Exploring Chain Abstraction: Insights And Examples 

Satoshi is spinning in his grave. The hilarious fact is that his use of the Merkle Tree was groundbreaking in its simplicity. Of course, there was only one simple objective to freely move money around. Then came Vitalek Buterin and DAapps and CryptoKitties. And guess what? Nothing of any significance has arisen that can even remotely be described as “decentralized”. Dominic Williams and the a16z supported DFinity has been the only “attempt”. Of course, it also just came to nothing after a couple hundred million was spend and a16z cashed out on the coin and Dom fled to Switzerland to try again. How long till this waste of money and time peters out? I suppose that will be the time in human history when humans cease to delude themselves. 

EthCC 2024: Impressions and Insights about the Biggest European Blockchain Conference

What a complete waste of talent and resources. Something nobody needs and is based on a lightly-covered fiction. 

Nothing more amazing about human beings than how much they can waste on something that does nothing except maybe give them a job. 

Bitcoin Adoption & Planetary Sovereignty - One And The Same?

It’s all nonsense. Maybe it’s (at best) like gold… of course without the aspect of gold’s actual usefulness. And like gold, the value of it is increasingly being supplied by the (well-guarded and well-regulated) SEC, CFTC, etc. 

I actually wonder how many rubes are left in the world to read this and not laugh out loud:

“With the possible exception of Monero, Bitcoin is the only cryptocurrency that is truly decentralized in terms of its servers and its founders. Nobody knows who founded Bitcoin and there has even been a server launched into outer space.”

BTC uses PoW. That PoW infrastructure is all designed in, made in and sold by all Chinese companies.  The design, most equipment and much of the financing of almost all giant mining operations is, yes, made in China. Those who hire and then pay for and have built these mining operations in the USA are all right wing autocratic-tending oligarchs. And there’s even companies such as BloxRoute which many if not most mining operations use. The tech does speed up communication among rigs and outward, but it also makes it possible to surveil what is going where. 

In short, BTC is a scam from top to bottom. Even the ETFs, which are a hilarious development. Overwhelming number of people use Coinbase or one of the other for-profit-exchanges. Real DeFi, man, Real. LOL.

Ok. So wake up in San Salvador on any given day. Go down to the grocery store to food shop. Today the price of eggs in the morning is .00123 BTC. In the afternoon it is either .00124 or .0426 and a little later it is .00098. Yeah. I would really like to live in such a society. Not.

“Business owners should be encouraged, across the world, to do their part and accept BTC for payment. Not as a means of taking profits on Bitcoin holding, but so it becomes an accepted norm for payment transactions. This will lead to liberated financial markets, known as [KYC-free Bitcoin Circular Economies](https://bitcoinmagazine.com/business/kyc-free-bitcoin-circular-economies?ref=hackernoon.com).”

And what is the virtue of “KYC-free…Circular Economies”? If you can’t be sure whether you’re dealing with Kim Jung-eun or Pope Paul, it’s a good thing? 

Financial Nihilism and Bitcoin Explained

The way ignorance and superstition work, is they take an area of human activity where something isn’t going right or is intellectually challenging and a belief system needs to arrive and seem to fix it. Religions depend on this to continue having believers. If your life is going badly and you see others doing better and you think you’re good/entitled, it’s wrong. If someone says “believe in this and all will be well”, you do. That is the age-old dynamic which Crypto has latched onto. 

Modern societies and their functions and challenges are not easy to navigate for lots of people. Even the best and most transparent and democratic governments are challenged by size, complexity and continuous change to educate and communicate to their people. The more successful a govt is at achieving adequate education and social protections, the less superstition and need for pure belief systems. 

Crypto and all sorts of other “hope-totems” such as Vegas, etc. benefit when either people are not taught or don’t learn to understand how things work and therefore are thrown back on simple belief systems… and typically lose. 

Dear America, I Am Breaking Up With You

It is so sad to read such narratives. How utterly suckered by all this ‘narrative’ stuff and striving and resolving and influencing and…. ultimately scamming themselves and others. My life defies all these things BECAUSE I NEVER HAD A PLAN. I thought: I want to know a lot. But no great hurry. I want to master a couple useful skills. See where this goes.  Learn a few languages. Live in a few cultures…both foreign and domestic. And,  I want to have fun without a harmful footprint. Know the world and learn how to understand what good is. Wash, rinse, repeat. 

The F*ck It Effect

We are in full agreement. Didn’t read everything, but I totally share the “fuckit” philosophy and have pretty much followed it from childhood on. I mean fuckit, stay home and get beaten? Nope. Stay in school when everyone is a jerk? No. Go travel the world whatever may come? Absolutely. Go back get a couple degrees? Fuck it I’ll just get it over. Get a heroin habit twice? Hey, I enjoyed every minute except for withdrawal but then the exhilaration of having survived it was awesome. Quit your first real-world job and jump off to Europe with no plan except to visit an old girl friend and end up building first-ever type systems at Daimler-Benz and IBM in Stuttgart? Fuck it why not. Head to the crashing Warsaw Pact countries when the Wall fell? Fuckit yeah! Head to the Middle East? Fuckit… Head back to the states and say “boring” take a job in Switzerland writing financial software processing derivatives? Fuckit why not…

 and then end up on Wall Street building the systems to trade trillions of dollars? Fuckit yeah. And on and one… it’s been a good FUCKIT life… and still is!

