rkbabang

+1. I've been buying more POE. As you said it has less risk since the recent news and the stock has been going down not up.

The only advantages that I can think of that gold has over bitcoin is that it is physical, which means two things. 1) In a total TEOTWAWKI situation with no more electricity you can still trade your gold for stuff. And 2) You can't fondle your Bitcoin.

That is another good reason to hold your own keys. When there is a fork your keys are automatically valid on both chains going forward. But if you hold a balance at an exchange it is up to the exchange whether or not to give you access to both currencies or not.

Wow. I didn't even come close to going all-in like that. I'd have to go and figure it out, buy I've probably invested about $10K total in my entire basket of cryptocurrencies in the last 2 years, maybe a little less. That small amount is in the 6-figures now. Had I done what you did, I'd be retiring now. If you guys don't mind- - What are both of your thoughts on cryptos going forward? Which specific cryptos are you most bullish on? - How are you storing your crypto assets? I have been holding btc, eth, and lc but I keep them in coinbase which I understand isn't without substantial risk. Moving outside of coinbase seems somewhat complicated and messy Its nothing more then a ledger, a means to transfer money, the only think I can equate this to is if everyone ran out and purchased checkbooks with the hope the price of them would go up significantly. Bitcoin has shifted from the minority of people who used it for its actually purpose to people buying it with the hope they can sell it to someone else for more. This has happened to bitcoin before and the only thing of value in any of this is the blockchain. Going forward I see this as nothing more than a fad much like fidget spinners and Pokemon Go. Not sure I think the future is knowable here. One thesis is it simply replaces gold as a store of value - probably unlikely but +EV under most scenarios Even intelligent people have a hard time assessing the impact new technology will have on the future. “The growth of the Internet will slow drastically, as the flaw in ‘Metcalfe’s law’—which states that the number of potential connections in a network is proportional to the square of the number of participants—becomes apparent: most people have nothing to say to each other! By 2005 or so, it will become clear that the Internet’s impact on the economy has been no greater than the fax machine’s.” --Paul Krugman, 1998 Because they can't be censored (solves google, FB, twitter censorship issues) or changed (solves people creating fake media with false attributions to discredit/destroy someone), and you can verify what you said/posted and when you said it, allows micropayments, etc, blockchains of one type or another will replace youtube, facebook, twitter, music streaming apps, podcasting apps, and will have other applications we haven't thought of quite yet. Money is just the obvious 1st app, sort of like email was with the internet.

Wow. I didn't even come close to going all-in like that. I'd have to go and figure it out, buy I've probably invested about $10K total in my entire basket of cryptocurrencies in the last 2 years, maybe a little less. That small amount is in the 6-figures now. Had I done what you did, I'd be retiring now. If you guys don't mind- - What are both of your thoughts on cryptos going forward? Which specific cryptos are you most bullish on? - How are you storing your crypto assets? I have been holding btc, eth, and lc but I keep them in coinbase which I understand isn't without substantial risk. Moving outside of coinbase seems somewhat complicated and messy The risk is of course tremendous, I think this is about the riskiest space you can invest in right now. Like internet stocks in the 90s. Of course when all is said and done I think there will be a great shakeup and crash, and tremendous value will come out the otherside equal or greater than the internet itself. There will be many pets.com's and a few amazon.com's which change the way the world does certain things. Because of this my strategy has been and is a shotgun approach. I will buy and hold what I see as the best candidates to survive then sit back and see what happens. I currently own Bitcoin (BTC), Bitcoin Cash (BTH), Ethereum (ETH), DASH, Monero (XMR), NEO, GAS, Polybius (PLBT), and Tezos. I don't hold any of them at exchanges like Coinbase. I have used Coinbase to buy Bitcoin, but I then transfer it out to wallets where I own the keys. For Bitcoin I have a small amount in the Bread Wallet IOS app, a small amount in the Jaxx IOS app, and most in a paper wallet. To create a paper wallet go here: https://bitcoinpaperwallet.com/ Make sure that you disconnect your computer from the internet before creating the wallet at that site or any other. After printing multiple copies, power down your printer to remove it from memory. Then delete your browser's cache. To create a paper wallet for Ethereum go here: https://www.myetherwallet.com/ Take the same precautions. For Monero I use: https://mymonero.com/ For NEO/GAS: https://neowallet.cn/ I only hold a small amount of DASH and I keep it in Jaxx. Polybius is just a ETH token, so you hold it in an etherium wallet. And Tezos you can't buy yet, because the ICO is over and it hasn't started trading on the exchanges yet. One of the reasons cryptocurrencies are still a fringe type thing is the difficulty in figuring all this stuff out. That is pain, but it is also an opportunity. Coinbase is probably fine for the time being, but if you don't control your private keys, you don't really control your assets in the case of something happening to Coinbase. They could go out of business. They could be hacked. I don't think they will go out of business in the near future, but as far as being hacked, you can't discount that as a real possibility.

