SharperDingaan

Nah, it was just that anarchist aren't very good at the collaboration thing! SD

The bitcoin paper owes its origins to the cypher-punk movement, and the ethos expressed in the cyberpunk manifesto. Very smart people, all adept at getting around 'the state', and most all with experience of collapsing states and the dark-side of central banking. Rebels with both brains and technical skills, who set out to change the world, and did. Resistance to 'establishment' (currency change) simply fuelled the fire, as did growing evidence of success. Anonymous and its legions of helpful hacks didn't just appear out of nowhere. SD

Useful bit of math to keep in mind, re the BTC 21M hard cap. Once all BTC have been issued, network POS activity results in NEW demand on the SAME total supply of satoshi. The MORE network transactional volume, the more demand - and the more BTC smartcontract functionality, the more network trabsactional volume. At 100M satoshi/BTC and BTC at USD 60K, a satoshi costs 6/100 of a cent (60K/100M) - no one is going to be concerned about transaction cost. Every Euro 1/2c rise in the price of a Satoshi ... raises the price of a BTC by 500,000 Euro (100M x 0.005), or USD 565K at the current 1.13/1:00 FX rate. Producing a cost of 5 Euro/transaction, split between buyer and seller, were the miner to charge 1,000 satoshi per update. About the current cost of a credit card transaction, ie: affordable. Simply buy/hold a BTC ETF, and you're pretty close to the deal of the century ....... SD

"St Peter's in Rome...the shear opulence of that building and the surroundings, gold leaf everywhere etc " Years ago I had a discussion with Italian friends, and asked 'Why didn't everyone just ransack the buildings, and steal both the artwork and gold?. Some of the statue work would look great in my bathroom!" Following a extended silence, much twinkling in the eyes, and a tap alongside the nose - I was told "2%". Another extended silence ... and Cin Cin, Alla Nostra Salute! SD

All of 'us' in the 'we' do an update every 3 years - what's changed, what we can do, how, why, etc. Any of us can do more than we've agreed, but its on his/her own dime. We take the view that charity starts at home, the first $$$ go to mortgage/debt retirement, thereafter local projects where we have involvement. Ideally personal involvement, alongside a modest financial donation to make the project 'happen'. Projects have ranged from 'Secret Santa', to helping family vendors stock specialty product at xmas/easter, to various business limited partneships, to converting a gravel pit into a paying public garden. Almost always a business approach, capital compounds and pays forward. A great many local projects are part fundable via government grant, whereby patrons put up 1/3 and the government puts up 2/3. Being a local patron, and tripling the projects money, has a certain appleal to the 'value' minded investor! The 'legacy' thing is still there, but we have zero interest in feeding the masses today. We would far rather spend the money on teaching fewer, in our own backyard, how to fish - with ideally an overwighting of 'boiler makers' in the pile. If only to ensure that future generations of family will always remain grounded! The female side of the family includes two UK magistrates, and a council women that date back to the very early 1900's - before women were allowed the vote. Apparently the ladies justice were quite ruthless, and thoroughly enjoyed themselves! Different POV. SD

Vitalic (ETH) is just being smart - do the same as you were using our token, and save 30%. Sure I could save you 80% but why be an idiot and give the 50% away? More people using ETH the richer Vitalic gets, same as the old-fashioned robber barron. BITGOLD, SALT, and a great many others don't have a problem. If you choose to do it via private ledger, you don't even need ETH. Common practice in growing parts of the Caymans, Bahamas, Gibralta, and Maltese communities - with staff typically on a 4-6 week rotation. Spend what it takes, buy the best tech/people/etc, create the structure, get out of the way. Nice gig if you can get it! SD

It is a very simple thing to make a ETH based stable coin pay out a formula driven monthly distribution -you get the equivalent of a fully automated securitization. Make the stable coin the securitization trust, make each token a proprtionate interest in the trust, make a smart contract pay the distribution, set up a private market 'exchange' to facilitate token liquidity, and locate the whole thing offshore. Contract out the bulk of asset purchase/disposition, populate the trust via direct feeds. minimize the human touch. A great many people currently working in securitization permanently dissapear. The CFA/CPA/MBA's discover that the road to wealth is via building real businesses, NOT by trading bits of paper. The various robber barons of old were all scum, outright bastards, and masters at manipulation - but almost every one of them also ran real busuness, and used them to create monopolies wherever they could. Wealth made by building real businesses, making competitors offers they cannot refuse, and greasing the odd wheel here and there - that also built the wealth of the community around them. Customers had to be able to afford your goods/services! Interesting times coming up! SD

