News, Rants and Thoughts
There is no "The Blockchain"
Government blockchains have nothing to do with it. Tell everyone you know.
First, 2017 was the year of crypto.
I don't use Western Union and I don't use bitcoin any longer either. Like an 8-track tape, the quality and speed are just not there anymore.
Still, 2017 is the year of Crypto
Specifically December of 2017. That is when Japan made it money, China gave up on trying to ban it, Coinbase was overloaded, Youtube started showing 100% ICO and Bitcoin related ads, The USA started crushing Bittrex and Poloniex (to my knowledge) in order to get all documents of all users in order to tax those 19k-coins that people were so happy about. Yes, the USA is a buzz-kill.
Anyone who has watched at least one video on the most annoying video site, knows this guy, "Bitcoin is all over the news!"-Huff huff and I knew nothing about it till now so "Listen to me! Go to my web site." Huff huff.
source = an annoying ad
source = a still annoying ad
He tells the old pizza story that came out when bitcoin hit $100.00 - I have never sat through one of these ads and have no idea how he got his big house or cars and I don' t care.
It is crazy! The sheer quantity of ads dominating everything. Then there are the negative news items from everywhere. The same kind that got trump elected - just put the name out there 24/7 and people need to have it whether it's Trump or Bitcoin. (so glad I am out of it)
Trump Trump Trump Trump Trump Trump over and over got him elected.
Bitcoin bitcoin bitcoin... Will make people want it. They have to have it or die!
Positive press or negative press. It's all good.
It doesn't matter if it is useful for transferring money or costs more than Western Union. Makes no difference if they know how to store their private keys. Who cares if they store it all on Bittrex only to find out they can't get it out without submitting to a financial strip search.
By the way has anyone seen Andreas testifying before the Canadian Congress - an interesting watch...
So much has happened just these last 12 months. One thing for sure. Everyone knows about or has heard about Bitcoin. That's good news!
There are 33 million millionaires and bitcoin cannot even provide 1 BTC to each millionaire. What do you think that will do to the price? Even in the end (when all are mined) there will be 10 million millionaires that can't have one.
Second, "Blockchain" Means Nothing!
There is no such thing as "the blockchain" Get the word out.
Parallel: There is no such thing as "The Burger" either. As if we are all eating bites from the same actual burger. For that reason, "The Burger" must to be good, right? The rhetoric that people should flock here or run there because they have "Blockchain" - Yeah!
No, not good.
Facts
- There are thousands of blockchains.
- Every crypto has its own.
- 95% of them are open source (secure).
- 95% of them are decentralized (the only freedom loving kind).
- The rest are centralized (not safe or even useful).
A centralized blockchain may as well be an email of money!
Hackable. Traceable. Inflatable. Freezable. Seizeable. Stealable.
- Stay Away from that!
Third, Venezuela is Issuing Centralized Crypto
This needs to flop. If he can inflate 20,000 bolivars to a value of $2 then this new crypto which he owns, mines and issues will be no different. Not worth squat!
A simple Startpage search will show you what is happening. This leader thinks his coin will be "The" coin in Venezuela.
He is calling it, "The Petro" which will be al pedo (waste of time, for nothing), and it will end up being like a fart in the wind. (Pedo means fart in Venezuela talk)
So, we need to talk about centralized blockchains and expose them when people talk about their Ripple earnings and such. Get a clear understanding of what kind of crap we are being sold. Blockchain is nothing without its main feature - decentralization.
What is "The Blockchain" then?
When someone refers to anything as "The" something-or-other, they usually speak of the one that is biggest, best, most powerful, most popular, or the only known _________ (fill in the blank).
If I tell you that I spoke to "The President" the other day, your first thought is that I am lying. With good reason, it's hard to believe that I casually met Trump only days ago. I more likely am referring to the president of my tree-house club.
What is being perpetrated on the general public in the year of crypto and 2018, is a classic knock-off.
Many are talking about how they are putting your funds on "The Blockchain" so that you think your money is worth $15,000 or maybe that your money has hundreds of billions of computer graphics cards and ASICS hashing away to keep it safe.
What they really want to say is, "We copied the code and have an empty hard drive with three mined blocks on a local area network. You can't review the changes we made nor the code but we want you to buy our coin. As an added benefit, you can pay 15-40% of every coin you buy, sell or trade to the government in taxes!"
They all claim to be "on the blockchain" or "we use blockchain" but there is nothing special about blockchain. Blockchains did not do anything to secure crypto-coins.
Decentralization and confirmations over time, as blocks are created, is what keeps those $18k- coins safe. That is what solved the double-spend dilemma.
It's our job to tell everyone
That there is only one bitcoin blockchain. The government is welcome to try to get a transaction through on it. Other decentralized blockchains exist. Decentralization makes them valuable and safe from governments who only know how to inflate money and then tax you on the perceived value increase.