What is wrong with people and this crap of “chasing your dreams”, “getting money”, “building blabla”. 

I never had them. They were just someone else’s ideas. I left school at 15 (stole a car and thrown out 2x). Bummed around the USA, came back and tested into NYU, got a heroin habit and went off to Paris and then N. Africa and Middle East. Came back got degree in CompSci and Eng.Lit and another heroin habit. Then said fuck that and headed over to Germany (old girlfriend lived there). Got a job programming at DaimlerBenz, IBM, Lufthansa. Quit that after the Wall fell, bought a car, traveled the dying WarsawPact. Then back to Middle East. Did weird stuff there for awhile then headed back to USA. Then got a lengthy series of jobs on Wall Street building trading/risk systems. Learned investing, did well, bailed on NYC just before COVID to live in beautiful Pasadena. Fuck dreams. Have fun. YOLO. 

There is a Surging Sense of Optimism in the NFT Ecosystem

Good. The more suckers who are taken for the money, the more people either wake up to the scam of crypto or just keep getting pumped and dumped.

How Do We Make Blockchain As Popular As AI?

How do you make “blockchain as popular as AI”? It has to have a use case that is not plain fantasy. Blockchains don’t scale and “decentralization” is pure marketing fantasy.

These two things will keep this old and creaky and pointless technology in its current state. And eventually the cult and the scammers will have to move on. 

But, yes, right now people are making money of the gas and hype. That has already started to go away. a16z is trying for the 2nd (or depending on how you count) or 3rd time to make money from “blockchain” or “decentralized” apps. Not going to happen. But, like many cults, they linger for long periods before disappearing. But it’s still a buzzword you can throw around to get some set of suckers to give you money for …. whatever. 

Is Bitcoin Mining Dead? GoMining and NFTs Say "Not So Fast!"

One thing can be said about this just-another-looking-for-a-gig article….it doesn’t push the silliness of “decentralization”, etc. :

“The [Bitcoin Mining Writing Contest](https://hackernoon.com/the-bitcoin-mining-writing-contest-by-gomining?ref=hackernoon.com) is sponsored by GoMining, a global bitcoin mining company operating nine data-centers across the globe” 

Yup. The biggest ones now in the state of Texas sucking up huge amounts of electricity and belching huge amounts of CO2. “Yeah, I wanna be part of that!” NOT.

Token Engineering: A Blueprint for Building Sustainable Decentralized Economies

True decentralization will never exist. Were/are you aware of a16z’s DFinity project run by Dominic Williams? Google it. He’s still trying, but… Regardless of its futility, it had the genuine scope of “decentralization” as its objective: from the wire-to-cloud-to-compute-to-the app and back. Of course, it still had no chance. It had no proposal to replace the “wires” and no takers for the cloud, but at least everything else. 

Satoshi’s dream: dead. Dominic’s dream: dead. Religions and cults all have this same problem: they want and claim there exists a heaven or nirvana or whatever. But they have no means to get there and so the only thing remains is BELIEF or Delusion. 

CryptoHayes Has It Right and Wrong

First of all, you should learn to spell. I know English is a mess, but if it’s your native language… I assume. 

I don’t know what “facts” you need. But you can start with many. His aim to replace USD and things like Tether (USDC), etc. were thankfully met with twin reactions: silence by some and (not just by me) others laying out the fundamental flaw that large platforms like his and others come together and create their own “stablecoin”. Boy, did that ever get slashed by all the “true believers” who Artie thought he was leading. Ooops.

Build a Decentralized Freelancer Marketplace With React, Solidity, and CometChat

I wonder what this guy is doing wasting his talent on this stuff. No one wants it except for the shrinking number of the “decentralization” cultists “DC’s” for short. The DC’s are into social media promotion and have their little hives. And there are characters such as Arthur Hayes who may throw you some money. But otherwise it is a sorry waste of human talent. The best example of how much is to read up on a16z’s “DFinity” project. It actually made the only know attempt at “decentralization”. Of course, it failed spectacularly but not without a good bit of shenanigans in their toke issuance: 

<https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/28/business/dealbook/icp-cryptocurrency-crash.html>

<https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/28/business/dealbook/icp-cryptocurrency-crash.html> … and this: <https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/18/business/kyle-roche-crypto-leaks-satoshi.html>

One thing is sure: AndreesenHorowitz made a lot of money and then dropped this sucker like a hot steep ball. 

\


Much ado about nothing. To appropriate… Decentralization n’existe pas. 

It is such a shame to see talent wasted on something that has no distinct value. And that simply doesn’t exist: unless you have taken over DFinity from Dominic Williams or maybe AndreesenHorowitz and succeeded where their over $50mm investment went to ether (the original ether, that is), this is silliness. 

The entire technical infrastructure is “centralized”, from rj45/wifi out over a paid-corporate-provisioned network infrastructure and on into the big 3 of cloud platforms. Never mind the nature of the team who owns and manages the code (MS github, anyone?).

Having been a “believer” 6 years ago and attempted a similar platform when things really exploded and a million whitepapers and a million tokenomics and million tokens and money flowed (in my case from the far-east and US) to build a general purpose decentralized eCommerce platform… well, let’s just say it was fun but pointless. As the entire notion of “decentralization” is.