In the manufacturing sector, 'Just-In-Time' introduced lean manufacturing; driving productivity through the roof by cutting inventory. obsolence/wastage. and labour reliability/usage via robotics. As long as you had repetitive unchanging tasks, and volume - automation was an obvious choice. In the service sector, blockchain/smart contracts do the same thing. In the banking sector, defi apps do almost everything a branch does - cheaper, faster, with broader reach and more consistent service. At most, we need maybe 1 in 7 seven existing branches, that exist just for the big items; processing centers where you sign your mortgage, etc - one cental location, costs split between 2-3 banks. Today's 'old folks' insisting upon using branches, using nursing homes in < 10 years. Branches as melting ice cubes. Lean manufacturing works best if you have free trade, and secure robust supply chains. It's a great solution 80% of the time, and much of the displaced workforce went to services. We've since discovered that its not so hot the remaining 20% of the time ..... and it remains a mystery as to what we do with the resultant millions of displaced service workers. Guaranteed minimum income is raised for a reason, as everyone starting their own little businesses - is cummulatively just not the same thing. Tech is starting to bite, and employers just have no idea. Opportunites SD

It's an undesirable branch land job, a less desirable employer, and poorly paid - the labour pool is just voting with its feet ... Most people still need to work, benefits have/are running out, yet the best they could do is 2 applicants in 2 months? It must be offering a truly sh1te comp package! Inflation is here, it's aggressive, and the dinosours are in denial. Relative to most other employers, bank benefits are already very good, so .... if Wells actually wants to hire staff, it's going to have to offer a lot higher pay. Inflation. SD

The drug dealer just collects payments in paper bills, money launders, then simply uses the banking system - same as everyone else. Pays around 3-5% commission to money launder, 20-25% for security (people, busts, bribes, infrastructure, etc). Cost wise, moving money around via BTC is a dirt cheap alternative, and simply smart business. Bribes are paid in USD, Euro, Pounds, etc for a reason! everyone wants the money, and it thins down the accumulating bales of paper bills Buy a BTC ETF, or a CME crtpto derivative, and you are not generally subject to the enhanced KYC rules - exempting much of the retail demand for BTC. If you want to transact in BTC directly you're usually a dealer, and the primary regulatory concern is money-laundering. Ongoing decision as to cost vs benefit. Political risk no different to what it has always been, just more diluted over more players. No change in the well-worn solutions either (bribes, extortion, coercion, etc.) SD

Value investors are just frustrated, because BTC is like no other asset. No CF to discount, therefore no value. No comparables, therefore no value. Unquantifiable demand vs a fixed supply, therefore no predictability. The nearest 'understandable' high-level comp? it's a tulip! its a ponzi scheme!, its a fools purchase!! Chuckle, chuckle, and move on! The reality is that a good chunk of the BTC demand is simply a version of crowd funding - putting money up simply 'cause its a good idea, goddam socialists!. Break a BTC into enough units (Satoshi) and each Satoshi becomes the equivalent of a dirt cheap Green Bay Packers Certificate. $5 for 5 certificates to put on my wall, prices each at $1 - not a big stretch for anyone. Price a Satoshi at 10 for 1c, the same way a Green Bay Packers Certificate is priced, and a BTC is worth 100K. Network effect. SD

The real problem is that WTI has been unsustainably manipulated downward via the existing SPR release, which is coming to an end. Over the last few weeks, the mild inventory builds have largely been attributable to the average weekly 2M/bbl week SPR release, and incremental demand is now rapidly drawing that down. OPEC has been releasing an incremental 400K/bbl per day per month, from Sep-Dec. Thereafter, incremental releases stop, as both OPEC/Russia believe the market will be close to oversupply (resumption of covid lockdowns in Europe). The current 2M/bbl week SPR release (20M/10wk total), is 285K bbl/day. Prices will continue rising, and the administration needs someone to blame. The only folks currently benefitting are o/g bankers getting their loans repaid, and o/g shareholders. Not enough votes. SD

