Reddit: u/damianoloan
Before Reddit provided for archive exports, I used a third-party scraper to extract the comments from my now-deleted account, u/damianoloan. By my best recollection, the account was active during the period cited.
Claude: Comments scraped on 1 March 2019, oldest first. The source carried no dates, scores or subreddits, so each item keeps only its thread title, body and a position number - the ordering is the scraper’s own, reversed to read forwards.
In reply to: Mass exodus at OKCoin, something is brewing
Hi, I'm Damian mentioned in the OP. I was Product Manager (User Experience) at OKCoin until my recent resignation. I was the first of the international team to resign, the decision was my own. I was very lucky to have the opportunity to work with all of the people mentioned in the OP, they're a hugely talented set of individuals. I'm now in the UK setting up my own company, a small business not in the bitcoin space. I continue to support the growth of bitcoin though, and I hope to contribute more in future.
In reply to: OKCoin no longer managing Bitcoin.com due to contract conflict with domain owner
In the course of managing the domain Bitcoin.com, OKCoin always sought to keep a neutral stance regarding the contents of the site, working in collaboration with peers in the industry to present a fun, factual, and balanced introduction to Bitcoin. OKCoin made good on its prior obligations to Mr. Ver for managing the domain to the sum of $10,000 per month without any advertising for OKCoin. However, as Mr. Ver was incentivized to monetize the domain, OKCoin was under constant pressure to fill Bitcoin.com with advertisements in order to attempt to generate addition revenue for Mr. Ver. These pressures to our shock even included offers to redirect Bitcoin.com to our entities OKCoin.com and OKLink.com for absorbent sums which we rejected in principle. I'm Damian, I was Product Manager (UX) at OKCoin at the time the company took over custody of bitcoin.com. I can confirm the OKCoin statement is delibrately misleading. The intention of the CEO, Star Xu, was to use bitcoin.com to advertise OKCoin. I know this because he rejected my first wireframe and asked me to add 2 links to OKCoin, one on the homepage just below the navbar and another just a few hundred pixels down. I still have the wireframes. Xu's micromanagement of this project was among the reasons I left weeks later. There was no plan for quality content at any point. No plan to add value to the bitcoin ecosystem. There was only a plan to advertise OKCoin.
In reply to: OKCoin offers $20,000 USD reward for disproving Mr. Roger Ver’s forgery claim against Star Xu.
If you look at Star Xu's Sina Weibo account, you'll see there are questions and accusations, but almost no support. We are hearing from the Chinese Bitcoin community, but we shouldn't expect people to communicate their concerns in English, especially if we're not prepared to make the equivalent effort. There are many sweeping statements regarding China in these threads. There has long been an instinctive reciprocal mistrust between the bitcoin communities in the west and in China. I find it depressing and completely antithetical to the spirit of a global currency. Times like these are an opportunity to develop mutual understanding but you have to create a space where Chinese people will be respected and engaged with as equals. Ask yourself is r/bitcoin really that? Tldr: Star Xu doesn't represent China, bitcoin shouldn't lead to petty nationalism, take the chance to adopt a more nuanced worldview.
In reply to: OKCoin official announcement regarding July 10th site downtime (repost from r/bitcoin)
Given the persistent suspicion that OKCoin, Huobi and BTCChina cooperate to maintain a low price, and recently seem to be unavailable during periods of high growth only, this is far from convincing. Is there anything in this statement that proves these exchanges are under attack, and not the source of the outages? You say, "To start, blocking users from accessing or trading has zero benefits for OKCoin in any sense." But users are only blocked when the price is increasing too rapidly, leaving plenty of room for suspicion. Finally, you no longer have any international staff with sufficient technical knowledge to be sure of these claims. The one foreign member of staff remaining has no way of knowing what's actually going on here.
In reply to: OKCoin official announcement regarding July 10th site downtime (repost from r/bitcoin)
If you're asking: Why would they cooperate to maintain a low price? I'd say because the reverse would be much more difficult but either would allow for profit. Could be related to this too: https://www.reddit.com/r/BitcoinMarkets/comments/2iauh9/ohcc_exchange_partnership_and_the_fractional/
In reply to: [Daily Discussion] Monday, July 13, 2015
Mouse => 老鼠 => Lao Shu => 老徐 => Star Xu (MingXing), CEO? That mouse?
In reply to: OKCoin "Mouse is to blame for yesterday and today's DDOS attacks"
Mouse => 老鼠 => Lao Shu => 老徐 => Lao Xu, nickname of Xu MingXing (Star), CEO? That mouse?
In reply to: Nick Szabo's hidden work
Great post, much inspiration there. The final link to Multinational Small Business - "One interesting question is what small changes might bring about the phase change faster." - in light of his work on smart contracts, and the work being done by the OpenBazaar team, made my day. Second the recommendations for Nathaniel Popper's book - looking forward to the movie too.
In reply to: Disk Images or OpenBazaar Boxes
https://getaddr.bitnodes.io/hardware/ Found this through a Gavin Andresen tweet, seems relevant. Also, r/hwstartups in case it's new to anyone...
In reply to: Bitfinex account hacked - WITH 2FA authentication
Perhaps the successful login record is at the core of the problem, and is based on a false positive. I could imagine if a routine action on your account that could be performed by either yourself when logged-in, or by Bitfinex, were successfully executed, there could be an error to then conclude that you were indeed the actor and trigger the email. Just a thought.
In reply to: PM of UK David Cameron invited Blockchain as part of his commitment to ensure the UK remains leading global fintech hub
I would be very wary of the mixed messages the current government is sending regarding Bitcoin - given the quantity of discourse regarding the creation of a business community around it, it's odd to say the least that no effort appears to have been made to persuade banks in which the same government is a major investor to actually service bitcoin companies. Perhaps before the public stakes in those banks are sold off, this will change. If not, I'll remain deeply sceptical. A PR smokescreen is not a Good Thing.
In reply to: Since okcoin seems to go down if you so much as look at it the wrong way, what other exchanges offer margin trading with decently packed books?
I had no problems with 796 except a thin order book, but plenty of days it is ok. The too-high leverage available doesn't actually match the rest of the product's approach. Not the most intuitive interface, never really a first mover price-wise, but solid. I created an account on BitVC but I never got any further, it's not as pleasant an experience and the orderbook's too fake to judge. I should mention, I'm not a trader, primary interest is the ux and btc.
In reply to: What does Alibaba manufacturer mean by this?
Would you like us to send you the spec sheet for your reference?
In reply to: Project management tools for China teams
This is a fairly wide question that indicates the issue could be bigger than just PM tools, but from working in a few Chinese IT companies on the mainland, I'd say: - You're right to consider a mix of software, especially if you'll work across different kinds of teams. - Any software will only be adopted if it improves workflow, has a good Chinese-language interface and is reliable. - Bear in mind what OS the local computers are running on, that would have been helpful to mention. - I'd recommend a combination of something simple based on Mantis for IT issues (and possibly more), QQ for chat/group chat, continue with MS Project or try to include everything in a sparsely-populated Basecamp/Trello account. - Slack hasn't been such a phenomenon in China, and I'd caution it hasn't proved itself in that market if you're thinking medium or long-term. - WeChat's only real weakness is that it's so mobile-first, the desktop version has been left behind. Sync between the two isn't great. it's still QQ that's used in most offices, but you can easily add your WeChat id to your QQ info. QQ's English-language client is robust, cross-device and cross-platform. - You should do regular video calls, Skype or WeChat on a tablet work fine for this. Good luck! (edited to make it readable)
In reply to: Ordered tea from china anybody knows what it says?
This looks to be the parcel delivery tracking.
In reply to: COINBASE Inc. applies for 9 patents including: Bitcoin exchange, Tip Button, or Hot Wallet. WTF?
As much as I sympathise with your need to establish a portfolio, couldn't you start by innovating something, then legitimately patenting the invention?
In reply to: Nuclear technology - China's next great export?
This is a very interesting deal, not particularly well covered by the BBC among others. The story of China's rise to exporter of 3rd generation reactors seems to be closely related to a complicated deal with Areva and EDF. http://www.slate.fr/story/65465/nucleaire-chine-areva-edf-oursel-proglio-lauvergeon What's remarkable is that the purchase of a single reactor, albeit in the context of a long relationship, was negotiated so well by the Chinese company representatives that they acquired enough IP to become such a major player so quickly. Exactly what IP was transferred was, to my knowledge, never revealed but the impact seems clear in this deal. So Osborne has been convinced to add an extra revenue guarantee. But even before that, from what I can gather, the contrast between the Chinese company's negotiation with Areva/EDF and the UK's efforts is stark, doesn't inspire much confidence in the UK government and serves as another reminder of China's ability to deliver results. Those results so far: Pakistan, Argentina, Romania, Turkey, South Africa and the UK. Impressive stuff.
In reply to: Reuters: China naval chief says minor incident could spark war in South China Sea
There was an interesting opinion piece on thepaper.cn, not exactly a rebel voice, which outlined a pretty clever approach to this issue. It's more or less like this: - China's growth means it is becoming an increasingly global presence, and it has to command respect accordingly - Although China passed a law a few decades ago requiring notification and approval of shipping near it's territory and key economic areas, the international pact on freedom of international waters suits China, and will increasingly do so - When China sent a ship close to Alaska, it sent a clear signal that America would have to respect both sides of the pact, and it didn't disappoint - So while China and America both need to make a certain amount of protests and diplomatic effort regarding the issue, it basically suits them both to continue with the principle of free international waters - This doesn't remove the possibility of deploying a naval presence to signify a genuine threat http://www.thepaper.cn/newsDetail_forward_1340489
In reply to: Erik Voorhees - It's All About the Blockchain
"If they are the arbiters of transactions, there is no need for mining, and thus no need for a blockchain, per se." - Erik Voorhees "Distributed ledger technology does have the potential to be disruptive of certain business models. But it has at least as much potential to be enormously empowering of existing business models" - Blythe Masters These two often discuss the same issues, from differing perspectives. Her company is called Digital Assets, he's the original innovator in digital assets. If they had a debate, I'd definitely watch. I feel like the future of Bitcoin will be somewhere between their visions of it.
In reply to: Shopify or Wordpress?
I'm getting browser security warnings when I try to visit your site - I think because you're serving the entire site under https, which Shopify doesn't support for non-account / cart pages. This may be a consideration for OP too.
In reply to: Feedback for my boho/grunge store, VYYBES
I think you should look at switching themes or hiring a Shopify expert if you don't feel comfortable making these changes. For the vertical sidebar, it sounds like what you want are filters applied to top-level navigation, for example 'all products filtered by color', 'jewely filtered by brand' etc. It's more frequent to place filters on a list or category page, and if you apply it to the homepage I'd recommend applying to all products only. If you add filters to top-level nav, be aware people aren't familiar with that and familiarity breeds trust and vice versa. When you add multi-column layouts, you need to think about how many columns you'll have on mobile, tablet and desktop at least too. The current navbar has a chunk of margin space at the top that's unnecessary, you could try that to start and if you don't feel comfortable fixing this issue yourself, I'd look at outsourcing the other changes. Generally, work from back to front, so for example prepare a page called Support and then add the link to the homepage. Images are normally determined by width not height, but it looks better if the image height is uniform too. You can control this when you create the images, or you can have the theme place the small images against a standardized background. Your address at the bottom of the footer and some image/text juxtapositions make me think you should consider color contrasts too - this is an accessibility issue, so definitely worth taking seriously.
In reply to: Brooklyn Theme Coding Help.
Find a free theme with an image slideshow with thumbnails, and look at the source code. Careful about what info you share online:)
In reply to: Brooklyn Theme Coding Help.
Just wasn't sure why you'd be sharing a password on reddit.
In reply to: Brooklyn Theme Coding Help.
As I view on desktop, the product images are contained within a div with the class="grid__item post-large--one-half", that contains everything you need. The thumbnail images are contained within another div, with class="grid__item one-fifth", which then contains an unordered list with the images contained with li elements. That div which appears as one-fifth on desktop should be the same width at all resolutions as the main image above. So instead of 80/20, you'll have 100/100. As long as the thumbnail image lis are set to display: inline-block below, this should produce the result you need, and that block should be fine across all resolutions, unless you want to keep the current mobile view. I'll just add, if you set a max-width of say 20% to the lis, they should run over nicely to allow ten images, or you could code a max-width relative to the number of product images per product.
In reply to: David Cameron hasn’t the faintest idea how deep his cuts go. This letter proves it | George Monbiot
Actually, this is a revealing mistake. As pointed out, now is a better time to reduce the debt, which has risen massively under this government and the coalition. But Osborne focused the conversation on the deficit when he pledged to get rid of it by year x, and even Corbyn fell into the trap almost on his first day as party leader. So the Conservatives continue to claim to be trustworthy as regards the economy, when in truth if they were running a business, they'd be called in for a chat with the board. The deficit may be the means to the debt, but the way in which Cameron, obviously, and some in the media have taken their eyes of the prize, or don't understand the rules of the game, is shocking.
In reply to: 'Shootings' reported in central Paris: Reports of shooting and casualties in central Paris
iTele is not confirming killed, they can only say "neutralised" for the moment
In reply to: 'Shootings' reported in central Paris: Reports of shooting and casualties in central Paris
I don't think you realise how contrary that would be to the values on which France has built itself, especially since the enlightenment.
In reply to: 'Shootings' reported in central Paris: Reports of shooting and casualties in central Paris
Dominique de Villepin, the former French PM who spoke at the UN on the Iraq war, spoke very eloquently about ISIS and the war on terror, you can see it here with English subtitles: http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x3dxa0u and here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-a6rp2VNpCA Edit the unclear timing
In reply to: Dominique de Villepin on ISIS & the War on Terror
Protip: you may have to activate the subtitles under the CC box
In reply to: Dominique de Villepin on ISIS & the War on Terror
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x3dxa0u
In reply to: Dominique de Villepin on ISIS & the War on Terror
Parmi ses propositions, il y en a plusieurs qui sont plutôt aux gens lambda qu'aux gouvernements à faire, là il y a peut-être place pour un peu plus d'optimisme.
In reply to: Can I just say, thank God for Andrew Neil and This Week after a shitshow of Question Time.
I don't know if these are done in the same way in GB, but in Northern Ireland they send invitations to the main political groups and screen and select all the questions. The ridiculous applause comes from people who are there as cheerleaders effectively, so they don't behave like normal people. I presume it's like this because they can't fill the seats based on regular demand.
In reply to: Paris is being used to justify agendas that had nothing to do with the attack
It is a phenomenon that legislators and civil servants seek to pass controversial legislation at times when scrutiny and/or opposition by parliaments and media will be more difficult. This is bad because it incentivises crisis and creates an ironic alignment of interests between attackers and those who are supposed to defend.
In reply to: Turkey's Erdogan warns Russia not to 'play with fire'
The ISIS oil supply chain that runs from Syria to Turkey, effectively unharmed by the US until Putin began strikes, and currently brought to market by a US ally. NATO can't be expected to back Turkey on this one.
In reply to: 'Bitcoin founder' Craig Wright's home raided by Australian police
The Guardian more recently published this: http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/dec/09/who-is-craig-wright-and-how-likely-is-it-that-hes-behind-bitcoin which is like a lesson on journalism for those pretenders at Wired and Gizmodo.
In reply to: When your opponent is Alain Delon (1968)
Have an upvote, this is the world I want to live in
In reply to: Eugene Kaspersky: Cryptocurrencies Will Be Banned When They Unsettle National Currencies
I also find it hard to agree with Kaspersky on this. Other incidents of blocking content and domains online have met some success, but not complete. With something as sensitive as currency though, this touches on the authority and competence of central governments. And the Bitcoin protocol ensures that success would be even less limited than in the cases of torrents, a problem mainly solved by a better product offer, i.e. Netflix. On the contrary, the countries which innovate most around the space will do well, which creates an economic pressure to be liberal around the technology. The UK has been paying lip service to this, China has quietly been getting on with it.
In reply to: super basic question
You may have some more li in the dropdowns, if so they're not covered. You could try: .nav li:hover, .nav li ul li:hover { background: whatever; }
In reply to: I run a full node - failure of imagination revealed.
Haven't seen any mention of this: https://np.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/3sp0zj/bitcoin_core_announcing_jonas_schnelli_as_gui/ There does appear to be movement on the GUI, which seems to involve moving it out of core. That would make sense. It is fair that since there is a GUI, that GUI should meet the standards of the rest of the software.
In reply to: Why are static sites getting popular again?
I've been playing with Jekyll and it's really quite powerful (yaml data + liquid templating + assets). The limits imposed by not having a database are far outweighed by the gains in security and speed for a large class of websites, currently most of which are hosted on Wordpress. For a huge number of small organisations, they'd be far better served by this option. Another reason contributing to their popularity could be the availability of good implementations across a variety of languages, notably Jekyll, Hugo and Metalsmith.
In reply to: Is 比特币 the commonly used Chinese word for Bitcoin?
The final character, 币，is used for coin and currency, like in renminbi 人民币. The first two taken together 比特 mean 'bit' or 'byte' since before Bitcoin. Search 16比特 in baidu and witness the funky calculator appear.
In reply to: Drunk people account for 70% of weekend emergency room visits in UK city
A lot of people asked how this compares to the % of UK people who get drunk at the weekend. On average, 15% of Britons got drunk in the previous week. http://visual.ons.gov.uk/binge-drinking/ An industry profits from this and the public picks up the NHS tab. That industry is also responsible for unusually high incidences of sexual misconduct, tax avoidance and illegal employment. When it grows, so do levels of domestic violence. In its current form, it's a relatively expensive industry for a country to support. In France, despite recent adoption of more anglo-saxon traits, it's incentivised to drink quality local wine with friends at home or in a bistro, and you pay so much to get drunk on vodka. In the UK, it's often cheaper than your entrance fee. It's stupid and it's expensive in the end.
In reply to: Drunk people account for 70% of weekend emergency room visits in UK city
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EZx5OgKQNrA
In reply to: World’s Largest Pork Producer opens new Zhengzhou factory that will produce 'American-style sausage, ham and bacon'
China is actively pursuing pork imports, apparently it has 20% less supply than demand. But for a regular company to make plans based on growing this could be dangerous, experience shows China would more likely fix its internal output rather than depend on imports. Does bring to mind that horrible story about the pig carcasses in the river, though I've no idea if they're connected.
In reply to: Theresa May wants to see your internet history, so the independent thought it was only fair to ask for hers | UK Politics | News
Osborne having to back down on welfare reform means Cameron won't let May back down on this. So if the industrial and public opposition is sustained, it could be quite the standoff in 2016.
In reply to: New Chinese spying laws draw international criticism, despite similarity with UK’s Investigatory Powers Bill
The US and UK laws definitely make it easier for China to discuss this in western media. But there is a big difference. In the US and UK, there's a mass of hypocrisy about free markets, and vested interests in security services and corporate lobbying mean whoever benefits from the data collection, it's unlikely to be you. Nor are you likely to ever know who the law serves. In China, capitalism is state-planned. The collection and manipulation of data is clearly in the interests of the state. And China has been more successful than anyone at handing this on to the population. It's better for a Chinese to give their data to the Chinese government than for a westerner to give theirs to a western government.
In reply to: Poor Blythe
From the Digital Assets site, this is the argument against Bitcoin: "In theory, a shared, immutable ledger enables transparent, peer-to-peer, real-time settlement without the need for financial intermediaries. In reality, markets require known, reliable counterparties, rights of reversal and error correction, high levels of privacy and the operational benefits of net settlement in a system in which legal entities are responsible for the perfection of title to and legal standing of financial assets. Consequently, markets will continue to benefit from and require third party service providers to perform a variety of functions as they do today: from ensuring clean title, to enabling operational and balance sheet netting." http://digitalasset.com/faqs.html Actually Bitcoin does well by these benchmarks: - Blockchain publication lends itself to accurate counterparty risk management - m-of-n transactions and external data hooks allow for reversals - settlements and documents can be designed to meet the needs of national legal requirements All very encouraging for Bitcoin, maybe not Digital Assets. For the investment worries, it looks like a simple no product, no money.
In reply to: My 小米云 account was accessed by someone, but I have 2FA and a secure password. How is this possible?
The email was the same as all the others and the links were all to official xiaomi sites, so at the moment, I think it's safe to rule out phishing. I think there should be a simple explanation, but finding it hasn't been simple at all.
In reply to: FBI hacked the Dark Web to bust 1,500 pedophiles
This, the article specifically states the child porn site was kept online and served from the FBI's own servers in Virginia. I can't believe that's possible without a serious national ethical debate beforehand. I can't believe if there were a debate, the line wouldn't be drawn well before that.
In reply to: FBI hacked the Dark Web to bust 1,500 pedophiles
I just think the actions as described are sufficient to justify a political debate that should precede the technological implementation. And I think the debate would eventually preclude this, because there are other ways to investigate crime than honey traps with child porn.
In reply to: Something terrible is coming guys. Here is my story, make the conclusions you want with it.
UK implementation is underway, much lower threshold that $100k it seems: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/personalfinance/tax/10819885/David-Cameron-Taxes-will-rise-unless-we-can-raid-bank-accounts.html
In reply to: Something terrible is coming guys. Here is my story, make the conclusions you want with it.
Objectively, it's a fairly major reform to allow pulling funds from a bank account without the owner or a court's approval. This is particularly true because of HMRC's repeated inaccuracies as outlined in the article. I don't think you need to examine any slippery slope arguments to say this is worth considering for many small businesses, for example.
In reply to: Chinese btc forum posts on currently debated topics curated & translated
Thanks, I thought of managing the topic so it's planned according to an objective standard, I'm open to suggestions.
In reply to: Chinese btc forum posts on currently debated topics curated & translated
I spend a few hours each day studying so this is just a more interesting approach, but thank you.
In reply to: Chinese btc forum posts on currently debated topics curated & translated
I'll send you an RSS feed when I make it for sure, shouldn't take too long. It was just a shower thought, so I'm delighted to hear there's interest.
In reply to: Chinese btc forum posts on currently debated topics curated & translated
Thanks!
In reply to: Chinese btc forum posts on currently debated topics curated & translated
Cool, thanks, I'll pm a bit later when I've prepared something, feel free to send me any ideas in the meantime.
In reply to: Chinese btc forum posts on currently debated topics curated & translated
Great interview, it's a really cool show you've done. And very relevant indeed. I found what he said about different issues interesting different countries very true, I read a little about Bitcoin in French too and it also seems to have it's own feel there. Bobby Lee was right to say it goes beyond English and Chinese, so if anyone has any other languages (Spanish or Portuguese for example), it might be interesting to cooperate.
In reply to: Chinese btc forum posts on currently debated topics curated & translated
Thanks, I'll make a home for it today and share the rss feed when possible. For those more controversial replies, as pointed out in the video with Bobby Lee, most of the conversation to work with wouldn't revolve around divisive issues or a highly confrontational approach, so it should end up reflecting that.
In reply to: If Theymos truly cares about bitcoin's success, he might want to do the selfless thing and step down.
It's easy to criticize someone else, but apart from "allow everything" it's not as easy to come up with solutions. I understand the desire to keep a forum on-topic, and it's certainly not easy work. Maybe Reddit's User Interface could be part of a solution for this. The sidebar offers a place to show consideration for altcoins and developing soft or even hard forks. Adding sections like this near the top would send a confident message, while allowing the forum contents to be focused on one thing.
In reply to: Chinese bitcoin media translated
At the moment I spend a few hours a day studying Chinese from other sources. This way I get to learn more Bitcoin vocab. It should be pretty stable because I've been doing that amount for the past year with few days out. There are no ads and no cookies. There's a bitcoin address if you'd like to donate but no pressure. I figure if it begins to attract some donations, I can spend an equivalent amount of time on it, from a reasonable base.
In reply to: Chinese bitcoin media translated
Actually one of the issues is there isn't that much content created in Chinese. Some is translated from English and some is quite PR-style, which is interesting in and of itself. But basically, I'm doing what you said. The request feature is a bit different. It allows you to submit your own text requiring translation as a Pull Request with a payment amount in BTC. Then anyone can submit the translation as a Pull Request with their address to claim the payment. I'll just merge the Pull Requests - which is a point of centralisation but that's not an issue with 0 requests.
In reply to: Chinese bitcoin media translated
Here's a new post: https://bitcoinzh.com/haobtc-blocksize-debate/ Haobtc on the block size debate I won't post any more links or spam, just to show how it'll operate.
In reply to: [Daily Discussion] Sunday, January 17, 2016
Today's post on BitcoinZH shows China as protective of Bitcoin as I've seen any Western country, not only taking aim at Hearn, R3CEV and its backers in the financial sector, but also anyone else who dares challenge Bitcoin's decentralization and security. This is translated from a mainstream tech site. Just as in the West, in China the story moved beyond the usual Bitcoin press, and the press for the banking sector and for Hearn is terrible: https://bitcoinzh.com/death-of-bitcoin-legacy-banking-conspiracy/
In reply to: [Daily Discussion] Sunday, January 17, 2016
The article was written by one human being, yes. It describes how Chinese miners and Bitcoin enthusiasts are behaving. I'm sorry, sometimes brevity leads to idiocy, but I think you could see the point I was making.
In reply to: Hearn: a global embarrassment to banking
Good to see a principled objection that doesn't restrict itself to any individual or organization, but any project that isn't faithful to the original vision of Satoshi's Bitcoin, and suggests Chinese miners will never allow such a project to advance.
In reply to: [Daily Discussion] Monday, January 18, 2016
Today's post on BitcoinZH is a discussion among some Chinese Bitcoin company employees and community members around decentralization in the aftermath of the Hearn incident. These are concerns we often hear levelled at Chinese mining by Westerners - interesting to see them shared by Chinese Bitcoin enthusiasts: https://bitcoinzh.com/Chinese-views-on-Bitcoin-decentralization/ Today's post was translated by Eric Mu of Haobtc and edited by myself.
In reply to: BBC journalist claims Bitcoin transactions fail. Admits error in private, refuses to do so in public.
Your transaction may have been delayed, but that is absolutely not the same as failed. Waiting ten minutes or even a day for confirmations is nothing to do with failed transactions.
In reply to: BBC journalist claims Bitcoin transactions fail. Admits error in private, refuses to do so in public.
I don't know what a memepool is. I only know transactions that haven't been confirmed after a certain period in the mempool should be automatically re-broadcast. I didn't see any mention of failed transactions - even when XT performed its 'stress test': https://tradeblock.com/blog/bitcoin-network-capacity-analysis-part-5-stress-test-analysis
In reply to: UK should go full bitcoin, gov report suggest
This is completely inaccurate. Read first, comment second. "But this report is not about Bitcoin." "The first difficulty in communication is the strong association of block chain technology with Bitcoin." "A particular term that can cause confusion is ‘distributed’, which can lead to the misconception that because something is distributed there is therefore no overall controlling authority or owner." "For government applications, ‘permissioned’ ledgers are likely to be more appealing than Bitcoin’s unpermissioned model" This is just the latest attempt to hijack Bitcoin. The transparency of the Bitcoin Blockchain in hands like these will lead to nothing but trouble.
In reply to: UK should go full bitcoin, gov report suggest
You are confusing distributed and decentralized, and the report explicitly states, as I quoted, "For government applications, ‘permissioned’ ledgers are likely to be more appealing than Bitcoin’s unpermissioned model." Parliament doesn't legislate based on YouTube videos. It rejects, notes or adopts recommendations contained in reports by arms-length bodies such as these, and generally implements them in a politically expedient manner.
In reply to: UK should go full bitcoin, gov report suggest
Bitcoin is neutral. Everyone chooses to participate and is treated indiscriminately by the network. There is no guarantee that transparency would be equally distributed in these private "block chains", almost certainly the opposite. That's the difference between a decentralized architecture and a distributed architecture, and the sense in which transparency can have negative consequences. If you think transparency is good per se, don't be a hypocrite next time you play poker.
In reply to: UK should go full bitcoin, gov report suggest
Just imagine a block chain used for medical 'transactions', which served as a reference for employers but wasn't available to the public. I don't think that would be a good blockchain, don't think it would make Bitcoin more popular. Insurance maybe is different. But given the premises of the report, it's fair not to be optimistic. A poker analogy is valid and so would any situation where incentive is important. I think blockchains are powerful, not 'good'. Anyway, good to disagree about something other block size.
In reply to: [Daily Discussion] Thursday, January 21, 2016
Today's post on BitcoinZH includes reaction on Weibo to the major announcement from the People's Bank of China, and a full translation of the statement: https://bitcoinzh.com/weibo-reacts-to-china-moves-on-digital-currency/ Enjoy!
In reply to: UK should go full bitcoin, gov report suggest
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/c4bad1ec-bea3-11e5-846f-79b0e3d20eaf.html “NHS urged to adopt bitcoin database technology” says the FT. Nothing if not predictable.
In reply to: Block Size Debate: Chinese Miners Side with Bitcoin Core
Chinese miners have often said they want a solution on the existing blockchain, and you can also see in jtoomim's conversation regarding his talks in China, they insisted he submit a PR to Core in the first instance, so they are acting in line with the statements. It's no secret they want a solution on Core. They have also said they'd like to, in a reasonable and secure manner, expand block size over time, and support for SegWit is high. https://bikeji.com/t/3114
In reply to: Holy shit, the new browser Brave by Mozilla cofounder Brendan Eich features Bitcoin integration
https://www.brave.com/ There's a pretty informative website, which has a link to their Github: https://github.com/brave "we are a browser-based ad-tech platform, with high precision and privacy" Interned ad spending for 2016 is estimated at $197bn. If Brave takes even a small part of that and moves the payments over to Bitcoin, it would be great. It would also mean the players in online activity have to be active managers of bitcoin funds, which could lead to other interesting developments.
