Bitcoin

[nowaysj]

http://rt.com/business/radtke-bitcoin-d ... apore-134/

A young American woman who ran the First Meta bitcoin exchange was found dead in her Singapore apartment last week. Police are investigating the “unnatural death”.

Autumn Radtke was found on the morning of February 26 after Police received an emergency call from an apartment building. She was pronounced dead at the scene. A preliminary police investigation has ruled out foul play, but neighbors told police they suspected Radtke jumped from an apartment.

First Meta Ltd. issued a statement on its website, saying they were ‘shocked and saddened’ by the news and gave their deepest condolences to Radtke’s family.

"The First Meta team is shocked and saddened by the tragic loss of our friend and CEO Autumn Radtke. Our deepest condolences go out to her family, friends and loved ones. Autumn was an inspiration to all of us and she will be sorely missed,” the statement said.

The death of the 28-year old followed a tumultuous week for the virtual currency. Mt.Gox, once bitcoin’s largest online exchange filed for bankruptcy on February 28 after $63 million worth of bitcoin went missing. The headline-grabbing currency has been shrouded in controversy since.

Prices fell sharply, and the day Mt.Gox closed, the cryptocurrency was listed at $565, less than half its value in November.

Neighbor and fellow bitcoin start-up entrepreneur Steve Beauregard lived in the same residential complex as Radtke and said her death wasn’t related to her business. Beauregard is the CEO and founder of GoCoin, a bitcoin processer started in April 2013.

"This wasn't a bitcoin-related death. She had other things going on in her life. Collectively, there were a lot of small factors. ... It appears she picked a permanent solution to a lot of short term problems," Beauregard told Reuters.

First Meta is an online exchange for virtual currencies and real money, and is funded by Silicon Valley incubator Plug and Play.

Scott Robinson, an employee at Plug and Play, described Radtke as ambitious, "She was a go-getter, she always worked very hard ... she stuck out as one of the only women representing bitcoin."

Like many governments, Singapore doesn’t recognize the legitimacy of the bitcoin currency, and has said they are not legal tender and users should know the risks.

Singapore has long attracted a large expatriate community because of the special tax exemptions it can offer as an independent state and has favorable conditions for start-ups.

Radtke moved from California to Singapore in 2012, where previously she worked at a video game currency start-up company. According to her LinkedIn professional profile, she held positions at tech start ups Xfire and Geodelic Systems.

[didi]

this is sick

need to learn more

[soulkids]

bitcoin is really interesting and i'm sure we'll see much more going on in terms of cryptocurrencies in the next few years.

however, i'm a bit skeptic of this technoliberterianism (see max keiser) which claims that thru these new currencies we will be able to overthrow fiat money, corporate banking and global finance.

[Phigure]

bitcoin is really interesting and i'm sure we'll see much more going on in terms of cryptocurrencies in the next few years.

however, i'm a bit skeptic of this technoliberterianism (see max keiser) which claims that thru these new currencies we will be able to overthrow fiat money, corporate banking and global finance.

yeah I definitely agree, anyone who thinks this will get rid of banks and/or regular money is delusional.

first of all it's gonna take another decade or so until the infrastructure and advancement gets to the point that it's even usable for the average tech illiterate person, and even then I doubt it will ever replace traditional financial institutions.

at best it will be analogous to email vs regular mail, just because email exists doesn't mean that no one is going to send normal mail either. for the foreseeable future I think it will dominate the few niches where it excels (micropayments/tipping, international money transfers like western union, anonymous transactions like silk road, store of wealth alternative to gold, and online purchases)

[nowaysj]

Don't forget speculation.

[Phigure]

cant believe i forgot that one... unfortunately the volatility will end eventually when the supply cap is approached and there's decent sized economy



also i figure it's been in the media enough to not have to post about it, but newsweek published an article about how they think satoshi is a 64 year old living in LA whose name is dorian satoshi nakamoto. no real evidence, all circumstantial. poor guy gets harassed by reporters coming to his house. even if it is him, he's obviously been deliberate about avoiding the public spotlight, so fuck newsweek



shortly after, satoshi posted from one of his known accounts for the first time since 2011 and said "i am not dorian nakamoto." not that that proves anything either though, besides that the "real" satoshi, whoever he is, is still alive (and possibly still has the private keys to the ~1million bitcoins he originally mined?!)

