Reply With QuoteYou're obviously correct.Originally Posted by VNV
Tell us about the "mining," Frank. What are they mining, and what makes it valuable? It has value, right? Why?
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There's one other kind I see every day. The elderly who are still terrified of the thing. Heartbreaking every time I see it... to love out your final days in fear.
TMPHBITEU
You're obviously correct.
Tell us about the "mining," Frank. What are they mining, and what makes it valuable? It has value, right? Why?
✓ Member
The most important reason to wear a mask is to rob a jewelry store.
Quick survey: which is the dumbest policy of all time? 1) Defund the police 2) follow the science 3) mask mandate
Member
From what I understand, and as I said previously in this thread, besides the financial characteristics of Bitcoin as a currency (decentralized, private, p2p, borderless, semi-anonymous, scarce aka deflationary, etc) , which give it value, what gives it intrinsic value is also the time and energy consumed by these machines in order to mine (add transactions to a block one they're validated by nodes (computers that have downloaded the blockchain) and consequently adding the block of transactions in a blockchain, roughly every 10 minutes, after solving a complicated mathematical riddle, and the miner receives a reward for it. This reward is cut in half every 4 years. This concept is called Proof of Work, and makes it very hard for a single miner to monopolize this process).
FAQ - Bitcoin
This page is filled with pretty much all the answers to the questions you might have, but I know you've discussed Bitcoin with Ray on the podcast and I think I know where you wanna get.
Bitcoin doesn't have value because you can't use it to buy whatever you want wherever you want like you can with dollars. Something like that?
Have you applied the same skepticism to the US Dollar?
Besides the fact that you have a good certainty that everyone around you is going to accept your dollars tomorrow, what else is there that makes you think it's a better alternative than Bitcoin fundamentally speaking? Or that it's going to last for a long time? This goes for any other fiat currency.
This is a decentralized technology, not a central bank order forcefully imposed on you by a government. Its mass adaptation will probably take quite some time. This is a larva stage for Bitcoin, but its intrinsic value is much higher than fiat money or an alternative like gold.
Member
A solid number three from me.
TMPHBITEU
So, you believe in the Labor Theory of Value (Labor theory of value - Wikipedia). That the value of a commodity is dependent on the effort it took to produce it, as opposed to its actual intrinsic/inherent utility. A cell phone built by hand, a process that would consume hundreds of hours in an un-automated factory, if it was possible at all, is worth more than an automated-factory-produced cell phone, simply because it was harder to make.
Have these complicated mathematical riddles made a Mars mission easier to complete? Why would a "miner" be rewarded for solving a complicated mathematical riddle that does not add value to anything outside the bitcoin once it is solved? I have never seen an argument for the practical utility of solving complicated mathematical riddles for their own sake, any more than it makes sense to take a shovel and dig a hole in the ground, and then fill it back up -- it was hard and took a lot of work, but what was actually accomplished?
So again, what makes Bitcoin valuable, aside from the demand for Bitcoin produced by Bitcoin? This is not an argument for a fiat currency -- it is an argument that Bitcoin is a fiat currency, albeit one without a history of legitimacy.
This is quite valuable:
What would it look like if the Covid vaccines are causing much more harm than we were told they would? The hardcore vaccine enthusiasts have such fierce tunnel vision that they explain away every signal that the Substack warriors have been exploring for the past 2 years.
I know we’ve all grown weary of the constant debate, and many of us have retreated into our own corners of information exploration, simply because it’s too exhausting to keep going in circles with people who absolutely refuse to consider any piece of information that doesn’t get presented to them in a “peer-reviewed study.” Don’t get me wrong - obviously, peer-reviewed studies are important, and when properly done, and without potential or direct conflicts of interest, they’re the cornerstone of scientific safety and development. Unfortunately, for those who are still desperate to believe that the Covid vaccines are a modern-day miracle that eased the pain of the pandemic, no “unsanctioned” information will be allowed passed their mental and emotional barrier.
A New Angle
When we debate with someone about the vaccine outcome, we should begin by asking 2 questions:
Do you believe there’s any chance that the “anti-vaxxers” could possibly be correct in their claim that the vaccines are not safe and effective? In other words, do adverse events from the vaccine exist in larger numbers than government health officials admit to?
If the response is an immediate no - there’s nothing to further discuss. You can’t debate with someone about a subject where they enter the debate with a 100% closed mind to the possibility that you have valid information to share with them. If they admit that there’s a chance that our claim is true, we should follow up with:
2. How would the outcome play out in real life if the vaccines are causing much more harm than we were told?
The answer is unfortunately unfolding pretty much exactly how a logical mind would expect. If the vaccines are indeed more harmful than we were told, non-Covid deaths and injuries would be elevated in a noticeable way, with a correlation to vaccination. It seems so simple and horrific at the same time, that it’s both easy and difficult to understand why so many people are still blind to it.
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Army spied on lockdown critics: Sceptics, including our own Peter Hitchens, long suspected they were under surveillance. Now we've obtained official records that prove they were right all along
Probably just the tip of the iceberg. Nearly 2% of East Germans worked for the Stasi in one form or another. I wouldn't be surprised if several western states already surpass that.
The Science is the tree of which mask mandates were just one fruit. So definitely 2. Defunding the police would be awesome if done correctly.
I'll keep it in mind for future counterprop operations.
Member
TMPHBITEU
Because it is the job of Scientists to struggle to explain away data that disproves their bias. But this is even better:Scientists are scrambling to explain why the continent of Antarctica has shown Net Zero warming for the last seven decades and almost certainly much longer.
But a storm in California is obviously evidence of a Climate Crisis.In 2021, the South Pole had its coldest six-month winter since records began in 1957, a fact largely ignored in the mainstream. One-off bad weather promoter Reuters subsequently ‘fact checked’ commentary on the event in social media. It noted that a “six-month period is not long enough to validate a climate trend”.
✓ Member
Do you truly not understand or are you being stubborn? Ban does not mean make it so that something does not exist. It means that you can keep using your Bitcoin, but it is so cumbersome to use because of regulations, or so risky to use because of riskiness, that people choose to stop using it. So, to answer you original inquiry, yes, unequivocally, Bitcoin can be outlawed or made unusable (=too cumbersome to bother with) by the government.
The answer to avoiding overreaching governments is not high-tech currency but probably just low-tech non-w2 income, lots of non-traceable (cash) income (but not so much as to set off radars, and, yes, probably storing less cash in banks as another poster wrote. And BTW, keeping your American passport as a freedom failsafe but living abroad where you can claim up to 100k-ish tax-free (and in some countries I think you can even collect your Social Security tax-free) is probably a pretty decent option, too. There's really nothing more to debate on this invincibility of Bitcoin unless we're just choosing to be obstinate for the sake of being oppositional.
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