How a Digital Ruble Could Impact the Global Economy

> First of all, the Russian population has absolutely no choice about the adoption of the digital ruble. And this fact alone is what makes it a virtual impossibility that any but the most threatened or desperate countries will accept it. But even they will not really. Money is about trust… even if that trust amounts to “I have a reasonable expectation that it will not be used to strangle me”. Sure, some number of completely corrupt oligarch will be bought by it…. As long as they can convert it into dollars or euros. Oh, there’s a problem: they won’t be able to. 

If you look at China’s economy and the sources of its problems, the brief attraction of the few that have been threatened or bribed into using the Chinese CBDC are having as many regrets if not more than those who hastily signed up for Belt-and-Road and are now seriously regretting it. 

Those who are uninformed or are paid off will suffer even more that the B&R suckers.

Fungible

It is a great shame that Hayes has a continent-sized axe to grind. As befits his education and work life, he knows all the details of financial mechanics and macro-level perspective of much of these. And he writes really well. The problem, however, is the “Problem of the Hammer”: namely his work world is the only thing he knows well. All other facets of how the world functions seem irrelevant. Geopolitics and national interests, history, custom, war/peace, languages, culture, etc don’t seem present in a way that makes his prism very small through which he views the way things would unfold. 

\
There is a lot he gets right as criticism, but he never proposes any solution but Crypto. I get it. That’s how he makes money and what his person is deeply bound up in. But when you see remarks referencing the USA’s maldistribution of wealth, the head snaps: “You might retort that casinos make a lot of money from poor people. My response is that while the floor of a casino is full of desperate punter pining after an easy path to riches, the real money …. is made upstairs in the private rooms by the whales.”

\
Well, yeah, just like Crypto. Only crypto’s policies are entirely free of the possibility of changing this and the whales are so deeply embedded that this will never go away. 

\
And he will learn sooner than later that your bets on China are the riskiest you’ll take. 

What is MEV? - The Art of On-Chain Extortion 

“At this time there is only one thing that we as users can really do if we want to keep using cryptocurrency. Minimize on-chain interaction.”

\
I’m very surprised that there is not a plethora of comments on this piece and that it doesn’t/didn’t win the writing prize.

\
There are any number of other schemes and if you’re running your own sizable enough mining operation along with things like Bloxroute in between sets of rigs and your wide-band I/O, you have the chance to earn massive amounts of gas and exploit the flow that you host. 

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Once again, if you are smart and your mind is free of the “Cult Of Crypto And Decentralization”, why, you too can make boatloads of sure money.

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NFTs Have the Power to Dissolve the Counterfeit Goods Black Market that is Worth Billions 

3 things:


1. “save the world” is an expression, not a literal remark.
2. Large sneaker manufacturers are looking for ever better branding and marketing. There is no doubt NFT’s have this potential.
3. Improving an industry’s marketing can be right of the edge of fraud.

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Exit Liquidity

Re: American Mind…

Americans tend to view the world entirely as an extension or embodiment of what they know best. And most have very little real understanding (oddly) of other democratic systems or, in his case, what Singapore is. And, to an American derivs trader, the world is just a trading another trading platform you can apply your favorite algorithm to. 

And, if you’re “wronged”, then vengeance is the only way to carry on. 

As a preface, as they saying goes, to a hammer the whole world is a nail. Hayes’ is deeply soaked in the world of HFT, synthetics, arbitrage, etc. (nb: so am I, but I was the one building the systems to make it happen rather than spit-balling strategies). With this in mind, he tries to construct a layering of speculative events and inclinations in markets, politics and governance and pull a giant doomsday conclusion. Or several of them. And fails to see the forest and just trees he thinks he knows.Here is an example:

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*As the global financial system balkanizes, there will be less demand for US financial assets. Mohamed ain’t buyin’ no 57th street penthouse in NYC when he just saw how Yevgeny got his assets stolen for sporting the same passport as Putin…*

\
Mohammed or Jian-fei or Yevgeny or Francisco most certainly will still be buying his 57th street penthouse or his Sloan Square digs, etc. Why? Not a financial thing. The majority of the well-to-do world still lives in circumstances where their wealth and property can be easily confiscated or its value trashed or Mohammed be imprisoned for being the wrong person at the wrong time.

Finally. oddly Hayes has way too little belief in the foundational feature of money’s value. The combination of trust and MV=PT… Fisher’s equation still applies. 

He should know better… and probably does, but….

Firebase Played Us!

I may use Firebase for a project and I was familiar with it from having helped out with an app a couple years ago. But I did not know about this issue. I will now have to go back and see if my colleague fixed it or it was not a “feature” then. 

Thanks and great info.

As an addendum to the evolving story of Arthur Hayes, please remark this in the context of his NakaDollar idea:

“Bear with me, as I’m going to go on a slight tangent here, but it needs to be said: not everything needs to – or even should – be decentralised.”

Just like everything else related to crypto and the mysterious Satoshi: all cults have a reckoning with the real world that fundamentally must undermine the belief system. 