Wow. I didn't even come close to going all-in like that. I'd have to go and figure it out, buy I've probably invested about $10K total in my entire basket of cryptocurrencies in the last 2 years, maybe a little less. That small amount is in the 6-figures now. Had I done what you did, I'd be retiring now.

Curious to what you use (and others) to trade these crypocurrencies. Is there not an inherent cash out risk? I've only used $USD to buy Bitcoin at Coinbase and using cash at Bitcoin ATM machines. I've then traded Bitcoin for all the others using shapeshift, poloniex, and bittrex. Yes there is cash out risk, Coinbase is probably the best way to convert back to $USD, but I've never done so. I'm planning on holding long term until I can spend the cryptocurrencies themselves.

My best investments this year haven't been stocks at all. It has been Ethereum (ETH) and Monero (XMR), my cost basis in both is in the single digits $USD. Not to mention BTC which has done well too. As far as stocks I'm currently accumulating WFCF and POEFF.

A newspaper in Maine has it right. We need to deal with them using fire and furry. https://www.boston.com/news/media/2017/08/10/maine-newspaper-mortified-by-front-page-typo-of-trumps-north-korea-threat

His Facebook page is worth following as well.

How Foreign Media Changed My Life – Joo Yang, North Korean 9 min While growing up in North Korea, Joo Yang listened to foreign broadcasts on an illegal radio with her family for 10 years, preparing to defect despite the danger of being caught and sent to a prison camp. In this clip, Joo Yang describes how the dreams and fantasies she saw in banned media have become her reality. http://www.libertyinnorthkorea.org/videos/how-foreign-media-changed-my-life-joo-yang-north-korean/

Episode 18 of the Unregistered podcast is really worth listening to if you are interested in what is going on in N. Korea. Thaddeus Russell interviews Hannah Song who is an American of North Korean descent (her grandmother escaped in the 1950s). She runs an organization which helps N. Koreans escape to freedom, it runs a 3K mile long underground railroad through China because China will send refugees back if they are caught. She talks about the influence USB sticks smuggled in from S. Korea have on the young people in the North and how this and other S. Korean products proliferate on the black markets. It is a fascinating interview. http://www.thaddeusrussell.com/podcast/2017/7/31/episode-hannah-song

Whut whut??? You should have added a button for "Russians"! How could there not be a button for Russians???? Maybe that is part of their nefarious plan? Have you not been paying attention? The republicans blame the Mexicans, the Democrats blame the Russians. Geesh! this is elementary American politics in 2017.

I voted China, but it could just as easily be Mexico, immigrants, or Democrats. Who voted "The Fed", does trump even know what that is?

Actually the interest thing about DSC is that their razors are manufactured by a company called Dorco and sold directly through Amazon. I wonder if the future of CPG shifts away from Brands and back into the OEMs. I'm all for removing the middlemen. I switched directly from Gillette to Dorco years ago. I don't understand the appeal of DSC or the other one Hanks(? I think that's wrong). Why pay more for the same product from the same manufacturer? I've got over 3 years worth of Dorco cartridges at home so I won't have to even think of razor blades for a while (save both money and mental effort).

I think this is probably the most important factor in the comparison between the two. With a ship as large as Wal Mart, heading in the same direction for decades and its charismatic brilliant founder no longer of this world, it is very difficult for it to adjust its heading even slightly, nevermind change course entirely. Although you alluded to it, you didn't come out and say it: branding is an issue here as well. Walmart isn't just perceived as low priced, but also as cheap and low quality. You don't even think to look at Walmart if you want a high-end anything. Whereas Amazon is perceived as carrying high-end items for less money. Walmart and Amazon have a very different brand.

I wouldn't say Prime subscription "is" Amazon's business model, but it certainly is a part of it. Amazon has a multifaceted approach to what it is doing. In its retail operations Prime is a large focus (not "the" focus, but "a" focus). But there is also AWS which is a different beast entirely.

