Gold collapsing. Bitcoin UP.

[BldSwtTrs]

This is going to be fun to watch.

I despise him.

 

[Norway]

Details:
If you haven’t booked the conference Satoshi’s Vision yet, now is the time to do it, there are just a few tickets left. Contact Mengerian or Solex if you are a BU member for a 50% discount code.

The japanese are very strict about not showing up late, so we will all meet up outside Shimokitazawa South Exit at 16:40 sharp and walk to the izakaya as a group.

The restaurant is here:
https://goo.gl/maps/LLQpowpF3x92

Info about the restaurant:
https://tokyocheapo.com/food-and-drink/drinking/hanbey-cheap-trip-back-showa-period/

After the izakaya, we will try to hook up with Tokyo Bitcoin Cash Meetup. The details around this are not clear yet as the meetup venue might be too small, but I’m in contact with Ken Shishido to work this out.

 

[AdrianX]

This is an amazing correlation, I was going to add that there are 5 stages and the first starts with denial and add this tweet. But it's the 5th stage "Acceptance" that's missing.

A bigger question is if Cobra will now be censored as we all were, and if the original GCBU thread will be unlocked (not that I will waste my time there again).

Edit: They guy is a snake and I'll never trust him after the authoritative stuff he has pulled, but his conversion seems to be slowly happening. It is probably important to remember that for Bitcoin Cash to win, in the end we need many of the people we've been warring with to eventually come over.

 

[AdrianX]

There are some seriously crazy things happening on Twitter. It is time for decentralized control.

Worth noting for some reason I've been shadow banned on twitter, my replies are invisible, and if I ping people, they are not notified.


and this

 

[Justus Ranvier]

“The illusion of freedom will continue as long as it's profitable to continue the illusion. At the point where the illusion becomes too expensive to maintain, they will just take down the scenery, they will pull back the curtains, they will move the tables and chairs out of the way and you will see the brick wall at the back of the theater.”

 

[MarkBLundeberg]

In case anyone was wondering just why Cobra decided to start being nice to Bitcoin Cash... no ulterior motive, no sir!

 

[rocks]

In the near future, the era that centralized services like @Twitter prevailed and still had the authority to shut us down at will will be perceived as the Dark Ages of the Internet Revolution.

As much as I'd like to believe George's quote is accurate, I fear the reality is most of society no longer believes in the ideals of free speech and with it both the free flow of ideas and the right to offend, and instead favors suppressing non-mainstream ideas in order to "protect" people from "abuse". The majority is shifting towards the complete abandonment of the ideals of Western enlightenment, largely because we only educate the next generation on its few imperfections, while ignoring all of the elements that made it great and better than all other societies in history.

For example, in most of the western world you will be arrested for simply criticizing islam, while at the same time just to exist as a Christian in many islamic countries is a crime. The only thing holding back the tide in the US is the Bill of Rights, but most rights have already been trampled and just look at the current popular willingness to toss 2A out with zero understanding on what that implies. Look at China's use of social media "points" to push people towards "right-think" that is determined by the party. That is where everything is headed. What we saw by theymos and core's censorship and their success with it is a small demonstration of what I fear is to come.

 

[Justus Ranvier]

@rocks Somewhere many pages back in this thread I described present events as "fractal social conflict."

That means the same patterns of conflict simultaneously manifesting at all scales of social interaction.

It's gone well past the point at which peaceful resolution is possible - rather than a population divided into groups that disagree on policy we live among populations divided into groups that disagree about reality.

It's going to end in world/civil war because violence is the only way to resolve disputes between groups or individuals who don't share a common epistemology.

 

[lunar]

@Justus Ranvier @rocks

Agree on the prognosis, fortunately Im a little more optimistic about the solution.

Free speech will prevail, decentralise ALL things. They can't stop the signal.

 

[AdrianX]

@Justus Ranvier that's one possibility, there are a few outcomes that result in a similar outcome - a rapid simplification of complex society.

There are others too, extrapolating on one of Daniel Krawisz's ideas that someone will eventually take advantage of those who follow and don't think for themselves.

We have very powerful new ways to organize, and not everyone is susceptible to the illusions of reality and not all of the reorganizing results in conflict. While those who don't think independently may find themselves disposable, it need not be overall negative.

 

[rocks]

rather than a population divided into groups that disagree on policy we live among populations divided into groups that disagree about reality.

It's going to end in world/civil war because violence is the only way to resolve disputes between groups or individuals who don't share a common epistemology.

That is a very accurate way to phrase the underlying issue IMHO.

The American Experiment is fundamentally an experiment in resolving differences through a political process, where individuals have the full freedom to express themselves, try to win others to their cause and most importantly accept the results of a political process without violence. This is only possible with fully free and unencumbered speech.

If you deny individuals free speech, you are actually denying them participation in the political process, with the result being the only remaining option to participate is through the sword.

And this is what many do not understand. When you suppress speech of those you disagree with by censoring them from online platforms, taking over and blocking employment in numerous industries (education, news, entertainment, much of corporate America) unless they express "mainstream" views, calling them climate deniers or anything else to shut debate down, you in effect are telling those you disagree with that you no longer accept them as having a voice in the political process and also are telling them the sword is both their only option and a valid option.

