@mastodon.social
2019-07-19T21:25:02Z
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A somewhat interesting thread on the question "are miners intermediaries?" (put aside that Walch has been catastrophically wrong on the topic of BTC; the question itself is interesting).https://twitter.com/angela_walch/status/1152054148071866368I think it's easy to cut the Gordian knot here if you understand the cornerstone of Bitcoin:*there are, ultimately, no entities called "miners" in the protocol - state updates are signed by work, not by people or keys that they own*.
(DIR) Post #9l3kU2Z35eIIbX4FnM by waxwing@mastodon.social
2019-07-20T14:14:16Z
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@laurentmt For sure, your answer is the more normal one.I still think my answer is better.Imo a big part of the confusion of the block size debate came out of thinking miners have identities, they don't.(I do accept that the centralization problem was very real, and that represented a kind of breakdown of bitcoin's model).Apologies if I'm stating the obvious :)
(DIR) Post #9lAyiH2mfKGXypYk9w by waxwing@mastodon.social
2019-07-24T13:28:37Z
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@Sosthene @FreePietje @htimsxela @402PaymentRequired I think everyone's overreacting in both directions - overestimating what coinjoin can do, and overestimating the negative consequences of the situation being non-ideal (e.g. sybil attacks).Coinjoin is not defence against a highly motivated, highly resourced and *targeted* attack against you personally. Otoh it's really good for general, long term improvement of your privacy and those around you.
(DIR) Post #9lCXDkcSLWeaHcNyV6 by waxwing@mastodon.social
2019-07-23T12:32:39Z
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https://quillette.com/2019/07/22/when-the-lion-wakes-the-global-threat-of-the-chinese-communist-party/e.g. :"... A Swedish citizen was abducted in Thailand and flown to China after publishing books critical of the Chinese authorities, and a British citizen from Hull was snatched in Beijing airport and jailed for comments he’d made on Facebook. He was on his way from the Philippines to the UK and only stopping off briefly in the airport, but he ended up spending two weeks in prison for the crime of “not being a friend to China.” .."article may be worth a read (1/2)
(DIR) Post #9lCXDlEk3BHKCMIYAy by waxwing@mastodon.social
2019-07-23T12:33:34Z
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.. if you're not too familiar with how dangerous the CCP has become.If I had a quibble, it's that, while it documents how craven Western political and business organisations have become, it doesn't really discuss *why*, and that's crucially important.
(DIR) Post #9lCXDmOhjcqFnXy1LM by waxwing@mastodon.social
2019-07-23T15:11:03Z
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@orionwl This perspective is common, but imo wrong.The west will treat people like Julian Assange like this - complete violation of rights, thuggishness, even torture.The CCP will do this to anyone who questions their absolute power. Lawyers, journalists, activists. Their families. They have placed entire popualations in internment camps.There is no freedom of speech - imo it's the absence of this safety valve that matters the most.Thinking it's equivalent to the west is just wrong.
(DIR) Post #9lCXDn3TI3S3pz2Zt2 by waxwing@mastodon.social
2019-07-24T10:41:12Z
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@FreePietje @orionwl Yes, but all of this only proves that the tendency exists in the West towards the same kind of dissent silencing. We still have some freedom of speech and pushback.CCP imprisons, tortures and intimidates the families of its own citizen journalists. People in China don't even hear about it. Heck one activist got a Nobel prize and Chinese people whose fedlings, according to the CCP, had been hurt, in actual fact didn't even recognize his name.There is no equivalence.
(DIR) Post #9lCXDngSx4dxmvHifQ by waxwing@mastodon.social
2019-07-24T12:21:14Z
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@orionwl @FreePietje From that perspective I somewhat agree, I don't see many good options. In a way, the ethical thing to do is to treat China like North Korea in terms of trade and diplomacy, as long as the CCP is in power (admittedly it's only 10% as bad as NK but it's still unacceptable). But that's not realistic.The reason I engage in discussions like this is to help good-thinking people to realise that it's not just another corrupt country, it's an issue for the whole world.
(DIR) Post #9lCXDoJSc5prjrWrRo by waxwing@mastodon.social
2019-07-24T12:34:24Z
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@FreePietje @orionwl OK; I wasn't advocating sanctions though, per se.See where it gets tricky is when you have a genuinely authoritarian state that effectively controls all business activity. Any business you do with NK is doing business with the state. You won't be allowed to do any other sort of trade.Like I say, that's only 10% as true in China (but the large industrial companies are all under the complete control of the party, make no mistake).
(DIR) Post #9lDtxvkKF99y7paWaO by waxwing@mastodon.social
2019-07-25T23:19:34Z
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@Sosthene @FreePietje @orionwl Re: hegemony, yeah somewhat, but things have changed, a lot in the last 10-15 years and especially since Xi Jinping took power.See: 9 dotted line, see belt and road initiative. The direction is clear.It's not that I disagree with you about their threat analysis, it's more that there's a significant delta developing in the (now permanent) Xi era.
(DIR) Post #9lEmlegXLT1LDOyXyq by waxwing@mastodon.social
2019-07-26T09:33:38Z
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@Sosthene @FreePietje @orionwlAmerica is/was exactly the same. They had less than zero imperialist ambitions. They became de facto imperialist because it was the way to improve their power, wealth and security.
(DIR) Post #9lPETUPfXQneRRoMcq by waxwing@mastodon.social
2019-07-31T07:26:26Z
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@verretor At some point I'm going to have to report you for these posts :triggered:
(DIR) Post #9lZZzLnxfNvpGhsQUK by waxwing@mastodon.social
2019-08-05T10:19:22Z
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@mydogisahusky Congrats, might be the first time I got the news first on Mastodon 😂 Shit is really hitting the fan in Hong Kong too. We are possibly approaching genuinely "interesting times".
(DIR) Post #9lZaAfWsfhNvd1HhKK by waxwing@mastodon.social
2019-08-05T10:20:25Z
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@mydogisahusky Also the "suspending agricultural imports from US" news is arguably a much bigger shocker than the currency move.
(DIR) Post #9lZlxkA5Kuf1gGE1GC by waxwing@mastodon.social
2019-08-05T12:33:30Z
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@mydogisahusky Interesting detail that most people don't know: China is almost exactly to the square kilometer the same land area as the USA, but: it has 4-5 times the population and a *vastly* smaller inhabitable area (see: the Gobi desert, for a start). 80-90% of the population is on the eastern and southern seaboards.They would seriously struggle to feed themselves; luckily they manufacture almost everything on the planet, so, trade. I believe a lot of the ag imports are for animal feed.
(DIR) Post #9lcGJ4l2twyIVwdUlU by waxwing@mastodon.social
2019-08-06T08:12:50Z
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https://medium.com/swlh/confessions-of-an-almost-crypto-millionaire-ac6d37833a32🤦♂️ ... the part about the Estonian village is funny though. Also the guy has the spirit of a writer, even if it does rather lack polish.Why do otherwise intelligent people turn into such morons in the market?
(DIR) Post #9ldr3rQw7HHL92nJQm by waxwing@mastodon.social
2019-08-07T11:40:33Z
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@orionwl @waxwing :joy:low-drama, hmm interesting angle ...btw i am also against anti-free speech on the bitcoinhackers instance ('no shitcoins'). sometimes I want to talk about shitcoins, hope that's OK!