Whereas many/most adherents of the crypto-cult ignore the fact that the overwhelming amount of liquidity comes from centralized institutions and that crypto-currency could not stand up on its own, they bleat on about the holy state of “Decentralization”. That is long gone and existed briefly and slightly. 

So I’ll write soon on the even greater silliness of the Centralized solution to Crypto stability. Hint: it will never happen even if all the crypto zombies awake to the fact that Crypto has never been decentralized. 

The Memecoin Revolution: How This Quirky Investment Trend is Changing the Way We Think About Money

Meme Coins. Like Pepe the Frog? 

<https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/may/08/pepe-the-frog-creator-kills-off-internet-meme-co-opted-by-white-supremacists>

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\[Jackson Palmer cont’d\]

Cryptocurrency is like taking the worst parts of today’s capitalist system (eg. corruption, fraud, inequality) and using software to technically limit the use of interventions (eg. audits, regulation, taxation) which serve as protections or safety nets for the average person.

Lose your savings account password? Your fault. Fall victim to a scam? Your fault. Billionaires manipulating markets? They’re geniuses. This is the type of dangerous “free for all” capitalism cryptocurrency was unfortunately architected to facilitate since its inception.

But these days even the most modest critique of cryptocurrency will draw smears from the powerful figures in control of the industry and the ire of retail investors who they’ve sold the false promise of one day being a fellow billionaire. Good-faith debate is near impossible.

For these reasons, I simply no longer go out of my way to engage in public discussion regarding cryptocurrency. It doesn’t align with my politics or belief system, and I don’t have the energy to try and discuss that with those unwilling to engage in a grounded conversation.

\


Since Dogecoin is cited here as something good, let’s go to the Jackson Palmer’s statement, the creator of Dogecoin:

After years of studying it, I believe that cryptocurrency is an inherently right-wing, hyper-capitalistic technology built primarily to amplify the wealth of its proponents through a combination of tax avoidance, diminished regulatory oversight and artificially enforced scarcity.

Despite claims of “decentralization”, the cryptocurrency industry is controlled by a powerful cartel of wealthy figures who, with time, have evolved to incorporate many of the same institutions tied to the existing centralized financial system they supposedly set out to replace.

The cryptocurrency industry leverages a network of shady business connections, bought influencers and pay-for-play media outlets to perpetuate a cult-like “get rich quick” funnel designed to extract new money from the financially desperate and naive.

Financial exploitation undoubtedly existed before cryptocurrency, but cryptocurrency is almost purpose built to make the funnel of profiteering more efficient for those at the top and less safeguarded for the vulnerable.

(cont’d)

Web3 Technology and Universal Basic Income: A Solution to Alleviating Poverty?

America will solve none of its problems with gimmicks. They will only worsen. The hard work of building public institutions and programs and, most of all, implementing good governance and fair progressive taxation are the only proven solutions.

No, Web3 does not offer anything to alleviate poverty anywhere. It will distract from and thereby worsen the problem. Similarly, UBI will not offer much. Solving the “distribution of money problem” as a solution is like saying handing a cancer patient money to buy a bunch of drugs and medical equipment will cure a person’s cancer.

 

Americans and particularly the sub-group of Americans who think anything connected to Crypto or Blockchain or Decentralization are, well, classic modern Americans: any gimmick will solve the problem and particularly if it comes packaged as a “magical” technology that disintermediates rather than betters the existing institutions. America has evolved from a nation that profiled itself as a problem-solving leader to a nearly failed state: opioid epidemics, mass shootings, failing schools, live-or-die access to medical care, shortened life-spans, massive income disparities, etc.

Hard work and empirical problem-solving have been entirely replaced by gimmicks.

 

Germany and the USA have similar published poverty rates. But the differences in what this means are vast. Access to healthcare, food assistance, and education are all free and available and all are maintained at the same high levels for everyone. And this is true of all northern European liberal democracies. 

\
The hard work of good governance & fair distribution of taxation to start

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Vitiligo 

Part 4:

The point I am making here is a return to my original criticism in “CryptoHayes Has it Right and Wrong”: this is someone who has wandered way off the map and is trying to work through what just happened. I truly get it and have done that myself, too. Probably everyone. But I hope his writing evolves –because a lot of it is interesting— and he gets out of the crypto tornado that spins a lot of folks around.

Part 3: 

The part that follows about “The Western Banker”, SBF, etc., however, is unfortunately a sad set of remarks that however much true some of them are, truly descend into a caricature of conspiracy theorizing. And then comes this:

“Now, I want to take a quick step back and clarify that I am not supporting some conspiracy theory suggesting that the Western financial illuminati put SBF in power as a plant in an attempt to take control of the crypto capital markets. What I am saying is that the TradFi system will unconsciously attempt to cozy up to individuals and firms it believes will continue to support the supremacy of the fiat-led financial order.”

Part 2:

The notion that "China bided its time", as it were, to craft a plan to ramp up taking over the world or such is truly preposterous. The events preceding Deng's rise could in no way be so described and nor could these be plausibly so portrayed under Deng’s rule. It is not impossible that this is a retrospective narrative Xi would like tell. But it is more likely a completely made-up version by Mr. Hayes in order to cast events as aimed at supporting the fiction that China was "itching to resurrect the supremacy of Eurasia at the expense Pax Americana".