Personally, I don't think the feds really know what to make of cryptocurrencies yet. It looks like they are watching to see what happens. I'm actually surprised they haven't tried to either ban it outright and/or create their own "FedCoin" which would be "legal tender" on par with the dollar where they would control the blockchain and be able to inflate it at will. It is too late now however, just like the mass-adoption of the web, it caught them by surprise and they can't really control it.

Amazon is trying to build its Prime membership program adding more and more benefits to it to get more and more people to join. Right now I use the free shipping, but also the video, prime music, the storage space on Amazon Drive, ... Maybe it is closer to Costco in this way than Walmart?

My assumption that Coinbase would only support one side of any Bitcoin fork was correct. Here is the official position: https://blog.coinbase.com/update-for-customers-with-bitcoin-stored-on-coinbase-99e2d4790a53 "customers with Bitcoin stored on Coinbase will only have access to the current version of bitcoin we support (BTC). Customers will not have access to, or be able to withdraw, bitcoin cash (BCC). Customers who wish to access both bitcoin (BTC) and bitcoin cash (BCC) need to withdraw bitcoin stored on Coinbase before 11.59 pm PT July 31, 2017. If you do not wish to access bitcoin cash (BCC) then no action is required."

The question wasn't who should take credit for it in the mind of the public, it was what will actually cause the next 25% drop. Presidents take credit for and get blamed for things they have nothing to do with all the time, that isn't really an interesting discussion.

If anyone is holding Bitcoin at Coinbase, an exchange, or with some other 3rd party system where you don't control your keys. You might want to transfer it to a wallet which you control the private keys before August 1st, this way in the case of a hard fork you will end up holding an equal amount of both coins. If you hold Bitcoin in Coinbase you will most likely not get any Bitcoin Cash (BCC). You can always transfer BTC right back into coinbase afterwards if that is where you want to hold it. https://news.bitcoin.com/what-every-bitcoiner-should-know-about-bitcoin-cash/

I agree. I read it earlier this year. It is an excellent book that makes you think. If you haven't read "What Technology Wants" by him it is also excellent. He takes an evolutionary view of technical progress which is fascinating to read when he lays it all out. It makes you look at the past and the future in a different way. It is really the prequel to "The Inevitable".

If alphabay was actively engaged in the promotion and distribution of malware and identity theft as you say then I will concede that you are correct. If they simply setup an anonymous marketplace and didn't police it, then I will stick by my previous statements. I do think a getaway driver is just as guilty as the one who pulls the trigger.

I'd love to. Unfortunately my balances are somewhat lower. :( On the bright side though, I still have mine. :) What a tragic story though. Since I don't think any object or substance should be illegal, I don't think he did anything wrong. Quite the opposite, he provided a way for people to safely buy what they wanted without the dangers of dealing in person with shady and possibly dangerous characters. In short he put his own life and freedom on the line everyday, not only to profit, but to save lives as well. If this guy was anything he was a hero. In other words the exact opposite of people for whom my disdain couldn't be greater, like Jeff Sessions and others involved in taking him out. Yes, what will you do without the ability to easily commit identity and financial frauds on a massive scale? You're going to have to find a new marketplace to buy and sell the financial records of >100k innocent people and malware to procure more. As you said, I'm sure hackers and fraudsters will die without the ability to anonymously buy/sell malware. /s That's a small part of what went on there. That's like saying craigslist is bad because stolen goods are sometimes sold there. The people creating and using malware are doing something wrong, not the person running an online marketplace where things can be bought and sold. If someone finds a hitman on craigslist and pays him in cash does that mean Craigslist and the US Dollar are to blame? That is the same kind of thinking that says if someone is stabbed you blame the company who made the knife and the retailer who sold the knife rather than the person who actually committed murder. If Craigslist is actively aware of hitmen advertising themselves on Craigslist and continue to make their platform available to said hitmen then they are bad and their management should be imprisoned. Craigslist would be actively facilitating murder for hire. Are you under the impression that Craigslist actively facilitates this and would refuse to comply with authorities if hitmen classifieds are found on their site? This is insane. I'm not saying that Craigslist actively facilitates this, but let's just say compared to say ebay or Amazon, it is a lot easier to fence stolen goods, or advertize sex for hire, or even something as extreme as a hitman for hire, on Craigslist. I'm not saying that Craigslist should change, or that they are liable, I'm just saying that there are things they could do and they don't.