I encourage beginners to ignore Ungovernable Rich who seems likely intent on making conversations on this topic less simple. Seems like typical trolling.
The conversations he starts are like many that take place in forums among people past the beginner level of understanding, though he seems to start with belief before epistemology, which is putting the cart before the horse.
My only interest in bitcoin is standing in wonder and watching it. That said, I laughed and the use of the word ‘nonce’ - in the UK, a NONCE is someone in prison who is Not On Normal Courtyard Exercise. Usually reserved for child murderers and child sex offenders who are usually in danger if they mix with the rest of the prison population.
I've always wondered what will happen when the grid goes down. With gold, you can still make jewelry and electrical contacts, which of course will also be useless when the grid goes down.
The purpose of Bitcoin (and all crypto) is to create the perception that it is still possible to make it big - in a world that is increasingly bereft of opportunities to do so.
Sure one might be able to invent a new online platform that eternally loses billions because there is and never will be a path to profitability. But if you get get growing uptake and hype the shit out of it, then sure - you can swing your dick (but in reality you will never make a dime and are quite probably not capable of managing a McDonalds franchise).
For instance, you could launch $$$$$.com -- the site where you buy $100 bills for $50. The uptake would be huge! Unlimited in fact. Might be difficult to get funding for this though... VC's are stupid and might consider .. assuming there is even stupider money out there to take the bag... but I think ... not this stupid. (Softbank might be open to this as their ship sinks and they become truly desperate and swing for a home run)
Obviously it is quite difficult to invent a sexy business that loses billions (eternally) but that can continue to attract new cash ... and grow the user base. You almost have to rewire your brain to be able to come up with something like this --- even millennials struggle with the concept...
As for businesses that actually make money --- hahahahaha... what is that? Impossible... might as well raise a billion dollars and buy lottery tickets ...
So back to my thesis ... crypto was invented (by Mama San or San something .. some Japanese guy living in the mountains outside Kyoto?) so that anyone can go from rags to riches... to ensure that the hordes believe that upward mobility is still possible (when it's not - or when the only shot at living large is winning the lottery).
Research indicates that when there is no upward mobility opportunity in a country - the natives become restless... and those who are already upward and mobile (on private jets) do not want restless natives.
Crypto fills the void of hopelessness -- you need to be 'smart' do your research -- throw in a bit of luck ... and YOU can live large! Crypto entrepreneur!
I play hockey in beer leagues with quite a few guys in their 20's and 30's .. a LOT of them are in the crypto space (not making much but they are working at it)... I know a couple who are dipping into the digital art scene... they are very serious about these 'investment opportunities' and know all the lingo...
I came from a generation (in my 50s) where you still could create a business that made money... so I watch with detached bemusement as they toil away in what essentially is another type of mass psychosis.
They actually believe that this is a real business - when in reality is has zero purpose... it is no different than putting a value on red smarties --- with someone controlling the number that go into a packet -- you buy packets and hope to 'mine' red smarties. You get enough people believing this is a business - or investment -- and those red smarties can be worth a lot of $$$$.
This is the sort of thing that you invent and foist upon the rabble to keep them hopeful and calm... when the system is going to pieces --- when there are next to know legit opportunities to make $$$ ....
I have no problem with it - but anyone who does hit the jackpot -- I'd recommend spending the winnings are quickly as possible ....
Apr 28, 2022·edited Apr 28, 2022Liked by Mathew Crawford
Thanks, I'll spend time with that video too. Much to learn here. Have dabbled in them merely to learn how they work; and am still a bit mystified, to be honest haha. And I'm an investor (private placement stuff, etc.)
From what I can tell, however, I see cryptocurrencies as exactly that: currencies, that is mediums of exchange (many, including myself, distinguish money from currency by saying that money is a store of value.)
What I find really fascinating is the potential for ledger/blockchain technologies to transform so much of what we do; the ultimate disintermediators, if you will. Of course, as with all technology (btw, love your definition, "anything that grows resources"), they could be put to multifarious uses as well. *cough* social credit score systems, etc *cough*
Ask a geologist about whether prospecting is a lottery.
It's true in the sense that it has to do with probabilities, but in that case it would be a lottery where the pattern of the winning tickets' numbers predicted if and what would be found, and in what amounts.
Who constructs the "...extremely complex computational math problem."?
