pau_

20 years from now BTC security will be long since broken by quantum computing. Are you not similarly worried about your bank account or brokerage account? Quantum computing is a threat to encryption because currently many forms of encryption rely on the fact that it's fast for a computer to multiple two very large numbers together but not fast to factor large numbers. There is an algorithm that runs on quantum computers called Shor's algorithm for factoring numbers much faster. There's a whole lot of work (Post-quantum cryptography) on finding and implementing encryption that doesn't rely on factoring and therefore isn't vulnerable to fast factoring by quantum computers. Google is already shipping and running post-quantum encryption in Chrome for a percentage of requests. https://security.googleblog.com/2016/07/experimenting-with-post-quantum.html As for bitcoin I imagine there are plans to upgrade to prevent quantum computing attacks (via a fork maybe?), but I don't really follow bitcoin closely so I don't know what the proposals are.

My guess is that this cannot be done non-destructively with the IronKey drive or he would have done this already. I personally wouldn't start desoldering connections on an SSD that contains the private key to a fortune. So the best bet is to wait for someone to discover a firmware vulnerability in the device that lets him bypass the attempt counter, or to have an epiphany. This story reminds me of a story in WIRED where a guy tries everything to recover 7.4 bitcoin locked on a purpose-made hardware wallet with an escalating pin-entry delay function (practically the same as a limit). https://www.wired.com/story/i-forgot-my-pin-an-epic-tale-of-losing-dollar30000-in-bitcoin/

Politics please so I don't have to see it. Signed, an arrogant, entitled, pompous windbag!

Thanks Uccmal. I agree on fostering interest. My friend is starting from a point where I was basically explaining what public companies were and how buying shares makes one a part owner of the company and what that entails and why you might want to do it. So highly technical books are probably out (eventually he will have to learn financial statements, but right now, he just knows broad strokes). Peter Lynch sounds perfect. I haven't read his work but remember people talking about that premise when I was younger, and it mirrors how I got into it (writing to Apple because I loved the Mac my dad brought home from work and heard they had this thing called stock).

Thanks for the ideas. I've read Where are the Customers Yachts and agree it's an important one. Hadn't thought about it being a first one but that makes sense. I ordered the other suggestions, which I haven't read yet.

I have a friend who is a college student that I started talking to about stocks, and he wants to learn more and asked for a recommendation. I started by being fascinated with Apple as a kid and writing them (Scully's secretary wrote me back and sent a box full of marketing materials and annual reports!). Only later did I learn about Buffett and value investing. The first book I read on the topic was Buffettology, which I now realize has a lot of flaws. But it introduced me to the basic framework in a simple way. I know the orthodox answer might be The Intelligent Investor, but I think that's kind of a slog (especially if you're starting from 0), and it's easy to miss what's important (which is why I think Buffett just highlights two chapters). What book would you give to a new investor? Also open to suggestions on personal finance books—I want to make sure he has the big picture in mind as he embarks on this. Apologies if this has been beaten to death.

Just found this interview with Li Lu by the same journalist who interviewed him and Charlie in Omaha. He talks about the philosophy of Berkshire & long term investing, mentions it takes him years to learn an industry because he's "not too smart" (but dogged), and around 16 minutes in talks about China and the "visible hand" (govt/regulation) and the "invisible hand" as it relates to China as a developing country.

Bram Cohen (BitTorrent creator) announces a new cryptocurrency with aim to reduce power consumption required for a secure blockchain/currency TechCrunch: BitTorrent inventor announces eco-friendly bitcoin competitor Chia Chia site w/ whitepaper and talk

It seems like a lot of the issues in Ethereum stem from giving developers a full (Turing complete) programming language to design contracts, instead of something more confined and straightforward. Making correct software is hard. You're giving people the equivalent of a chainsaw. Many of whom I suspect are amateurs who don't yet know CS and computer engineering fundamentals. These aren't new problems; you can read decades of literature about testing software, proving software, dealing safely with transactions, etc. etc. The new thing is that it is totally democratized. I learned programming making some small-scale web apps. Now we have people learning by making things that can transact massive amounts of value on a blockchain. Hopefully this will improve as higher-level tooling comes along (maybe a strongly typed language that compiles to solidity? property based testing?) and people with better fundamentals enter the field and incumbents learn lessons.

Buffett's NYT: Berkshire Hathaway Will Not Increase Its Oncor Offer "We're committed to being an exceptional long-term partner in Texas and our simple, straightforward deal is good for Oncor, its customers and the state."

Good point. I'm buying 3- & 6- month maturity CDs on Schwab for my cash position because they're available in better (smaller) increments for me. 1.35% recently.

I just thought it was an interesting talk with some good ideas about combating biases. No intention of stirring up controversy. I agree with you on the take-away re. gap between price and value not necessarily being just on asset/near-term earnings basis. Although, it sounds, from the tire example, like he is still looking for and finding the former type of value (3x earnings).

Pabrai talks about commitment and consistency bias and how to be a better investor by avoiding it, with some tricks to do so, among them, ~"be fluent in the counter-thesis", and have some quick filters to avoid committing time to theses that aren't obvious. Says Korea is cheap again. At the end gives a "treasure hunt" for a current position he's building in a "tire-related" company in Korea trading at 3x trailing earnings.

GDAX is bailing out margin traders who lost their shirts (and people who sold due to a stop-loss order) from the company (VC?) coffers. https://blog.gdax.com/eth-usd-trading-update-2-216a3b946ef6

mttddd I edited my comment to clarify, but my curiosity is around whether these USD-Coin exchanges happen in a conventional, non-distributed manner within the exchange. I suspect there is there is at least some degree of this because of the existence of exchange risk: of cases like Mt Gox where people lost balances held on their behalf.

The fascinating thing to me is that people got hit by margin calls due to/exacerbating the flash crash. These exchanges, correct me if I'm wrong, keep their own order books and balances off the blockchain (i.e. likely on some RDBMS + custom software), but it hadn't occurred to me that that meant people could margin up. I also wonder, if settlement doesn't immediately happen on the blockchain, if some of the trades could be reversed by the exchange. [edit: that is, if the buyer at 13 had only received etherium at an address owned by the exchange and held in the equivalent of street name, it seems plausible it could be reversed. All bets would be seemingly off if it goes directly to an address owned by the buyer]