\
As off base as the China narrative is that Mr. Hayes spins, the characterization of Russia after the fall of the Berlin Wall is even worse. This narrative is even more phantastical: the “West allowed a band of Russian opportunists (aka “oligarchs”) to take control…” It is downright scary that lesser informed sorts here on HackerNoon may source what is written here as fact and reliable information. It is not.

\
\


It is very sad to see something like this and other pieces that Mr. Hayes has written here.

So many easily provable untrue things. One that struck me in this article is the following:

"The Chinese Nationalists, led by Chiang Kai-shek, and the Communists, led by Mao Zedong, were engaged in a brutal civil war leading up to the Japanese invasion of China in WW2. They put their differences aside to concentrate on defeating Imperial Japan."

\
Not only is this entirely untrue and contradicted by numerous historians, my own father was involved. One thing he was very clear about was that the only time Kuomintang and CPC troops were not fighting each other is when Japanese troops were nearby or arriving soon. And, typically, the Kuomintang troops themselves used the opportunity to scatter and get away from their commanders as Mao’s troops fought selflessly. And, interestingly, the U.S. armed forces were very envious of Mao and his troops: because they were actually committed to the fight, joined up willingly and fought fearlessly. Chiang's troops were either outright dragooned into the army and the few volunteers joined up to get food to survive. And both were effectively enslaved.  

…continued…

\
\


I think you should perhaps write on all the things you suggest I do. But reflect on what you write. I don’t use ad hominem as you do (“foolish”, “buzzwords”, “uhhh”, “nonsense”). And I don’t write what you want me to write, but I do rely on provable facts and real knowledge and experience with the issues in the space. And I very clearly stated the Mr. Hayes analysis was largely correct. The implications of it are completely wrong, however. Take a few minutes and re-read what he wrote, what I wrote and look at you are writing here. I am hoping it will bring calm.

I don’t see any suggested corrections, so I assume you’re just emoting and you’re hurt. I am sorry for that. But pain is always a learning experience. I wish that works out for you.

“So, now back to Mr. Hayes. Much of what [he writes in his article](https://hackernoon.com/exit-liquidity?ref=hackernoon.com) has a factual basis.”

First of all, it’s spelled “ad hominem”. Second of all, I affirmed that many of his facts were correct. His conclusions were of course wrong. Go back and re-read. 

> If I find the time later to comment more at length, but for now:

I can hardly think of another instance when so much correct understanding of the facts and apparent worldly understanding results in such a wrong set of conclusions. But I do get that such a result is only possible in the most American mind.

This sort of thing… NFT’s are going to save mankind by… is old. And apart from the ebb-and-flow into and out of the cult, not much will happen, again.

Mastering Consensus Mechanisms: 15 Powerful Forms of Distributed Agreements in Crypto

This list was a fraction of number of of (P)BFT/Anti-Sybil algorithms out there. Crypto/DAOs/etc have never achieved any of the objectives that either explicitly or implicitly were set out by “Satoshi Nakamoto” and modified by V. Buterin, et al.


1. Nothing is decentralized: if enough of it runs on “centralized” infrastructure (as it does and must now) then it fails the requirement. (See the vain attempt by DFinity to solve this): one swipe of the pen and the entire thing can be confiscated or shutdown or both.
2. There is not a single Cryptocurrency that operates remotely as a currency. None anywhere passes the test because there is nowhere that any/every person can transact anything without first and last having access to “fiat” currency and using it. And in most cases, transacting against so-called “stablecoins” that are themselves centralized.
3. Nothing is scalable without backing away from “decentralization” or creating increasingly arcane and vulnerable solutions like side-chains.

\
But human beings live very largely on hope and desperation and greed and luck and ignorance. The mythology of “decentralization” feeds all of these all at once. 

\


Decentralizing Real-World Industries: The On-Chain Revolution

Longer ago than 5 years when I “joined the revolution” all of these promises were also right around the corner or being worked on or had a POC. There is not a single undertaking that has even come close to “solving” any problem or fulfilling any of the original promises, however unneeded. None… and nor will there ever be one. Why? Because “decentralization” 1) is a complete myth and 2) serves no coherent purpose that needs solving. 

\
Let’s take the myth first: DFinity, a long running project that was/is underwritten/funded by AndreesenHorowitz’s a16z. You can google it or go to dfinity.org. If you have a look at the NYTimes story, you’ll get a picture of where many such projects likely will go or have gone already: <https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/28/business/dealbook/icp-cryptocurrency-crash.html>

And the project is still alive… it appears, but no one can be sure what is real and what is not.

If you are running any of your “Decentralized” apps on privately run infrastructure (Amazon, Google, Microsoft, etc., including telcom), then it’s all a game. Somebody has to pay and coins are not accepted. Please explain how that works? 

\


Kaiseki

And my final comment/question: Why would you use Pepe the Frog in your title creative? I assume you are fully aware that Pepe the Frog is unequivocally associated with the vile nutty right and nouveau fascists?

Continued from previous comment…

And that life new life may not be easily better even for Mr. Hayes.

\
So, what else can be done that clearly Mr. Hayes must aware of? Answer: The things that have always been the hard things so that the world becomes better: diagnose the causes and fix the system(s)/problems and keep them safe with policy and regulation. 