We know quite well why minerals and metals are where they are, and how they came to be, but how does these math problems come into existence, does the hardware/software learn to fin and solve them better over time, and does the math problem in case have any practical relevance or application in the real world (i.e. has i any real value beyond the fiat value of BitCoin)?
It would be enlightening for many skeptics I think if this was properly explained, and would go a long way to combat the (understandabe and very prevalent) sneaking suspicion that BitCoin is more than a high stakes carny game.
It's not usable in the real world (see El Salvador). You have to wait 10 minutes or more to have your transaction confirmed. And I don't know where the claim for 'there will be no wars under bitcoin' comes from. Also governments are not planning to use bitcoin they're planning to use shit coin (aka Central Bank Digital Coins). Which will have rewards and punishments. Depending on your position in society and how you've behaved.
We should start teaching children the basics of algorithms and algorithmic complexity in middle school. The concepts apply to every aspect of human life where decisions are made or actions taken, not just math or computers.
The discussion of whether BTC mining is yet another climate evil is a discussion for someone else.
What I'm curious about is whether the breakpoint of energy costs for mining make it an actually realistic investment or if most miners are just operating on gold rush fever.
Thanks. It was the inscrutable descriptions of mining that kept me from investing in BTC until 2012, when I finally found enough real info to grok it, more or less, on my own. For one thing, I got hung up on the assertion that the nonce *has* to start from 0 (some sources say 1!) through 0xffffffff before changing the datetime field and starting over. So I wrote a Python script to read in old blocks, disregard the nonce in the block header, and use urandom to guess. I could "solve" the blocks far faster with random guesses than by bruteforcing it (birthday effect?). Obviously I was lucky with the blocks I tried, because this doesn't make sense. But anyway, after mining my first block of Americancoin using my "random nonce" script, I felt I understood it well enough to buy some BTC.
Mining has interested me for a while. I’ve considered many times setting up a rig to mine some crypto (not Bitcoin) but I never convinced myself it would be worth the time and effort. I looked into Helium mining because that seems pretty simple but again, time and effort.
It’s a great concept though and seems like it could be the way forward.
I encourage beginners to ignore Ungovernable Rich who seems likely intent on making conversations on this topic less simple. Seems like typical trolling.
The conversations he starts are like many that take place in forums among people past the beginner level of understanding, though he seems to start with belief before epistemology, which is putting the cart before the horse.
My only interest in bitcoin is standing in wonder and watching it. That said, I laughed and the use of the word ‘nonce’ - in the UK, a NONCE is someone in prison who is Not On Normal Courtyard Exercise. Usually reserved for child murderers and child sex offenders who are usually in danger if they mix with the rest of the prison population.
I've always wondered what will happen when the grid goes down. With gold, you can still make jewelry and electrical contacts, which of course will also be useless when the grid goes down.
I learned several useful things here this morning...not the least of which was where the expression about bad pennies always turning up came from!
The purpose of Bitcoin (and all crypto) is to create the perception that it is still possible to make it big - in a world that is increasingly bereft of opportunities to do so.
Sure one might be able to invent a new online platform that eternally loses billions because there is and never will be a path to profitability. But if you get get growing uptake and hype the shit out of it, then sure - you can swing your dick (but in reality you will never make a dime and are quite probably not capable of managing a McDonalds franchise).
For instance, you could launch $$$$$.com -- the site where you buy $100 bills for $50. The uptake would be huge! Unlimited in fact. Might be difficult to get funding for this though... VC's are stupid and might consider .. assuming there is even stupider money out there to take the bag... but I think ... not this stupid. (Softbank might be open to this as their ship sinks and they become truly desperate and swing for a home run)
Obviously it is quite difficult to invent a sexy business that loses billions (eternally) but that can continue to attract new cash ... and grow the user base. You almost have to rewire your brain to be able to come up with something like this --- even millennials struggle with the concept...
As for businesses that actually make money --- hahahahaha... what is that? Impossible... might as well raise a billion dollars and buy lottery tickets ...
So back to my thesis ... crypto was invented (by Mama San or San something .. some Japanese guy living in the mountains outside Kyoto?) so that anyone can go from rags to riches... to ensure that the hordes believe that upward mobility is still possible (when it's not - or when the only shot at living large is winning the lottery).
Research indicates that when there is no upward mobility opportunity in a country - the natives become restless... and those who are already upward and mobile (on private jets) do not want restless natives.
Crypto fills the void of hopelessness -- you need to be 'smart' do your research -- throw in a bit of luck ... and YOU can live large! Crypto entrepreneur!