In reply to: [Daily Discussion] Friday, January 22, 2016
Today's post on BitcoinZH is a fairly passionate piece outlining all the main arguments against 1MB blocks. If you want to know more about the concerns and expectations of the Chinese mining community, they're all in here. https://bitcoinzh.com/the-choices-facing-bitcoin-miners/ Aside from that, have fun at 375!
In reply to: Worth repairing my Mi3?
There's a good guide to this on iFixit: https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/Xiaomi+Mi+3+Touchscreen+Replacement/31237 I went ahead and got a Mi4i instead of doing the repair, for me the 4G + dual SIM were worth the cost.
In reply to: IMF: Venezuela facing 720% inflation in 2016
What's awareness of bitcoin like there? Is there easy access to a decent exchange?
In reply to: IMF: Venezuela facing 720% inflation in 2016
You have fun on your weekend!
In reply to: Bitcoin Core now has Twitter feed. @bitcoincoreorg
If Core wanted to open a Weibo account too, it's just here: http://e.weibo.com/register/register There's an English-language interface and a lot of non-Chinese accounts who post in English. It's no shame to cross-post, and for the moment Weibo has a bigger character limit.
In reply to: Chinese community has voiced consensus opinion to support 2MB upgrade with the precondition of 90% hash power agree. Meeting held Jan 23 Beijing, with people from many Chinese BTC companies including AntPool/Bitmain, Bither, HaoBTC, BTC123, BTCKan ....
https://bitcoinzh.com/Chinese-proposal-to-reconcile-Bitcoin/ I did an English translation, hope to add the comments later. Edit: if anyone wants to include the full text here feel free, I won't because it's quite long but the content is all CC, no worries. Edit 2: I added a selection of the responses to the original 8btc post. I can see from some of the posts I've read on various forums, there is a small but vocal part of the Chinese bitcoin community that feels this is an issue of having Chinese voices heard and not being excluded from the solution. One of the 8btc posters added a link to the github issue 50, but because Github use in China is limited, it might be interesting to create a Weibo hashtag or something to allow Chinese to more easily show support and show it's not an issue of the west imposing a solution on the Chinese community.
In reply to: Chinese community has voiced consensus opinion to support 2MB upgrade with the precondition of 90% hash power agree. Meeting held Jan 23 Beijing, with people from many Chinese BTC companies including AntPool/Bitmain, Bither, HaoBTC, BTC123, BTCKan ....
At the end there is a note with further explanation: "Why 90% CPU consensus? Because some miners do not belong to public pools (individuals or private pools), it’s difficult for this group to express their wishes. Excluding this silent CPU and asking for 90% consensus is equivalent to asking for 95% consensus among all public pools."
In reply to: [Daily Discussion] Wednesday, January 27, 2016
Today's post on BitcoinZH shows the gap between elements of the Bitcoin community in China and the Core roadmap: https://bitcoinzh.com/are-small-blocks-a-plan-for-fees/ The article concludes Chinese miners should unite, hard fork then 51% attack the existing Bitcoin network. Really.
In reply to: [Daily Discussion] Thursday, January 28, 2016
Today's BitcoinZH post is nothing controversial at all, just a nicely detailed explanation of exactly how Satoshi retained their anonymity: https://bitcoinzh.com/how-did-satoshi-nakamoto-hide-their-identity/ Nothing markets-related there so my inspired TA right now is sell everything dammit!
In reply to: jgarzik Bitcoin Classic PR---> increase activation to 80%. Closed by ojansenss within minutes.
I translated some Chinese response, there were two main concerns: Gavin hadn't engaged with the 'mining industry' proposal for 90% consensus/2MB blocks Gavin had based the arguments for 75% consensus on threats of Chinese miner centralization, offending some. So no expectations of support there. The full translations are here: https://bitcoinzh.com/china-talks-bitcoin/
In reply to: jgarzik Bitcoin Classic PR---> increase activation to 80%. Closed by ojansenss within minutes.
Hi, the quantity of translation into Chinese is much greater than the reverse, but so far I haven't seen much translation of Core's site or posts. The infrastructure is there for the site, but not much so far: https://github.com/bitcoin-core/website#translations I wouldn't inflict much more of my translation into Chinese on the poor guys, but maybe u/eric_haobtc would know someone who could help?
In reply to: Antpool will start to test Classic soon. There is 7day long holidays ahead, so it's likely after the holidays. One node only first.
I see OKCoin also held a meeting with Jeff Garzik last week: http://www.8btc.com/okcoin-jeff-garzik
In reply to: [Daily Discussion] Monday, February 01, 2016
Today's BitcoinZH post is a pretty calm look at the roles of devs and miners in the current debate. https://bitcoinzh.com/miners-are-not-that-critical There wasn't too much discussion of the Antpool announcement. I'd expect more miners to use Classic as a means to have their plans implemented on Core. I wouldn't read running Classic as unqualified support for Classic. I expect more games after Chinese new year that won't help stability at all.
In reply to: Feel Out of the Loop? After *lots* of reading I made a breakdown of the Bitcoin Core Scaling Roadmap and what it means in simpler terms.
Hi Paul, I see a lot of the Core site info on SegWit has been translated into Chinese here: https://github.com/danielsocials/website/tree/segwit-cn/_posts/zh_CN/pages
In reply to: [Daily Discussion] Tuesday, February 02, 2016
Today's post on BitcoinZH asks where do you keep your private keys? https://bitcoinzh.com/where-do-you-store-private-keys 7 pages of responses to the OP and nobody mentions Trezor, Ledger or any other hardware wallets.
In reply to: Where do you store your private keys?
This is great, I'll try to make Chinese versions of the best methods here and post them back over to the original conversation there.
In reply to: "That's the best part of my job, I get paid to tell bankers that their weak tea blockchain bullshit is bullshit and I really enjoy that." Andreas M. Antonopoulos
Agree with u/paperraincoat. China also has the particularity of bitcoin not being allowed for transactions and yet it has maintained a stake in the network by focusing on its macro strengths, manufacturing and low commodity prices, through individuals taking extremely high-risk positions that have yet to pay off for them as much as they have for those of us on the other end of transactions. You can either do something about the fundamental reasons why other countries can't compete in certain areas of the infrastructure, or bide your time and stick to mastering those areas in which you have a chance. Good projects like Trezor are proof of this. There are plenty of barriers to global participation in mining pools to remove. You could work on PoS and other alternative consensus techniques. The fact that more people aren't working on these things indicates they're probably more confident than you in the overall security of the network.
In reply to: Cant seem to publish first post on site.
You do seem to be missing a few things: a _posts folder, which will contain your posts with the following name format: YYYY-MM-DD-name.md inside each post, you'll need at least the following front matter: --- layout: post title: My Title --- that layout needs to be created. First, create a folder called _layouts. Then create a file called post.html. inside post.html, add the layout for all your posts. Here, the post will be the current page, so you'll access it through page. It could be as simple as:
{{ page.title }}
{{ content }} For any more detail or ideas, have a look around the _layouts folders in different themes. You'll probably want one called default.html with your head, header and footer which you could use on both your index and the post.html layout itself. The index page might contain a list of all your posts. That's the forloop mentioned by u/nowonmai666. You can learn more about forloops here: https://github.com/Shopify/liquid/wiki/Liquid-for-Designers#for-loops You'll need a config.yml file. See the Jekyll site for this. If you right-click on the project in your Github app, you'll see you can open it in Atom or your Terminal. From there you can simply make changes in Atom and then use the following commands to commit them once you're ready: git add . git commit -m "Add a post" git push Have fun!In reply to: I’ll bet you $5,000 that bitcoin’s first hard fork works out just fine - Brian Armstrong
I suspect he's bet / lost a lot more than $5,000 already in client support. He posted this back in October on Twitter: "1/ I think hard forks are a necessary and good thing for bitcoin, if used sparingly 2/ They are a built in upgrade path for the protocol to change over time, will allow bitcoin to evolve much more quickly than HTTP etc. 3/ Hard forks are somewhat similar to a presidential election - having one every week would be too disruptive, but once every four years... 4/ Probably a good way to ensure forward progress 5/ I think there should be a number of competing forks, and if there is a loss of confidence in one group, a new group should be elected 6/ Each fork should have a final decision maker at the top (similar to how private companies, governments, etc work) 7/ This would prevent stalemates and ensure speed of execution." https://twitter.com/brian_armstrong/status/657345445400674304 I understand he's a respected engineer and CEO, but really.
In reply to: OpenBazaar, the decentralized Taobao
So I've been publishing translations of Bitcoin-related Chinese media and finally a good discussion of OpenBazaar came up on 8btc.com, maybe the foremost Chinese bitcoin forum. Overall, I'd say a very positive response if a little sceptical that anything could ever challenge the might of Taobao. 加油! Edit: And by chance on the day that 20 million Taobao accounts are breached. Your Taobao account, as a consumer, uses a single login valid for all Alibaba services, including Alipay. http://www.infosecurity-magazine.com/news/massive-bruteforce-attack-on/
In reply to: [Daily Discussion] Wednesday, February 17, 2016
Today's post on BitcoinZH is China's Bitcoin Rich List, with the year of the goat's biggest BTC fortunes: https://bitcoinzh.com/bitcoin-rich-list-china-2015 If you wondered where your coins are going...
In reply to: [Daily Discussion] Wednesday, February 17, 2016
Exactly:) there's a link at the top of the page back to the source article on bikeji.com
In reply to: [Request] Brand new idea needs help with website design. Operation Six String
Hi, I've been working on a non-profit website template that may be of interest. You can have a look here and feel free to get in touch - http://damianeoloan.github.io/JekyllOrg/ If you have any feedback that'd be awesome too.
In reply to: A non-profit for non-profit that builds them websites
I made a free template for orgs and non-profits. Demo: https://damianeoloan.github.io/JekyllOrg It's designed for simple deployment on Github Pages, custom domains (https://yourorgname.com) are no problem. Page loads all under 1s. It's configured for clean, simple multi-author content management with Prose.io. There's no cost at any point. Source code: https://github.com/damianeoloan/JekyllOrg
In reply to: A non-profit for non-profit that builds them websites
Feel free, enjoy!
In reply to: New draft law will require all websites to register domain names with ISP and authorities; could be the first step toward cleaving China off of the global internet
This is from 2011 but still relevant: "Thirdly, according to C3.1 to C3.3 of the IANA contract, ICANN only submit reports to U.S government alone which authorizes the process to modify, add and delete the entries in root zone files. Because of such constraints, as well as ICANN, as a private incorporation in California, should comply with the California law. It is difficult for ICANN to implement an open, fair process and be responsive to all the other governments and stakeholders. As a result, the accountability and transparency of ICANN can not be enhanced to meet the vision of multi-stakeholder governance model. Internet Society of China is of the opinion that the relevant arrangements should be reconsidered." That global internet hegemony was endorsed again recently as part of the US election campaign: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/02/04/cruz_questions_icann_chinese_censorship_role/
In reply to: New draft law will require all websites to register domain names with ISP and authorities; could be the first step toward cleaving China off of the global internet
The point is that the US enables this kind of action by aligning internet governance with its national interest, so when other countries with different national interests do the same, it's less able to act.
In reply to: Seeking translators who are fluent in English and a native speaker of one or more other languages
Native French: fluent N/A No but pm me for Telegram
In reply to: David Cameron admits he did have a stake in father Ian Cameron's offshore investment fund
The house issue is odd too. Here he is on Tuesday saying he has one house: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IbJalO1R--4&feature=youtu.be&t=59s Today he stressed twice he "owns" two houses: "I own two homes" & "we own two very nice houses." http://www.itv.com/news/2016-04-07/cameron-i-had-stake-in-my-fathers-offshore-trust/ Since the verb choice is intentional and he doesn't "own" 10 Downing St, it's worth an explanation.
In reply to: Rebuilding a website currently on Wordpress in rails, is Jekyll or rails better suited?
If you need a database, use Rails. If your site content is generated only by a small number of site authors, and dynamic content is restricted to text comments or API-based data, use Jekyll.
In reply to: Paris nuit debout protests turn violent with tear gas used against protestors
This has happened over the past few hours. Too early for English-language news reports but you can follow events with the #nuitdebout hashtag. Live coverage (in French) on Periscope here: https://www.periscope.tv/w/1DXxybmnPENKM
In reply to: ‘Beijing will send in troops if Hong Kong declares independence’
This is a misleading title, implying the statement came from Beijing. "Democratic Party executive director Lam Cheuk-ting said Beijing would likely send troops to take over should the city seek to go independent. Pro-Beijing lawyer Junius Ho Kwan-yiu said Hong Kong could risk its water and food supplies from mainland China being cut if it went independent." This sub should consider something like r/worldnews uses to clarify misleading titles.
In reply to: ‘Beijing will send in troops if Hong Kong declares independence’
I understand you quoted the article headline. But it's a misleading clickbait headline, and Reddit offers a good mechanism to correct these. I'm suggesting if the link submitters choose not to do so, the sub would be better if it did so itself.
In reply to: ‘Beijing will send in troops if Hong Kong declares independence’
HK Democratic Party: ''Beijing would likely send troops should the city seek to go independent." Wouldn't that be more clear? There's no rule that says your Reddit link title must be the article headline.
In reply to: Non-profits seem more challenging than for-profits
This looks great, awesome initiative. I made a free Jekyll theme for non-profits/orgs recently that can be hosted free on Github Pages. Feel free to make it your own it if it's useful: http://damianeoloan.github.io/JekyllOrg/
In reply to: Is George Soros right about the coming crash in China?
China is definitely headed for a Japan-style recession because of its inability to apply and enforce much needed reforms. Most people who say this, although you haven't, mean free-market liberalisation reform and opening up to greater influence from western corporations. But statistically, that hasn't produced sustainable growth in those countries which have experimented with it. For developing countries, the effect has been even more negative. The current economic model of China based on manufacturing and exports is on its last straw http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NV.SRV.TETC.ZS You'd be surprised at the % of China's GDP that comes from services. The world bank here quotes 48.1% from 2011-2015, a figure that has now surpassed 50%: https://www.london.edu/news-and-events/news/china-slowdown-one-factor-contributing-to-global-market-volatility If people who can afford to buy high quality (high priced) bags from LV or Gucchi (sic) can't do so because these brands get banned, then these people are not going to buy X Chinese brand instead The theory here is presumably to move from the low-hanging fruit of production for export and for foreign companies, to production for export / domestic consumption by both foreign and native companies, gradually working up the value tree. By owning a significant share of the world's production, China is well placed to add value in design and innovation. Protecting their domestic brands until they can compete with foreign brands can't be written off as bad policy. Xiaomi is a good example suggesting China could be competitive on an international scale in an IoT world through strong branding without protectionism. China needs to resist reforms that haven't been proven to work over the long-term. The only problem I see is unsustainable exploitation of the environment and growing inequality, the first of which they are addressing through R&D that will later be exported, and the second of which may not be addressed to European tastes, but that's not the defining standard. I'm playing devil's advocate a little, but the picture is far more nuanced than your post suggests.
In reply to: Is George Soros right about the coming crash in China?
SOE reform is happening at a rapid pace in key sectors and given the number of redundancies it's created already, it's difficult to complain that it's not happening more quickly. I personally agree with you on the second point, but the US in particular is in a weak position to give lessons on this point, as are major global institutions whose policies generally accentuate inequality. In the end, if China becomes more equal in terms of distribution of wealth, I would expect it to be because it chooses to for just those reasons of economic stability.
In reply to: Is George Soros right about the coming crash in China?
Fitch obviously recommend bulk privatisation as the solution, but that's not been a sustainable model for growth in any economy. 1.8 million workers requiring retraining and redeployment may be a drop in the ocean, but it's nevertheless a major challenge. The situation now is more complex than in the 90s because of the development towards a more service-based economy. We can't criticise China on the one hand for not moving beyond low-level manufacturing, and then follow up with criticism for not matching 90s level economic restructuring pace. There may be new but low-skilled work in logistics, but not 1.8 million jobs overnight without the creation of more SOEs or more allocation of public resources to private companies. The United States is irrelevant to the conversation. The recommendation is to tackle income inequality, not copy the United States. The US is relevant, as are the WTO, IMF and UN, because very few external forces can influence China's trajectory. Which is why your final point: This is the reason any country would ultimately choose to directly address income inequality. may be true, but that's an indictment of the rest of the world too and suggests China is no more at risk of a crash due to this factor than Latin America, South Africa, Russia, the US or any number of other countries.
In reply to: Is George Soros right about the coming crash in China?
[Bulk privatisation] been sustainable for every developed country for the past century. No, bulk privatisation is a modern phenomenon carried out by a minority of countries, usually under the influence of the IMF and WTO, and it has had a negative impact on growth compared to the decades (centuries even) before when SOEs were accepted, particularly in the few sectors that make up the vast majority of companies on the list you linked. The only temporary exception is rapid growth due to financial innovation that has been shown to be unsustainable and led to the more likely cause of global recession now, a repeat of the 2008 crash starting, again, in the west. Equally, if you look again at that list, you'll see the industries covered are either those in severe difficulties across the world and which have been for several decades, and/or touch on national security such as telecoms, finance and commodities. I don't think China will collapse because it doesn't have a Comcast or a BT. Had they allowed market forces more influence over the allocation of personnel and resources, then they might not have had to retrain and redeploy millions of state workers in the first place. This is a lesser of two evils situation, where the counter-factual is had they allowed market (western) corporations more influence, they may face the capital allocation inefficiencies western nations face through debt and deficit waste. you don't even consider the possibility that there are objectively good reasons for recommending market privatization I have, but not in all cases. Another interesting difference between today and even twenty years ago is the complexity that brought about the downfall of previous centrally-planned economies and societies may now be better managed in a big data era by a nation with over 100 supercomputers. We shouldn't complacently assume that previous planned economy failures will repeat in the same way. In any case, the trend is towards greater privatisation, your argument is that the pace is too slow. But China's use of technology in monitoring social responses to central policy suggests to me they judge the optimum pace of change with a higher level of precision than you or I. I don't see people criticizing China for not moving beyond low-level manufacturing. I see plenty of people, including the Chinese government, emphasizing the need to shift toward consumption and services See my first post above, where I originally responded to just that criticism with the statistic of over 50% of GDP from the services sector. they just sell the assets and let Chinese private companies purchase them and take up the void in the market Again, many of these companies are closely related to issues of national security, so it's absolutely not a simple question of just selling assets. Where they are strictly commodity-based and those commodities aren't required to ensure future development, they are being privatised, and it's back to the question of pace. At this point "external forces" don't have nearly as much of an effect on China's trajectory as the Chinese government and populace do I think we actually agree on this point, as regards whether China will crash die to inequality, I think we also probably agree that's not the risk Soros or anyone else is talking about right now.
In reply to: Is George Soros right about the coming crash in China?
/s
In reply to: Is George Soros right about the coming crash in China?
At no point in the past have any of the modern major economies had anything close to the degree of government-ownership that the Chinese economy currently has. This is incorrect. State ownership in just the sectors you'll find on the list you linked - energy, transport, defense, telecoms - was widespread in all major capitalist economies until the 1970s. These kinds of financial tricks are exactly what the Chinese government is currently resorting to to squeeze out more growth from the economy Yes, but this not exclusive to China, in fact as a trend its more pronounced in other capitalist economies, and China at least has significant underlying industrial production to speculate on. It is a problem nevertheless. Which industries, specifically? I mentioned some right there in your quote, there's a few just above too. The Chinese government is entirely capable of limiting or shutting out foreign ownership of domestic assets and firms while simultaneously removing the SOEs from their economy and allowing private Chinese firms to fill in the gap This has been unsuccessful notably in Russia. We can be fairly sure companies aren't lining up to go into steel right now. The railway companies are beginning to export projects on a national infrastructure scale, so there's no argument for urgent privatisation. Not only are more bureaucratic inefficiencies introduced into the equation, but you are now exposing more human elements to the system. There's also the fact that staring at numbers still cannot provide the same dynamism that a market economy does. A bunch of data on a screen does not make up for the real-time performance of individual actors in an economy. This is exactly how decisions will be taken with regard to corporate planning by a private sector management bureaucracy, which negates any potential efficiency gain. Equally, this kind of data-based decision making is already a public-private partnership. There is zero incentive here to privatise. Lockheed Martin, Intel, and AT&T are owned by shareholders and yet they are "related to issues of national security". We've already seen Chinese investors refused access to western markets in areas of political sensitivity. And regarding the question of private Chinese ownership, that brings us back to the false dichotomy of data-based decision making by a bureaucratic layer in the public or private sector. I could also point to Huawei and Tencent to demonstrate that privatized companies are just as capable of doing so, as well. Both companies have close links to the Chinese government of mutual gain, suggesting again this false dichotomy isn't an element that will bring about a crash tomorrow. There are so many different interpretations of words like "crash" and "collapse" that I try to avoid them altogether. Look again at the title of the post you're commenting in.
In reply to: China's Xi warns of foreign infiltration through religion
And then what, vote Hillary?
In reply to: BBC World Service staff say moving UK staff to Hong Kong "grossly underestimates the level of threat posed by the Chinese regime in Hong Kong to both BBC editorial integrity and safety of BBC journalists"
BBC World Service has an inherent problem with editorial integrity. It's not even hidden. 'In November, the government agreed to give the BBC £289m over the next five years to invest in expanding the World Service as part of its strategy to strengthen the UK’s “soft power”.' http://www.theguardian.com/media/2016/apr/06/bbc-launches-world-service-ad-british 'Soft power' is, for the relevant intents and purposes, propaganda. I wouldn't want to work for the UK's propaganda service in HK either. But dressing it up as editorial integrity is just dishonest.
In reply to: BBC World Service staff say moving UK staff to Hong Kong "grossly underestimates the level of threat posed by the Chinese regime in Hong Kong to both BBC editorial integrity and safety of BBC journalists"
I'd say 澎湃 and sixthtone.com suggest fairly rapid progress in that regard.
In reply to: BBC World Service staff say moving UK staff to Hong Kong "grossly underestimates the level of threat posed by the Chinese regime in Hong Kong to both BBC editorial integrity and safety of BBC journalists"
Soft power was in quotation marks in the article I quoted from, hence the accuracy of the punctuation. Here it is again in the original document: "Expand our world-leading soft power and our global reach to promote our values and interests, using our diplomats and development assistance, and through institutions such as the BBC World Service and the British Council." https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/478933/52309_Cm_9161_NSS_SD_Review_web_only.pdf Again, nothing to do with editorial integrity.
In reply to: Peter Todd approached by US Govt for sentiment analysis. He declined.
Interesting timing: https://theintercept.com/2016/04/14/in-undisclosed-cia-investments-social-media-mining-looms-large/
In reply to: Who is 1FXqE2ixnnSB1kvwbMtWma5xQ2bVbkSq3f
https://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/2yx1p3/okcoin_first_bitcoin_company_to_openly_share_cold/ "Once a private key has been used to transfer Bitcoin out of the address, the address is no longer to be used again for deposits."
In reply to: Who is 1FXqE2ixnnSB1kvwbMtWma5xQ2bVbkSq3f
I couldn't comment, you'd have to mention Jack or Star and ask them yourself.
In reply to: €500, the 'Bin Laden' of banknotes, could be axed
The suggestion is that, in the event of negative interest rates being applied to savings directly, measures like this make it inconvenient to hold cash when you're supposed to be out spending. This is much bigger news for Bitcoin than the latest who's SN story. http://time.com/money/4226174/kill-100-dollar-bill-500-euro-phase-out/
In reply to: Foreign Sellers on Taobao
You need a 身份证号码 to open a store on Taobao, foreign sellers are directed to TMall.
In reply to: Wiring money to my friend in China (From US)
This is a good use case for bitcoin. If you buy BTC with USD via Circle / Coinbase, and send to a BTCC / OKCoin address your friend can withdraw to a CN bank account no problem and the fees will be much smaller than WU.
In reply to: [Daily Discussion] Monday, May 30, 2016
I stopped it when I was reduced to translating a bitcoin rich list - the problem was what I expected - there isn't enough interesting content on a regular basis. Most 8btc content is translated from English, the rest is rarely of interest. Bikeji.com is a bit more interesting but less active. There hasn't been any mention of a lack of confidence in the Yuan and I wouldn't expect one. In general, looking for conversations about good investments produce more results. But since everyone on bitcoin fora agrees that bitcoins are indeed that, the conversations don't happen. they could probably make a killing by simply reading the Chinese Bitcoin forums and publishing regular China sentiment updates Not me anyway but I wouldn't even do Google Ads. The answer may be to feed sentiment analysis directly into trading algorithms but that's beyond me. Maybe someone like u/sentdex knows more about it. u/syrupmaple, the site's source is open, it's just a simple Jekyll site. Anyone could take it over but yeah, you'd have to build the traffic from scratch and get content from wechat groups more than blogs. And finally, if anyone wants China-related bitcoin news I'd go to https://twitter.com/cnLedger for the moment.
In reply to: Chinese<->English forum bridge
I made a site for this called bitcoinzh.com, but I stopped updating it because of the lack of good content on Chinese forums. The best sites to check are 8btc.com and bikeji.com, and follow CNLedger on Twitter.
In reply to: Is the interest level in Apple Pay going down?
Someone told me they have a foreign Xapo VISA card linked to their WeChat wallet.
In reply to: Coinbase may have lied about the number of bitcoins they store
Not sure if it's coincidental but this evening Andreas Antonopoulos republished his 2014 post 'Failure is an option' on how the failure of Mt Gox was not a failure of bitcoin: https://medium.com/@aantonop/failure-is-an-option-fa1499180dcb
In reply to: Reddit has a chat app called Carrot - would r/bitcoin consider creating a room?
It's still in beta and has relatively few subs, but they're of a high quality. The creator seems to be hanging out on r/webdev in there. She/he mentioned the backend was open-sourced: https://github.com/enoex/PubSubWithProxy Edit: Apologies for the misleading title. Here's the relevant section from the FAQ: "Who built Carrot? Carrot was built by a small team of developers and designers in Oakland, California. How is Carrot related to reddit? Carrot uses the Reddit API but it is not endorsed or certified by Reddit. All Reddit™ logos and trademarks displayed on Carrot are property of Reddit." https://carrot.com/faq
In reply to: Reddit has a chat app called Carrot - would r/bitcoin consider creating a room?
I sometimes pop in there, but it's not for everyone. If you look at the integration of this on r/economics or r/geopolitics, it's really smooth. If IRC was the answer to everything, Slack wouldn't exist. But Slack doesn't integrate as well with Reddit as this. Fair point though.
In reply to: Google trends: "bitcoin halving" going to the moon!
Which is why this isn't a bullish indicator at all, just a normal reflection of interest in an event that's infrequent. It's like the results you get for Olympics: https://www.google.co.uk/trends/explore#q=olympics
In reply to: Block size discussion: Erik Voorhees vs. Roger Ver (March 2016)
@ErikVoorhees 4 minutes ago I've been banned from reddit for a day because I f'd up. Id appreciate if someone could post my apology at r/bitcoin http://moneyandstate.com/mea-culpa/
In reply to: Proof that /r/bitcoin is being censered...
https://twitter.com/ErikVoorhees/status/740633789391507457 His apology is linked from here
In reply to: [NOOB here] How much bitcoin would an individual have to buy to raise the overall conversion price of bitcoins to e.g. $100 dollar extra
At https://cryptowat.ch you'll find another easy way to look at this, a bit like u/joecoin mentioned below. Hold your mouse above the sticky tickers and look on the top left of your screen. Your question touches on the broader issue of market manipulation: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Market_manipulation
In reply to: China needs to ‘change the way’ it treats journalists, Trudeau says
I would say it's less black and white. You need to consider the philosophical basis on which those rights are founded. Christians may say the inherent dignity of humans comes from God, is equally applied from the moment of conception on and so take a natural law approach to human rights. Another more utilitarian view may seek to set a floor on human experience consistent with the highest possible lowest common denominator. What's often missing from the debate on human rights and China is where is the philosophical basis for them in Chinese thought? You can't enforce the effect if you haven't established the cause and in the case of China that's what we try to do. It would be more useful if someone could show how commonly held Chinese philosophical beliefs entail the same human rights convictions as those entailed by western philosophical beliefs. Unfortunately, since the two schools have generally been distinct and education in the west continues to deepen that divide, that's unlikely to occur.
In reply to: China needs to ‘change the way’ it treats journalists, Trudeau says
I quite agree the Christian approach is dangerous, not least because of the associated hierarchy it creates between humans and between humans and animals. Nevertheless, when you exclude natural law completely, you need to find another justification for human rights. One such attempt is a utilitarian approach I mentioned, maybe better encapsulated as 'man creates the measure' using reason and logic, things which can be proven and agreed upon between individuals and cultures. The same issue applies to the golden rule. Why should it be enforceable if two people disagree over its validity? Why is it restricted to humans? What if the other person is a sado-masochist? Are they allowed to interact with me on that basis? It's generally uncontroversial but doesn't cover edge cases well, so the risk of bad law is high. Nevertheless, as you rightly say it's the most relevant shared belief across major cultures. It is not the basis for our current human rights framework though.
In reply to: China needs to ‘change the way’ it treats journalists, Trudeau says
This argument leads to open borders... That's the key. It leads to/requires a single social contract and global government. Even if this were desirable, it still leads you back to convincing say China that some kinds of human rights are indeed universal. So you need a philosophical underpinning consistent with the convictions of each signatory to the contract. It's a big part of Enlightenment Era thinking on this kind of stuff. I'd dare say it's a cornerstone. It's a cornerstone, but not the only one. I'd say it's the best one, but again it's not sufficient to justify our insistence that China respect our conception of human rights. In effect, what China does with the '600 million people lifted out of poverty' argument is take an outcome consistent with our human rights ambitions based on a cause consistent with its social and economic aspirations. It shows no commitment to the western human rights framework, and that's logical from the Chinese perspective. If we want China to move further than coincidentally human rights compliant outcomes, we still need to argue a case for human rights consistent with Chinese beliefs. That probably means changing our conception of human rights to remove all traces of natural law. I hope at least this shows that when we make these calls that seem superficially uncontroversial, we often maintain an unspoken cultural hierarchy which places western philosophical beliefs above those of China.