\
I don’t want to track back to everything, but as Mr. Hayes doubtless knows, the reason things went and can go so bad so easily in the banking system is the ability and success the participants and their friends-and-family have blocking any rules and undermining any efforts to improve the system and, most of all, make it safer: Dodd-Frank had a good portion of this situation ring-fenced from happening and IT WAS UTTERLY GUTTED BY OUR CORRUPT SYSTEM’S PARTICIPANTS: Republicans, Libertarians, anti-Democracy-types, and the incumbent beneficiaries in the system who can be bought and sold. 

\
I would love to hear Mr. Hayes response to this… or have a debate. Ping me. 

Rarely does one ever read such a fluent and informed understanding of our banking system and how things work. 

\
But the astonishing thing here is that the solution is… Crypto???

\
Sure, if you have access to multiple venues/countries where you can exchange and stash your money and crypto safely and you have the technical means to do that, then maybe…

\
BUT: As Mr. Hayes points out, fiat is the only way you can pay for anything except for crap in the Dark Web. Never mind the contingent holdings you keep in the “mainstream” value world.

\
If would be an interesting debate to have ab out more fundamental life choices to really get at the issues. If you’re smart and skilled as Mr. Hayes, you probably can find plenty of places to live, work and maybe even use your crypto. But what about the real world and the real people that are not Mr. Hayes? Down the crapper. 

\
That real world, just as a preview to further debate, means you need to get visas, you need to have (if only eventually) language(s) fluency, some cultural fluency/sophistication and (to be truly everythingeverywhereallatonce) a good bit of technical fluency. That is in aggregate a tiny group of people (ng: that includes me). And, as Mr. Hayes has points out, the Western Liberal Democratic world runs on fiat and USD most of all. Life as he knows it now will be very likely way different everywhere than it is now.

Why I Left Google's AI Division for the World of Blockchain

A blockchain is a simple highly inefficient data structure for storing simple data. It is in principle (and intentionally) more like a file system. Not at all a database. It could store the identities of the transaction participants, but it very deliberately doesn’t. And, yes, it can store contractual transactions among participants…so-called DAOs. But this has gone nowhere so far, largely BECAUSE of the “decentralization” aspect: the minute something goes wrong among the parties, they are left to either walk away or try to discover the counterparty is… but only if that is part of the contract. And then they must do the usual: go to court. Huh? 

But there is a better and safer way to interact with individuals and collectives: the legal systems of western liberal democracies. And these “collectives” have done a very decent job of improving everything from science to helping others to building beautiful things. 

I would hope you quickly realize what a mistake it was abandoning an interesting and useful technology for what is effectively a cult. 

It’s a bit odd to hear that helping diagnose and cure disease for a large “collective” of sufferers is less worthy than… blockchain? Or, as you state:

“While AI emposers individuals, blockchain can empower collectives.”

The buzzword “empowers” is widely abused and that very much applies to this. “Collectives” are like individuals: both can be evil and/or contain evil actors. In the case of “decentralization” ideology, those collectives are by choice anonymous and that is trotted out as a positive. It’s not. If a collective is malificent or contains a large malefactor element, then anonymity is a disaster waiting to happen. And it has happened a lot in the “blockchain” space. Crypto is the perfect example of this where it is extremely difficult to identify any manipulators (of which there is a very large number…some of the so-called “whales” and state malefactors) of value. 

I don’t know which museums you are donating to, but art museums are made up of dedicated people (given the pay) who love and thoroughly know the art worlds. They are also very public about what art they intend to acquire and why. This goes for any reputable institution you would want to donate to. And many do permit targeted donations. So, what exactly is the problem here? Do you want anonymous collectives determining, say, drugs to treat cancer? 

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The Fermi Paradox Explained in 5 Levels of Difficulty

On the one hand, I get the impulse to consider the existence of other life forms and even civilizations…or what would approximate these. 

On the other hand, it seems an extraordinary waste of thought and effort. At best a parlor game gone slightly amok. At worst, among a lot of people it is a substitute for religious beliefs. 

My theory is that our brains are wired to need an explanation of our existence. That explanation seems to be the source of endless Need to not be alone or fear that we are not alone-as-masters. This has led us over the entirety of human history to invent, starting with superstitions and religion. So my theory is that one of our most irrational impulses gives rise to our most rational thing: progress in science and humanity. 

We are alone and that is what keeps us as a species going. 

How to Break Into the Crypto and Web3 Sector as a Non-tech or Non-finance Student

It is no surprise, of course, but it says something about the crypto, decentralization, web3, etc. spaces that one can be “successful” (or even have an easy in) without any real expertise in the two components of the space that matter: technology and finance and now maybe financial regulatory world. And a rough guess on my part is that these skillsets are present in a small minority of players in the space. It is like joining a political party: all you need is to be able to influence, market, or opine. 

One would like to say, at least it keeps them out of trouble. But….who knows?