I play hockey in beer leagues with quite a few guys in their 20's and 30's .. a LOT of them are in the crypto space (not making much but they are working at it)... I know a couple who are dipping into the digital art scene... they are very serious about these 'investment opportunities' and know all the lingo...
I came from a generation (in my 50s) where you still could create a business that made money... so I watch with detached bemusement as they toil away in what essentially is another type of mass psychosis.
They actually believe that this is a real business - when in reality is has zero purpose... it is no different than putting a value on red smarties --- with someone controlling the number that go into a packet -- you buy packets and hope to 'mine' red smarties. You get enough people believing this is a business - or investment -- and those red smarties can be worth a lot of $$$$.
This is the sort of thing that you invent and foist upon the rabble to keep them hopeful and calm... when the system is going to pieces --- when there are next to know legit opportunities to make $$$ ....
I have no problem with it - but anyone who does hit the jackpot -- I'd recommend spending the winnings are quickly as possible ....
Cuz this ship is going down.
Thanks, I'll spend time with that video too. Much to learn here. Have dabbled in them merely to learn how they work; and am still a bit mystified, to be honest haha. And I'm an investor (private placement stuff, etc.)
From what I can tell, however, I see cryptocurrencies as exactly that: currencies, that is mediums of exchange (many, including myself, distinguish money from currency by saying that money is a store of value.)
What I find really fascinating is the potential for ledger/blockchain technologies to transform so much of what we do; the ultimate disintermediators, if you will. Of course, as with all technology (btw, love your definition, "anything that grows resources"), they could be put to multifarious uses as well. *cough* social credit score systems, etc *cough*
I have never claimed to be a nurse.
Nitpicking:
Ask a geologist about whether prospecting is a lottery.
It's true in the sense that it has to do with probabilities, but in that case it would be a lottery where the pattern of the winning tickets' numbers predicted if and what would be found, and in what amounts.
Who constructs the "...extremely complex computational math problem."?
We know quite well why minerals and metals are where they are, and how they came to be, but how does these math problems come into existence, does the hardware/software learn to fin and solve them better over time, and does the math problem in case have any practical relevance or application in the real world (i.e. has i any real value beyond the fiat value of BitCoin)?
It would be enlightening for many skeptics I think if this was properly explained, and would go a long way to combat the (understandabe and very prevalent) sneaking suspicion that BitCoin is more than a high stakes carny game.
It's not usable in the real world (see El Salvador). You have to wait 10 minutes or more to have your transaction confirmed. And I don't know where the claim for 'there will be no wars under bitcoin' comes from. Also governments are not planning to use bitcoin they're planning to use shit coin (aka Central Bank Digital Coins). Which will have rewards and punishments. Depending on your position in society and how you've behaved.
We should start teaching children the basics of algorithms and algorithmic complexity in middle school. The concepts apply to every aspect of human life where decisions are made or actions taken, not just math or computers.
"But in truth, the computers operate with 16 digits, not 10, which is the hexadecimal system. Since 2^4 = 2 x 2 x 2 x 2 = 16"
Computers operate with 2 digits, binary. Hex is just a more human friendly representation of binary.
They may wish to delete the term "nonce", it's a well used British slang term for a paedophile.
The discussion of whether BTC mining is yet another climate evil is a discussion for someone else.
What I'm curious about is whether the breakpoint of energy costs for mining make it an actually realistic investment or if most miners are just operating on gold rush fever.
Thanks. It was the inscrutable descriptions of mining that kept me from investing in BTC until 2012, when I finally found enough real info to grok it, more or less, on my own. For one thing, I got hung up on the assertion that the nonce *has* to start from 0 (some sources say 1!) through 0xffffffff before changing the datetime field and starting over. So I wrote a Python script to read in old blocks, disregard the nonce in the block header, and use urandom to guess. I could "solve" the blocks far faster with random guesses than by bruteforcing it (birthday effect?). Obviously I was lucky with the blocks I tried, because this doesn't make sense. But anyway, after mining my first block of Americancoin using my "random nonce" script, I felt I understood it well enough to buy some BTC.
Mining has interested me for a while. I’ve considered many times setting up a rig to mine some crypto (not Bitcoin) but I never convinced myself it would be worth the time and effort. I looked into Helium mining because that seems pretty simple but again, time and effort.
It’s a great concept though and seems like it could be the way forward.