It is not the people being censored who choose the sword, it is the people actively censoring others who are choosing the sword. And I suspect the political groups who are performing the censoring today will be shocked and unprepared for when that sword is taken up. In Bitcoin the sword option came in the form of a software fork, in the real political world it will come as a literal sword...

 

[hodl]

There are some seriously crazy things happening on Twitter. It is time for decentralized control.

Worth noting for some reason I've been shadow banned on twitter, my replies are invisible, and if I ping people, they are not notified.


and this

Looks like my Twitter banning a couple of months ago was the beginning of things to come. I knew some bad shit was up:

https://twitter.com/Bitcoin?s=01

 

[KoKansei]

@rocks, @Justus Ranvier, @lunar, @AdrianX and anyone else interested in how the brainwashed masses can easily fall into the trap of thinking that censoring political speech is harmless and the state can and should make laws controlling the acceptable range of discourse might find this recent thread in /r/japan interesting.

Talking with people like those in the above thread is incredibly frustrating because they just repeat the same fallacies over and over again (certain ideas are dangerous, we need to give the government the power to control speech because people don't know any better, there are no consequences to violent responses to peaceful behavior, etc.). They also don't seem to understand that censoring political speech is not the same as punishing IRL harassment.

I agree that it is hard not to be pessimistic about our prospects of avoiding a violent resolution to this problem, but I try and keep two things in mind:

(1) The most vocal are not necessarily representative of the thoughts of the majority. Indeed, the majority likely has no opinion on the subject whatsoever.

(2) Because of the current paradigm, those who would condemn free speech feel empowered (particularly on the left) to advocate for their twisted ideas, while those on the other side of the debate likely self-censor because if their opinions are discovered by the wrong people they will be materially punished.

 

[hodl]

i think that @Jihan should consider joining the BDPL as a way to decrease the resistance to other miners from mining BCH and core trolls from using BCH. since Segwit prevents AB from working on the BTC chain, it has been used by core trolls as an argument to stay away from the "Bitmain controlled BCH chain b/c AB". we all may have underestimated how effective this argument has been and is currently preventing usage of BCH. by joining BDPL, Bitmain joins Little Dragon (presumably owned by Timo Hanke and Sergio) in offering up it's China patent to competing miners. and why not, since Chinese miners are being forced to relocate outside of China anyways, the only place where Bitmain has been granted the patent afaik. and certainly Bitmain and Viabtc have mined alot of BCH whose price they would like to see rise. the incentive of gaining 20-30% more power efficiency should be a powerful force to get other miners to join BDPL while offering up their own patents to the mix, while maybe encouraging more of them to mine BCH on a more perceived even footing, even though there doesn't appear to be any evidence of Bitmain using AB on either chain. but none of us can be sure Bitmain isn't using AB b/c of the possibility of covert AB. as well, by joining BDPL, Bitmain won't have to deal with Little Dragon's AB patent worldwide (Canada, etc). and then there is the overarching general diffusion of the hardware patent wars that BDPL may afford. i think this is a smart move by Little Dragon to maintain the decentralization of Bitcoin in general.

The plot thickens https://bitcoinmagazine.com/articles/slush-pool-now-compatible-asicboost-miners/
[doublepost=1520434216,1520433062][/doublepost]@Jihan isn't going to have much choice unless he wants to violate the more widely applicable patent pending license :

"Additionally ckpool and Bitcoin India have since enabled support"

https://halongmining.com/blog/

Is it true, btw, that Blockstream owns Halongmining?

 

[Zarathustra]

@rocks,

I agree that it is hard not to be pessimistic about our prospects of avoiding a violent resolution to this problem, but I try and keep two things in mind:

(1) The most vocal are not necessarily representative of the thoughts of the majority. Indeed, the majority likely has no opinion on the subject whatsoever.

(2) Because of the current paradigm, those who would condemn free speech feel empowered (particularly on the left) to advocate for their twisted ideas, while those on the other side of the debate likely self-censor because if their opinions are discovered by the wrong people they will be materially punished.

Ring the bell that still can ring
Forget your perfect offering
There is a crack in every thing -
that's how the light gets in.

[MEDIA=youtube]BCS_MwkWzes[/MEDIA]

 

[hodl]

So we see the narrative from core change once again. At first it was "AB is bad". Now it's ;

"We never said AB was bad, just that covert AB is bad ".

 

[Justus Ranvier]

I should patent an application of the Jim Bell protocol specifically tailored to the problem of resolving patent disputes.

 

[awemany]

Interesting read, these comments here about conflicts and the general political climate.

I don't think it is at all by chance that the crypto 'bubble' now and the increasing political tension in the west seem to coincide. I also sense an acceleration of the latter, especially in the last few weeks.

@rocks: Excellent points.

Let me echo @lunar's optimistic view of the situation here a bit. I think this might happen largely peacefully. Largely meaning that I think it might still be wise to avoid (esp. European) city centers in the upcoming months while seeing the futility (both in an optimistic and pessimistic scenario, actually) of becoming a full "prepper".

Quite a few folks take the sword over introspection and a realignment to reality when facing corresponding dissonances in their world views.

I am still optimistic that the majority of leaders has or will in some sense realize that this won't work, though.

 

[Norway]

I just invited Adam Back and Elizabeth Stark to the izakaya in Tokyo in this tweet. Please retweet if you think it's funny!

 

[AdrianX]

This is the craziest thing to happen to me all day. I am still laughing.


click the youtube link it's worth it.