In reply to: Just a reminder. Don't invest more than you're willing to lose
As I recall a few years ago, the general advice was not to place more than 1% of an investment portfolio in bitcoins. I'd be interested to know if that consensus has moved up, given the longevity, progress on scaling / governance and wider technical developments.
In reply to: Our Chinese bank informed us they can no longer perform outgoing foreign transactions indefinitely
the inability to move money out of China to buy the Bitcoin You can buy bitcoin inside China from a variety of exchanges, no need to move your money out first.
In reply to: International Reactions to Orlando Tragedy
From Ireland: “On behalf of the people and Government of Ireland, I offer our sincere condolences on the shocking loss of life in Orlando today,” wrote Mr Kenny. “Our thoughts and prayers are with the people of the United States, the community in Orlando and the LGBT community, and above all with the families and loved ones of those so senselessly killed and injured. “Once again we have witnessed the horror of young people being attacked as they enjoy themselves in their own community. Words cannot capture the shock and revulsion felt in Ireland, and around the world, at this outrage.” President Michael D Higgins also sent his condolences to the families of the victims killed and injured in Sunday’s attack. Mr Higgins said he had spoken to US ambassador to Ireland Kevin O’Malley and had “personally conveyed my deepest sympathy and our nation’s solidarity with the people of the United States at this time”. “Our thoughts are with the people of Florida and the community in Orlando and Orange County at this difficult time,” said Mr Higgins. “The loss of innocent life on such a horrendous scale is truly shocking and challenges us all.” http://www.irishtimes.com/news/world/us/orlando-massacre-taoiseach-offers-condolences-to-obama-1.2682487 And from Northern Ireland: Deputy First Minister, Martin McGuiness: "My heart goes out to all those killed & injured in the appalling Orlando shooting.My sympathy & prayers are with their heartbroken families." https://twitter.com/M_McGuinness_SF/status/742034338884255744 "A single candle is burning in St Anne's Cathedral, Belfast, to remember all those people who died and were injured in the shooting at a nightclub in Orlando yesterday." "Belfast City Council have opened a book of condolence for those who were killed in a mass shooting at a gay club in Orlando." http://www.bbc.com/news/live/uk-northern-ireland-36332788
In reply to: International Reactions to Orlando Tragedy
http://www.china.org.cn/world/2016-06/13/content_38656405.htm "Chinese President Xi Jinping on Monday called his U.S. counterpart Barack Obama to offer condolences over the deadly shooting in Orlando, Florida. On behalf of the Chinese government and the Chinese people, Xi expressed deep sympathy and sincere condolences to Obama, the U.S. government and the U.S. people. He also expressed grief to the victims of the terror attack."
In reply to: Just a reminder. Don't invest more than you're willing to lose
It wasn't my advice, just wondering if people still consider stocks and bonds the safe investment category and bitcoin the high-risk venture.
In reply to: American living in Japan. Can I obtain my Z visa in Japan?
The criminal record check usually requires a trip back to your home country even if the other parts don't.
In reply to: Our Chinese bank informed us they can no longer perform outgoing foreign transactions indefinitely
The issue of the halvening where miners receive a smaller reward for their work / capital expenditure adds pressure in China but also for the mining pool members based around the world. This does mean fewer new coins to sell, affecting the supply side primarily. The subsequent price move exacerbates this from the demand side. As a deflationary currency, the long-term answer to this lies in its infinite divisibility. As opposed to having a central point of weakness that prints more notes when convenient for some, thereby devaluing the whole at a cost normally carried by those at the bottom.
In reply to: Alibaba’s Jack Ma: The problem with counterfeits is they’re “better quality” than authentic luxury goods
That's not what he's saying at all. “问题是，如今的假货比正品质量还好，价格也更低廉。它们在相同的工厂生产，采用相同的原材料，只不过没有用自己的品牌。” That last phrase again: "不过没有用自己的品牌."
In reply to: Personal statement regarding the fork
I feel bad for those trying to create decentralised solutions to real-world problems. Today is bad for the crypto sphere. Remember there are a lot of people who watched Bitcoin for years before investing, now watching how Ethereum reacts to this event. The size of the trade-off you face in the coming days and weeks depends on your confidence in Ethereum's long-term potential. If you: interfere with blockchain immutability retrospectively claim insecure contracts to be invalid create new coins for users who entered into insecure contracts describe contracts, their creators and holders, as good or bad according to your economic or other interests, or deny access to a blockchain based on economic or moral judgements then you need to accept the long-term losses against any short-term gains.
In reply to: Personal statement regarding the fork
You need immutable truth values to secure value in a cryptocurrency. I read your previous comment: "TheDAO is too big to fail. This hard fork is the Ether equivalent of the government bank bailouts in 2009, except that it's decided by consensus rather than by politicians." I understand your motivation for retrospectively deeming true to be false, but you need to understand the consequences.
In reply to: Reddit has a chat app called Carrot - would r/bitcoin consider creating a room?
And r/carrot is banned. That's a learning experience.
In reply to: Hello Ethereum Community!
RemindMe! 15 Jul 2016 "Calculate % losses for u/seweso from ~$17"
In reply to: Hello Ethereum Community!
Thanks!
In reply to: Mempool Megathread
Excuse me if this was discounted, but there were calls for a 'fee attack' on the network a few days previous to this post: https://www.reddit.com/r/btc/comments/4nz65d/this_chart_should_worry_everyone/
In reply to: [Fuck Sixth Tone] "I still believe we need more formal institutions or university orientations in place to deal with such matters."
Some relevant background: http://foreignpolicy.com/2014/07/23/the-new-website-that-has-china-buzzing/
In reply to: CCTV2
Open to correction, but the main themes are: recent bull market following difficult period brief history of Bitcoin fixed cap / scarcity halvening (减半) use as currency in China / rest of world CN govt restrictions / influence on price alternative use cases: investment / risks case study: successful trader / warning to amateurs deflationary currency China's share of global trading volume / risk Overall impression is it's a gentle warning to the average Chinese to exercise caution. This is the main evening news (20:30 on 19 Jun 2016), so almost prime time viewing.
In reply to: Bitfinex' actions today are bordering on criminal. Take it as a general warning.
When I look at the timing of this, it's one year to the day since OKCoin had downtime of a similar length due to similar reasons: https://www.okcoin.com/t-210.html http://news.dinbits.com/2015/06/not-ok-okcoin-down-and-still-out.html No tinfoil but it is a strange coincidence.
In reply to: CCTV2
This was a bit odd. The man who spoke at 6:43 follows the CCTV voice saying there's no certainty technology will be secure. He says, "if I bought a lot of bitcoins and I suddenly noticed a 'spirit'* appeared, and suddenly there existed twice as many bitcoins, the bitcoins in my hand wouldn't be worth anything, would they? This doubt is always at the back of your mind." The other speakers are all from the industry and reasonable, he comes off as relatively odd. *the word is 神人, I've only really seen it in religious Daoism and questionable TV shows, don't ask me how this shit makes the news.
In reply to: Need help on Wechat Wallet
I believe OKCoin and BTCC both accept deposits from wechat wallets.
In reply to: Circle Makes China Play: Raises $60 Million From Baidu, IDG Capital, Breyer; Forms Circle China
This goes against the grain of events in China. Ongoing support for 'controlling the means of production' Clarification that use of bitcoin as currency was banned Announcement that the government was working on its own cryptocurrency Nothing suggests that there's a space for Bitcoin wallet services within the China market. The most likely explanation I can think of is that merchants in China may be allowed to accept bitcoin payments from overseas, which would then be converted into CNY, as an attempt to counter the threat OpenBazaar etc. pose to traditional Yuan-denominated B2B sales. Edit: spelling / lapsus
In reply to: Circle Makes China Play: Raises $60 Million From Baidu, IDG Capital, Breyer; Forms Circle China
Just that mining is dominated by Chinese pools and hardware, there was never any question when they banned the use of bitcoin as a currency that they would close down the mining industry or exchanges. circle is more than just bitcoin But this is r/bitcoin, and I don't think China is inviting foreign companies to come compete with Alipay and Wechat Wallet.
In reply to: Circle Makes China Play: Raises $60 Million From Baidu, IDG Capital, Breyer; Forms Circle China
I know it's an unlikely explanation, my point is this doesn't fit with everything China's done up to now. If you have a better explanation for the apparent inconsistency, shoot.
In reply to: Bitcoin prediction from 1999 in the book, called: "The Sovereign Individual"
And the son of Rees-Mogg, Jacob, is now a member of the UK parliament and Treasury Select committee: http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/jacob-rees-mogg-just-gave-mark-carney-the-politest-of-beatings-a7044701.html
In reply to: The UK House of Lords evidence session on 'distributed ledgers' is streaming now
The Deputy Governor of the Bank of England has been taking questions so far: They're looking at a non-fractional centrally-banked token with direct accounts for individuals at the Bank; They don't have an alternative to PoW; They'll require identity to access their blockchain; One Lord is concerned about terrorism and dragons, another is a director of a bank and is concerned about savings. Now it's the academics and private sector.
In reply to: The UK House of Lords evidence session on 'distributed ledgers' is streaming now
http://parliamentlive.tv/event/index/d24ec0a5-222e-4a2b-a5af-5e45b937bd6a?in=15:06:00
In reply to: Blockstream announces an open patent pledge and strategy intended to protect all users of Bitcoin
If you added the Patent Pledge and Modified Innovator's Patent Agreement to your github it might be convenient to track whether they're adapted by others or modified.
In reply to: Blockstream announces an open patent pledge and strategy intended to protect all users of Bitcoin
Both of these documents are intended not to need changes The Patent Pledge is described as version 1.0, that could create a different impression. Nice to see private actors trying to find solutions where public bodies are struggling anyway.
In reply to: House of Lords told Bank of England's digital currency is 'some way off'
The actual quote, in response to whether "the prospect of a digital currency is, in your view, some way off?", was: if by digital currency “one means central bank digital currency replacing, not just the liabilities we currently have, but prospectively substituting for commercial bank money then yes I would say so.” So this is referring not just to the creation of a centralised cryptocurrency, but also major reform of the banking sector and its relationship with the central bank. Even the suggestion of all that seems quite significant, but nobody in attendance picked up on it. At another point he mentioned they knew they would require a centralised service accessible on proof of national identity, but they don't know what the technology would look like or what consensus mechanism the blockchain would use, so it still sounds like early days. The BoE deputy governor seemed very aware of the existential questions posed by Bitcoin, but neither he nor any of the guests afterwards, nor any of the Lords, were too clear about how centralised blockchains would work or be helpful. The company providing some kind of blockchain for welfare payments tracking was called GovCoin (yes it was), not much online presence.
In reply to: BitGo: "As we directly notified our customers earlier today, our investigation has found no evidence of a breach to any BitGo servers."
https://www.bitgo.com/jobs API Platform Engineer Duties include: "Build layers of security protection with isolated privileges and policy, combined with state-of-the-art transaction monitoring and intrusion detection." This vacancy suggests BitGo had identified shortcomings in their API policies and security.
In reply to: Bitcoin Sinks After Hackers Steal $65 Million From Exchange
You need to include a small transaction fee, most wallets calculate how much exactly for you. If there's no fee, there's no incentive for miners to process the transaction, just like Visa isn't a charity. You shouldn't trust online wallets with more than you need to spend, it's like cash. Honestly, if your spending requirements are met with cash and you trust banks/central banks to look after your interests, you don't need Bitcoin.
In reply to: BitGo: "As we directly notified our customers earlier today, our investigation has found no evidence of a breach to any BitGo servers."
There isn't the wide range of vacancies you'll typically see in a fast-growing startup, just a few well-focussed positions indicating points of weakness in the company. So I'd say possible, but unlikely.
In reply to: Ebay.com or Carousell.com alternatives in China?
https://2.taobao.com/
In reply to: Help Creating a Double-Spend to deal with an Unconfirmed Transaction (multibit classic)
https://multibit.org/help/v0.5/help_support_sentBitcoinFromMultibitButTheyAreStuck.html The section under 'The peer received the transaction but "did not like it" (did not relay)' looks like your case. If you're not having a great experience using Multibit, you might prefer the interface on Copay or GreenAddress.
In reply to: Help Creating a Double-Spend to deal with an Unconfirmed Transaction (multibit classic)
Nobody wants to go comparing transaction size in bytes to fee amount and it's not reasonable to expect new users to be aware of the significance, but those two suggestions do a good job of suggesting a sensible fee and allowing you to adjust it. If you're curious you can always check on https://bitcoinfees.21.co/ and some other sites. Normally, your transaction won't be mined if the fee was zero, but there have been plenty of exceptions to that rule: https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Free_transaction_relay_policy If it's just a bit low, yeah just relax for 24 hours or so and it should be well confirmed.
In reply to: Fed Admits Another $4 Trillion In QE Will Be Needed To Offset An "Economic Shock" (Zerohedge)
I wonder if even banks would start exploring non-USD currencies in an environment with significant negative interest rates. We've already had the Bank of England openly discussing the idea of bypassing the entire commercial banking sector: "I was really saying that if one imagined a very extreme example of a digital currency from the central bank, one that would gobble up and displace all these commercial bank deposits, we would end up with a particular kind of narrow banking structure. Essentially, you would have one enormous, nationalised narrow bank, and you and I would deposit at the central bank. We may hold some commercial bank deposits as well, but loans would then be funded in a rather different way, with more wholesale funding. As I say, the benefits of that might be that you end up with safer deposits." http://data.parliament.uk/writtenevidence/committeeevidence.svc/evidencedocument/economic-affairs-committee/distributed-ledger-technologies/oral/35390.html And this with the stated objective of achieving those negative rates: "If CBcoin were remunerated at the same rate as CB reserves, it would be interchangeable with reserves. And if the CB chose to replace cash with CBcoin, it could then charge a negative interest rate on deposits to bypass the dreaded zero lower bound, as considered by Kimball (2013) and Haldane (2015). In this scenario, the overall quantity of CB money would stay the same, only the composition of the CB liabilities would change." https://bankunderground.co.uk/2016/07/25/central-bank-digital-currency-the-end-of-monetary-policy-as-we-know-it/
In reply to: Can anyone recommend JS tutorials that focus mainly on functions? Or offer any other learning advice about grasping / getting beyond JS functions?
Still learning but I found Eloquent Javascript very helpful, especially chapters 3 (functions),5 (higher-order functions) and 10 (modules). There are exercises for each chapter at the foot of the page. http://eloquentjavascript.net/
In reply to: A 16-year-old British girl earns £48,000 helping Chinese people name their babies
"There isn't open access to the internet so they can't use standard baby naming websites that people may use in the UK." Either China is indeed blocking the controversial babynames.co.uk, or the BBC is up to mischief again.
In reply to: Ou acheter de l'acide borique?
En tant qu'être humain, il faut être reconnaissant de la supériorité des blattes. Pour te débrouiller donc, il faudra le secours d'un petit gecko. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ysu7zIpVfIM
In reply to: Weibo
Seems relevant: http://www.zhihu.com/question/19804199
In reply to: What books and movies should kids (5-18) be exposed to to teach them morals?
I'd question the assumption that morals should be taught in the manner suggested by your question. The study of ethics per se is usually covered by philosophy in academic settings. You're taught how to logically arrive at ethical viewpoints, and the history of those that prevail today. Here's a sample reading list: http://www.phil.cam.ac.uk/curr-students/IA/IA-outlines-reading-lists/paper2-ethics From around the age of 15, many of the canonical texts in the study of ethics are accessible. You can't teach a five-year old ethics, the best you can do is benign indoctrination.
In reply to: Cheapest way to transfer cash back to UK bank account?
Bitcoin has been specifically labeled as an unlawful virtual good in china since 2013. This is false. Bitcoin is legal for all uses except making and receiving payments for goods and / or services. Buying or selling bitcoin could get you arrested regardless of your nationality. Completely false. There's no crime to be arrested for. More bitcoin is bought and sold in China than any other country. Nobody has ever been arrested for buying / selling bitcoin. Multiple butcoin exchange sites had been blocked. [sic] This is false. No Chinese exchange has ever been "blocked" and the main exchanges all have cooperative relationships with the state, as seen in the formulation of China's cryptocurrency policy. Like many other illegal things in the past such as PS2 or Xbox, people buy or sell them regardless. People buy or sell them because it's legal. Your post is deliberately misleading. Here's a CCTV report on the subject: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LIBbtczzGDk
In reply to: What bitcoin exchange do you use for buying bitcoin
https://www.circle.com These guys, head and shoulders above everyone else given your situation.
In reply to: What books and movies should kids (5-18) be exposed to to teach them morals?
For kids, definitely. I was suggesting that independently arriving at moral positions is beyond the grasp of kids, so it's best to be realistic about what you're undertaking. On the other hand, I wouldn't underestimate the ability of teenagers to understand and enjoy plenty of these texts. Lots of countries include a selection in their high school curricula. Particularly, Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics, Hume's essays, Hobbes' Leviathan and Nietzsche's Beyond Good and Evil. For an overview, Singer's Companion to Ethics is clear and not pretentious, and since it's a US-focused question, Sandel's talks on justice are excellent and freely available: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kBdfcR-8hEY The suggestions from u/Dr_Coxian seem well suited at developing skills in critical thinking, which is a good first step for those not confident enough to undertake these suggestions. Have fun anyway.
In reply to: Cheapest way to transfer cash back to UK bank account?
Don't dig yourself any deeper: "误解一：比特币已被国家禁止，参与比特币买卖等于违法犯罪？ 《通知》明确了比特币作为虚拟商品的性质：“从性质上看，比特币是一种特定的虚拟商品”。出于对金融系统的风险防范考虑，《通知》限制了金融机构和支付机 构对于比特币相关活动的参与。但是《通知》也认为，“比特币交易作为一种互联网上的商品买卖行为，普通民众在自担风险的前提下拥有参与的自由”。所以比特 币并没有被国家禁止，个人、一般商户、互联网公司等非金融支付机构参与比特币买卖合法合规。同时在参与比特币买卖时，也需要认识到比特币存在的风险，避免 过度炒作。" http://www.8btc.com/about-bitcoin-alert
In reply to: Anyone have experience with BTCC?
Any exchange not asking for these details is on shaky ground regarding their AML/KYC obligations. BTCC was founded, and is staffed, by among the most competent personalities in the bitcoin industry. If the amounts you're transferring aren't too high (because of their transaction limits), I'd also recommend Circle: https://www.circle.com/
In reply to: Which Democrat has been playing Trump for Clinton's debate preparation?
Thanks! Aide Philippe Reines for those too lazy to click, not much on the approach taken but here's a quick CNN discussion: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4lJaN7SDvJ8 For anyone wondering about the vice versa: "The Republican nominee's debate prep has involved Sunday meet-ups at a Trump golf course in New Jersey over cheeseburgers and soda, according to the Washington Post, with confidantes such as ousted Fox News chairman Roger Ailes and conservative radio firebrand Laura Ingraham spitballing zingers. Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, shown at one of his golf courses in Scotland, has reportedly been meeting advisers at a New Jersey golf course to test zingers and debate ideas for his debate against Hillary Clinton. It's unconventional compared to the classical approach involving full-dress mock debates and analyses of what makes an opponent tick. Trump has reportedly resisted reading briefing materials and sparring against Ingraham as a Clinton stand-in." http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/hillary-clinton-donald-trump-presidential-debate-clash-prep-styles-1.3774159
In reply to: China's new visa classification system will include language tests: ‘老外要是想来中国，也要进行语言考试’
Seems ok to me. Here it is on tieba: http://tieba.baidu.com/p/4798197777 No English source yet afaik.
In reply to: Anyone knows what is China's equivalent of ebay / craigslist for 2nd hand / used electronics?
https://2.taobao.com/
In reply to: Tribute Page and 1st time coding. roast me.
Just add a little padding to those p elements, like: p { padding: 0 6px; } I'd move one of the images into the header, and maybe give the header a little less padding on the top and bottom. The three-column layout feels a bit uneven given the text lengths for each one vary quite a bit. I'd look at moving Early Life to a single full-width column, then using bullet points or something to make the longer texts a bit more readable. The link to your Wikipedia page could be one of several 'find me on the web links' that could make a footer, so the page has a header, main and footer structure. Changing the background color for this last element and using logos with links would give it a familiar footer feel. Anyway, very nice work altogether. If you wanted to publish it live online under your own domain, it's worth checking out Jekyll and Github Pages.
In reply to: [Feedback] First project: Jonny Greenwood tribute page. Feedback appreciated!
Really nice page. I'd just add a footer with a cite element for the blockquote attribution: http://w3c.github.io/html/grouping-content.html#the-blockquote-element
In reply to: Millions have less than £100 in savings, study finds
Hardly surprising when the UK appears to be trying to compete with China on wages, depends on private credit to avoid contraction and is threatening endless ZIRP: The neutral rate of interest “is closer to zero than it used to be. You can see from charts that historically, interest rates have always been at around 5pc, going back hundreds of years… even in ancient Babylon,” she said. “Something has changed in the last decade with big forces of demography, global savings and investment, and the neutral rate has fallen and is likely to stay low for a very long time.” http://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2016/09/28/qe-is-here-forever-says-bank-of-england-deputy-governor/ I've never seen a more disingenuous explanation of the current predicament.
In reply to: News Hodl is a Bitcoin news website
Honest feedback - r/bitcoin and a google alert work as news aggregators for me, so I won't use this.
In reply to: The Run Begins: Deutsche Bank Hedge Fund Clients Withdraw Excess Cash
"Those who have cash parked at Deutsche Bank, and at last check there was about €566 billion, they may want to consider moving it for the time being to a safer bank." Cheeky ZH adds a little fuel.
In reply to: Saudi princess ‘made decorator kiss her feet’ inside palatial Paris flat before allegedly telling bodyguard: ‘You have to kill this dog’
/worldnews has a rule not to link to non-English sources. The identity of the princess isn't revealed but Le Point says she is one of the [six] daughters of former king Khalid bin Sultan. Perhaps relevant: http://www.vanityfair.com/style/2015/04/saudi-princess-maha-paris-shopping-scandal
In reply to: McGuinness used Royal powers three times
The inconsistency is that the Royal Prerogative represents the remains of absolute monarchy, and is the antithesis of the style of government you might expect from republicans, in the anti-monarchist sense of the word. The history of the Westminster system from around the Bill of Rights in 1689 is, among other forms of progress, the gradual transfer of powers from the monarch to Parliament. That Bill contains, among other provisions: Dispensing Power. That the pretended Power of Suspending of Laws or the Execution of Laws by Regall Authority without Consent of Parlyament is illegall. Its use in Northern Ireland represents a further compromise on the part of a republican if you like, from demanding sovereignty to accepting devolved power to legislate on certain issues subject to Royal Assent, to finally bypassing that devolved parliament and acting directly in the name of the monarch. There's an argument that the wielding of the Royal Prerogative powers by a republican DFM represents some kind of victory, but it seems hollow and comes at the cost of coherent policy. The expectation of republicans might be that SF will use their power to limit the powers of the Executive and maximise the influence of the Assembly. Although SF are nothing if not pragmatic, its use is still surprising in that it sets a precedent for weakening democratic representation that could in future be used as a weapon against republicanism. I'm no constitutional expert but this is what I could learn by reading media not from NI.
In reply to: EU plan to give free Interrail pass to every 18-year-old in Europe on their birthday: 'The mobility of young people is essential in promoting a sense of belonging to Europe'
Helicopter train money. Bring your credit card, consume with reckless abandon. Your country EU inflation target needs you.
In reply to: EU plan to give free Interrail pass to every 18-year-old in Europe on their birthday: 'The mobility of young people is essential in promoting a sense of belonging to Europe'
"According to calculations by German news service Tagesschau, the cost of the proposal could reach €1.5bn (£1.3bn) per year, assuming between 50 and 70 per cent of the estimated 5.4 million 18-year-old living in the EU at present took up the offer." The calculations show they're planning on full-priced €479 tickets for 18-year olds. Strangely similar to the value of Renzi's 18th birthday gift. It makes no sense to divide the estimated €1.5bn by the total population. It's a helicopter drop of that value for a targeted demographic.
In reply to: EU plan to give free Interrail pass to every 18-year-old in Europe on their birthday: 'The mobility of young people is essential in promoting a sense of belonging to Europe'
It's not a requirement of helicopter money that it be universally distributed. Here's a snippet from Wikipedia: "Originally used by Friedman to illustrate the effects of monetary policy on inflation and the costs of holding money, rather than an actual policy proposal, the concept has since then been increasingly discussed by economists as a serious alternative to monetary policy instruments such as quantitative easing. According to its proponents, helicopter money would be a more efficient way to increase aggregate demand, especially in a situation of liquidity trap, when central banks have reached the so-called 'zero lower bound'." Does that situation sound familiar?
In reply to: EU plan to give free Interrail pass to every 18-year-old in Europe on their birthday: 'The mobility of young people is essential in promoting a sense of belonging to Europe'
There's no minimum amount required for it to be helicopter money. €1.5bn per year is more devaluation than I'd want for my currency. This is just one form of helicopter money, no doubt there'll be more. What's cynical is it's clear printing cash for 40 year olds might lead to them doing something crazy like paying down debt or even saving for a rainy day. So to kick things off, start with the demographic that likes to spend not save.
In reply to: EU plan to give free Interrail pass to every 18-year-old in Europe on their birthday: 'The mobility of young people is essential in promoting a sense of belonging to Europe'
This isn't the key driver here. A generation of Erasmus hasn't produced cultural homogeny in its participants, just more qualified young adults. A month travelling around Europe won't come close to undoing the cultural distinctions acquired before and after. Freedom of movement is of little value when the cultural and economic differences that make it worth visiting another place have been outsourced to China This doesn't make sense in a European context at least - we haven't outsourced cultural differences to China, just our manufacturing sector in a misguided 'knowledge economy' strategy. Economic differences are being tackled by the Eurozone and fiscal integration, not a month's travel; cultural differences by corporate influence on urban lifestyles in a shared marketplace. Ask an American. Not everything is best understood through the prism of American experience. Try to understand things in and of themselves as opposed to relating them back to your comfort zone.
In reply to: Tonight at 9P ET Roger Ver talks Bitcoin Unlimited, Scaling, and Forks on Bitcoin Uncensored
They did interview Peter Todd quite recently: https://soundcloud.com/bitcoinuncensored/peter-todd-talks-blockchains-proof-of-work-ethereum-and-immutability-with-chris-derose-and-junseth This Roger episode was a disaster though. Their style only works when the guest is an idiot, otherwise they're in adulation mode like in the link above.
In reply to: Tonight at 9P ET Roger Ver talks Bitcoin Unlimited, Scaling, and Forks on Bitcoin Uncensored
Have a listen and judge for yourself, still interesting enough.
In reply to: Trader Hangout with CEO Mike Belshe of BitGo -- Live 4PM PST Weds
Can they comment at all on the cooperation with the Brave browser team, and has that partnership been affected by the Bitfinex incident? https://techcrunch.com/2016/09/01/ad-blocking-browser-brave-launches-payments-so-you-can-support-sites-with-cash-not-ad-clicks/
In reply to: Massive scams like OneCoin harm all of crypto & can increase bad regs - help me make a letter on GitHub to send to enforcement agencies
It would be helpful to draw attention to existing public / private investment in cryptocurrency / blockchain research, to gain signatories from government agencies and private sector participants. It would be encouraging to show more clearly these are classic techniques LEAs are well experienced in tackling, by pointing to successful prosecutions against those engaged in similar activities. It would add emotional impact to provide evidence of the fragility of those who are most commonly impacted and point to human stories of victims of similar activities.
In reply to: Trader Hangout with CEO Mike Belshe of BitGo -- Live 4PM PST Weds
The reason I thought this was relevant is Brave looks likely to require some kind of segregated wallet setup too.
In reply to: Official download location for Xiaomi Market / 小米应用商店
Thanks, but that won't install. I did get the answer though on http://www.miui.com/forum.php: Make a full backup Deal with your 2FA apps Do a full factory reset If your phone was shipped with a global ROM you'll get back Xiaomi Market as well as the other system apps, plus your Google services.
In reply to: Official download location for Xiaomi Market / 小米应用商店
It is indeed an official link, and the Market app had indeed moved away from system apps to installed apps in my settings beforehand, but nevertheless it won't install. Whether that's an unrelated issue with the apk I couldn't say but in any case I recommend the path above, despite the 2FA hassle.
In reply to: Crash éclair de la livre sterling à son plus bas niveau en 31 ans face au dollar
Il y a le taux de change sur Airbnb qui est assez réactif.
In reply to: Strip out all the ads and pay websites and creators directly with BitCoin using the Brave browser
I'm concerned that this is to be implemented in partnership with BitGo; it looks like it would require a segregated wallet setup too.
In reply to: Strip out all the ads and pay websites and creators directly with BitCoin using the Brave browser
Maybe that's what is being implemented in partnership with BitGo: https://cointelegraph.com/news/brave-browser-forges-new-bitcoin-micropayment-agreement-with-coinbase-and-bitgo https://techcrunch.com/2016/09/01/ad-blocking-browser-brave-launches-payments-so-you-can-support-sites-with-cash-not-ad-clicks/ I certainly wouldn't use this until I hear this partnership is off the table.