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Web 3.0: When in Doubt, Do the Opposite

Some really helpful information:

<https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2023-02-14/three-arrows-gives-crypto-another-try>

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<https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2023-02-14/three-arrows-gives-crypto-another-try>

The Real C++ Killers (Not You, Rust)

This is a totally fascinating article. I’ve worked on 2 hardware variants of Assembler (3630,360), PL/1, PL/S (mix of PL/1 and assembler on Series1, APL (yes, that APL, on S360), COBOL (360, VAX), C, C++, Java (more than anything), Python, Javascript 1.0-18, Appscript, VB, a little GoLang, a little Rust…. And after my earlier C/C++ work I continued to wonder why we couldn’t just stay with it. Everything was a C++ killer in its own way, but there were always moments that made me think, well, very handy but…. 

This is therefore a very fun read. Thank you!

I still look forward to your response to my post, when you get the chance. Otherwise good luck!

First off, a “cult” manifestation of human behavior. No idea how it’s a method and never heard of that. Here are Merriam-Webster’s definitions:

*--a religion regarded as unorthodox or spurious \n --great devotion to a person, idea, object, movement, or work*

*--usually a small group of people characterized by… devotion*

 

As for explaining the background of bitcoin/decentralization as undermining western liberal democracy, you can read my writing on Medium. However, in short, if you think money or any activity that could be misused is put out of reach of the law (i.e., the underpinning of the Western Liberal Democratic order), then it is intended to escape the application of these laws. The notion of self-governance based on your real public identity and a vote on those who write the laws. My vote is recorded under my real identity. Something that “decentralization” entirely eliminates. Hence, it is extremely vulnerable to fraud and manipulation. And adverse to any open democratic order. 

No idea what your point is about Bitcoin holders being US citizens and communism..

Who knows what Satoshi’s purpose really was. I know the milieu out of which he/she/they drew his inspiration, the Cypherpunks. I used to ski with one of them at Alta. 

“All the recent political turmoil in the West was also caused by people in the West” --@wasyne

This makes my case above. Well done. 

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Why Bitcoin Preserves Our Ability to Save

Much of this is just a rehash of the standard non-truths of Bitcoin promoters:
\-protects against government debasement
\-wow look at how Venezuelans/Salvadorans have adopted Bitcoin
\-Putin/fill-in-the-blank autocrat can steal you money
\-XXXX refugees or other poor set of humans can use bitcoin, etc.

Alls of this is provable nonsense:
\-government debasement is a function of debased government: western liberal democracy has created the greatest increase in standards of living, not some gimmick. Debase that and your Bitcoin is unavailable.
\-to access and use bitcoin: a) you need to spend real money (aka $$) for the infrastructure, b) you have to pay for it, and c) you have to know how to use it. In countries like Venezuela, San Salvador, etc., the real beneficiaries are the rich and government-connect and the resource-robbers (usually the same as previous)
\-no refugees get free access to internet or likely have the means (cell-phone, etc.) or knowledge how to provision and use a wallet
\-Putin is a major force behind adoption of crypto but not to his subjects adn not to undermine the ruble... you know.

As for saving: it is not a theoretical thing isolated from need and use. In other words, with Crypto, it all depends on when you cash out.

It's very sad that this dangerous silliness keeps getting spread and repeated.

How do you know Satoshi never sought money? This is another symptom of cultishness. Cultishness in science and tech has, as a rule, been a very bad thing. The fame thing? Meh. Fame leads to a lot of inconvenience and Tim Berners-Lee hasn’t been into it either, simply just continuing to work. Vint Cerf has just been out there doing the work, still, too. Both without cults. Maybe you’re even unfamiliar with them, for all I know. But you are probably also unaware of the rise of ad-tracking and what happened at the time of its rise via DCLK: a swarm of state AGs went after DCLK and tried to quash the collection of personal info after DCLK acquired a catalog company that had names, addresses, incomes, etc. (I had the ungrateful task of implementing this) That kind of succeeded and then American politics reversed those gains. Aim your efforts at participating in our political culture. Not cult objects like crypto and “decentralization” which are aimed more than anything at undermining western liberal democracy. 

Bitcoin and the History of Thermodynamics

This has to be one of the biggest stretches related to crypto I’ve ever read. Relating the resistance/rejection of a scientific theory by religious fundamentalists to … you must be kidding … crypto acceptance. 

And then this: “Bitcoin sits on top of the laws of physics. Fiat currencies sit on top of politics.”

Bitcoin has nothing to do with physics or science. Either that or I’m a theoretical physicist because I write code and build algorithms.  Exchanging anything of value sits on top of politics. Always has, even in primitive tribal cultures. And that very much hasn’t changed.  

And, as far as science and economics are concerned, the so-called Austrian school came right out of the idealist/teleological traditions (Hegel, Kant, Marx) versus Keynesian economics which is purely analytical and empirical. You know, those twin features underpinning science?  

Vitalik Buterin --wanting desperately to find an empirical basis for the value of crypto apart from its near-identical relationship to a Ponzi scheme-- appropriated Irving Fisher’s velocity of money MV = PT or P = MV/T and posited MV = PQ, M = size of the asset base, V = velocity of the asset P = price of the digital resource being provisioned, Q = quantity of the digital resource being provisioned.

Of course, in light of the new POS algorithm, this has to be “modified”…. ahem. 

Best to stick to what you know.  

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Very belated response, since I haven’t been back in a while…

As an active participant in Web 1.0 and Web 2.0 you have much of this wrong. 

The wikipedia entry is pretty accurate: 

“Web 2.0 refers to websites that emphasize user-generated content, ease of use, participatory culture and interoperability for end users.”. 