Just to throw in some reality .... It is highly likely that the BC (& elsewhere) flooding is going to generate all kinds of big claims, that will burn through the vaious reinsurance tranches. Additionally, most would expect that as a Cdn Reinsurer, Odyssey very likely has disproportionatly more exposure to Cdn risk, and the BC claims. If you expect both the Odyssey Q42021 to suck (BC claims), and the whole 2021 to suck (BC fires AND floods), the issuer bid looks very good. FFH gets the shares ..... Q4 is the make/break quarter for the years performance. Given the fire/flood, most would expect FFH to show an UW loss for 2021, and that UW losses offset a good chunk of investment gains. Just burnt 10B to increase exposure to future UW losses! what is it wiith these people! Just can't win with FFH! Market sentiment unlikely to support an ongoing higher share price in the short-term voting machinery. It's mid November .... Now an enterprizing lad ........ might take the opportunity to do a round trip wash sale - buying back over the festive season, at low prices, in a nice thin market Harvest a tax loss? book a round trip gain? and set-up for the once/yr dividend paid in January? Pretty hard to see how one walks away with < 10-15%. SD

Technically, one can't reliably short BTC without using CME futures. Why the CME? Collection on your expected obscene MTM gain is guaranteed, whereas on a backstreet 'exchange' ... not so much! SD

You're simply showing your age! Obviously ... the BTC is the more valuable - 'cause I can short the hell out of the sucker!! The Green Bay certificates is just a direct crowd-fund. Same result, but a lot more efficient than selling branded merch at inflated prices to pocket the gains. Network monetization that 'old school' capitalist just do not get SD

The quote is specific to BTC, and the fixed 21M supply of BTC. Nothing to do with the hyper-ledger. Crypto is a network business. The hyperledger is a monopoly single network, spanning the entire world, collectively built and maintained (regulated?) by the worlds major nations. And .... if you have the biggest, and the most effective network, you set the market minimum price and conditions of use. Of course, nobody is forced to use the hyperledger. If one goes elsewhere, one just pays a higher transaction price for the same or similar utility - hence a entity using ETH has a commercial incentive to move to the hyperledger. However everything on the hyperledger is trackable; if one wishes to transact without a track, one needs alternatives - but they cost. Each with its own pro's/con's depending on the requirement The Hawala & Chiti systems aren't going away anytime soon. SD

Ultimately, the hyperledger/IoT, will displace much of the functionality of ETH. The hyperledger infrastructure progressively cascading down to lower and lower level applications as scaling increases and unit costs drop. Payment processes, smart contracts, blockchain delivery - all as fully integrated components of the hyperledger infrastructure backbone. Not that dissimilar to todays ubiquitous suite of Microsoft product. The hyperleger is still very esoteric today, and very expensive - but it is rapidly changing. Blockchain and smart-contracts are fully integral components, payment is a work in progess. roll-outs progessively release via the cloud. While ETH is todays low cost solution, its eventual commercial obsolecence is enevitable. A good 10 years to run - how much longer depends on ETH's ongoing development between now and then. So what? We are looking at tech solutions with a very limited life; at best they eat the smaller fish, and sell out to a bigger one. Resulting in the most cost effective horse & buggy manufacturer the world has ever seen - but just before the advent of the motor car. Then there is BTC ..... everyone insistimg they must be able to pay for things with BTC (medium of exchange) ... and totally missing that its real value is unit of account, and store of value. SD

The fed is mamipulating the yield curve by artificallly altering the supply/demand of money at all points along the curve. Mechanically, it means cut the supply of money by enough to raise bond prices at that maturity, and lower the YTM. The reduction in YTM offsetting the increase in CPI, to produce no net change. Our earlier mechanics were described incorrectly, but we are saying the same thing. Some argue that demand for money is similar to the C +I + G +(X-M) of total demand. When the yield curve isn't changing, the total demand for money must equal the total supply, and net growth over the four components must equal zero. When the condition is present, one can test each component against independent observation, and draw conclusions. We know that growth in C + G has been high, therefore it must be low in I + (X-M), We know supply chain issues have worsened, and that current US activity is nearing pre-covid levels - so (X-M) must already be quite negative, and about to get worse as imports rise. The mystery is I Just a different assessment and POV. SD

The bond market is speaking very loudly - we just don’t want to hear the message. Confidence in central bank ability to manage the moving parts. The yield curve didn’t move up on rising inflation data; because a sudden new supply of money across the curve, offset the inflation impact. Supply > demand at all terms, dropped the interest rate at each term – by the change in the inflation rate i.e.: Central bank management. The only way there is minimal inflation impact is if CPI (Consumer) inflation is being offset by deflation in the I, G, or (X-M) of total demand. C is very large and growing at the CPI rate, G clearly isn’t shrinking – so there must be material deflation in both I and (X-M). Total deflation so large - that without a very inflated C+G, the yield curve could even be negative. Compare 12-month growth in totals today, against what they were a year ago. Both US refining demand and labour force capacity is essentially back to what it was pre-covid. Yet post covid recovery activity has barely started (travel, infrastructure, etc.), and US energy prices cannot be meaningfully contained without US exports essentially being discontinued. Further reducing (X-M). The mystery is I. At some point it will arrive with a vengeance, forcing the G and (X-M) to compensate. The central bank is expecting M (supply chains normalizing) and lower social net payments (G) to do most of the heavy lift. The takeaways? No reason to be overly concerned, re a pending market correction. CPI probably going higher, crude oil exports curtailed, widening WTI-Brent spread. Green infrastructure investment as soon as possible. SD