In reply to: Strip out all the ads and pay websites and creators directly with BitCoin using the Brave browser
They were managing the Bitfinex segregated wallets at the time of the BTC120,000 theft. Their CEO confirmed all my doubts the other day in a WhaleClub interview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SNtNuVe4s48
In reply to: Quick question - Speeches?
To save you a wild goose chase, you won't find any shift just studying the speeches of Xi Jinping. The 'hide your light' policy was under Deng Xiaoping, 'striving for achievement' is under Xi Jinping. You can find all Xi's speeches on foreign policy, not surprisingly, on the website of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. http://www.fmprc.gov.cn/mfa_eng/wjdt_665385/zyjh_665391/
In reply to: Quick question - Speeches?
I'm not altogether surprised you've been told to start from a conclusion and work backwards, seems like just the kind of approach that led your professor to send you looking for Deng's policies in Xi's speeches. If you're limited to English sources, I'd say you'll find more on the one belt, one road strategy though I'm open to correction there. Have another link and good luck: http://supchina.com/2016/08/16/sinica-backgrounder-will-one-belt-one-road-remake-global-order/
In reply to: Chinese Economy
To somewhat satisfy my interests, I love to read and invest in Chinese companies. How are you doing that?
In reply to: BitFinex has frozen my unverified cryptotrading account containing xx,xxxx USD, even tho cryptotrading does NOT need any verification!!!
On-(side?)chain HFT. I believe IBM just filed a relevant patent, so godspeed: https://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/goldman-sachs-files-blockchain-patent-for-foreign-exchange-trading/
In reply to: Deleted Channel 4 report on Western backed rebels fighting in Aleppo
Only explanation I can find: https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/syria/2015-10-14/putins-gas-attack http://www.counterpunch.org/2015/12/08/syria-ultimate-pipelineistan-war/
In reply to: Mysterious factory break-in raises suspicions about Chinese visit
Come on, do you think that hasn't been considered? https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/aug/07/china-huwaei-cell-uk-national-security-cyber-surveillance-hacking
In reply to: BitFinex has frozen my unverified cryptotrading account containing xx,xxxx USD, even tho cryptotrading does NOT need any verification!!!
Well, Bitsquare is solving the decentralised fiat / crypto puzzle, but people who trade on sites like finex need fast transactions and more advanced order types, at the very least all these: http://www.investopedia.com/university/intro-to-order-types/ These are the two problems that haven't been solved that explain the continued success of centralised trading platforms.
In reply to: BitFinex has frozen my unverified cryptotrading account containing xx,xxxx USD, even tho cryptotrading does NOT need any verification!!!
Yeah, look again at the comment you originally replied to.
In reply to: The demonizing of China hurts ALL Asian Americans
By 2010 Census numbers, Asian Americans are the third most numerous ethnic group, comprising 4.8% of the population, and have earned first place in economic outcomes. Why do you think Asian Americans don't have the numbers to represent their own interests effectively?
In reply to: Russian deputy finance minister: Bitcoin poses no threat to Russia's financial system
Why not link to the original source then? https://sputniknews.com/business/201610111046221012-bitcoin-russia-threat/
In reply to: Any more, likely insecure, apps like this? Connects so immediately and speeds are amazing.
This is spyware that'll pwn your every account, capture all your data, and all from a 有限公司 with no real-world presence. Nice shill.
In reply to: Any more, likely insecure, apps like this? Connects so immediately and speeds are amazing.
Fuck off, trying to persuade naive people to install spyware for whatever bunch of idiots who pay you.
In reply to: Any more, likely insecure, apps like this? Connects so immediately and speeds are amazing.
Direct link to Play download location, minimise the conversion funnel for naive people Every comment full of shill: "It works wonders", "The speed is like Western / HK", "speeds are amazing" Attempt to justify the spyware: "I don't care if it tracks what I'm doing" You're the most obvious paid shill I've seen in a long time. If anyone did install this, check what files it leaves behind after uninstalling it.
In reply to: Any more, likely insecure, apps like this? Connects so immediately and speeds are amazing.
It's useful not to install spyware.
In reply to: Hollande: "The veiled woman of today will be the Marianne of tomorrow. She will take off her veil and become a French. She'll be capable to carry on an ideal. She'll choose freedom rather than enslavement. She won't need to hide behind a veil to trust in her society."
This demand for women to remove their veils goes back to the colonialisation of Algeria: http://www.alterinfo.net/photo/art/default/4045440-6137516.jpg Given the origins of most people who wear a veil in France, that campaign will be quite familiar. If the intention is to do anything but further divide people, it's counter-productive and not very intelligent.
In reply to: Peter Todd: I'm now offering a Defensive Patent License to all DPL users on behalf of myself and all tech companies I control
Tangentially relevant, but if you're building your Bitcoin-related apps with React, these are worth checking out: http://www.elcaminolegal.com/single-post/2016/10/04/Facebook-Reactjs-License https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12692552
In reply to: Beijing said Facebook and Google are welcome back to China as long as they "respect China's laws" — Quartz (google news unblocked)
Next month the World Internet Forum is being held in Wuzhen. This at least gives western companies a reason to attend and further raise its profile, though I wouldn't rule out the fine print making this offer difficult to accept. Yesterday Jack Ma spoke at the Alibaba Cloud Computing Conference, discussing the need for a 'borderless internet', which he's said is the best way to avoid WW3 no less. It looks like China is ready to compromise because Chinese companies are having limited success abroad. Amazon is dominating cloud for the moment. The main problem for global competition so far, aside from the obvious, is server location is a real issue that gives local players decisive advantages in performance. Since cloud infrastructure and CDNs are undermining that, and Amazon has as strong a position there as China does within the global economy, both sides have strong cards and good reasons to compromise. Edit: I'll just add those comments on avoiding WW3, they're quite interesting: "Actually the consequence of the first technological revolution was the first world war; the second technological revolution brought about the second world war; this technological revolution is the emancipation of ideas, is intellectual development. So what is it that will give rise to a third world war? If humanity doesn't have shared objectives, then it will start war itself. The problems this technological revolution should solve are issues of poverty, disease, the environment and sustainable development." http://mobile.163.com/16/1013/16/C398A2SN00118021.html
In reply to: Question re. ISPs / Routers
You effectively just have a wifi booster, your single network is now split into two sub-networks, the total bandwidth is shared. If you change the password at the main router level, then you could lock them out of their sub-network or remove it altogether. You can also set passwords at the level of your own hardware to protect your privacy. If you don't trust your flatmates enough to share the main network, you should probably consider living alone. http://www.howtogeek.com/153827/how-to-enable-a-guest-access-point-on-your-wireless-network/
In reply to: Hey Guys & Girls. I Bought Some Bitcoin from Circle. When Should I Transfer My Coins To Blockchain? I got a Dilemma..
They're telling you if you aren't the only one in possession of your private keys, then you can't be said to truly control your bitcoins. If you use a Blockchain.com wallet service, you won't achieve this level of control. If you want to buy research chemicals and do so within a few transactions of your Circle purchase, don't count on that account remaining open indefinitely. You can create your own cold wallet offline via https://www.bitaddress.org, transfer some over to a GreenAddress or Copay wallet and use this for daily transactions.
In reply to: Question re. ISPs / Routers
That router is the access point for both sub-networks. You don't have the right to monopolise both of them. There's no conspiracy against you.
In reply to: China warns 'hostile forces' trying to undermine military reform
As u/awayish mentioned, it's likely in relation to this: http://qz.com/807110/chinas-military-veterans-have-taken-to-the-streets-to-protest-because-they-cant-find-work/ Given spreading false rumours was recently outlawed, and those involved in the offending discussions may overlap with the veteran protestors, you might have the beginnings of an explanation. No expert, just idle speculation. On the other hand, it isn't nice to tell people they're about to lose their benefits when you have no evidence, and if there were any I've no doubt Reuters would have included it.
In reply to: Google introduces fact checking feature intended to help readers see whether news is actually true
This is my understanding of this feature, since much hyperbole. Currently when a journalist submits an article to be published, the dev team at that publication can use tags to help search engines like Google identify that the content in question is an article, and more precisely a news article. They can then add tags like About, Author, Funder and Source organisation, and identify particular elements of the content. So journalists and dev teams together are creating articles with meta-data. Since fact-checking has now been distinguished from creating news articles, Google and others have worked on a new class of tags, called Claim Reviews. The tags available for meta-data descriptions are more limited and still pending review. Crudely, if a news article shares an "about" tag with a claim review, or fact-check, then Google can match those and present the latter below the former in your search results. This means, as a reader, you can approach the claim review with the same scepticism or naïveté you approach any other piece of journalism. This amounts to a distinction between two kinds of journalism. More debatably, it's an admission that news articles are no longer expected to be fact-checked. https://schema.org/NewsArticle http://pending.schema.org/ClaimReview
In reply to: Julian Assange's internet link to the world 'is shut down by America' hours after crazy rumours sweep the web that Pamela Anderson 'killed him with a poisoned vegan Pret sandwich'
There were requests for a source other than RT; there's a lot of detail not included in the title.
In reply to: Assange internet cut off
I posted a Daily Mail link: https://www.reddit.com/r/worldnews/comments/57wddg/julian_assanges_internet_link_to_the_world_is/
In reply to: RED ALERT! WikiLeaks on Twitter: "Julian Assange's internet link has been intentionally severed by a state party. We have activated the appropriate contingency plans."
I posted a Daily Mail link: https://www.reddit.com/r/worldnews/comments/57wddg/julian_assanges_internet_link_to_the_world_is/ Not the greatest paper, but it's all there is for now in terms of UK nationals.
In reply to: Julian Assange's internet link to the world 'is shut down by America' hours after crazy rumours sweep the web that Pamela Anderson 'killed him with a poisoned vegan Pret sandwich'
I'd have posted a better source but the story hasn't been covered well by national media outlets. Nevertheless, I don't see any claims in this article that haven't been confirmed by the relevant individuals and organisations.
In reply to: WikiLeaks on Twitter : pre-commitment 3: UK FCO f33a6de5c627e3270ed3e02f62cd0c857467a780cf6123d2172d80d02a072f74
These are SHA256 checksums, which allow you to verify the integrity of documents you've downloaded. No two different documents, once encrypted, will produce the same checksum. This ensures the documents you possess are indeed the same documents the publisher intended to communicate. There is speculation that these are part of the contingency measures prepared by Wikileaks for an event where Assange's security was at risk. The documents are available via the same Twitter account linked in the OP.
In reply to: Julian Assange's internet link has been intentionally severed by a state party
I posted a Daily Mail link: https://www.reddit.com/r/worldnews/comments/57wddg/julian_assanges_internet_link_to_the_world_is/ Not great but all I could find in terms of national media coverage.
In reply to: Julian Assange's internet link to the world 'is shut down by America' hours after crazy rumours sweep the web that Pamela Anderson 'killed him with a poisoned vegan Pret sandwich'
What bias? I'm not American, I have no horse in your embarrassment of an election. I've explained why I linked to this. The activation of Julian Assange's dead man's switch is notable, and worthy of serious coverage by any national media. Yet no UK media, at least, has covered the story seriously.
In reply to: Julian Assange's internet link to the world 'is shut down by America' hours after crazy rumours sweep the web that Pamela Anderson 'killed him with a poisoned vegan Pret sandwich'
You haven't understood the significance of this beyond your favoured election candidate. That's fine, but it doesn't mean there isn't one.
In reply to: Julian Assange's internet link has been intentionally severed by a state party
I just had exactly this conversation, because I posted this story in the Daily Mail. Them: so you post a source that is basically a rumor rag? good choice. it doesn't show your bias at all. Me: What bias? I'm not American, I have no horse in your embarrassment of an election. I've explained why I linked to this. The activation of Julian Assange's dead man's switch is notable, and worthy of serious coverage by any national media. Yet no UK media, at least, has covered the story seriously. Them: Nothing in the daily mail is "notable." It's depressing and it's dangerous.
In reply to: IKEA Shanghai bans elderly daters from occupying its cafeteria
One of the things I really like about China is how older people still have social lives, being old in Shanghai looks much more fun than slowly dying alone in some western care home miles from London. As the city gets taken over by corporate space, there are fewer places for the groups to meet and you end up with this kind of phenomenon. Ikea doesn't have to provide a space for this, obviously, but it's surprising that all these CSR departments haven't come up with something to keep a good tradition alive.
In reply to: IKEA Shanghai bans elderly daters from occupying its cafeteria
My point was that they could say, look Xujiahui real estate is too expensive for us to give it to you free, but here's this beautiful Ikea centre down in Xinzhuang with mahjong tables and tea, you can spend all day there for free if you like. Then take some pictures of nice folk, especially the couples who meet there, post them on your weibo and wechat and say, Ikea is giving something back to China. I'm sure someone could cover the cost of this at least if they managed the marketing right.
In reply to: IKEA Shanghai bans elderly daters from occupying its cafeteria
Not long. Then the other people wouldn't have any. Then a noisy conversation would ensue and somehow the tiles could appear again without the offenders needing to be identified.
In reply to: IKEA Shanghai bans elderly daters from occupying its cafeteria
This a long time arguing a random speculative suggestion. Put the centre away from the store for just that reason, but brand it. Get the government to provide the land, IKEA could stick some new furniture in every year. Done.
In reply to: China is one of only three countries where women are more likely to die by suicide than men
I wondered if someone would raise that, but if you look at the overall rates: https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/suicide-rates-by-country?tab=map because it has a relatively high overall rate, male suicide is just as common in China as in many other countries. The idea that there might be something worth studying that explains low incidences of male suicide seems unlikely. It appears more that in China a typically high level of male suicide is accompanied by an atypically high level of female suicide. Fair points you made anyway, though you haven't given men much sense of agency - who's ignoring, shaming and blaming and why do men react the way we do.
In reply to: As Starbucks pushes into China, CEO says market will eclipse U.S.
They use Yunnan-sourced beans in their blends: http://uk.reuters.com/article/us-coffee-china-starbucks-idUKKCN0J32CX20141119 This seems like a typical strategy. Develop the supply side first, then move up the chain. Retail infrastructure competencies are all in place, there's local talent at all levels of the company, within the country at least. The only thing missing is branding, for now. In the meantime the company must be operating under the same rules as other foreign enterprises, with the advantage of not touching on any strategic objectives. I wouldn't be a long-term investor in Starbucks if this is their strategy.
In reply to: Why doesn't /r/politics cover the wikileaks stories?
This documentary was made with the support of his family: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hCwjDuoJK0E
In reply to: PLEASE READ: This is not /r/the_Donald, /r/HillaryClinton, /r/Conspiracy, etc. Let's keep this sub on the topic of verified leaks from WikiLeaks and other reputable sources.
As you may know, r/bitcoin went through a period similar to this, where sub quality had to be balanced with freedom of speech. A good result was that redditors with new accounts have an automatic flair, e.g "redditor for 1 hour." It may be possible to add a flair like this with the number of posts / comments submitted to r/wikileaks too. r/ethereum has something like a Verified Account status for members of the Ethereum Foundation, and post / comment totals multiplied by account age could be used to create a similar senior member flair. As a sub gains attention it's inevitable there'll be posts made for criticism of mod styles, in which case it could be useful to create an r/wikileaksmeta where they could be cross-posted before removal. Publishing mod logs is just an abstraction of the issue but an r/wikileaksundeleted bot-generated sub might be helpful. The sidebar of r/bitcoin includes a link to its IRC channel. I'm surprised there isn't one here, or even a Discord.
In reply to: China’s plan to organize its society relies on ‘big data’ to rate everyone
Assuming the system is genuinely algorithmic and not susceptible to manual intervention, a bigger problem might be some kind of Paperclip Maximizer situation, exacerbated by the interval between algorithmic updates and changes in human behaviour. The most obvious risk would be an all-consuming echo chamber in a country trying to encourage innovative thought, but you could have something like an incentive to spend on, and use, online education causing already elite academics to become less competitive internationally. Another interesting side-effect is that if the sesame score were to become the key driver of individual behaviour, the engineers behind it would become more powerful than the political leadership. Or at the very least, those leaders would need to be effective product managers for the engineers actually writing the sesame code. The west isn't immune to this, credit score systems lead to strange behaviour like people acquiring and using credit for trivial purchases when debit would be more convenient. I'd watch that space for equivalent implementations outside China. https://wiki.lesswrong.com/wiki/Paperclip_maximizer
In reply to: City banks plan to hoard bitcoins to help them pay cyber ransoms
Pictures of physical coins - check Bitcoin cannot be traced - check Criminal networks - check New one: "They used a special code to harness the power of hundreds of thousands of internet-connected home devices...hackers have been using the code to threaten other businesses into paying them with bitcoins" - this is a very special code. Anyway, all good to have banks on the demand side.
In reply to: wikileaks twitter will be offering a video statement from assange at the embassy in london
You can set your sort preferences at https://www.reddit.com/prefs/ under comment options, by making a selection on sort comments by and ticking ignore suggested sorts.
In reply to: wikileaks twitter will be offering a video statement from assange at the embassy in london
Have a look here: https://www.reddit.com/r/WikiLeaks/about/traffic There are far more pageviews than unique visitors. Based on that alone, or that plus whatever other data they may have, they could have assumed that the average visitor is looking at any given post more than once. In which case, it might be more user-friendly to have a default sort of new. It's also an effective way to dampen the impact of vote-brigading. Those come to mind immediately but there are plenty of justifiable reasons for sorting by new by default.
In reply to: wikileaks twitter will be offering a video statement from assange at the embassy in london
Have a look at this post: https://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/3ylje0/choose_your_preferred_sort_order_in_reddit/ And especially this, from the stickied comment: "It's also worth noting that if you're determining comment validity based on votes alone, then you're setting yourself up to be seriously misinformed. Do not underestimate the amount of shill accounts, sock puppetry and automated vote manipulation that occurs on reddit. There have been multiple studies showing that a few manipulative votes in either direction are enough to manipulate the entire audience into voting the same way. Don't trust votes. They are abused and manipulated. Instead, carefully consider what you read and judge for yourself whether or not the comment is constructive."
In reply to: wikileaks twitter will be offering a video statement from assange at the embassy in london
Maybe there's a good reason for it, most likely vote-brigading is currently an issue here. As it was on r/bitcoin when changes to default sorts were adopted there. Why not just set your own sort order? Why the need to set everyone else's too?
In reply to: wikileaks twitter will be offering a video statement from assange at the embassy in london
Again, I don't think finding the best comments is as easy as sorting by best. Nor is not sorting by best in any way related to hiding the best comments. Anyway, I'm sure your intentions are good, I hope someone can give you an explanation you're happy with.
In reply to: U.K. Banks are still shutting down accounts associated with Bitcoin
The UK government took Blockchain.info on their fintech trip to SE Asia, invited the same company to speak to a parliamentary committee about cryptocurrency and continue to try to brand London as a fintech destination. Meanwhile, they have a 73% stake in RBS and still around 10% of Lloyds, and neither bank will commit to providing business banking services to bitcoin companies.
In reply to: Bitcoin as a Chinese capital outflow proxy - FT
The value comes from individual decisions to hold bitcoins. Reasons include: some people having more faith in the laws of mathematics and their effective implementation than in their national, or the global, financial system some people not having access to traditional banking services international transfers being a major source of friction due to banking infrastructure speculation Bitcoins are considered a commodity in many jurisdictions, as u/ting_bu_dong says.
In reply to: Thoughts on Hangzhou for living as a foreigner
Personal experience was really good, would recommend. Also lived in SH and BJ, HZ comes top. Don't stress about your language abilities but get some study in before you go. Don't be nervous, people there are great.
In reply to: Bitcoin Isn’t Anonymous Enough
Interesting concluding paragraph, suggests a move away from attempts to tarnish Bitcoin by association with criminality: "Decentralized currencies arose because people wanted to transact in a digital world without having to ask permission. The extent to which this facilitates criminal activity depends entirely on the prevalence of criminal activity in the real world. Maybe that’s a problem that needs to be addressed outside the monetary system." Also, Bloomberg hyping the ZCash bubble, seriously.
In reply to: Bitmain's new Xinjiang farm to be completed this December. 140,000kw - up to roughly the current network hashrate
The text on cybtc.com describes it as a cloud computing centre (云计算中心). I've seen nothing to suggest Bitmain have any new chips, but the wording is more general and doesn't mention bitcoin mining. Any estimations on the bitcoin and electricity price forecasts this project is based on?
In reply to: The biggest data center in the world is China Telecom’s Inner Mongolia Information Park. Does anyone know where it is on Google Maps?
Search for 中国电信云计算内蒙古信息员 and you'll find it.
In reply to: The biggest data center in the world is China Telecom’s Inner Mongolia Information Park. Does anyone know where it is on Google Maps?
Welcome, fellow hodler.
In reply to: Cheapest/easiest way to transfer money from Chinese bank account to American one, and also to pay an individual in the US
Using bitcoin you just add a third currency that's well suited for international transfers. Instead of buying dollars with yuan, you buy bitcoin with yuan and sell for dollars. The total fees will be less than the commission and transfer fees doing old style CNY->USD. You never need to pay anyone to advise you on stuff like this, if you need any help at all just head over to r/bitcoin.
In reply to: Buying bitcoins in China for dummies...
BTCC is best, then okcoin. You'll need to deposit your cny first, and once it's arrived you can place your order. After your order is successful you can withdraw the bitcoin, check if you need to do any ID verification for that beforehand. You might want to set up your Circle account in the US at the same time, and if you go to Receive there, you'll get an address you can use on the Chinese exchange for withdrawal. You should use a different address for each transaction. Selling on Circle is easy but they do have weekly limits, so it's best to get verified and ask for them to be raised. All the interfaces should be clear enough but if you have any trouble just post a comment.
In reply to: Buying bitcoins in China for dummies...
Yep, that's fine, you may not even need to submit them but if so, they're a competent bunch with a good track record.
In reply to: Irish/Scots-Irish/Anglo-Irish (question from an American)
The situation you describe was common during the 19th century and continued into the 20th. The rise in republican violence, first around the turn of the century and then in the modern troubles, has made it a minority phenomenon. That said, there are still some significant Anglo-Irish families contributing to Irish politics today. This group is not be confused with the Ulster-Scots, who maintained allegiance to the UK and have consistently opposed Dublin rule throughout their history. You might be interested in the works of Elizabeth Bowen, whose work best captures the Anglo-Irish milieu.
In reply to: Percentage of blocks signalling SegWit support
Bookmarked, thanks.
In reply to: How the blockchain will radically transform the economy. [Ted Talk]
The central banks of every major nation state, with the exception of the US, are implementing blockchain-based technologies and most are working on national cryptocurrencies. The Bank of England is openly discussing using central bank cryptocurrency deposits to bypass the entire commercial banking sector. Bitcoin continues to be the dominant means of value transfer not requiring trust. Things are changing, you're just not paying attention.
In reply to: How the blockchain will radically transform the economy. [Ted Talk]
It's too early to say, but I'm sure that will indeed be the case. The primary advantage they noted was the ability effectively to impose negative rates.
In reply to: How the blockchain will radically transform the economy. [Ted Talk]
Gracious Redditor. I wouldn't disagree that the commercial banking sector is a long way from deploying blockchain technology, the central reason being the tension between an inherently decentralised and trustless design, and their need to impose an identity-based account system and central ledger control. It may well be that it's more efficient than current clearing house infrastructure and merits the expense on that alone, if the main players can agree on a standardised protocol, but its application as a form of centralised currency is indeed completely unproven and speculative for now. For what it's worth, IBM and Deloitte appear to have most advanced those aims.
In reply to: Final Polls Show Renzi's Referendum Heading for Defeat in Italy
Yep, there's a decent Q&A on the referendum linked from that article: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-09-12/it-s-italy-s-turn-to-unnerve-with-a-referendum-quicktake-q-a Although this referendum isn't on EU membership, if it opened the door to a government including the Five Star Movement (which looks very possible), it seems at that point another referendum may become a reality.
In reply to: Venezuelan freelancers are using Bitcoin to make it through the economic crisis.
This is the best data source for that: https://coin.dance/volume/localbitcoins/VEF
In reply to: You can't take your cash or gold with you when you die, but you can take your bitcoins :-)
Each lost coin affects the value of each unit of a deflationary currency. The degree of scarcity is directly affected. For example, if you buy a bitcoin, you take a position on whether or not you think Satoshi's coins will move. Personally, I tend to think not, but if I'm wrong I've overpaid for my coins. It would be useful if a person could tag UTXOs as beyond control on a block explorer, although obviously they couldn't prove it. Aside from the price issue, after a certain point, they would also provide an opportunity for ethical hacking.
In reply to: Best vpn service?
https://thatoneprivacysite.net/vpn-comparison-chart/ Also, check out r/vpn.
In reply to: Bitcoin Brain Drain: A Financial Perspective
As we’re in the early stages of Bitcoin, we have a chicken and the egg type of problem. Why accept Bitcoin if nobody has it, and why have Bitcoin if there is nowhere to spend it? A related problem is that retailers will often sell their bitcoins within the day, so you can have a consumer exchanging USD for BTC, and the retailer then exchanging BTC for USD. It makes no sense. If the retailer were able to pay their suppliers in BTC though, they'd be able to hold a greater amount and the BTC transaction would start to make sense. But given China's dominance in manufacturing and the legal situation around accepting BTC for goods there, this is unlikely. Added to this is the relatively small number of major logistics companies, none of whom accept bitcoin. So perhaps the most valuable projects for bitcoins as medium of exchange are those where as much of the supply chain as possible is denominated in BTC.
In reply to: We have tried to calculate the amount of money that the Chinese have invested in mining, we estimate it to be in the hundreds of millions of dollars. Even with free electricity we cannot see how they will ever get this money back. - KNC CEO
China wants to develop its capacity in chip manufacturing. The US and its allies are trying to prevent it. See for example: http://www.wsj.com/articles/german-withdraws-approval-of-chinese-takeover-of-aixtron-1477297215 The best-placed company to compete with the industry leaders would be Foxconn: "The choice of chip type is crucial. There's no way that Foxconn can compete with Qualcomm in communications chips, nor could it take on Intel or Samsung in processors. However, there's a huge market for the little-known yet high-demand chips called application-specific integrated circuits, or ASICs, and application-specific standard products, or ASSPs." https://www.bloomberg.com/gadfly/articles/2016-10-20/foxconn-considers-a-chip-shot So it's possible these companies are operating at a short-term loss, with high-level support and / or in the hopes of an eventual takeover.
In reply to: Goldman Sachs Drops Out of R3 Blockchain Group
You shouldn't have long to wait. Maybe coincidental, but they recently announced it was to be open sourced at the end of this month: https://www.ftfnews.com/r3-to-contribute-corda-code-to-hyperledger-project/14777 Edit: original blog post here: https://www.r3cev.com/blog/2016/10/23/the-weekend-read-oct-23 "As promised months ago, a distributed ledger technology (DLT) consortium of key players, R3, is going to “open source” its DLT platform Corda by the end of November with the hope of making the platform an industry standard that will encourage others to build products on top of it, confirms Todd McDonald, R3 co-founder and chief operating officer (COO)"
In reply to: Trump: US to quit TPP trade deal on first day in office
If RCEP, or the CN/JP/KR trilateral agreement, were likely to lead to Chinese hegemony, why would every other major nation in the region be taking the negotiations so seriously, and why do they look more likely than any US-led agreement to actually come to fruition?
In reply to: The CEO of Reddit confessed to modifying posts from Trump supporters after they wouldn't stop sending him expletives
The latest Reddit, Inc. Transparency Report, for 2015, shows 142 users were affected by government requests including subpoenas, court orders, search warrants, emergency disclosure requests, preservation requests and non-US Requests for Information. https://www.reddit.com/wiki/transparency/2015 Reddit may or may not have a separate audit database. If so, they should make it available.
In reply to: BlockCDN ICO starting soon- worth looking at- they already have large video site signed up-
No mention whatsoever on any official Youku channels. If this had been announced it would be on their Weibo: https://weibo.com/youku It isn't. Only a few translations of the article linked by OP on the Chinese web, no original articles or press releases. And the ICO is in a few hours. Looks like a complete fabrication. Has not gotten as much visibility as some others due to language barriers. No, there's nothing on the Chinese web requiring translation. But BlockCDN IS running- they already have singed [sic] up a huge client in China. There's no product that can be used today, and there's no evidence of any clients. Don't get scammed again. Or just ask them, u/BlockcdnTeam, any evidence you've signed 优酷 as a client? Why is this rumour appearing right before your ICO?
In reply to: BlockCDN ICO starting soon- worth looking at- they already have large video site signed up-
I know they have a "miner" available for download from a Dropbox account. This appears to have nothing to do with the product the ICO is based on. The "demonstration" does nothing but use MEW to give them your private keys / send them ether. https://www.dropbox.com/sh/vvxbwbsbxqewyf9/AADYrLuVIrWGnnmxfOzPftUea?preview=How_ICO.gif
In reply to: Trump-Taiwan call: China lodges protest [BBC]
Worth adding the Chinese response points to the US stance as expressed in the three joint communiqués, every single one of which mentions the Taiwan issue. The US has always supported the One China policy, but over the course of those communiqués shifted to recognise the legitimacy of the Beijing government and limit relations with Taipei. Given Kissinger was the primary architect of each of them on the US side and is currently in Beijing, the timing and nature of Trump's actions are very clear. BBC fails again btw.
In reply to: China sees leak of hundreds of nude photos sent by desperate women to loan sharks
If it's any consolation, I doubt anybody's checked whether this is what's actually going on here: http://security.stackexchange.com/questions/55061/can-malware-be-attached-to-an-image
In reply to: 1 USD = 7.13 CNY
Xe uses an aggregation of sources and has a paid data feed, Google uses Six Financial and Bing uses Morningstar. So they would all need to be wrong / using a shared data feed behind the scenes.