[nowaysj]

Hey Phig, hook me up with a million bitcoins, okay G? I'd buy you a department of physics somewhere, your choice.

As an aside, what are your larger goals with that physics degree?

[Phigure]

probably wont end up at a job doing actual physics cause theyre kinda rare outside academia. medical physics would definitely be cool (running mini particle accelerators for radiation therapy), but otherwise its mostly down to what options i have tbh

it's applicable to a lot of fields but the job market for physics majors is so diverse that setting your mind on one specific occupation will probably leave you disappointed. a lot of physics majors end up in finance but i don't know if id ever forgive myself for working in that industry and helping to funnel even more money up to the rich

[nowaysj]

My pops did a physics degree in NY, with that degree he started driving cabs. But ended up, in computer hardware, IT, then management in the then worlds largest pharma, and ultimately a partnership in a lucrative consulting firm.

[Phigure]

ahh so you already know how it is

seems like things havent changed much then haha

[nowaysj]

Yeah, just wondering what you are thinking about, anticipating. Should ask you again in a coupla years.

[soulkids]

breh go to goldman's, they hiring

jokes aside: with a physics degree you have better chances landing up anywhere in the financial industry than with a degree in finance or an mba. with finance becoming more and more automated (and shifting beyond the speed of light) you'd easily get a job at an algorithmic trading desk.


re speculation: that's the thing. as of now, bitcoin does a poor job at being a currency. yes there are lots of outlets where you can use bitcoin, payment services that balance out volatility to a certain extent but I don't see bitcoin being anywhere near 'a store of value'. its practical use is marginal at best.
BC is great for speculation, you can make a shitload of money within a few days or even within a day. and its probably still great investment.

finally, afaik the cap at 21 million within the blockchain can be altered arbitrarily as long as every miner accepts the changes (?).

[nowaysj]

Okay, so this nutter says:

I am no longer involved in that and I cannot discuss it

In reference to Bitcoin, or what became Bitcoin.

But then to later clarify that he wasn't the founder, or the originator, or worked on the foundation of Bitcoin, he says:

I'm saying I'm no longer in engineering. That's it.

OH! Okay, I got you.


He then goes on to say:

And even if I was, when we get hired, you have to sign this document, contract saying you will not reveal anything we divulge during and after employment. So that's what I implied.

Oh, I get it. You are telling us you signed an NDA and can't discuss the issue, and can't even confirm that you were involved.

Got you. Wink wink.

[hugh]

breh go to goldman's, they hiring

jokes aside: with a physics degree you have better chances landing up anywhere in the financial industry than with a degree in finance or an mba. with finance becoming more and more automated (and shifting beyond the speed of light) you'd easily get a job at an algorithmic trading desk.


re speculation: that's the thing. as of now, bitcoin does a poor job at being a currency. yes there are lots of outlets where you can use bitcoin, payment services that balance out volatility to a certain extent but I don't see bitcoin being anywhere near 'a store of value'. its practical use is marginal at best.
BC is great for speculation, you can make a shitload of money within a few days or even within a day. and its probably still great investment.

finally, afaik the cap at 21 million within the blockchain can be altered arbitrarily as long as every miner accepts the changes (?).

Isn't people "using bitcoin to make a shitload of money" the sort of attitude bitcoin was invented to fight against in the first place?

Its just a bullshit speculation currency that has no real value or insurance of value. It's only hype that gets people to buy into it and it's incredibly volatile from what I've seen so far.
I saw on the news a few weeks ago some dude losts hundreds of thousands of £ in bitcoins and was standing outside some abandoned building where supposedly the company was set up that held them for him. It was some shitty abandoned building in the middle of nowhere. I felt the vacuousness of the situation was a pretty good metaphor for bitcoin.

