as is traditional, one of our corporate innovators seeks to protect citizens (never simply consumers, no, no!) with a defensive patent - sure to now be locked away in a safe until natural corporate patent expiration 1000 years hence.

now and forevermore we shalll sing in praise of this beneficent corporate citizen and their efficacious lawyerly thrust deep into the heart of our once inevitable (but now vanquished) future boring dystopia of ads beamed directly into our brains 24/7.

so it got backdoored, or QA is trash or both at the same time. hate it when CI builds come so fast you cant verify the latest shipping rootkit

phew! good thing I still have a few 386sx AMI BIOS boards handy. no ones shopping around zero days on those anymore, right?

termux is absolutely fantastic. if you like a nice, clean CLI then run (don’t walk) to f-droid and install.

well, perhaps. but there are a plethora of escape routes if/when it gets too bad for them.

hey, windows users… your OS actively hates you!

that is all.

yeah. that bullshit is long gone and buried.

yeah, I really don’t need this in my life.

CyberPower CP1500AVRLCD (various version iterations) UPS units have been cheap, reliable go-to choices in many instances.

they are stepped square-wave units, but are used quite a bit in home-lab setups and are pretty well supported by NUT if you are on linux.

edit: I have used them for years to replace APC units. only issue has been cosmetic input voltage vs output voltage reporting mismatch via USB on very early v1 units.

I am a huge proponent of user anonymity and strong end-to-end public-key cryptography based on open standards.

as am I - and I think hard digital assets fit pretty well into that ethos.

for the transfer of a specific type of value between people, i think hard digital assets are needed and worthwhile (bitcoin is one, but not the only, example of this). perhaps this is simply a fundamental differing of opinion/perspective? if so, then I really appreciate your good faith engagement in this discussion (they are rare on any forum) and we’ll just agree to disagree? I am still game to discuss at any time. just let me know.

edit: completion of thought

what if we were to take all of the labels away? no currency label, no commodity or security label. what then? do the intrinsic properties (censorship resistance, immutable, near instant, distributed, decentralized, fixed supply, etc) of a hard digital asset have value to you? does the ability to send some mutually agreed value to another person “instantly” and without intermediary financial friction have value to you?

I would say these intrinsic properties have value to many people. I am not tryng to convince anyone to do anything, but I am trying to rebut the (intentionally?) confusing comparison of the these digital assets to things that they they are clearly not.

perhaps its not. thats what the bill proposes to investigate. hopefully, there will be an intelligent, well reasoned analysis behind whatever recommendation is made. i guess we shall see, if the bill passes.

why are you conflating bitcoin (or any other “hard” cryptcurrency) with a “market”? I completely agree wrt unregulated markets (its a s*it-show) and I think most people involved would say regulated markets are vital, but the underlying asset being traded is not a ponzi.

can you name another class of asset that allows for the level of frictionless utility that a real cryptocurrency does? there is intrinsic value in the attributes of real crypto - that is what I think we are discussing here.

it may come to be that “hard” cryptocurrency is unable to survive all of the shenanigans that plague all markets and, if so, lessons will be learned - but to call the concept (or the technology that supports it), as is done regularly in these spaces, a ponzi or a beanie baby is simply not correct, imo.

edit: word

or MtG cards

anyone who knows the very early history of bitcoin public markets will see what you did there. i LOLd – well played!

market manipulation exists with any asset, including national currencies. I would also take the security of self custodied crypto by a long shot.

edit: your madoff comment impies an intrinsic ponzi scheme that simply does not exist in genuine cryptocurrencies. we can discuss the distribution dynamics of current crypto, but thats not an.inherent ponzi.

kneejerk reactions are, sadly, all I expect these days :-(

regardless of your personal take on energy backed, distributed, global, immutable ledgers… they are not beanie babies (or legos or tulips or any other analogy that has been used to glibly describe them).

not looking to argue, but well informed, thoughtful discussion is welcomed in the appropriate venue - this is probably not the place.

So if the creators mess with the code, people can just jump ship to a different fork.

agreed. a reddit clone atop activitypub seems to be an uneasy, but workable fit. there are many areas to improve upon, including baking in more privacy by default and solidifying the best use of the underlying protocol.

with any code from anyone, vigilance is required to ensure that the tool remains neutral. diversion from that means its fork time. the social interactions on the network appear to be “evening out” and, while some may call that gentrification, I think a social mix is required for success.

as of yet, I have not seen any sound technical argument put forward – apart from those related to the relative nascent state of the project – to put me off of it. should that change, then decisions will need to be made.

bottom line… political alignment (and even extremism) of anyone involved in the technical development process is mostly irrelevant when the social network is so much bigger than any person.

that link is a steaming pile of screeching stupidity and circle-je***ing. I… I just have no words.