In reply to: 1 USD = 7.13 CNY
Baidu uses Sina Finance but that feed hasn't been updated in a few hours: http://finance.sina.com.cn/money/forex/hq/USDCNY.shtml
In reply to: Am I seeing this right, Chinese Yuan as high as 7.40?
https://www.bloomberg.com/quote/USDCNY:CUR Bloomberg is 5 hours old there. Current sources are XE showing CNY collapse across USD, EUR and GBP and it uses aggregated sources, Six Financial via Google and Morningstar via Bing.
In reply to: Am I seeing this right, Chinese Yuan as high as 7.40?
Waiting for confirmation one way or the other. Edit: now showing on Bloomberg terminal: https://twitter.com/PPTFinance/status/805879451401654273
In reply to: 1 USD = 7.13 CNY
https://twitter.com/KaiserKuo/status/805889588816384005 https://twitter.com/KaiserKuo/status/805893469587771392 "BREAKING Talked to XE and they now confirm that upstream providers are affirming this rate (7.48 RMB to USD currently). This is bad."
In reply to: Am I seeing this right, Chinese Yuan as high as 7.40?
https://twitter.com/KaiserKuo/status/805893469587771392 "BREAKING Talked to XE and they now confirm that upstream providers are affirming this rate (7.48 RMB to USD currently). This is bad."
In reply to: Kaiser Kuo: BREAKING Talked to XE and they now confirm that upstream providers are affirming this rate (7.48 RMB to USD currently). This is bad.
Going by Kaiser Kuo, XE passed on that their providers confirmed the data. It looks like a single provider, possibly ICAP, is the source behind Six Financial, Morningstar and XE.
In reply to: US Federal Reserve published a new Blockchain Paper: read it here - HolyTransaction's blog
https://www.federalreserve.gov/econresdata/feds/2016/files/2016095pap.pdf r/savedyouaclick
In reply to: Seeking advice on Chengdu/ Zhangjiajie
I would take option 1, start in Chengdu but not stay 8 days. You could cut that in half, take a flight to Beijing and from there start to move south on the high-speed rail network. You could check out Spring Airlines if you need a budget flight to do Chengdu-Beijing. Seven days for Huangshan and Nanjing sounds like a lot, by saving a few days there you could look at including Qingdao on your journey south.
In reply to: BU is such an unprofessional joke of a project that they committed "BLOCKSTREAM_CORE_MAX_BLOCK_SIZE" to their repo
Appeal to authority This is an argument from fallacy. http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Fallacy_fallacy You've been provided, in the paragraphs following your selected quotation, with a lesson drawn from the experience alluded to in that quotation, and you haven't taken note of, or countered, that lesson. It's of interest to anyone with even a passing interest in open-source software development, and that goes far beyond Bitcoin.
In reply to: Why China Can't Lure Tech Talent
Yeah, I think this article has a lot of other errors. It doesn't mention the language barrier, for one. Nor visa restrictions. Not having access to Github doesn't mean you can't do version control. Access to StackExchange is more important than access to Google Scholar in general. Using a proxy is hardly going to dissuade the target group. This leap of logic shows how weak the argument is: Programmers who can't take advantage of the sites and tools that make development a global effort are destined to write software customized solely for the Chinese market. That's not at all why Chinese companies focus on the Chinese market. And the idea that India is luring all the talent is pure speculation, based on zero evidence. Interesting article all the same.
In reply to: Why China Can't Lure Tech Talent
That's a good comment to post somewhere else.
In reply to: Front National Program in English? - For Research
This is the manifesto in French, currently not translated: http://www.frontnational.com/pdf/Programme.pdf There are 106 pages so I wouldn't have time to translate it in its entirety, but you could start with Google translate and if you have any confusion about any sections just post a question to r/french or send me a message.
In reply to: possible to buy used things in china?
https://2.taobao.com/
In reply to: china's central bank out of money following us rate hike
The article doesn't say the central bank ran out of money. It says there was a liquidity crisis among "non-bank financial institutions", and the central bank intervened to end it.
In reply to: China confirms another human bird flu case
Given the economic impact of the last crisis and the current situation facing Beijing, this must be a huge concern right now. Definitely a story worth following. If they do successfully contain it, it'll be a huge achievement.
In reply to: How China is preparing to dominate the future and why we should hope it succeeds.
instead of freedom, democracy, justice, honor, righteousness Who's offering that? Most of China's pollution is electronic waste. They get paid to import it, but Chinese people pay the highest cost in health terms for the western addiction to credit-fuelled consumption. If you don't want to live in a polluted China, use your influence to persuade westerners to stop consuming unnecessary electronics.
In reply to: How China is preparing to dominate the future and why we should hope it succeeds.
It's not missing that at all. Those factors are less significant than unnecessary western consumption, and the latter you can actually do something about. These are economic externalities. Obviously a developing country will have more externalities than a first-world powerhouse. Obviously Chinese should follow the law regarding emissions. But it makes no sense to focus on those issues as the number one priority, especially as a westerner in China.
In reply to: How China is preparing to dominate the future and why we should hope it succeeds.
Look, if I need an electric motor I did specifically mention unnecessary consumption. Now, the electric motor factory dump industrial garbage in the pond nearby, use very inefficient equipment, and run with coal-made electricity, in a power plant itself being very negligent. I am the one who created the problem ? I'm 100% responsible of the pollution created ? No, but you contributed to the demand. Reasonably, given the cost, but there's shared responsibility - between you, the factory owners and those who fail to enforce the environmental legislation effectively. I should not be concerned because I said not the number one priority. I didn't say not be concerned. Obviously everyone who consumes contributes to the problem, but the highest levels of consumption, especially of unnecessary electronics, are in the west. That's why it's a reasonable priority. No need to be so defensive, I'm just pointing out that it's easier to point the finger but we could do much, much more ourselves.
In reply to: This is important. Shanghai PBOC has warned BTCC
Official statement: http://shanghai.pbc.gov.cn/fzhshanghai/113571/3230012/index.html Edit to add my translation: "In light of recent unusual volatility in the bitcoin price and in order to protect against risk and maintain financial stability, in recent days the Shanghai Head Office of the People’s Bank of China, the Shanghai office uniting relevant oversight departments, met with staff in charge of trading platform BTCC in order to understand the operations of the platform, to remind them of possible risks, and to request strict compliance with relevant statutory legislation. The platform was pressed to inspect details of their own business and implement measures to ensure it is returned to order, as per the relevant statutory legislation. According to statement from the People’s Bank of China, Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, China Banking Regulatory Commission, China Securities Regulatory Commission, China Insurance Regulatory Commission on the prevention of risk pertaining to Bitcoin (No. 289, 2013), Bitcoin is designated as a virtual commodity, and does not possess the payment and enforceability properties of currency, does not hold a legal status equal to currency, cannot and should not circulate as currency in the marketplace. Institutional and individual investors should view virtual commodities and virtual currencies appropriately, invest rationally, bear all risks themselves, maintain the security of their assets and establish a correct and proper view of currency and investments." Edit to add Beijing platforms were given the same warning: http://beijing.pbc.gov.cn/beijing/132005/3230072/index.html Edit to add BTCC statement: https://twitter.com/bobbyclee/status/817371073108815872 Edit to add the source of the ZH / BBG rumour: http://finance.caijing.com.cn/20170106/4221504.shtml - this is the same story, suggests SAFE officials were in attendance. No source provided within the article, no comment from SAFE.
In reply to: This is important. Shanghai PBOC has warned BTCC
I'm not qualified to answer that well, but the statement no. 289 referred to, where bitcoin is defined as a virtual commodity which can be exchanged and traded but cannot rival the domestic hegemony of the Renminbi, seems to contain the relevant provisions. No change, just a reminder in the face of increased volumes and volatility, and a reminder to keep the books in order. No cause for alarm whatsoever.
In reply to: This is important. Shanghai PBOC has warned BTCC
This is completely false, and I'm quite sure you're not going to provide any evidence to back it up whatsoever.
In reply to: This is important. Shanghai PBOC has warned BTCC
No visible hint of that, obviously. It's a reasonable statement though, even if you limit it to institutional and individual investors as they have.
In reply to: This is important. Shanghai PBOC has warned BTCC
That link provides zero evidence of bitcoin actually being used for capital flight. A hedge against CNY devaluation, I can believe. A vehicle for capital flight? Why not use a network of HK suppliers, off-shore shell companies and Nevada-based property management companies, something with a little opacity.
In reply to: I want to teach English online to Chinese students. How do I accept payments? Paypal? Alipay? Credit Card?
https://stripe.com/alipay or bitcoin
In reply to: UNVERIFIED: CN officials seek to regulate btc exchanges, may set up 3rd party hosting [custody] platform to protect investors
As the link in that tweet was broken, you can also read here: http://finance.eastmoney.com/news/1373,20170110701249512.html This is claiming discussions have been held around the establishment of an independent, third party platform to ensure investors aren't unsettled by unavailability of trading platforms at any time. This might lead to greater transparency which would favour regulators, as a trade-off for greater security which would favour investors.
In reply to: UNVERIFIED: CN officials seek to regulate btc exchanges, may set up 3rd party hosting [custody] platform to protect investors
Thanks, that's a better article. It seems there's still not enough detail to understand how this platform would actually work on a technical level, but I'll keep an eye on your tweets and the news.
In reply to: I am Julian Assange founder of WikiLeaks -- Ask Me Anything
I understand you studied philosophy, mathematics and computer science. Which philosophers have influenced you most, what are your philosophical convictions, and how do they inform your actions?
In reply to: PBoC Shanghai and Shanghai Municipal Finance Office are inspecting BTCC exchange
http://beijing.pbc.gov.cn/beijing/132005/3233066/index.html Same goes for Beijing.
In reply to: PBoC carrying out onsite inspections of BTCC
Beijing-based bitcoin and litecoin exchanges too: http://beijing.pbc.gov.cn/beijing/132005/3233066/index.html This is in line with the other press releases on the subject. Edit: To add, this is exactly what was suggested in the previous press releases, where they said they would take steps to better understand the exchanges. Now they're doing exactly that. This is a huge market over-reaction to something we already knew was going to happen in some form or another.
In reply to: PBoC carrying out onsite inspections of BTCC
Huobi, OKCoin, etc.
In reply to: PBoC carrying out onsite inspections of BTCC
Someone asked what exchanges are mentioned. I provided a translation of the relevant part of the statement. What you appear to be referring to is the zero-fee model that's prevalent across Chinese exchanges.
In reply to: Megathread - Jan 2017 PBOC Regulatory Actions
Thanks, I've tried to provide translations or information where I can on the r/bitcoin threads, I'll keep an eye over here. I'm also in the Whalepool Telegram group, I sometimes post a translation or reading of events there. For what it's worth, I think today's press releases were entirely predicted by the last set a few days ago. This wasn't news and it shouldn't have been a big deal. People complain about the 'unregulated Chinese bucket shops' and then when someone steps in to make sure their business is legitimate, they express their view by selling everything. China holds a big stake in the wider Bitcoin ecosystem, if not Core development, and that's not likely to change in the near future. It's about time we got a bit more nuanced. If the PBoC and Bitcoin have an interaction, that doesn't mean you should sell now. China's shown itself to be much smarter than western nations in terms of both regulation and industrial development so far and, despite their need to protect their national currency, there's no reason to believe that'll change. My attempt to answer the questions above would be: The date of today's press releases is currently showing as 2017-01-11, didn't notice any mistakes earlier. I don't know where the 2017-01-17 date that's being discussed came from. I could believe the on-site investigations may take around that length of time, or that they may be shorter. I'd be surprised if a written report was released so soon. This is speculation on my part. It would seem prudent for a business owner to wait for the PBoC press release before making any comment, if nothing else as a mark of courtesy, but also to avoid any contradictions. Today gave a concrete form to something that was announced in the last press releases. Nothing more, nothing less. Edit to add PBoC Beijing link: http://beijing.pbc.gov.cn/beijing/132005/3233066/index.html - although BTCC have been the focus of attention for some reason, all news so far has been identical across the Shanghai and Beijing exchanges. Edit to add: the source of 01/17 date appears to be this CNBC article - http://www.cnbc.com/2017/01/11/bitcoin-falls-5-as-china-plans-to-investigate-firms.html - which falsely claims the "People's Bank of China published an announcement this morning that it will carry out site inspections on January 17." This is just inaccurate. Edit to add: Bobby Lee was interviewed and discussed what BTCC were asked about: what status exchanges should have, how to set rules for exchanges, whether to issue licenses for exchanges, structural issues, fees, leverage, loans, price fluctuations, whether exchanges should operate 24h. He says the attention of the PBoC wasn't only in response to price movements, but also certain companies advertising bitcoin as a way around FX controls and as a substitute for the Renminbi - http://finance.sina.com.cn/china/gncj/2017-01-12/doc-ifxzqnip0886902.shtml
In reply to: Bitcoin falls 10% as China plans to investigate exchanges
They say it's to check for money laundering, rule following, and the like but they are most likely looking at it for capital outflow. They specifically mentioned they are investigating the use of bitcoin for foreign exchange. If they find that a significant amount of people are using BTC to move money out of the country, BTC is going to tank. This would have shown up already. The risk is another asset bubble forming that also has the potential to be used for significant capital flight, but both are minor risks. Bitcoin is far too transparent to be an effective means for the latter, and too volatile for the former. This is a precautionary measure by a body tasked with maintaining financial stability. Plus, they are planning on launching their own digital currency (fiat of course) prototype in 2017. They are working on a national cryptocurrency. Any further details are your own embellishment. That will most likely mean a ban or tight controls on BTC use. Since China is where so much of BTC mining and purchases take place, this could be a death blow to BTC. This is complete speculation on your behalf, and runs against the every action taken by the Chinese authorities to date. They have shown more finesse in regulation and more ambition in allowing the development of a Bitcoin industry than any western authorities.
In reply to: Bitcoin falls 10% as China plans to investigate exchanges
Where did you read that? The only official statement from them in the article is the following: "The People's Bank of China published an announcement this morning that it will carry out site inspections on January 17 to check whether enterprises dealing in bitcoin have the correct licenses, have implemented anti-money laundering systems and whether there is market manipulation." 《就交易平台执行外汇管理》 http://beijing.pbc.gov.cn/beijing/132005/3233066/index.html They haven't been the most friendly to Bitcoin historically They have acted to preserve the hegemony of the Yuan and in the interests of financial stability, as per their remit. Equally, they have not stepped in to deny banking services to bitcoin companies, as western companies have. They haven't impeded the development of Bitcoin-related hardware or software whatsoever, and the technological advances in ASIC development are a strategic asset to China's wider development. They have closely cooperated with the emerging Bitcoin industry since its inception. The UK has paid lip service, but no UK-based bank will provide services to Bitcoin companies. If the UK were the most favourable environment, why is the industry so dominated by China?
In reply to: Megathread - Jan 2017 PBOC Regulatory Actions
Thanks. I'm afraid I couldn't credibly answer these points, but I'd suggest the more provocative claims are made based on even less credibility than I could manage.
In reply to: Bitcoin falls 10% as China plans to investigate exchanges
That refers to them running the exchange according regulations. Hence the term management. The quote I provided refers to foreign exchange management, which is exactly the point. Those regulations you mention include capital controls. What have they done specifically? I don't recall them working close with any Bitcoin company but I may be wrong and jsut never seen anything on that. Yes, you are wrong, again. They maintain a close relationship, they don't interfere with operations except to ensure compliance. Deloitte is very friendly to Bitcoin and Blockchain, even starting a BTC ATM. Are you seriously suggesting Deloitte's research into Ethereum and other Turing-complete blockchains, and installing a third-party bitcoin ATM, puts the UK at the forefront of the global Bitcoin industry? Even Deloitte's blockchain research is concentrated in Dublin and Shanghai. Also, the UK government is looking into many blockchain applications So is every major economy, this doesn't support your claim whatsoever. I think r/Economics of all places will appreciate the significance of the availability of banking services to industrial development. Bitcoin is dominating in China The point is China is dominating Bitcoin-related industrial development, based on light-touch regulation and the provision of banking services, and as such your original claim - "That will most likely mean a ban or tight controls on BTC use" - is completely divorced from reality.
In reply to: Megathread - Jan 2017 PBOC Regulatory Actions
I'd previously only ever encountered category A, but recently discovered a few acquaintances are in category B (not trading so much as hodling). They live on the more developed east coast but aren't particularly interested in tech. Never met C outside of people working in the industry. I would speculate on a split of something like 98/2/<1.
In reply to: Megathread - Jan 2017 PBOC Regulatory Actions
Np, thanks for making the megathread.
In reply to: Megathread - Jan 2017 PBOC Regulatory Actions
Some of the main points of discussion I've seen: Whether this is good or bad news; Whether this will restrict the freedom of exchanges to evolve in the way they'd like to (The Chinese Bitcoin community can be quite libertarian); Why BTCC has been the focus of attention, which exchanges are involved and why; Concerns around investments and leaving funds on exchanges; Access to leverage, also related to the previous concern; Discussion around the Chinese Bitcoin industry's forefront position globally (It can be quite a competitive culture); A lot of price action talk:) I'd say overall there's little emotion in terms of optimism / pessimism, just a focus on TA and trading well. Might be interesting to ask u/beijingbitcoins if he's heard anything else.
In reply to: Megathread - Jan 2017 PBOC Regulatory Actions
The miners could be contributing to quite the reverse. If they sell bitcoins (overseas in particular) in order to pay bills locally, for example energy, staff and infrastructure, that should create a very small upward pressure on the Yuan. China also needs companies to break into chip manufacturing and although this is a very difficult sector to break into, ASICs provide one route. So overall, I'd say miners are well supported and given a lot of freedom to progress as they have been.
In reply to: Megathread - Jan 2017 PBOC Regulatory Actions
I would say this doesn't constitute capital flight. When the bitcoins remain within the economy and have to be sold for Yuan to make local purchases, the overall effect is benign. You've seen those periods where sales are high, as just before the Chinese new year, and the effect is a small stimulant for the local economy, and either currency neutral if the trade is with another Chinese, or a boost if it's with a foreigner. It's worth distinguishing between hodling BTC within China as a hedge, with the intention to cash out to Yuan, and buying BTC with the intention of selling it for USD asap. I suspect the latter is a tiny minority, and even the former a very small part of all BTC transactions.
In reply to: Megathread - Jan 2017 PBOC Regulatory Actions
Indeed, you too!
In reply to: [Daily Discussion] Thursday, January 12, 2017
The search terms here are encryption (加密) and currency (货币). With queries so broad, the results you're getting include a lot of things that aren't really relevant. The main term used for cryptocurrency is 虚拟货币. 虚拟 is virtual, and the single document that returns with your site: parameter is a call to tender for research, but the virtual element is emulation platforms, not currency: http://www.bjcz.gov.cn/zfcg/cggg/zbcjgg/P020160601623618579838.pdf. Other searches (keeping the site: parameter) like 电子货币 (electronic currency) and 比特币 (Bitcoin) also produce no results. It's fair to say that either this office is not publishing policy or research into cryptocurrency on its website or it's not being indexed. Changing the site parameter to beijing.pbc.gov.cn for the same search queries provides no relevant results either. The lack of results suggests Google isn't indexing much content from this site. So I tried over on Baidu, but the results there are no better. Finally, I went to the advanced search function for the PBoC sites here: http://wzdig.pbc.gov.cn:8080/dig/ui/search.action. The results using this tool are much more comprehensive, but since we don't have the "" to capture phrases we get all results for virtual and apparently nothing for cryptocurrency. The final search I did and the one which brought the best results was simply for 比特币 (Bitcoin) using the PBoC advanced search tool. There are about 3 pages of results here: http://wzdig.pbc.gov.cn:8080/dig/ui/search.action?ty=&w=false&f=&dr=true&p=1&sr=score+desc&rp=&advtime=0&advrange=0&fq=&ext=&q=%E6%AF%94%E7%89%B9%E5%B8%81 I'd suggest some of the more significant results appear to be: 中国人民银行 工业和信息化部 中国银行业监督管理委员会 中国证券监督管理委员会 中国保险监督管理委员会关于防范比特币风险的通知 - http://www.pbc.gov.cn/zhengwugongkai/127924/128038/128109/969289/index.html 中国人民银行等五部委发布《关于防范比特币风险的通知》 - http://www.pbc.gov.cn/goutongjiaoliu/113456/113469/999049/index.html 比特币相关事宜答记者问 - http://www.pbc.gov.cn/goutongjiaoliu/113456/113469/1018207/index.html 比特币有哪些风险？ - http://hefei.pbc.gov.cn/hefei/2927537/3037281/index.html I hope that gives you something to get started with. It's too much for me to provide translations for just now, but I'm partly making this post for my own reference and I'll let you know if / when I get back to it.
In reply to: Adressing chinese colleagues properly
What would be suitable in a fairly casual business culture where we know each other already? Just ask how they prefer to be addressed, and then do it. You could even stress you're happy to use their Chinese name if it's not obvious. It's more common for Chinese to have nicknames they use at work and outside, you could ask about that too if it suited your office environment. A single character name can sound a bit strange, I'd expect they'll tell you to call them something that uses two.
In reply to: Megathread - Jan 2017 PBOC Regulatory Actions
Obviously it's all on a tiny scale relative to the economy, but assuming mining is profitable and the coins earned are sold to buy Yuan, how does that not represent a very small upward pressure?
In reply to: Megathread - Jan 2017 PBOC Regulatory Actions
I think we're on the same page here.
In reply to: Megathread - Jan 2017 PBOC Regulatory Actions
On Friday, PBoC announced that it has directed the Payment & Clearing Association of China (http://www.pcac.org.cn/) to establish an independent settlement platform, independent of all banks. I haven't seen this reported in English yet. The announcement was made with reference to what they call 备付金, which is money that's in the hands of third party payment processors for online transactions, so between buyers and sellers. Escrow is more common in China to facilitate trust in online shopping. There have been regulations in place since 2013 around handling this money, which they estimate to value over 460 billion CNY (4600亿元). The settlement platform is among new regulations strengthening those already in place. I could speculate that it may be this proposed platform that's behind last week's rumours of a platform to manage funds held by Chinese exchanges, but there's no suggestion of any relation in any articles I've read. Here's the full article on Caijing: http://finance.caijing.com.cn/20170113/4224476.shtml
In reply to: Megathread - Jan 2017 PBOC Regulatory Actions
No direct implications, given these measures don't include exchanges. The rumours that were circulating around an independent platform that would hold exchange funds in custody were met with a mixed reaction: some opposition to another form of interference, some welcome for a perceived boost to the legitimacy and security of the Bitcoin industry in China. There is now an infrastructure in place though for something like what was rumoured, and we now know the organisation, the PCAC, responsible for it, under the direction of the PBoC. If anyone was considering using Bitcoin to evade capital control, I'm fairly confident they've been deterred already. If anyone were considering using it as a hedge against devaluation, they could be encouraged by the general support for the industry expressed over the last week. But there's no evidence to suggest that any independent platform for exchange funds is planned, and perhaps after the time spent with them last week, there will be more confidence in their internal infrastructures.
In reply to: [Newbie Monday] Week of Monday, January 16, 2017
An API is an application programming interface, it defines how a certain application can be interacted with by another application. Mostly these interactions will consist of reading, creating, updating and deleting data. In trading terms, you might read data like the prices over a certain period of time and some other information like what traders are saying on r/bitcoinmarkets. You can then create a piece of data like a buy / sell order based on that information. If some new data, like a new price, changes your perspective, you might want to update or delete your buy / sell order. So you'll have one application, your trading bot, that interfaces with another application, their trading platform, based on the rules you define and the requirements of their API. *Never made a trading bot, just understand APIs a bit.
In reply to: How I am helping Bitmain destroy Bitcoin
I'll have a go at presenting some counter-arguments. Bitmain also play a huge role in securing the network, and operate in an area where centralisation is inherent to the design of the protocol. Game theoretically, mining is really a business where the ones who have the highest efficiency with their hardware and the ones who have the highest efficiency with their infrastructure (electricity prices and so on) have the best. So that means they are able to continue mining while others are in the red, while others have higher expenses than their rewards, and they have to drop out. - Marcus Streng, Genesis Mining: https://youtu.be/oxphLU1NcHw?t=7m Jihan Wu's position was made clear in a NYT article last year: Mr. Wu dismissed that concern [fears of government interference in network rules]. He also said that as more Americans buy his Bitmain machines and take advantage of cheap power in places like Washington State, mining will naturally become more decentralized. Already, he said, 30 to 40 percent of new Bitmain machines are being shipped out of China. For now, though, China remains dominant. “The Chinese government normally expects its businesses to obtain a leading role in emerging industries,” he said. “China’s Bitcoin businesses have achieved that.” https://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/03/business/dealbook/bitcoin-china.html The current situation was predicted in 2010: The network will eventually be run by "oligarchs". Once software is optimized as far as it can be, it will come down to hardware, bandwidth, and, in the long-term, electricity generation. Most people won't be able to keep up. - Theymos, October 01, 2010, 04:12:31 PM, https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1332.0 In the same thread, Satoshi replied but didn't object to this or express any concern. Most significantly, Bitmain operate in a business where they stand to lose if they get too big. The counter-balance to the inherent centralisation is network trust. They show their commitment to the value of the network by holding coins: We are aggressive about bitcoin price. So we only sell to cover the cost of the company. The rest of our revenue and profit is saved in bitcoin. http://diyhpl.us/wiki/transcripts/2016-july-bitcoin-developers-miners-meeting/jihan-wu-google-tech-talk/ Aside from Bitmain's holdings, the personal holdings of Jihan Wu and Ketuan Zhan were most recently estimated at 100,000 BTC and 60,000 BTC respectively - http://www.wanbizu.com/news/201602156568.html That represents a lot of commitment to the future health of the network.
In reply to: [Newbie Monday] Week of Monday, January 16, 2017
Python seems quite popular.
In reply to: Did satoshi foresee that his invention would be used for more than just currency?
In posts you can read on bitcointalk.org, you'll see his focus is shared between Bitcoin and the BitDNS project. https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=6197.0 The concept lives on in Blockstack: https://blockstack.org/
In reply to: Evergrande (恒大), one of the largest real estate developer in China, is in dire financial condition
http://file.irasia.com/listco/hk/evergrande/interim/2016/intrep.pdf http://www.evergrande.com/ir/en/reports.asp All here.
In reply to: Evergrande (恒大), one of the largest real estate developer in China, is in dire financial condition
This subject is commonly discussed in Chinese media, you'll find plenty of articles in the SCMP on Evergrande. The strategy is unusual even in the Chinese property market, so it attracts attention. https://www.zhihu.com/question/24115233 For what it's worth, the discussion elsewhere adds a level of nuance that's missing from the OP, looking at the value of the company in terms of its assets, IP and networks, as well as the debt and financials. The question is generally whether it's more like Xiaomi, who recently admitted to growing too fast, or more like Huawei, who've established a huge infrastructure that guarantees a place for decades to come.
In reply to: Good indie Chinese films?
Best indie I've seen so far: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d6T8aLdXt6I https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cinema_of_China#The_Sixth_Generation Or baidu 90后导演.
In reply to: [Daily Discussion] Monday, January 23, 2017
Fairly muted reaction, I've seen a couple of things though: They already charge fees, it's just a different fee structure; There are still some smaller exchanges that haven't made an announcement; When BTCC and others did have fees a few years ago, they still had decent volumes; Some suggestions that it may decrease the amount of bot trading and attract manual traders who'd given up to come back. I haven't seen any specifics on how it would affect a given trading strategy unfortunately, I'll keep an eye out for something like that. Edit to add: the youtube link for the Bitcoin debate show on Guangdong TV mentioned by @cnledger, should be uploaded tomorrow: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCtn3WMRARimJhCQGajNZz0g/search?query=%E8%B4%A2%E7%BB%8F%E9%83%8E%E7%9C%BC
In reply to: [Daily Discussion] Monday, January 23, 2017
Haven't seen any talk of that, may be going on more discreetly but I've seen no evidence of it.
In reply to: [Daily Discussion] Monday, January 23, 2017
Haven't seen that at all, and as I mentioned I haven't seen specific discussion of new trading strategies.
In reply to: [Daily Discussion] Monday, January 23, 2017
I think so too. I imagine the bot coders are hard at work refining their strategies but there seems to be an irrational fear of invincible machines that has a disproportionate psychological effect.
In reply to: Bitcoin debate on China's Guangdong TV
This is the debate mentioned by @cnledger here: https://twitter.com/cnLedger/status/823451402357784576 Here's a quick summary of the show, too long to do subtitles: Introduction Main theme is, what is currency exactly? History of money, from sea shells through metals to paper money (for easy taxation) to digital currency. Each step represents progress in civilisation; The most recent step forward is "virtual currency", such as Bitcoin, Litecoin or Dogecoin. Economist Xuanfeng Lang Given the 123% YoY price rise, and recent investigations of exchanges, he'll look at the pros and cons of Bitcoin; Price growth is explosive, compares it on YoY terms with gold, CNY, Shanghai Stock Exchange, Shenzhen second hand real estate (13.5%), but that doesn't mean people should go invest; 50% of the first 13m coins are held by 950 people, 80% of all coins are held by early investors. Early investors buy high volumes at low prices, late investors buy low volumes at high prices - this makes it a Ponzi scheme; To attract new entrants: 24h trading creates inflated trading volumes. Higher search engine results lead to higher prices, showing how rumours lead to price spikes. Marketing mBTC units gives the impression of holding more. Shows risks with the pump and dump of Quarkcoin, Zetacoin, Litecoin. Greater fool analogy. Recommends not investing. CUFE Professor Wang Fuzhong First and foremost Bitcoin is an investment asset that has always increased in value, and it's a currency of genuine significance. Currency is what people accept as value, it doesn't require government backing, which is a relatively new concept. People trust Bitcoin's math and tech. It's proved it's utility in cross-border transactions. He's asked how can the number of coins be controlled, and what makes Bitcoin different. Describes founding principles as distributed memory, cryptography and consensus, which together make it extremely secure - never been hacked. The reason central banks everywhere are researching cryptocurrency is a presents a huge challenge for them. Bitcoin isn't anonymous, every transaction can be traced. Governments are unable to shut down Bitcoin. The only thing under investigation is the exchange network. That's enough, I hope, to show that it was a fairly balanced debate and the discussion was open and informed. Edit: thanks so much for the gold, much appreciated.