I really feel sorry for some people I suppose but personally I wouldn't trust bitcoin more than I trust any form of speculative investment.

[Phigure]

Isn't people "using bitcoin to make a shitload of money" the sort of attitude bitcoin was invented to fight against in the first place?

well, it depends a lot on how you define "making a shitload of money". the intention was to create a currency that wasn't controlled by a central power, so that the central figure cant manipulate the currency for unfair purposes.

people getting rich off bitcoin got rich because they believed bitcoin had value, and then the price of bitcoin relative to the dollar increased to reflect that value. there's no unfair manipulation happening here, no one was being taken advantage of in order to make that money.

Its just a bullshit speculation currency that has no real value or insurance of value. It's only hype that gets people to buy into it and it's incredibly volatile from what I've seen so far.
I saw on the news a few weeks ago some dude losts hundreds of thousands of £ in bitcoins and was standing outside some abandoned building where supposedly the company was set up that held them for him. It was some shitty abandoned building in the middle of nowhere. I felt the vacuousness of the situation was a pretty good metaphor for bitcoin.

yeah, it is highly speculative right now. but i don't see why that's a bad thing. speculation is what has driven the price up historically, price increases have created publicity, and publicity leads to more widespread adoption and a better bitcoin economy. bitcoin's volatility was expected by the creator when he wrote the paper on it, it will subside when it grows larger

also the idea that it doesn't have value or the criticism that it doesnt have an insurance of value are common myths/misconceptions. what gives the dollar value? what gives a pound value? NOTHING, aside from the fact that you know that someone else is willing to pay you / exchange something else for it (and the arbitrary declaration of that country's government that its currency is legal tender)

if you would've read the last 2 or 3 pages you would've seen me explaining that situation you mentioned about MtGox, the exchange that claims to have lost users money. what you missed is that this company has been accused of shady practices and people have been warned not to do business with them since ~2011. people lost their money because they chose to put their trust in a shady institution, not because of any intrinsic flaws in bitcoin. i don't see how the practices of one business actually have anything to do with the strengths or weaknesses of the underlying technology. "regular" banks and financial institutions commit fraud of far greater amounts on a regular basis, does that mean that the dollar/pound/whatever is unsafe?

[Phigure]

i know this is a little preachy, but the thing you have to understand with bitcoin is that it's more than just a currency. it's like saying the internet is just websites, when really it's a complicated network built on data exchange protocols like UDP, TCP, DNS, etc, that makes those websites possible. if a website gets hacked and customers' private data is stolen, does that mean the internet is broken? (no)

When it comes to Bitcoin, there's:
Bitcoin, the protocol/software/technology (like the internet is a series of data transfer protocols)
Bitcoin, the payment network (virtually instant global, international transactions with near 0 fees)
Bitcoin, the currency, which is exchanged in the network through use of the protocol/software

the currency has value because the protocol and network allow it to do things that are pretty much unprecedented when compared to "regular" money. i won't delve in to them unless you want me to, but the programmable nature of bitcoin means that bitcoin has the ability to change the way that money works in the same way that the internet revolutionized how communication and sending data worked.

if you want to take advantage of the features and innovations of the bitcoin protocol/network, then you need to use bitcoin the currency. and that's where it directly gets value from (which is arguably just as good as a backing as with any fiat currency)

[nowaysj]

Would also like to point out that there has been a fairly substantial bank run this week in the US, as russian capital is fleeing the west. Something like 100 billion in us treasuries were sold. Pretty substantial dude.

[Phigure]

wow yeah, surprised i hadnt heard of it until you mentioned it

http://blogs.wsj.com/moneybeat/2014/03/ ... -holdings/


its important to note that they havent sold the bonds, they just moved them out of the fed's holdings (obviously in anticipation of heated US/russia relations in the future)

[nowaysj]

[_ronzlo_]

Now there's Bitcoin Ecstasy.

http://reason.com/blog/2014/03/25/bitco ... -in-europe