Nothing wrong with the logic. Change the island to El Savaldor, change the USD to Colon, and you have real life as it is today. Those without access to BTC use ever greater denominations of Colon to buy goods, against a supply of goods that continually gets cut back as nobody wants the toilet paper, pushing the Island into hyper inflation. Islanders need someone to blame, leadership gets permanently replaced, the currency resets to parity, and the process repeats itself. Those with BTC get whatever goods they want and at ever discounted prices - as too many sellers are competing for a declining demand paying in BTC. The result being that you get to live a very nice life, at the top of the social pyramid. SD

Most who do this have a foreign account, tied to their foreign address. i.e: A London brokerage account tied to a UK address. Used to be that you just called the foreign broker, and had them place the trade via your foreign account. Today, you just log onto their platform and place the trade yourself, same as you would do were you in NA. Modern twist on correspondent banking, and materially cheaper. SD

Crypto currency produces network inflation, which is somehat different. As Sunrider explains. I give you 60,000 USD, you give me 1 BTC. Simplified; if you got your 1 BTC via a 40,000 USD purchase from someone else - we're just exchanging USD with no impact on inflation. You're up 20,000 USD, but there is no change in the total 60,000 USD in circulation. However there were 2 transactions, and each of them generated a small new release of BTC to pay the miners who verified them. Until BTC hits the 21M cap, there is now more spendable BTC than there was, and inflation. The more activity the bigger the cummulative release of new BTC, and the more inflation. New token release/transaction is controlled, network volume is not. Most developers will immediatly spend any USD raised on development, raising the velocity of those USD in circulation. The more endemic/popular crypto becomes, the more USD raised, the more higher velocity money in circulation, and the faster the speed (spend it as fast as you can, before it stops). Network effect. It is uncertain as to what happens around stable coin where one leg is pegged to USD, other than its a developing grey rhino. If everything works as advertised there should be no effect, if there's a bad actor ...... Replace the stable coin with a US CBDC derisks the grey rhino. Not a popular view in the US, but a largely minority one. SD

Sure ... to the dinosour without much runway left (or a short investment horizon), it's a tulip. But .... If you're going to have to live with the underlying blockchain technology - it's a little bit different. BTC has a fixed limit of 21M token, after which the cost of the processing is paid directly by the buyer/seller vs a release of new coin. There are a variety of views on just how 'hard' the 21M cap actually is ..... most expect an 'adjusted' cap at around 23-24M, re all that coin tied up in accounts where the key has been lost. When you have to pay for your transaction and the cost is in the hundreds, is a BTC likely to still be trading at USD 60K+ ??? The more BTC ETF's the greater the possibility SD

Where you can, leave your money in the pension scheme/plan. The sponsor typically covers some of the ongoing costs, and most are not going to do better elsewhere. Some folks are just naturally very good at turning a profit; but they are almost all outlyers, street smart, and have been from a very young age. And whichever side of the law, the cream rises to the top. Boiler maker or silver spoon! Folks have to find their own path; almost always it's learn to trust your decisions, think independently, and think on your feet - then it's just fun! Look around you; including yourself, maybe 5-15% would make the cut? If it is > 50%, you are keeping the wrong company! SD

People have long been convinced that if you have a few bucks, you should 'invest' it. Once past the clothes, the car, the good time, the ETF seems a good idea. Buy ANY investment vs just spend the money, and you're ahead! Fees are not a consideration, the rest is just exploitation. Most people are financially illiterate; they can instantly google, tell you what everything is, and even how to apply it! but there is ZERO context. Very little if any consideration of relative risk, value-add, or alternatives - ZERO maturity. Most people have mortgages, credit lines, credit card debt, etc. While it may be obvious to us that simply applying the ETF capital directly against debt would produce a better result, to most it is just too much of a reach. Can't see the resultant lower monthly payments, resultant diminished stress, etc. SD