In reply to: Bitcoin debate on China's Guangdong TV
Np, excuse all the typos.
In reply to: Alibaba is now the official cloud services provider of the Olympics
Would you be able to say a little more about your AliCloud training, what it's consisted of and how you've found it so far?
In reply to: Kraken Announces Fifth M&A Deal, Acquires Cryptowatch
This is good news, great asset (and hire) for any exchange. Congratulations. Cryptowatch sets a good example, this is from its Business page: Other business inquiries are also welcome, however please keep in mind that there are certain things we will not do: 1. We will not sell or grant access to user data in any form 2. We will not display advertisements or sponsorships of any kind https://cryptowat.ch/about/business
In reply to: What are you favorite Idioms (Cheng Yu)?
There's a good collection on 成语故事: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=acGnhH9I8Lw&list=PL6feA8HpyFD8R-qnAEiXYRM80RSsgUXmK
In reply to: BBC Radio 4 - Thinking Allowed: Money - how to break the power of the banks (bitcoin at 18:42)
Just a nice example of how it's becoming part of the mainstream discourse to question things like mismanagement of national currencies, monetary policy and the role of the banking system. Bitcoin gets a mention in the context of discussing excessive domestic and national credit. Thinking Allowed, if you're not familiar with it, is aimed squarely at geography teachers and retired librarians.
In reply to: Trouble in China?
I don't think it's a big issue, most of the conversation I've seen over there has been around the remote crash incident as well. Here's a pretty new thread on 8btc about this: http://8btc.com/thread-47050-1-1.html You'll see there's one guy who mentions MtGox, he's a bit worried that although customer service have been nice to him, he's starting to wonder how much is really true. Not much concern though, given the hold up. If there were concerns around liquidity / solvency, everyone could have withdrawn in RMB and caused a run, but they haven't. If you have any more sources, let me know, but for now I don't think there's anything here.
In reply to: Jihan Wu's messages after the announcement seem to imply he controls the majority of hashing
I do and those translations are dead on.
In reply to: Jihan Wu's messages after the announcement seem to imply he controls the majority of hashing
No worries, there are a few more posts now on that Weibo account, which I presume is indeed Jihan Wu's: http://m.weibo.cn/u/2083258595 Core必须执行一次更改PoW算法的硬分叉，才有可能活下去。大区块必胜。 Core must hard fork to change how PoW is calculated to have a chance of survival. Big blocks must win! 而改了算法也很难活下去。大区块必胜。 And changing that calculation is hard work. Big blocks must win! 我建议大家在分叉时，谨慎购买保持小区块限制的链上的币。因为那条链的存续性很有问题，你买的，可能是一个类似末日权证的东西。 I suggest that during a hard fork, people be cautious about buying coins on the small block chain. Because that chain's future existence has problems. What you buy might be like a warrant days away from expiration. 对普通用户而言，在硬分叉阶段，最安全的措施就是什么都不要动。把历史性的价格决战，留给对于风险有承受能力、对于形势有（自我认为的）清晰认知的人吧！ As for regular users, during a hard fork the safest step to take is just to do nothing. Leave the historic price battle to those who can assume the risk, leave the situation to people (I believe) have a clear understanding!
In reply to: Jihan Wu's messages after the announcement seem to imply he controls the majority of hashing
Cool, just in case.
In reply to: What are exchanges going to do in case of HF?
Only one Chinese exchange to comment so far afaik, here's a translation of the statement from Yunbi and a tweet by Jihan Wu in response: Yunbi statement (http://media.weibo.cn/article?object_id=1022%3A2309404087024662483187&url_type=39&object_type=article&pos=1&luicode=10000011&lfid=1076032083258595&id=2309404087024662483187&ep=EAvUmlzV6,3769019044,EAvUmlzV6,3769019044) 云币网对比特币可能分叉的预案 YUNBI contingency plan for a possible Bitcoin hard fork 很多用户关心云币网对比特币可能的分叉将如何处理，云币网已经确定了面对这种可能性的预案，现将预案公开： In response to the concern of a large number of yunbi.com users regarding how a possible Bitcoin hard fork would be handled, yunbi.com has put in place a contingency plan for facing this kind of possibility. 一、云币网将尊重算力和市场的选择 YUNBI will respect hashing power and market choices. 云币网始终认为：比特币的未来应该由算力和市场决定。平台不应该以先入为主的观念去判定其未来。 YUNBI has always believed that Bitcoin’s future should be up to the hashing power and market choices. Platforms should not try to determine that future based on an idea that their old prejudices will die hard. 所以，云币网将优先选择最长链进行交易，以此尊重算力和市场的选择。 Therefore,YUNBI will select the longest chain to execute transactions, thereby respecting hashing power and market choices. 二、比特币分叉状况下的处理方式 Handling a hard fork period 在开放提币的情况下，从可靠信息确认比特币出现分叉那一刻起，云币网将 立即暂停提取比特币，在此期间，云币网用户之间的交易不受影响； Assuming withdrawals are available as usual, at the moment reliable information is received that a hard fork has occurred YUNBI will immediately stop bitcoin withdrawals. During this period, trades between YUNBI users will not be affected. 云币网会从分叉那一个区块的前一个区块对所有用户进行快照，该快照用于在万一情况下出现的分叉品种的分配。 A snapshot of all user accounts will be taken at the block following the hard fork block. This snapshot will be used in the event that consensus is not achieved following a hard fork. 因分叉停止提币开启提币的时间： During the period between stopping and re-starting withdrawals: 云币网会时刻关注比特币区块链的发展状态，并在确定安全的时候重新开启提取比特币。 YUNBI will monitor developments on the Bitcoin blockchain, and when security can be assured re-start withdrawals. 如果比特币出现了分叉品种： If Bitcoin clearly forks to one implementation: 如果比特币分叉后短链迅速失效，分叉品种将无法进行转账和提取，在这样的情况下所有用户的账户将依然只有比特币一个品种。 If after a Bitcoin hard fork the shorter chain fails within a short period of time, transfers and withdrawals on that chain will not be possible. In that case, users will only hold one implementation of Bitcoin. 如果比特币未出现分叉品种： If no clear Bitcoin implementation emerges: 如果分叉后两个链共存，且两个链的品种都在其他市场上进行交易，云币网会将分叉品种按照快照分配给用户，分配的时间将在超过三个以上全球知名交易平台上线该品种之后。 If after a hard fork two chains still coexist, and both implementations are being traded on other exchanges,YUNBI will allocate an amount of the forked implementation to users according to the account snapshot. The allocation will take place once the forked implementation is being traded on three or more well-known global trading platforms. 关于分叉品种有可能数量不足的风险的提醒： Reminder regarding concerns regarding a risk of insufficient amounts of the forked implementation: 如果在当前暂停提币的情况下出现分叉，且分叉品种出现市场价值，用户将获得100%的分叉品种的分配； If suspension of withdrawals a hard fork occurs during a withdrawal, and the forked implementation holds a market value, a user will be allocated 100% of the value. 如果分叉时云币网已经正常开放提币，由于从区块链分叉开始到云币网获知消息停止提币需要一个时间周期，在这个周期用户提取的比特币有可能 “重放” 分叉品种，造成该品种可分配数量不足，在这种情况下，云币网将按照快照比例分配分叉品种，分配数量有可能会低于100%。 If at the time of a hard fork YUNBI withdrawals are available under normal conditions, there will be a period of time before YUNBI learns of the event. During this period, it is possible that bitcoin withdrawn by users may also be sent on the forked implementation, leading to an insufficient amount being available for allocation on that implementation. In this case, YUNBI will allocate a proportionate amount to the account, and the allocated amount may be below 100%. 三、云币网不会首先上线分叉品种的交易 YUNBI will not immediately provide trading in the forked implementation 基于对比特币价值的理解，云币网认为只有一种 “比特币” 会比有多种 “比特币” 更有意义，所以，云币网绝不会首先或者第一时间上线分叉品种的交易。 In accordance with our conception of the value of Bitcoin, YUNBI believes that the existence of only one implementation of Bitcoin is more meaningful. Therefore, we will absolutely not initiate or immediately offer trading on the forked implementation. Weibo Yunbi: 云币网发布了头条文章：《云币网对比特币可能分叉的预案》 云币网将尊重算力和市场的选择！ Yunbi publishes lead news article: “YUNBI contingency plan for a possible Bitcoin hard fork” Yunbi will respect hashing power and market choices! http://m.weibo.cn/status/4087024665142968 Jihan Wu: 比比特币中国的声明靠谱多了 //@我是老猫:这是云币网的态度！ Much more reasonable than the BTCC statement. @我是老猫 This is the Yunbi approach! http://m.weibo.cn/status/4087058882159716
In reply to: What are exchanges going to do in case of HF?
No strong opinions myself, I just did it while looking for hard fork vocabulary earlier. I think they mean allocation will take place before the fork. Not sure if this is down to my translation. Bitfinex are offering a derivative product for now and Bitmex are pretty expert in quick releases of derivative products too, but neither meet the criteria Yunbi listed. I think they're a bit more cautious than you suggest. They do insist they "will absolutely not initiate or immediately offer trading on the forked implementation" and that they want to remain neutral.
In reply to: Jihan Wu's latest Weibo post looks like an offer to negotiate
Thanks, I wondered about how to write it without writing to da moon then nothing, but that's clear.
In reply to: Jihan Wu's latest Weibo post looks like an offer to negotiate
I think he would argue that this kind of approach: Miners must not venture to consider throttling the way in which new features are developed. Researchers working on new features must consider protecting the interests of miners. is a basis for some kind of compromise. I don't like to think of Bitcoin as something to carve up, but it looks like a different understanding of the problem to what I'd thought they held.
In reply to: Jihan Wu's latest Weibo post looks like an offer to negotiate
Maybe u/zanetackett or u/beijingbitcoins could say whether they would translate it any differently.
In reply to: Jihan Wu's latest Weibo post looks like an offer to negotiate
No offence taken at all.
In reply to: Jihan Wu Attempt at Compromise on Other Sub: Such a plain message. So insanely interpreted under their reality distortion field.
Thanks, I considered posting it here as well but I don't want to be spamming reddit. If anyone has any questions about any of the translations or other suggestions, feel free. To be clear, it's a link to an article on his site, he's not assuming authorship.
In reply to: Jihan Wu's latest Weibo post looks like an offer to negotiate
Thanks, updated the OP.
In reply to: Jihan Wu Attempt at Compromise on Other Sub: Such a plain message. So insanely interpreted under their reality distortion field.
My pleasure, very welcome:)
In reply to: @JihanWu Users won't leave miners without profits, we need each other. Billions of people using Bitcoin & LN leads to better on-chain mining fees.
The quote isn't from Jihan Wu, it's an article he linked to in his Weibo post. Nice work though:)
In reply to: @JihanWu Users won't leave miners without profits, we need each other. Billions of people using Bitcoin & LN leads to better on-chain mining fees.
All good, I think the point is well made.
In reply to: Jihan Wu's latest Weibo post looks like an offer to negotiate
Thanks Mr Hehe, that was crystal clear.
In reply to: COMPLETE, HIGH QUALITY Translation of Jihan's Shared Weibo Message To The Community. This is very telling. MUST READ.
It's worth mentioning that Jihan Wu is not the author. He linked to it from his Weibo, so you need to consider whether he endorses all of it. The actual author did pop into the other thread to explain his take: https://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/60gem4/jihan_wus_latest_weibo_post_looks_like_an_offer/df7criy/
In reply to: COMPLETE, HIGH QUALITY Translation of Jihan's Shared Weibo Message To The Community. This is very telling. MUST READ.
He's not a miner, no. He did post a comment in the other thread explaining his view a bit more, I posted a link to it just below / above. Fees have only recently become a noticeable part of the earnings. Still it is less than 20% and the btc price should be much more important than the fee for the miners (short and long term) The use of the term 手续费 in the original article may be a catch-all for block rewards and miner fees, to make it a more accessible read. That's not super clear at the moment. Miners are voting for larger blocks. If activated, this would instantly lead to 4-10x less fee because there is no fee pressure anymore. This will not be offset by 4x more transactions in the near future. My impression is Bitmain want a network that can rival Alipay / Wechat wallet asap. See Jihan's Weibo post from today: http://m.weibo.cn/status/4087745552747215 And they seem to view bigger blocks as the only acceptable way to achieve it, the unacceptable alternative being Lightning Network somehow capturing all the fees on a 2nd layer protocol. Nobody's actually asking Jihan which parts of the article he agreed with when he posted it, maybe that would help clear things up too.
In reply to: Jihan Wu: I was not the author of that post
Yep.
In reply to: COMPLETE, HIGH QUALITY Translation of Jihan's Shared Weibo Message To The Community. This is very telling. MUST READ.
That seems logical but given the stakes are quite high for Bitcoin, it might be worth making sure exactly what elements he agrees with.
In reply to: COMPLETE, HIGH QUALITY Translation of Jihan's Shared Weibo Message To The Community. This is very telling. MUST READ.
He actually stopped in and left a message, I'll paste it here if that's ok. His username is u/MR_hehe: wow! I am 大绅士奇奇怪。It's surperise to see my article here! thanks for the translation! In face I'm not a miner and don't have much communication with them. But I'd like to complete my view here. First, I don't think BU is merely a block to stop 2nd layer. Miners really want big blocks. Second, I don't believe miners will die for stopping segregated witness or 2nd layer. They may just want make sure can get big block at the same time. Let me tell you why, why big block means so much for them. We can think transaction fees as a market. There are 2 suppliers in this market: 1st layer (miners) and 2nd layer. And every BTC transaction could be looked as a customer that would choice one supplier. Assuming miners are not too selfish to tolerate 2nd layer as competitor. They want to make sure can take a good share in the market. Not mean higher fee than before, but a good share, best take the most of customers of course. However, if the block size is 1 MB forever, no one can put more transactions into a block. That means the customers of miners is very limited. It can't increase at all! In other hand, there is no such limit for 2nd layer. If there is no other reason, 2nd layer will take most customers and leave little share to miners. Therefore, miners think it is not a fair competion! They have no competitive power compare with 2nd layer! The only way make miner getting competitive power is big block. With big block, the fee in 1st layer can be lower to a reasonable level, and transact btc in 1st layer become more attractive. That is why miners want big block before segw. That's why they like HK consensus so much. I believe we still can make consensus this way. Miners get big block, developers get 2nd layer, users get lower fee. win, win, win! No need fight, no need POW change, no need 2 or 3 kinds of BTC. someone may say: bigger block makes less nodes. But this can not frighten we to shit. we make a bitcoin net can server more people. The more users there is, the more guys can run a node. And I believe there is technology way to help man run nodes easier. Another HF maybe. After all, is there anything worse than a POW change HF? It's time for the community to reunite again, let's make a clear HF, release the sealed power of bitcoin, and show the world what we can do!
In reply to: "I was not the author of that post. I just Weibo-ed a link to the 8btc post."~Jihan Wu
If you want people to believe your translation is accurate, it would be helpful if you attributed it to the correct person. Bottom line is that he still shared the post. He must agree with the meat of it. We knew he shared it yesterday, but your post adds nothing to our understanding of what exactly he agrees with. It's not enough to just say "he must agree", it's worth finding out exactly what he agreed with and why he posted the link. Nobody is asking that because your headline reads JIHAN SAID THIS! UPVOTE ME!
In reply to: "I was not the author of that post. I just Weibo-ed a link to the 8btc post."~Jihan Wu
You need to be more rigorous than that.
In reply to: [Daily Discussion] Tuesday, March 21, 2017
This looks like the AML to go along with the in-person KYC checks that were announced last week, so not altogether unexpected. Exchanges should have AML systems in place already and this looks like a standardisation. Same hassle everywhere for the average Zhou.
In reply to: COMPLETE, HIGH QUALITY Translation of Jihan's Shared Weibo Message To The Community. This is very telling. MUST READ.
That's why I don't think this post is very helpful. It's the same info I posted yesterday with a paragraph of self-promotion at the start and added confusion over authorship; It caused Jihan Wu's response to focus on correcting the error caused by the sensationalised title; It caused a Core dev to have to correct his statement below. It means attention is diverted from the more important question: exactly what elements of the post did Jihan Wu agree with as he decided to post it to Weibo?
In reply to: COMPLETE, HIGH QUALITY Translation of Jihan's Shared Weibo Message To The Community. This is very telling. MUST READ.
Pleased to see a Core dev has done so, more or less: https://twitter.com/johnsonlau01/status/844183844437676033
In reply to: COMPLETE, HIGH QUALITY Translation of Jihan's Shared Weibo Message To The Community. This is very telling. MUST READ.
Also noticed this: https://twitter.com/petertoddbtc/status/844174602989424640
In reply to: COMPLETE, HIGH QUALITY Translation of Jihan's Shared Weibo Message To The Community. This is very telling. MUST READ.
Some Core devs have responded on Twitter asking what exactly he meant by it, so hopefully he'll respond at some point.
In reply to: "I was not the author of that post. I just Weibo-ed a link to the 8btc post."~Jihan Wu
I understand it might seem that way, it's just a bit frustrating when the conversation gets sidetracked by inaccuracies that were avoided in yesterday's thread, which contained all the same information. It's a good window of opportunity for concrete interests to be discussed, so I'm glad those people are reaching out to clarify things: https://twitter.com/petertoddbtc/status/844174602989424640
In reply to: Christian Decker: "Lightning does not reduce the fees that the miners may collect, it increases their reach into transactions that they could not otherwise serve."
Bitcoin works if the miners are smart enough to see what their best economic interest is. But if they are so stupid or arrogant that they refuse to do basic research on subjects, then how can they know what their best economic interests are? This is a little harsh. The arguments in this paper are convincing, but neither of us have as much at stake as Bitmain. It's hardly surprising they're hesitant to embrace a leap into the unknown at this point. This is a perfect demonstration as to why mining centralization is bad. But the best solution for this isn't to downgrade the hashing power underpinning the network. With a few admirable exceptions in the mining space, Bitcoin companies in Western countries have focussed more on retail, exchanges, gambling and funds. China has focussed on mining and exchanges, partly due to legislation there. And now they have the most advanced mining company by far. I think in future they'll have a rival or two. For now, maybe they do get some support but I'm sure they're also wondering why nobody can touch them.
In reply to: Christian Decker: "Lightning does not reduce the fees that the miners may collect, it increases their reach into transactions that they could not otherwise serve."
It's precisely because I think the situation is pretty serious that I think it's better to choose words carefully. The mining situation is delicate. The industry lends itself to centralisation, the supply chain has become dominated by China and the business environment in China is very competitive. Bitmain openly state their desire to rival the big players in finance there - Alipay and Wechat. Their expectations for on-chain scaling without 2nd layer protocols are tied to that ambition. If they could be assured their strong position leaves them a fair shot at playing part of something on that scale, I wonder if the threat to 51% wouldn't subside. Ultimately there may be other ways to deal with those threats but it would be nice to come out of this with Bitmain and its hashing power as part of the ecosystem.
In reply to: Translations of Jihan Wu's latest posts
If you like I can post your responses in Chinese in reply to the original posts on Weibo. Just so you can check / a native can speaker can improve: So it's censorship to block spam (on r/Bitcoin), and also censorship to spam? How do we reconcile this contradiction? 在r/bitcoin上屏蔽垃圾算是言论审查，而且发垃圾邮件还算是言论审查呢？那么我们怎么去和解这个矛盾？ Why? Segwit increases block size. 为啥？ 隔离见证会提高区块大小。 If you'd prefer not to, I won't bother of course.
In reply to: Translations of Jihan Wu's latest posts
Cool, I'll just leave it a moment to give any native speakers a chance to find any mistakes in the Chinese, then let you know if there's any response.
In reply to: Translations of Jihan Wu's latest posts
My pleasure, I think there are plenty of completely bilingual bitcoiners who could do it a bit better but I'm more than willing too.
In reply to: Translations of Jihan Wu's latest posts
I'm afraid there were no direct responses. This post from a few hours later may not be coincidental, so I'll include it just in case: 本来就没有什么救世主，也没有神仙皇帝。BU作为一个开源社区，质量不断提高的过程，是与大众不断的支持分不开的。比特大陆会坚定地站在BU这一边，支持其不断提升软件质量。 There’s no saviour, no supreme emperor. BU is an open-source community in a process of continuous improvement, it has consistently remained true to its grassroots support. Bitmain stands resolutely on the side of BU, progressively raising the quality of the software. http://m.weibo.cn/status/4088421553225262 Thanks for your efforts to reach out, I noticed Johnson Lau and Peter Todd try on Twitter with similar results.
In reply to: Can we stop wasting time with Ver and BU already
His English isn't an issue there, but just in case a reply to some of his posts from Luke Jr were sent in Chinese to his Weibo, and he didn't directly reply there either. He does engage with quite a few other Weibo users but you'll notice his Twitter feed contains very few replies. I'd agree that he shows little sign of a will to compromise. His latest public posts are to reaffirm his support for BU and to repeat his slogan that 'big blocks must win'. I think a more tangible representation of his red line is a refusal to scale Bitcoin through 2nd layers. I'm curious as to whether Core actually rule out scaling in any other way, or simply say a secure means to do remains to be found.
In reply to: Jihan Wu endorses ≥95% consensus and compromise, with caveats
This would be an appealing image to present in China, although given the decisive strategic advantage of Taobao was zero-fee listings, difficult to reconcile with the role of miners as fee-collectors. Taobao were the underdogs and Bitmain are dominant. But his point about strategy and code quality being competing factors may resonate with Chinese who take pride in Taobao's success.
In reply to: BitFury just mined a block with a "BIP 148" (=UASF-SegWit) tag.
Bitmain is not interested in talk. Jihan Wu refuses all attempts at contact from core developers. This is true but maybe not the whole truth. He has refused all public direct contact so far, but it's fair to say he's communicating in his own way, he knows he has the ear of the devs who participate in Core and he's aware of their responses to his statements.
In reply to: Jihan Wu endorses ≥95% consensus and compromise, with caveats
I trust you won't mind that I pointed to your response in reply to the follow-up: http://m.weibo.cn/status/4089254412147087
In reply to: Jihan Wu: "I don't think economic majority is that important."
This is his Weibo post on the same subject: 中本聪没有与任何人取得共识，就发布了比特币的白皮书并编写了有关软件。2011年，本人无视“经济大多数”，全力投资比特币。在重要的选择关口，“大多数”没有那么重要。 Satoshi Nakamoto didn't get consensus before he published the Bitcoin white paper and software. In 2011, I personally ignored the "economic majority" to invest everything in Bitcoin. At the crossroads before an important choice, the "majority" isn't that important. http://m.weibo.cn/status/4090787354962273
In reply to: Jihan Wu accuses Purse CEO of lying about his support for extension blocks
I had that impression, and one of a reasonably united front between Jihan Wu, Roger Ver and Purse, but I can't find any definitive statements. I'm reasonably clear about what he opposes at the moment, but not very clear on what he supports.
In reply to: Jihan Wu accuses Purse CEO of lying about his support for extension blocks
according to these claims: Jihan proposed extension blocks To be a bit more specific, when you say "these claims" are you referring to the article published by the Purse CEO? Or how / where exactly is he claimed to have done so? Since the ASICBoost revelations, I'm finding it more difficult to follow the positions of some of the major players. I suspect I'm not the only one.
In reply to: Jihan Wu accuses Purse CEO of lying about his support for extension blocks
Thanks, I see. So the suggestion is that: Purse go to China on Purse business and Jihan initiates a discussion around extension blocks in the belief they won't interfere with ASICBoost Later, he realises the extension blocks proposal doesn't guarantee ASICBoost Finally, he moves to distance himself from ever having supported it, let alone initiating it. Would that be an accurate summary of that account?
In reply to: Jihan Wu accuses Purse CEO of lying about his support for extension blocks
Thanks, I posted a link to that narrative in response to the original Weibo post so we'll see if there's any update.
In reply to: Jihan Wu accuses Purse CEO of lying about his support for extension blocks
Thanks, I notice the date is 4/4 - is that the earliest endorsement you found?
In reply to: Jihan Wu accuses Purse CEO of lying about his support for extension blocks
There are also these claims from lightningasic: https://twitter.com/lightningasic/status/850633157174886401 https://twitter.com/lightningasic/status/850693843401834496 That's the Twitter account that corresponds to the cited Weibo account in the OP.
In reply to: Hi, I'm mkwia, a contributor to UASF on GitHub, and I would like to talk about any questions you might have about it.
Do you think a UASF will reduce the incentive to deal with the issue of miner centralisation sooner rather than later, and if so what plans are there to mitigate this potential side-effect? Where's a good place to read about the game-theoretical implications of a UASF? My ideal is an outcome that maintains the combination of Core devs and high levels of hashing power underlying the network. In that case, it'd be good if any pool could signal support for Segwit if / when it becomes visibly inevitable. What happens to the UASF if Segwit's 95% / 2016-block Locked-In criteria are met after 1st August?
In reply to: Hi, I'm mkwia, a contributor to UASF on GitHub, and I would like to talk about any questions you might have about it.
Thanks. If anyone can help with the first two questions as well that'd be great.
In reply to: Just finished my Bachelor's thesis about Bitcoin and its volatility!
I'm not an academic at all, but if it's useful: In the past two years, Bitcoin has been the most traded in China by far. Historically, China is followed by the United States and then European Union and Japan. Therefore, it is fair to assume that China is the most significant external factor that will influence Bitcoin's volatility This disparity was caused by the existence of a no-fee model on Chinese exchanges. When this was removed as part of the recent measures taken by the PBoC, trading volume collapsed on those exchanges. The drop was only partly compensated for by increases on other trading platforms and marketplaces. The high volumes during no-fee trading on Chinese exchanges were mainly bot-driven. These bots had no extra information to trade on as a result of the zero-fee policy and so they mainly exacerbated trends. This means the contribution of derivative products to stability was offset by the consequences of the zero-fee / bot combination. Since that's now almost irrelevant, your conclusion that "it is fair to assume that China is the most significant external factor that will influence Bitcoin's volatility" may be worth revisiting. Bitcoin's volatility is the most sensitive to the price changes in CNY, which further points to the centralization of Bitcoin. For the same reasons as above, this may be worth revisiting as well. Currently, macroeconomic shocks from China, the U.S. and the EU affect Bitcoin disproportionately more than shocks from other countries. In order for Bitcoin to truly become an international alternative to fiat currencies, it must become more independent of the larger countries. There seems to be an implicit assumption that in order to "satisfy the criteria of being a currency", Bitcoin should only be a currency. But it functions similarly to a commodity as well. You may miss some relevant conclusions if your characterisation of Bitcoin is pointed towards your thesis. For example, if a free-floating Yuan were to lose value, Bitcoin would behave differently to other national fiat currencies in response. If Bitcoin ever reaches the volatility levels of fiat currencies, its value is going to increase greatly because it will satisfy the criteria of being a functioning currency and therefore will be ready for a mass adoption. Bitcoin's fiat price volatility could decrease while technical constraints meant mass adoption threatened decentralisation, or some other factor could interfere with the causality here. Maybe worth a bit of caution on that level when discussing mass adoption.
In reply to: The Blockchain and Us (2017)
You can keep an eye on the kind of startups that are coming through here: https://bnktothefuture.com/ Listed companies include most major banks, accounting and insurance companies, plus IBM, Microsoft and Alibaba leading from the tech space. It's such a small part of their activities for the moment, it won't have much influence on stock price.
In reply to: Brexit vote site may have been hacked, MPs say in report
The government said that more than half a million people had added themselves to the electoral register on Tuesday. However, the number of people who attempted to access the site during the debate led to it falling over roughly an hour before the deadline for votes kicked in. No-one is quite sure—or willing to admit—how many potential voters were prevented from registering last night, but live metrics provided by the Government Digital Service reported 50,000 concurrent users on the site from 10:15pm. https://arstechnica.co.uk/tech-policy/2016/06/brexit-gov-uk-voter-registration-site-dies/ “When the register to vote service crashed last week, within two hours we knew exactly what was wrong and we could fix it – because we had the data,” said Hancock. “This meant we knew exactly how many people had been trying to get onto the system when it crashed.” To you or me, that information is just a very-expensively-massaged Apache log. But to the Cabinet Office minister, it’s Big Data! "There was simply an incapacity [sic] of the system to handle that number of applications," a blushing Oliver Letwin told Parliament last week. https://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/06/16/government_digital_service_failure_actually_success_matthew_hancock/ There's no hack. 50,000 requests in the hours before deadline isn't unreasonable and doesn't indicate any botnet activity. It's difficult to see how this isn't a deliberate attempt to mislead the public by both the Committee and the media outlets unquestioningly reporting on its work.
In reply to: The chat log between F2pool and Bitmain leaked. According to Solomon's Judge, F2pool does truly cherish Bitcoin, although he has a different opinion on UASF.