What this means from a strictly technical standpoint is that the server become programmable and not just with perl generating html.

What you are referring to is the rise of internet advertising. Specifically, the kind that I worked on at DoubleClick where we collected info on people traversing the internet using pixel tags, etc.. For that reason, Google was not just successful because of PageRank, it was able to make money purely on advertising. And Facebook a few years later. Web 3.0 is DOA. The evidence for this can be seen in the money and “progress” made by a16z’s (AndreesenHorowitz) DFinity. That is the “real” attempt to move on Decentralization. Dominic Williams understands that, but he doesn’t understand that it is futile and pointless. Because of $$$. Yes, money will slosh about as long as there are fools or “takers”. But, to paraphrase: Web 3.0 n’existera jamais. It’s a blurb, not a thing. Working at SwissBankCorp (RIP) is saw a demo from T-B Lee’s hyperlinked documents in our computer lab. Now, that was a real revolution. Skip De-xxxx. 

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What is Decentralized Science (DeSci)?

I would note my criticism is not supposed to be helpful. I criticize (originally from “judge”). I judge the notion of creating a free-wheeling parallel system as not just useless, a threat to the purpose the scientific peer review system has served: assured validity and safety and explosive progress. Genuinely good things don’t come cheap or easy. 

If you “decentralize” a thing, this presumably means you’re opening it to anyone who joins. And, unless I misunderstood, all you bother to do is establish personhood… presumably this means they are a person but not necessarily anyone with qualifications in the particular area. Would you ever use a surgeon whose qualifications were effectively crowd-sourced/validated in the way described? All the supposed downsides to scientific publication apply to the ability to obtain a license to practice medicine. And the two are inextricably bound. Since you’re not proposing the same for medical licensing, I have to assume you feel the supposed downsides to doing scientific research are not the same…such as people dying. In any scientific field, the risks are often even greater and the system that exists concerns itself very significantly with single or mass death and injury not happening. And the system and the overseers and participants have this as a very core feature. And there is also the risk of bad actors, most of all state-sponsored, that can band together and easily spoof such a system.              I noted this citation: “Pearl, Jocelynn (2022) [A Guide to Decentralized Biotech](https://future.a16z.com/a-guide-to-decentralized-biotech/?ref=hackernoon.com). Published in Future (a16z).”

The funny thing about this is, well, a16z, the giant VC firm run by Andreesen/Horowitz a giant DeCent fund. Maybe this will give something for DFinity to do? Or not.

NAFO’s Decentralization is Its Greatest Strength in Information Warfare

Well, this seems to be typical mis/disinformation. Nothing related to crypto, but piggybacking on the word “decentralization” in a blatant misuse. Maybe the author is Russian?

Truly a lunatic idea that couldn’t be more dead on arrival.  That is, with real scientists. There is a brutal process that selects and publishes the best and there are legions of wannabes and all sorts of secondary, tertiary, and plain scammy journals that will publish whatever. If there is a silver lining to this silliness, whatever gets published on this “decentralized” thing, it is a sure way knowing whose and what work is bogus. So, ultimately, it’s a positive. Hopefully, it drains the other bogus academic publication swamp and they all come to this to make it easier to identify the mediocrity and scams. Thank You!

FTX/Alameda, What Happened?

The funny thing about this commentary: “Although our space has been set back a couple of years and it will take time to regain trust”. The whole ideology around crypto is the “wonder” of trustless systems. Never mind that any system requires trust. But even taking the meaning as meant, it is just nonsense. Crypto may not be doomed just as Vegas keeps going despite the vast number of losers. Human beings want something magical that they don’t really understand. And sometimes the smarter ones invent something that they may understand. But the problem remains that either you know what works (a system that assumes people will do stupid and wrong things such as the liberal democratic order and its vast regulatory infrastructure) or you keep trying to invent a better Vegas. Sad human beings. 

Crypto Banking: DeFi to CeDeFi?

Anyone want to share their excellent experiences with Sam Bankman’s FTX or any of the other myriad such in the wonderful “Fintech DeFi” world?

All You Need to Know About DCCPA Crypto Regulation

Let’s be clear: SBF is representative of where things will always be stuck. Crypto is never going to amount to much in the sense that it will be used for the gambler and cult investors. Every other platform (coinbase, binance, etc.) are just places where the “Feeder” class can have something to do and make outrageous commissions. DeFi and DeCentralization are myths at best. It just keeps getting proven over and over. So regulation will spoil it? Worse than it already is? THAT is TRULY  funny.

“The Web 3.0 revolution will allow individuals to store vast amounts of data. With a lot of data to ponder, many people may be less misguided than before. But I don’t think of this innovation as brain expansion. It's a revival of the wild intelligence that humans originally possessed, prompted by an increasingly sophisticated society because humans use only part of their brain functions.”

The problem with all these scenarios of “how things will be different” is that they assume most or even a large number of people care and, even if they theoretically do, they will bother to “ponder over” vast amounts of data. This statement is naive (or worse) in the extreme and completely ignores the reality we are grappling with on a huge scale currently:  massive abuse of electronic platforms to spread misinformation and the resulting dysfunction. How will this fantasy fix that? 

joseph sadove