Yep, this is good. https://twitter.com/Excellion/status/853603490580488192 His name 江卓尔 is also anglicised as Jiang Zhuo'er, you'll find a bit more of him online searching that and ltc1btc.
In reply to: Translation sites that offer vector images?
You can use svg for this and adjust the heights and widths accordingly:
In reply to: Translation sites that offer vector images?
This is not how you convert to vector SVG is an acronym for scalable vector graphics. No conversion required. If you put this in a file, save it as test.html and open it in your browser, you'll see: After, you can control the font-size etc and print the page to labels if you like.
In reply to: Translation sites that offer vector images?
This doesn't require any fonts installed locally, though you can specify that if you like. If you have a text editor, a web browser and a printer, you're good to go. The ttfs mentioned above will work too, they're scalable. SVG just provides a bit more flexibility.
In reply to: Big WeChat Wallet problem
If you can't get any help through support, go on LinkedIn, find people who work in product management at Tencent and get chatting to them. Don't mention your btc deals. This is quite an interesting problem from a product point of view, less so for a customer service rep.
In reply to: Gaming the fee market?
Not mentioned in yesterday's thread but relevant is the reward structure for the bitcoin.com pool, which pays out 110% of the block reward and makes its money by keeping the remainder of the transaction fees.
In reply to: Any tips of resources for cooking simple Chinese dishes?
This channel called 曼食慢语 Amanda Tastes, not so simple but really well done: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCmXkJ9ReY5hjvYPcnmBwing http://i.youku.com/i/UNjA4MDc3OTcy
In reply to: Gaming the fee market?
More significantly, it'd also be a convenient solution for anyone who was flooding the network with spam transactions.
In reply to: Mycelium on bip148: "If Jihan wants war, I know where I stand"
Have there been any updates in response to the concerns regarding this use of UASF outlined by Gregory Maxwell: https://lists.linuxfoundation.org/pipermail/bitcoin-dev/2017-April/014152.html The primary flaw in BIP148 is that by forcing the activation of the existing (non-UASF segwit) nodes it almost guarantees at a minor level of disruption. "First do no harm." We should use the least disruptive mechanisms available, and the BIP148 proposal does not meet that test. There have been some other UASF proposals that avoid the forced disruption-- by just defining a new witness bit and allowing non-upgraded-to-uasf miners and nodes to continue as non-upgraded, I think they are vastly superior. They would be slower to deploy, but I do not think that is a flaw.
In reply to: Mycelium on bip148: "If Jihan wants war, I know where I stand"
Thanks, I'll look again at BIP 149. I hadn't realised it was directly in response to those concerns.
In reply to: Mycelium on bip148: "If Jihan wants war, I know where I stand"
I think there's room for a little more nuance than that.
In reply to: Translation request. Warning: May contain technical discussion about bitcoin
It's people discussing vanity addresses: The title says: 1GodB1essAmericaxxxxxxxxxxxyEGQkE这样的比特币地址都出来了' These kind of Bitcoin addresses have appeared?' And the OP text is: 还给Genesis of Bitcoin 转了比特币 It transferred bitcoin to Genesis of Bitcoin. 这di'zh肯定是自己算出来的吧? This address was definitely made with their own hashing power then? 得花多少算力啊 How much power would it take then? The comments are: 这地址牛B啊，呵呵。不过也没有什么鸟用 This address is awesome, hehe. Although it doesn't really do anything special. 黑洞地址，没有私钥所以只有转入没有转出 It's a black-hole [sink] address, doesn't have a private key so you can only spend to it, not from it. 比特币之所以安全，其中一点就是反推特定私钥是不可能的。目前人类的算力计算一个地址的私钥也是需要十的几十次方年。用算力反复尝试搞一个1GodB1ess打头的地址，后面不管，或许还是能做到的 One element of Bitcoin's security is that you can't gain reverse knowledge of a private key. With all humankind's currently available hashing power it would take tens of thousands of years to calculate one private key. Using hashing power to repeatedly attempt to get an address beginning with 1GodBless, whatever's behind it maybe it's possible. 这个是转入而不是转出。。。。这笔交易是往起源地址和这个地址各转了0.00001BTC This can only be spent to and not spent from. This transaction is just to point to the original address the total transactions for the address is 0.00001BTC. https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Vanitygen
In reply to: Well as a 58 yr old I am giving up trying to talk to my peers about getting into Bitcoin. Oh well, when I have the best room in the nursing home in 20 years I don't want to hear them bitch.
I'm interested in this from a user experience perspective. Do you find they run into difficulties with the general concept of Bitcoin, or do they get it in theory but then find the software interfaces confusing? I could ask a lot more specific questions, but if anyone has any thoughts on helping people in this age bracket interact with the Bitcoin network, I'd be really interested.
In reply to: Well as a 58 yr old I am giving up trying to talk to my peers about getting into Bitcoin. Oh well, when I have the best room in the nursing home in 20 years I don't want to hear them bitch.
Thanks for your reply. It's interesting because there's no central authority to designate a right way of approaching it, and each private company generally occupies one part of the landscape so it's often left up to the user to put the pieces together. If you take an approach from block explorer to wallets to exchange and possibly a node, you have quite a range of service providers along the way and that's a good thing too. I can see how a percentage of people get lost each step of the way but I'm sure we could do more to make all the avenues ahead clear. I sometimes remind people that you can get familiar with any of the tools above in any order, there's no pressure.
In reply to: What measures could be taken globally to guarantee some price stability?
I'm surprised that an altcoin hasn't tried this yet. I haven't seen any progress recently, but there were a few papers on central bank coins. In the RSCoin proposal, a central bank controls the money supply and 'mintettes' play the role of banks today as well as preventing double spending: http://www0.cs.ucl.ac.uk/staff/G.Danezis/papers/ndss16currencies.pdf In the CBDC proposal, they consider fixed nominal value as well as price targeting, leading to zero inflation: http://www.hoover.org/sites/default/files/bordo-levin_bullets_for_hoover_may2017.pdf Also related, some Australian deputies just mentioned holding bitcoin at the RBA and using it to conduct traditional inflation-targeting market operations: https://cei.org/blog/bitcoin-reserve-proposed-australian-central-bank Although I know most bitcoin users wouldn't be too keen on these proposals, the BoE considered the ability of individuals / companies to hold crypto accounts directly at the central bank as a means of negating the moral hazard in banking implicit in a too-big-to-fail situation. As a more direct response to OP, mass adoption.
In reply to: What measures could be taken globally to guarantee some price stability?
except that this sort of government digital currency would clearly be used to track everyone's activities, enforce negative interest rates with no escape, freeze people's assets, and other such evil. These 'features' strike me as the reason they're interested in the first place, without them it'd be surprising if they'd proceed. The ability to implement negative rates must be particularly attractive just now, but except China nobody seems to be pushing ahead very quickly so it would be too late anyway. Cash and debit seems preferable then, but CB crypto could be better than digital-only fiat like the Swedish proposal. I'd like to see a Bitcoin-based altcoin with a coin supply responsive to economic conditions, just to test out the competing economic theories, though as a global currency it might face problems similar to the Euro's. I'm a bit disappointed by mainstream economic theory's unwillingness to put itself to the test with a crypto implementation.
In reply to: For those asking for bitcoin millionaire stories...
It seems since you're effectively taking a short position with the intention of closing it out in the near future, it might actually be more prudent to use futures / swap contracts with some leverage to balance counterparty risk and the benefit of easy stop-loss orders. This is part of the argument for those contracts, that they remove speculation from the underlying asset and contribute to decreasing volatility in the spot price. If you agree with the logic, by using them you'd be making that contribution yourself.
In reply to: The cryptic message coming out of the Chinese Gov't /China Daily. It's not in support of BTC.
Your title is way too dramatic. This is in line with the approach taken so far, which is to have prominent warnings to deter reckless investments going wrong at times of high volatility. They do the same in other areas that attract retail investors, with a view to economic stability. The arguments used aren't really technical because that wouldn't appeal to the target audience, hence the focus on tulips and hackers. At the same time, they've just provided a good bit more regulatory certainty and trading volumes aren't that high anyway.
In reply to: Announcing Blockstream Satellite
This is amazing, just in case anyone misses the link to the Satellite minisite: https://blockstream.com/satellite/menu/
In reply to: Question : is BCH open source ?
For Bitcoin ABC the simple answer is no, only some of the review process is made public.
In reply to: Question : is BCH open source ?
It's fully open source: https://github.com/Bitcoin-ABC/bitcoin-abc An out of date github repo doesn't make it open source.
In reply to: Question : is BCH open source ?
The development process is private and closed, so it's not an open source project. Bitcoin Unlimited sometimes uses closed source binaries: https://cointelegraph.com/news/bitcoin-unlimited-second-bug-sees-closed-source-code-release And the Electron wallet isn't open source either.
In reply to: Question : is BCH open source ?
Why are you saying available source code isn't? What's closed? Development is private: reviews.bitcoinabc.org
In reply to: Where can I get a medical examination in Hangzhou?
If you search for 杭州市出入境检验检疫局, you’ll find this place at 2 Wen San Rd: http://www.ha.ziq.gov.cn/
In reply to: This scam is unacceptable. Let's do something about this!
Under this proposal, the BCH address format will change: https://github.com/Bitcoin-UAHF/spec/blob/master/cashaddr.md So, along with some other data, a different encoding of the same public key or redeem script as in Bitcoin. So it'll be up to the user, hopefully with the support of sanely-designed apps, to ensure funds are sent to the intended address. This is just classic bait and switch with a subtle nudge to BCH. This is from Apple on misleading users: Misleading Users Your app must perform as advertised and should not give users the impression the app is something it is not. If your app appears to promise certain features and functionalities, it needs to deliver. https://developer.apple.com/app-store/review/rejections/
In reply to: This scam is unacceptable. Let's do something about this!
If the app is helpful it'll be able to say something like, "That looks like a Bitcoin Cash address. Are you sure?" But that's not really the approach taken here.
In reply to: This scam is unacceptable. Let's do something about this!
I think it's safe to say calling a default BCH wallet a bitcoin wallet by bitcoin.com is a bad thing.
In reply to: [Daily Discussion] Friday, January 26, 2018
https://www.bfxdata.com/positions/btcusd Total value of all long/short positions expressed in btc.
In reply to: 2017 Report to Congress On China’s WTO Compliance - United States Trade Representative, January 2018
I think it has historical significance. This represents a major shift in U.S. policy towards China.
In reply to: 2017 Report to Congress On China’s WTO Compliance - United States Trade Representative, January 2018
Yeah, I didn’t include anything like a submission statement because the executive summary alone is clear and concise.
In reply to: 2017 Report to Congress On China’s WTO Compliance - United States Trade Representative, January 2018
were there any pragmatists around to counter-argue? There's a strain of belief in fairly popular, if not mainstream, economics that says WTO policies tend to be unhelpful towards developing nations, who are better served by a high degree of state involvement in strategically targeted industries, a protectionist tendency and toothless IP regulation. Given motivations like those as an assumption, the only serious question is whether the international community had arrived at the optimum balance with regard to China, and this report suggests that notion is dead. I'm surprised though that the U.S. is simultaneously accusing the EU on the same grounds, it'd seem prudent for them to be more aligned with their allies if they want to start a trade war of this magnitude, whatever else they're planning.
In reply to: [Daily Discussion] Tuesday, January 30, 2018
https://www.linkedin.com/jobs/view/market-operations-specialist-at-robinhood-559608598/
In reply to: So How are Chinese Investors Accessing Crypto Markets Now?
Although the Chinese exchanges closed, a small window was left open for p2p trading, so you'll notice a few new LocalBitcoins-style products around. Along with OTC, Telegram groups and exchanges in other Asian countries, this covers most of the action. The rumours about the full ban on exchange sites first appeared last September, but no sign of that for now. I suspect the real name requirements in Korea were heavily influenced by Chinese demands, and that's behind the drop in volume there. It's not easy for the average Zhou these days.
In reply to: What Bitcoin Reveals About Financial Markets
Note that as economies expand, the volume of credit increases. This is why it is natural that in a growing economy, the monetary supply should increase in line with trading volumes and credit needs. There are indeed cryptocurrencies that try to respond to economic conditions by responding to metrics available within the network such as the velocity of money. They are among the more interesting altcoin projects, but they are not in demand on the markets. As an industry and an academic discipline, economics has been embarrassingly devoid of contributions to the development of cryptocurrencies and smart-contract platforms.
In reply to: Lightning Desktop App - a first prototype of a Cross-platform Lightning Desktop Application
This is why we bitcoin.
In reply to: [Daily Discussion] Sunday, February 11, 2018
This question is better suited to r/bitcoin or r/bitcointechnology. The idea is that mining difficulty for testnet coins is so low anyone can produce some with a gpu. At times the difficulty level raises beyond this, and it's preferable to reset. Currently people mainly use testnet3. The value isn't a fixed zero because bitcoin's consensus algorithm adjusts gradually according to data from past events. https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Testnet https://bitcoin.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/testnet
In reply to: any subreddit communities that uses Chinese? 有什么中文社区的subreddit？
https://www.reddit.com/r/saraba1st/comments/8039mo/cpc_proposes_change_on_chinese_presidents_term_in/
In reply to: SCMP: Xi Jinping must stay on as China’s president during this critical time, as Roosevelt did for the US
Worth recalling Ma's view on the Chinese government at this point in time: As always, be in love with them but don't marry them. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KNWlyr7_gKs http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XODgwNDYzNDQ0.html?spm=a2h0k.8191407.0.0 (15:28)
In reply to: Jack Ma on the Chinese government: "As always, be in love with them but don't marry them."
http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XODgwNDYzNDQ0.html?spm=a2h0k.8191407.0.0 (15:28)
In reply to: China's stability myth is dead
Chinese media haven’t quite reached the level of Romanian media under Nicolae Ceausescu’s dictatorship, where newspapers employed people whose only job was to ensure that Ceausescu’s name was never misprinted The Ceausescu comparisons are timely. It was in around 1984 that his decline into delusion and paranoia really took hold. This is a pretty good telling of the story, with some archive China footage too: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cvlfRKBIGok
In reply to: China's stability myth is dead
China's situation is nothing like that right now. Interesting choice of words to close your sentence.
In reply to: How can I see LocalBitcoins volume data?
You need to calculate it from the transaction data available via the API, using a tid to provide a start time: https://localbitcoins.com/api-docs/ https://localbitcoins.com/bitcoincharts/{currency}/trades.json
In reply to: [Daily Discussion] Tuesday, March 13, 2018
If this is true, it's the best news I've heard for years. A lot of people have no idea how hard it's been for exchanges to access banking services these past few years despite the phenomenal liquidity and huge efforts in compliance involved. With Wirex getting a banking license and now this rumour, I don't care about this epic price battle nearly so much.
In reply to: Is China vulnerable to regime change?
Not an expert either, but my understanding is current policy goes against this point: I do want to point out that the party and the national identity can never be the same. The logical sequence involved begins with Socialism with Chinese Characteristics being added to the fundamental law in the form of Xi Jinping Thought. Then the leadership of the CCP is defined as a requirement for SwCC: "The leadership of the Communist Party of China is the defining feature of socialism with Chinese characteristics," read the proposal. Finally, the removal of term limits removed national restrictions on leadership to harmonise with the absence of restrictions defined in Party rules. http://www.xinhuanet.com/english/2018-02/25/c_136999410.htm The logical next step is for the parallel structures of government and Party to be replaced with a single structure belonging to the Party. No related military reform is required.
In reply to: UK Bank crippled, as customers panic, accounts emptied.
If you like bitcoin, I'm sure you appreciate deposit guarantee schemes use game theory to increase stability in the banking system. They were introduced after the bank runs that led to the Great Depression, but over time there has been some "innovation" in pricing risk and they have become smaller in relation to bank liabilities. If they do their job well, they prevent shocks. If a shock happens, don't count on them and if possible have some bitcoin.
In reply to: [Daily Discussion] Thursday, May 03, 2018
Yep, decent volume on that last hourly candle. Real selling, real buying.
In reply to: I am surprised this isn't getting more attention. New York Stock Exchange Will Develop a Bitcoin Trading Platform
This opens up the possibility of using bitcoin as collateral to take long and short positions on equities and other asset classes, and vice versa, which is nicely in line with the vision of the blockchain as the ultimate metal layer with other services built on top. I've seen attempts by startups like 796.com in the past, but this opens up a whole new institutional market.
In reply to: [Daily Discussion] Wednesday, May 09, 2018
Then there's pretty much thin air between $10,000 and $11,700. We've spent a lot of time recently testing areas that went untested in December. I'm expecting a bit more friction above 10k as this process continues.
In reply to: [Daily Discussion] Wednesday, May 09, 2018
See things broadly the same, just wouldn't rule out meeting enough resistance to send us back down for a few days, perhaps even far enough to liquidate highly-leveraged longs opening not too far north of where we are.
In reply to: The Death of Acceleration - Krugman
Why do you think Krugman chose not to mention the bail-out and subsequent decade of stimulus when proposing a revision of the theory of accelerationism? Are they widely considered not relevant in this debate? Is the implication that since the framework can safely be dropped in his view, then expectations of increasing inflation, and proposed quantitative tightening, are misplaced? I'm not sure this article can be taken in good faith.
In reply to: The Death of Acceleration - Krugman
I estimate because column inches. I think it's such an oversight that it makes of the rest of the article misleading at best. I believe Krugman's opinion is that fiscal policy is too tight I believe the main problem with his take on accelerationism is that, while it doesn't look like a particularly good theory to explain modern inflation rate behavior, no other better theory has been put forward. That's a fair point. I also find it significant that he appears to propose dropping it because it doesn't align with a related view, but doesn't say this explicitly, and instead suggests it's a data-based decision. There's a kind of intellectual dishonesty at play, similar for example to providing academic theory for use as justification for bad policy, in the knowledge that it serves certain interests.
In reply to: The Death of Acceleration - Krugman
The quote is from u/SmokingPuffin, though we shouldn't shoot the messenger.
In reply to: How to change career?
if thats the word, fuck it, it was Clubcard A lot of blockchain startups are interested in entering this market, your experience and knowledge would be very useful to them.
In reply to: The Death of Acceleration - Krugman
Because accelerationism is supposed to apply only when the economy is at full employment. Yes there were folks in 2010 who predicted massive CPI inflation with QE (kinda sorta accelerationist), but why listen to them anymore when they have been decisively proven wrong? There was indeed no immediate wild inflation, and as you say that's irrelevant without full employment. In any case, he only offers two graphs from which we can conclude about nothing. The stimulus is relevant because it appears to have disfigured the real economy, allowing non-viable businesses to exist and over-valued assets remain so. The nature of the employment created feeds into this lack of productivity. You can see this in more detail in a recent paper by Hoeberichts and van den End. We're still in a huge, high-risk experiment with obvious negative side-effects and Krugman was among its apologists. It's not coherent for him to have omitted it from this article, and worse considering there's a veiled implication it should be extended.
In reply to: Anyone want to discuss the topics of article assessment on Gaokao?
I'm not really interested in discussing politic views, what do you think of the topics? boring? interesting? As you just said: the form is more important, the real thoughts behind writing not so. Basically just follow a set of rules By way of comparison, these are from the French bac, taken at the same age as the gaokao: Is observation sufficient for knowledge? Are all things I have the right to do just? Can reason bring all things to rights? Is a work of art necessarily beautiful? Is defending one's rights the same as defending one's interests? Can you free yourself from your culture? Hopefully you can draw your own conclusions.
In reply to: Coinbase CEO launches his own Crypto charity..aims to reach a billion people
Maybe he could fork this old project: https://github.com/cpzhao/bitcoin_charity/blob/master/Bitcoin_Charity.md
In reply to: Brave Browser v0.23.19 has been released!
https://www.reddit.com/r/brave_browser/comments/8gkzwr/url_autocomplete_from_history_needs_a_lot_of_work/ The history/autocomplete is so bad it's becoming a dealbreaker. Also can't play audio on BBC radio website, using Mac OS. Only error is: Uncaught Error: Script error for: logger
In reply to: Is China opening up?
I lived in China from around 2011-2015 and then again during 2017. Across Beijing, Shanghai and Hangzhou the number of immigrants from developed countries seemed to drop by around 90% over that total period. Since Xi Jinping’s reign took course, 改革开放 has died a quiet death, with most western interests complicity silent. It’s a remarkable shift, eerily not reflected in any official statistics or media coverage. The risks of being there at this point seem to far outweigh any upside potential there may once have been.
In reply to: Is China opening up?
That’s a very difficult question. It seems very difficult for any country to maintain genuine sovereignty in the face of a U.S.-led global order. I think maybe striking that balance between sovereignty and openness got tiring and gave way to less noble ambitions under Xi.
In reply to: I think it's time for bitcoin developers join forces together with Berners-Lee, the creator of WWW: "The idea is simple: re-decentralize the Web."
https://github.com/solid/solid
In reply to: EU to Join Trump in Criticizing China's Role in Global Trade
Finally. And Japan too: “Chinese representatives will say things are going well and that the nation is taking steps to open up its vast economy, according to people familiar with their stance. The U.S., the European Union, Japan and others will disagree and are expected to criticize China’s failure to embrace market-based principles”
In reply to: EU to Join Trump in Criticizing China's Role in Global Trade
Indeed, democratic leaders need to work with Trump, not against him. It’s disappointing that the EU didn’t take the lead on this but at least they’re starting to behave sensibly.
In reply to: EU to Join Trump in Criticizing China's Role in Global Trade
I think some Europeans at least understand that if the tariffs weren’t applied globally by Trump, China would just move production to wherever they weren’t applied. So we don’t all feel disrespected. I’m sure some Americans also understand the EU, Canada etc need to maintain the principle of reciprocation but that doesn’t imply any core disagreement.
In reply to: Pure vegetarian Chinese food
红烧茄子 is a sweet aubergine dish, 豆角 are nice green beans, 麻婆豆腐 is mapo tofu, also 豆干 is tasty with the 红烧 sauce above, 青椒 (!) or green peppers are popular, you get lots of mushroom dishes with 香菇 蘑菇 and plain dishes with 白菜 青菜 or 土豆. If you say 您有哪些没肉没鱼没鸡蛋的东西 they’ll tell you what they can do, I don’t think there’s a restaurant in China that won’t give you something. You can go to a 兰州拉面 restaurant and get a lot of veggie dishes, or go to a 麻辣烫 or for 火锅 and choose your own ingredients. Tier 1 and 2 cities have plenty of vegetarian restaurants, and you can find Buddhist restaurants near temples everywhere.
In reply to: Pure vegetarian Chinese food
If you're very strict, you will indeed be miserable, always eating alone or going hungry with your principles. If you can adopt a 差不多 attitude to your vegetarianism, your quality of life will be better. You're quite right, but being right isn't everything.
In reply to: Pure vegetarian Chinese food
As much as I respect your position, realistically your approach in China will only make you miserable. I don't even think you have some moral higher ground. I’ve set an example here, and even if one person learned something they didn’t before about respecting (rather than needlessly killing), our fellow creatures... well then it was worth all the cruelty Maybe a more relaxed approach is more engaging. A lot of Chinese I met were really happy to try out eating my way, at least while we ate together. If that's not the case for you then nobody's learning anything.
In reply to: Pure vegetarian Chinese food
That's great, I'm very happy that's working out for you.
In reply to: Still possible to convert CNY to BTC in China?
LocalBitcoins and similar platforms weren't affected. OKCoin, Huobi and BTCC exchanges are all closed in China now although they have spun up inferior LocalBitcoins-type products.
In reply to: China’s two-child policy is having unintended consequences
This isn’t the first time the ceausescu parallel has come up. https://www.reddit.com/r/China/comments/813xf8/chinas_stability_myth_is_dead/
In reply to: Now everyone will think Xi's dad was responsible for reform and opening up
Carlson interpreted this as re-writing history but from a forward-looking perspective, it also looks like preparing the ground for succession by primogeniture.
In reply to: Now everyone will think Xi's dad was responsible for reform and opening up
Indeed.
In reply to: China plans to incentivize child bearing
In an effort to ensure "normal demographic growth", Decree 770 was authorized by Nicolae Ceaușescu's government. The decree criminalized abortion To enforce the decree, society was strictly controlled. Motherhood was described as "the meaning of women's lives" and praised in sex education courses and women's magazines, and various written materials were distributed detailing information on prenatal and child care, the benefits of children, ways to ensure marital harmony, and the consequences of abortion. Contraceptives disappeared from the shelves and were soon only available to educated urban women. When a physician did not want to help or could not be bribed to perform an abortion, however, women went to less experienced abortionists or used old remedies. From 1979 to 1988, the number of abortions increased, save for a decline in 1984-1985.[6] Despite this, many unwanted children were born, as their parents could scarcely afford to care for the children they already had, and were subsequently abandoned in hospitals or orphanages. Some of these children were purposely given AIDS-infected transfusions in orphanages; others were trafficked internationally through adoption. Those born in this period, especially between 1966 and 1972, are nicknamed the decreţei (singular decreţel), a word with a negative nuance due to the perceived mental and physical damage due to the risky pregnancies and failed illegal abortions. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abortion_in_Romania
In reply to: US stocks are again headed for new highs while rest of the world's stock market struggles
Have you considered the fiscal stimulus may be designed to provide a cushion to equity markets during an opening phase of negotiations aimed at reforming the WTO, perhaps beginning with China's suspension? The falls in the SHComp and ChiNext indexes haven't been mirrored in the S&P and Nasdaq, and the Dollar is strengthening at the Yuan's expense, suggesting the approach is working. This provides room to escalate the trade war to a point where China will be incentivized to make concessions, implement domestic reforms and cooperate with WTO reform. The negative effects of escalation could be expected to offset the stimulus effects, preventing accelerating inflation.
In reply to: US stocks are again headed for new highs while rest of the world's stock market struggles
All told, the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) reported, some $305.6 billion returned to the U.S. from overseas accounts. That's a $1.2 trillion annual rate, and far more than the $35 billion one year before. https://www.investors.com/politics/editorials/overseas-profits-return/ https://bea.gov/newsreleases/international/transactions/2018/trans118.htm Use of international tax havens is common among Fortune 500 companies, which collectively hold more than $2.6 trillion in accumulated profits offshore in places like the Bahamas and the Cayman Islands. https://uspirgedfund.org/sites/pirg/files/cpn/USN-011218-B2-REPORT/Offshore-Shell-Games_3.html
In reply to: US stocks are again headed for new highs while rest of the world's stock market struggles
It's quite unusual to suggest a trade war is directly inflationary. It may be due to your model not including reciprocatory tariffs or any other consequences. Why do you think the rest of the world isn't seeing this inflation effect?
In reply to: US stocks are again headed for new highs while rest of the world's stock market struggles
I don't like the particular strategy but there is a lot of wisdom in being more aggressive on trade right now then most people want to admit. It's hard for people to find objective analysis on the issue, myself included.
In reply to: US stocks are again headed for new highs while rest of the world's stock market struggles
The idea of the WTO suspending China is absurd. "Given the importance of China to the future of the World Trade Organization (WTO), I believe that we should be frank and direct in discussing China’s role as a WTO Member and the nature of its trade policies and practices. China’s failure to fully embrace the open, market-oriented policies on which this institution is founded must be addressed, either within the WTO or outside the WTO." https://geneva.usmission.gov/2018/07/11/u-s-statement-at-the-trade-policy-review-of-the-peoples-republic-of-china/ A justification for questioning China's WTO membership was made on a cross-party basis, involving private sector stakeholders, in this report: https://ustr.gov/sites/default/files/files/Press/Reports/China%202017%20WTO%20Report.pdf The benefit from these tax cuts is very short term, and will be offset by the inflation as a direct result of the deficit they create. On the other hand, it would/will take years to reshuffle the global trade order, especially if the goal is to isolate China. What's relevant is creating an environment where China's interests would be best served by committing to domestic and WTO reform, not completing the reforms. It's quite possible that will be achieved within the period of stimulus effects from the second round of tax cuts.
In reply to: US stocks are again headed for new highs while rest of the world's stock market struggles
These are the administration's opinions, not the WTO's. The WTO is a forum of nation states. For the issue of China's suspension to arise it's sufficient for it to be raised by a member state. The U.S. also has the EU's support in this regard. And there is no reason whatsoever to think that the tax cuts were intended to support this. The reasoning is that this explanation is more logical, and supported by more evidence, than any other on offer.
In reply to: ‘Bitcoin Jesus’ Is Having a Hard Time Winning Over True Believers - Bloomberg news
Roger must be well aware of the economic costs of operating bitcoin.com as a BCH site instead of serving bitcoin users. At some point he'll have to make a rational decision and bring in outside management. Too late for Bitpay, obsolete already.
In reply to: [Daily Discussion] Tuesday, August 21, 2018
The Chop Index on Cryptowatch is at a record high for this bear market. It has a good track record recently as a leading indicator for volatility spikes, looking at the 12h chart especially. It's also painting a spike up beginning above the red zone's 0.618 threshold, first time I think.
In reply to: Beijing is on track to lose its new cold war with the US, as it is failing to recognise and rectify the two mistakes that proved fatal for the Soviet Union: economic mismanagement and imperial overreach
I’m not convinced Jack Ma supports the new direction of the CCP under Xi.
In reply to: Beijing is on track to lose its new cold war with the US, as it is failing to recognise and rectify the two mistakes that proved fatal for the Soviet Union: economic mismanagement and imperial overreach
But he has wealth, influence and a global media outlet. I’ve thought for a while he’s the most powerful potential resistance to Xi, worth watching at least.
In reply to: Beijing is on track to lose its new cold war with the US, as it is failing to recognise and rectify the two mistakes that proved fatal for the Soviet Union: economic mismanagement and imperial overreach
I’m talking specifically about the SCMP, as per the OP and his media outlet.
In reply to: [Daily Discussion] Friday, September 14, 2018
A market order is where you only enter the quantity of btc to buy/sell, and the price is whatever sellers/buyers have already entered. A limit order is where you enter the quantity of btc to buy/sell and the price. This is what you used, you noticed it appears on the book immediately, although the exchange really shouldn't have filled it at that price. A trigger order is where you enter the quantity of btc to buy/sell and the price, as well as the price that triggers the order's activation. So you can say, if the price reaches $10, I want to sell 1 btc at $9.50. I think this is what you want. If you set an automated sell, you might want an automated buy too, in case the price just flashes down for a few seconds.
In reply to: Gambling 1 satoshi on Lightning Roulette with Eclair - paying 0.00000000001 in fees
One millisatoshi in fees, nice.
In reply to: China’s Government Has Ordered a Million Citizens to Occupy Uighur Homes. Here’s What They Think They’re Doing.
How the fuck did China get to this from a few years ago? I've been very critical of the CCP for years but even I could not have guessed that Xinjiang would get this bad. It's not like I thought Xinjiang was all peaches and cream before, but the stuff that's come out over the past few months is definitely many steps up from what they were doing even back in 2016. I've been thinking about this boy who cried wolf effect, we're paying now for people like the BBC's Carrie Gracie who spewed out anti-China propaganda for so many years that people have no idea there's been a major shift.
In reply to: WTO reform proposal features penalties and bans, aimed at China
According to reforms to be proposed by the U.S., the European Union and Japan this month, members that are found not to have reported subsidies to domestic industries, and that do not shape up within two years, would face penalties including higher WTO contribution quotas, plus bans from chairing committees and asking questions at important meetings on member trade policies. If the problem continues for another year or more, they would lose the right to speak at key meetings except at the very end of discussions. "In effect, it's close to suspending their eligibility to take part" in the WTO, said a source familiar with global trade. The move seems aimed primarily at China.
In reply to: Crypto and blockchain in China
Do they restrict crypto trading? Yes, all exchanges offering BTCCNY pairs were closed down last year. Only p2p services like localbitcoins weren't covered at the time, though they have since come under pressure too. What blockchain projects are popular? The same as everywhere else. Do they have local crypto exchanges and crypto currencies? OKCoin and Huobi are the biggest remaining exchanges, and things aren't looking great for either. China is still significant in terms of mining.
In reply to: The Transparent Society
Consider City Number One. In this place, the myriad cameras report their urban scenes straight to Police Central, where security officers use sophisticated image processors to scan for infractions against the public order - or perhaps against an established way of thought. Citizens walk the streets aware that any word or deed may be noted by agents of some mysterious bureau. Now let's skip across space and time. At first sight, things seem quite similar in City Number Two. Again, there are ubiquitous cameras, perched on every vantage point. Only here we soon find a crucial difference. The devices do *not *report to the secret police. Rather, each and every citizen of this metropolis can lift his or her wristwatch/TV and call up images from any camera in town. Here, a late-evening stroller checks to make sure no one lurks beyond the corner she is about to turn. Over there, a tardy young man dials to see if his dinner date still waits for him by the city hall fountain. A block away, an anxious parent scans the area and finds which way her child has wandered off. Over by the mall, a teenage shoplifter is taken into custody gingerly, with minute attention to ritual and rights, because the arresting officer knows the entire process is being scrutinized by untold numbers who watch intently, lest his neutral professionalism lapse. In City Two, such microcameras are banned from many indoor places ... except Police Headquarters!
In reply to: [Letter] Understanding the philosophy of Jordan Peterson
I wanted to distinguish Spinoza from the absolute materialist tradition, due to the space he creates space for the pursuit of knowledge of what systems are at play in the universe. I didn't want to lay out his beliefs as much as focus on the philosophical framework, but thanks for the relevant detail.
In reply to: [Letter] Understanding the philosophy of Jordan Peterson
And that's why his answer is "I act as if God exists". I don't think he's simply following Pascal's wager, and any hesitation I ascribed to a healthy caution in responding to such a question. The point on beliefs as revealed in actions is well taken, though I'm not sure how strictly he limits belief to this domain.
In reply to: Change my mind
The Chinese people I met working in Chinese companies are now absolutely powerless in the face of an absolute surveillance state. Those who can leave, tried to. Some succeeded, some failed. Everyone was worked to the limits of endurance. There is no doubt that the average Chinese has no access to basic democratic expression. There is almost no space left for personal freedoms. The myth that the CCP's rule was legitimate based on economic prosperity is falling apart in the face of the inescapable surveillance. This is no coincidence, the flaw is inherent in the desire to control everything. For any Chinese person who thinks that Americans also desire to control everything, you need to remember America is a constitutional republic and what that means. I wouldn't have used these words even five years ago, but today China is a totalitarian state. People here are concerned, don't misinterpret that.
In reply to: Change my mind
Politicians have loads of power where business owners need to beg them to allow this Yes, the urban planning of Shanghai shows this very clearly. Foreign tourists and wealthy Chinese walk around Xintiandi and Huangpi Rd buying luxury goods, some without realising CCP towers loom above their heads, some understanding very well: https://imgur.com/a/mHoO8pe
In reply to: Change my mind
At the moment, I'd suggest pursuing your interest by studying the language in private lessons with a Chinese person in your home country. Issues like that can only be broached sensitively. You could do worse than find a Beijinger for that accent.
In reply to: [Letter] Understanding the philosophy of Jordan Peterson
Thanks, maybe it's a worthwhile journey even if it's not the best of all possible worlds.
In reply to: [Letter] Understanding the philosophy of Jordan Peterson
I don't know much about Indian philosophy and how it's reflected in other traditions, as you may have noticed, if you could add that to the story I'd be very interested. I wasn't very taken by the little Sam Harris I read. As regards your "apple is just an apple" point, that could be considered a purely material point of view, with a counterpart in Plato's realm of Forms - in that sense I hope I've taken it into account but I'm interested in the area in between.
In reply to: Change my mind
More explicitly then, I'd strongly recommend against going to China now unless you are a Han Chinese. I was suggesting an alternative.
In reply to: Change my mind
For your personal safety, because I don't think it's secure in the current environment in China. The number of foreigners dropped hugely since I first went there, these days most immigration is from Africa.
In reply to: UK austerity has inflicted 'great misery' on citizens, UN says Poverty envoy says callous policies driven by political desire for social re-engineering
You need to understand austerity is just one part of a cycle, the other half being excessive lending, that combined render an economy relatively impotent. We've been going through these cycles without increasing productivity, because we've been spending too much on inefficiencies like Private Finance Initiatives and Help To Buy. A welfare state is a fragile thing, it has to be paid for while maintaining stability. There are two kinds of people who create problems for it. Inefficient spenders on the left who create vested interests, and overzealous people on the right who create vested interests. We've been governed by both since not too long after WW2. The IMF imposes austerity because when stimulus, which we have had in the form of low rates and BoE asset purchases, gets out of hand inflation gets out of control. All independent central banks impose a low-rate policy, and the government imposes austerity, in response to recession. This is generally followed by a Labour government, huge spending which creates employment, happy and confident trade unions, and the debt crisis goes on. It's time to move beyond blaming Labour or the Tories, and look at the bigger picture.
In reply to: What is Jeremy Corbyn's position on the 'education' camps being built for Uyghur Muslims in Xinjiang, China?
I did say I was looking for a comment on the public record. I'm surprised he hasn't said anything. Nobody there is free to speak, you'd expect Corbyn to be vocal about it.
In reply to: Bitmain hair dryer - COMING SOON!
The incentive to generate energy more efficiently is among the best and least discussed aspects of bitcoin's game theory. It could be the bottom-up way to save the planet.
In reply to: China's Orwellian Social Credit Score Isn't Real
I think this issue presents a problem for an authoritarian leadership. The intention of the social credit system is obviously total control, but the engineers who write and maintain the software required gain a centre of power outside the Politburo. That's not to say they couldn't implement it, but if it goes beyond very basic functionality it would become an Achilles Heel and they know it. It exists as a means of obtaining obedience.
In reply to: UK austerity has inflicted 'great misery' on citizens, UN says Poverty envoy says callous policies driven by political desire for social re-engineering
I can only imagine this comment is pro-conservative, but much like in Americian politics you see that the right is so indefensible that you have to just parrot "they're all the same" "they're both as bad as one another"... Let me use housing as an example. Thatcher alongside austerity and military spending introduces right to buy. Blair initiates a credit boom, prices surge. Brown approves bank bailout. Osborne introduces Help to Buy, creating another liability and more debt. Now McDonnell is talking about total land nationalisation. This is harmful governance over credit cycles. After the crash in 2007, it didn't matter whether the government was left or right. Across Europe, we all lined up and implemented austerity and low rates. Labours biggest economic mistake was undoubtedly deregulation of the financial sector and we are still constantly reminded that they alone caused the recession/credit crunch in spite of the fact the conservative party obsessively pushed for greater deregulation, which would have resulted in an even worse recession. Yet there is consensus around a lack of transparency. But now it's you suggesting they're all the same. it's not like increased spending ever risked pushing inflation to undesirable levels You could watch this about the IMF intervention of 1976, that was the basis of Thatcherism: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=es7tbo8L3us To paraphrase the chancellor "by far the easiest way to reduce government debt is to invest in economic growth" We've been trying to inflate the debt away for the past ten years, without creating the inflation I mention above by channelling more debt into stocks and property, and spending on huge inefficiencies in housing and the NHS. That simple fact is conservative policy direction was negligent during the boom years (but they've managed wipe this clean) and as further cemented by this report was an even more unpaletable mixture of negligent/malicious during the bust. I'm not interested in party politics, you need to understand the wider context to begin to fix the issue. As in Australia, an anti-corruption watchdog may be one way to start.
In reply to: [Letter] Understanding the philosophy of Jordan Peterson
I'd say that JP is more like Confucius than Laozi. I think Confucius learned from Laozi, there's a suggestion they met. So the elements you associate with Confucianism there, I recognise also from Laozi. I see a little of the Dao in the idea of laying out the trace of a path to live by, but suggesting everyone needs to find their own. He's not into impersonal transcendence like Laozi, Vedanta, or Buddhism I think that only applies to the latter two, and that Jungian psychiatry does make space for a transcendental consciousness that can be experienced by the individual, but I take your point. It is all becoming and no being. I don't agree this is a fair characterisation. Being is still relevant, at the very least in terms of the external world.
In reply to: China is locking up its Muslim minorities, and pushing Islamophobia to get Europe to do it too
to many Chinese's knowledge, muslims get more benefits from government. This is the kind of thing that turns people against each other. If it's true, it's the fault of the welfare bureaucrats, not the 穆斯林。
In reply to: Why is the Chinese glass-heart so ready to support concentration camps, ethnic cleansing, and (not yet, but imminent) mass extermination?
It's very difficult to question such an absolute authority, most Chinese people have to develop critical skills themselves and are under huge psychological pressure to obey.
In reply to: LibrePatron: A Self-Hosted Patreon Alternative backed by BTCPay Server
Is it possible to use CLTV to create, for example, a transaction with 12 outputs staggered over time?
In reply to: The Mass Exodus of Foreigners from China
About time someone talked about this, there's no relevant data available that can be trusted but it's a remarkable phenomenon. I left after three years then returned a few later for six months, currently no intention to return, which is a bit sad. I worked at the main Alibaba HQ, but despite the rhetoric from management, foreigners were rewarded for just executing projects and not asking any questions or trying to make improvements, and looking good with increasing amounts of posing for photos and taking part in PR events. The foreigners team was kept separate, though partly we did enjoy sitting together, and there was a Party member on the team at all times, though we mostly got on well. I left Alibaba and took a job as product manager for user experience at a bitcoin company in Beijing. Here again we were expected to execute orders or just watch, show our faces for PR/marketing. When asked to work with the Chinese developers on a mobile bitcoin wallet, foreigners were completely ignored and the Chinese developers worked on their code, replacing Coinbase with OKCoin to make it appear like they had written it themselves. Our international team all resigned and left, only one stayed behind. A few years later I went back to Shanghai to work with another bitcoin company, BTCC. This was the same experience of being ignored while others rushed out products that were complete copies, in this case a pure crypto exchange replicating Circle-owned Poloniex. At BTCC there was a cult-like phenomenon where management would apparently go through self-improvement training based on humiliation of the individual within a group setting and consequent encouragement of particular qualities. So I was reluctant to stay and try to get promoted and live in a city drowning in propaganda, and when the government closed bitcoin exchanges it was clearly time for me to leave China. On a personal level, I met some really nice Chinese people before I left, but for the moment I don't want Wechat on my phone and they won't/can't use any other app to stay in touch. Yesterday on a UK domestic flight a little Irish boy beside me spoke to the little Chinese boy sitting in front of them. The little Irish boy was asking him his name and the Chinese boy wouldn't reply. I asked him in Chinese what his name was, and he wouldn't reply. I said to his mum the little boy just wanted to play, and she said her son was playing. I said he was just asking his name and the mother said her kids would play in their own way. I didn't reply, and at the end of the flight she apologised, I said no need, and we exchanged pleasantries and went our separate ways. It's all a bit sad.
In reply to: The Mass Exodus of Foreigners from China
It was a bit strange, it's surreal that so many people play along with it. Less immersion but the average Chinese never seemed particularly happy or healthy and being stuck in a row of 20 people with belligerent power tripping managers never felt like something I would want to experience. I understand this perspective, though I wanted to experience what Chinese are experiencing and work on building products together. I didn't want more money or publicity, so I think there was nothing to keep me. It sounds like you made better decisions.
In reply to: The Mass Exodus of Foreigners from China
It does have similarities to the self-criticism used by different parties including communist parties, it seems to be one part of a wider technique though. The people it produces are quite distinctive, arrogant and brittle in a manner similar to scientologists.
In reply to: The Mass Exodus of Foreigners from China
Yes, they snap very easily and otherwise oscillate between charming and intimidating.
In reply to: Upcoming Black Swan event and game theory
they'll want to use their own coin for control purposes This is the real game theory, you'll know what kind of company they are based on whether they use bitcoin or plough ahead with facebookcoin. Given the trust they need to build to survive, they'd be well advised to start building some now by choosing bitcoin.
In reply to: Metal Scene In China?
This doesn't really get updated any more, still worth a look: http://www.underthewall.org
In reply to: I’m sick two days before me trip to China.
It's very unusual to see warnings like this. I'd strongly recommend you reconsider your trip and try to find another way to get your business done. If it's not a very important trip, I'd cancel immediately. The exit ban suggestion could mean returning may not be possible. https://www.cnbc.com/2019/01/03/us-issues-new-warning-over-china-travel-urging-increased-caution-.html
In reply to: How the Uyghurs Vanished From Daily Life in China
There was a crackdown on shaokao and street food generally in recent years justified by health and safety across tier 1 and tier 2 cities at least. In Shanghai, there were fewer muslim restaurants and the prices went up by around 50% between 2013 and 2017. Commercial property prices may go some way to explaining this as well as food price inflation. The restaurants that did survive were mostly in cheaper areas and generally underwent significant renovation, they had a health and safety classification too. A nice one one on Beijing West Rd and Xinzha Rd survived but changed ownership. The newer owners were also nice but were less obviously Muslim. Close to Changde Rd/Xikang Rd and Beijing West Rd, if I recall correctly, there's a Model Xinjiang restaurant which perhaps gives a view of how their future is envisioned.
In reply to: I’m sick two days before me trip to China.
That sounds to me like something that could be justifiably postponed. You might consider seeking advice from the embassy at your destination as well.
In reply to: I’m sick two days before me trip to China.
Our director also got back and said that the government tends to release these every year around the same time. This is not correct, the exit ban warning is unprecedented.
In reply to: BINANCE: Withdrawal Refuse Alert - Reason:Security Risk
This is the same as the KYC policy implemented in China during the shutdown of the bitcoin exchanges there.
In reply to: Billionaire Soros calls Xi's AI ambitions a "mortal danger" to society
I usually don't quite agree with Soros, he appears to have quite a bit in common with Xi, but in this case he's more or less spot on.
In reply to: Venezuela’s New Interim President is Anti-Petro and Pro-Bitcoin
I hope it's ok if I just post this tweet, I think it's legitimate. These guys are doing important work: We need ₿12.61 BTC ($50k) to hire the devs full-time for 3 months to make the mesh devices a reality. If you donate $1k you will get 3 Turpial nodes, which 'd let you have a mesh in your living room bitcoin:bc1quxkp0kd9w2mgsw82a6uhax0ev5er9javqlk7aj https://twitter.com/btcven/status/1076902433245315072?s=21 https://blockstream.info/address/bc1quxkp0kd9w2mgsw82a6uhax0ev5er9javqlk7aj
In reply to: Chinese unity textbook teach people how to use keygen to pirate unity.
It was standard in all the Chinese tech companies I know of for the pirated applications and keys / serial numbers etc to be stored on company intranet servers to be installed by or for staff according to their permissions. In general they just use the most seeded cracked versions. Given the data, I expect you could compare software sales with job vacancies published for positions that might require them, and the correlation would be ~0.
In reply to: Chinese unity textbook teach people how to use keygen to pirate unity.
You'd think so.
In reply to: Zhao Jian: What’s Not Great About China’s High-Speed Rail? The Debt
How do you know that? Have you been inside one?
In reply to: Interesting thing I just heard on CNN a few minutes ago...
Is this related to this? https://petertodd.org/2017/carbon-dating-the-internet-archive-with-opentimestamps
In reply to: Exposed: China's surveillance of Muslim Uighurs
From the article: Abduweli Ayup, a teacher and writer, spent 15 months in three facilities in Urumqi, the capital of Xinjiang province. On the day of his arrest, he says police officers allegedly took him to a holding cell and raped him. "The first day was very bad," says Ayup. "They stripped me of my clothes, slapped my buttocks and then they abused me ... more than 20 Chinese guys. The next day, police asked me, 'One day, if you guys are in power, what will you do to us?' I said, 'Look, I'm a human being, I'm not an animal like you'." From Engineers of the Soul: Ideology in Xi Jinping's China by John Garnaut: In the view of China’s princelings - or “Revolutionary Successors”, as they prefer to be known - China is still trapped in the cycle which had created and destroyed every dynasty that had gone before. In this tradition, when you lose political power you don’t just lost your job (while keeping your super) as you might in our rather gentrified arrangement. You lose your wealth, you lose your freedom, you probably lose your life and possibly your entire extended family. You are literally erased from history. Winners take all and losers lose everything. With these stakes, the English idiom “life-and-death-struggle” is far too passive. In the Chinese formulation it is “You-Die, I-Live”. https://nb.sinocism.com/p/engineers-of-the-soul-ideology-in
In reply to: Exposed: China's surveillance of Muslim Uighurs
Abduweli Ayup, a teacher and writer, spent 15 months in three facilities in Urumqi, the capital of Xinjiang province. On the day of his arrest, he says police officers allegedly took him to a holding cell and raped him. "The first day was very bad," says Ayup. "They stripped me of my clothes, slapped my buttocks and then they abused me ... more than 20 Chinese guys. The next day, police asked me, 'One day, if you guys are in power, what will you do to us?' I said, 'Look, I'm a human being, I'm not an animal like you'."
In reply to: French 'yellow vests' march through Paris denouncing police violence
Around half of the number of gilets jaunes injured. Gilets jaunes have also suffered ten deaths at the hands of Macron regime forces.
In reply to: If China's currencies didn't have Mao's face everywhere, which cultural/historical figures would you like to see on the bills instead?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ching_Shih
In reply to: Here's what I'm asking
Touché.
In reply to: [Daily Discussion] Monday, February 04, 2019
a serious part of "crypto twitter" that I followed moved to Mastodon Any accounts you could recommend?
In reply to: So are we allowed to ask about the tiananmen square massacre here?
I'd like to hear more about it, from people that were living in Beijing at the time. I never felt comfortable to ask anyone about it when I was living there. 我对这个话题挺感兴趣的，不知道这里会不会有70年80年后网友可以来讨论一下 Edit：老年朋友还欢迎来讨论:)
In reply to: [Daily Discussion] Friday, February 08, 2019
Nicely put, true gentleman.
In reply to: So are we allowed to ask about the tiananmen square massacre here?
Thanks for replying, that's the first time I've heard about those events in terms of someone's close family member. Did your uncle feel betrayed both by the group leader and the military at the same time? I'm from Northern Ireland where we had some violence between government, protestors and private armies, these days we have a lot of support groups for people to talk about what happened. I hope your uncle can talk among family and friends at least.
In reply to: Reddit is experiencing a user uprising against China because Tencent will invest heavily in the platform
I don't think you can say China is bad, maybe China is being held hostage. The Tencent investment is a problem because Tencent has an embedded CCP structure and follows Party orders.
In reply to: Why is everything so cripplingly expensive nowadays?
What does that mean exactly, is it different to other corporations under Canadian law?
In reply to: Why is everything so cripplingly expensive nowadays?
I find it odd that people accept central banks are independent when around the world they adopt the same policies based on the same doctrine, despite all the evidence their interventions are making the problem worse. They are the ones creating the inflation this post is about.
In reply to: Why is everything so cripplingly expensive nowadays?
I understand inflation targeting, thanks, but it's not working and it never has.
In reply to: Hang on, what’s going on with China & Big Tech? – Joe B. – Medium
This is where we get into the true meat of things. Essentially, there’s been an oddly increasing number of incidents related to so-called “problematic content” being stripped from or outright barred from a number of sites. However, when looking into it deeper, there seems to be a simple, central trait shared by all of these incidents; Chinese Investment, or entrance into the Chinese Market. All of this also corresponds to reports that cross-border investment from China is reaching new levels, as there is proof of China actively attempting to move their money overseas. What’s terrifying about this revelation is, as you’ll see, the issue with censorship does not come simply from Chinese companies buying out firms so they can censor them; it comes, sometimes, from companies simply wanting to expand into the Chinese market themselves.
In reply to: Hang on, what’s going on with China & Big Tech? – Joe B. – Medium
This is specifically about censorship based on Party control of private enterprise.
In reply to: Hang on, what’s going on with China & Big Tech? – Joe B. – Medium
Now, to be clear, I am not arguing that banning young looking anime characters (or anime altogether for that matter) is a slippery slope to banning Western values. That is not only a gross misunderstanding of this article, but also a firmly insulting detraction from the issues at hand. Remember that research article linked in the introduction about censorship as a distraction tactic though? I am, then however, arguing that they’re clearly starting with the censorship of niche subcultures they are familiar with; especially if these things are “sexual”. By starting with more agreeable things like this, it’s easier to propagate the terms over time.
In reply to: On Marie Kondo
She's nice, but she's the face of a serious business. There is a network of resellers who charge thousands of US dollars for a short course in her 'method.' These are selecting for idiots, who'll pay the exorbitant fee for basic knowledge you can get in a book for <1% of the price, and the model has all the makings of a pyramid scam.
In reply to: Billionaires who hate Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's 70% tax on the superrich are adamant it will hurt the economy — but history suggests otherwise
One more?
In reply to: Chancellor will not make trade trip to China next week amid fury at Gavin Williamson pledge to send aircraft carrier
What about the concentration camps and total surveillance? https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/resources/idt-sh/China_hidden_camps http://time.com/5526022/turkey-china-concentration-camps-uighurs/
In reply to: Chancellor will not make trade trip to China next week amid fury at Gavin Williamson pledge to send aircraft carrier
The military threat is principally coming from Beijing, in its stated intention to take over Taiwan and use of the One Belt One Road plan to seize critical infrastructure elsewhere overseas. It's not correct to say China isn't susceptible to military threat, but that likely implies world war. Both parties have been woeful in applying pressure of any kind, but Labour continues to express support for Chinese allies like Maduro and his main backer, Diaz-Canel of Cuba: http://www.radiorebelde.cu/english/news/cuban-president-meets-with-leader-of-the-labour-party-20181115/ Maduro is presiding over a famine, China is rapidly building a network of concentration camps and systems of total social control. I don't understand why you want to trade with these regimes at all, let alone on the unfavourable terms they offer.
In reply to: Chancellor will not make trade trip to China next week amid fury at Gavin Williamson pledge to send aircraft carrier
Taking over Taiwan has been threatened for 70 years. It's not happening This is naive in light of the escalated aggression under Xi, particularly since he removed term limits. t's not happening, and any threat that ends in world war isn't happening either because that goes nuclear. It's important to maintain the game-theoretical balance that underpins peace. All that's left is trade and face. It seems more like all you want to talk about is trade. are Western governments really going to protest loudly about Uighur "internment and re-education" when Muslims are hated so much? Hated by whom? Maybe I'm naive, but I thought concentration camps built to hold hundreds of thousands of innocent people, with the obvious possibility they become death camps, were beyond the pale to democracies who recognise basic rights. I didn't think it was "quite important" and that we need to get back to talking trade.
In reply to: Chancellor will not make trade trip to China next week amid fury at Gavin Williamson pledge to send aircraft carrier
Xi Jinping Warns Taiwan That Unification Is the Goal and Force Is an Option https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/01/world/asia/xi-jinping-taiwan-china.html
In reply to: Seen a few Irexit heads popping back up as they tend to do every few weeks now
I'm from Northern Ireland, but if the Irish government had achieved its land grab I'd have certainly voted for Ireland to leave - though I doubt Ireland would have been democratic enough to offer the choice.
In reply to: Seen a few Irexit heads popping back up as they tend to do every few weeks now
If NI had been forced to maintain regulatory and judicial alignment with the EU, that would have created a de facto and increasingly de jure united Ireland, completely undermined Stormont's powers and created a legislative and economic barrier between NI and the rest of the UK. Varadkar chose the most aggressive negotiating posture of all in the belief he had the support of the EU Commission. Now the Commission is under pressure on a number of fronts (notably its support for Iran and China), and has dropped its demand for an all-island EU regime. Some in the EU are going further and threatening to exclude Ireland from the EU trade area altogether, forcing it to actually assume its claim to be sovereign or align itself with the UK. Varadkar should never have attempted to use the UK leaving the EU as an opportunity to gain north-south legislative harmonisation, it's close to an act of war. NI is far too fragile to be dealt with in such an aggressive manner, he deserves everything he's about to experience.
In reply to: Seen a few Irexit heads popping back up as they tend to do every few weeks now
I know that, but I doubt most nationalists in NI dare to think it through, and it doesn't change what Varadkar just attempted. In any case, while the Irish welfare state is run the way it is, and corruption remains so rampant, it won't be long before you turn to the IMF even without NI.
In reply to: Seen a few Irexit heads popping back up as they tend to do every few weeks now
It is unfortunate, it needn't have been this acrimonious.
In reply to: Seen a few Irexit heads popping back up as they tend to do every few weeks now
We took part in a UK referendum, and the result was a leave vote. You can't retrospectively claim different rules should apply; to be ideologically consistent NI republicans shouldn't have taken part in the first place.
In reply to: Seen a few Irexit heads popping back up as they tend to do every few weeks now
If 90%+ of a population polled shares the opinion we should stay in the EU- why would we have an in/ out referendum? This is a highly unusual level of political support for anything, it suggests people have been misled or are misleading themselves. Unlike the UK we have criteria in the constitution for referenda and we have them all of the time. We don’t do dangerously flippant referenda on serious constitutional matters such as EU membership. I was concerned that the frequency of referenda was undermining the stability of your constitution, but to persistently deny a vote on EU membership having granted them on less significant matters would be fundamentally undemocratic. What reasons would you have for leaving the EU? I used to support the EU, I'm of an early Erasmus generation, trilingual and have lived in France for several years. The EU institutions are fundamentally undemocratic, the Commission has been assuming the powers of an executive and implementing terrible policy. The Euro is badly designed and props up economic imbalances between member states. When Deutsche Bank collapses, its future is uncertain. I strongly disagree with the EU approach to digital privacy and the close relationship between the Commission and the Communist Party of China. The manner in which democratic rejections of previous treaty changes in many countries were ignored by the Commission, and the behaviour of the Commission in partnership with the Irish government during these negotiations have all convinced me the project has been irretrievably corrupted and we'd be better off without it. What reasons would Ireland have for leaving the EU in your opinion? Most of these issues apply to Ireland. On top of that, Ireland's status as a tax haven is doomed: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WWkIl3sfwBg It needs a new strategy, one more sustainable than asset bubbles, bankruptcy-level debt, undercutting competition on tax and redistributing it by corruption and a ridiculous welfare system.
In reply to: Seen a few Irexit heads popping back up as they tend to do every few weeks now
The referendum was held on a UK-wide basis and the people in NI who took part did so understanding that. The referendum result being leave, I find it odd that you don't see any controversy in using that as a basis to legislatively harmonise NI into the Republic, especially in the context of an EU Commission increasingly assuming the powers of a national executive without democratic justification or accountability.
In reply to: Seen a few Irexit heads popping back up as they tend to do every few weeks now
No, good effort though.
In reply to: Seen a few Irexit heads popping back up as they tend to do every few weeks now
I don't play those games, sorry. You have no right to assume I support the union or a united Ireland, nor is that relevant. I don't agree with your assessment of the relative strengths of the nations remaining within the EU and the UK, it's based on a false impression that the EU has a strong hand to play when in reality it's in existential crisis on a number of fronts, mostly involving political and fiscal union. As long as it remains within the Eurozone, Ireland will be unable to address its unique economic problems.
In reply to: Seen a few Irexit heads popping back up as they tend to do every few weeks now
This is quite aggressive. I'm using my real-name account to point out actual issues. I don't like the situation either, but it's better to be realistic about it.
In reply to: Uh... my post spontaneously disappeared from ’Hot’ after it amassed over 70 upvotes. It’s a few hours old as of this and it’s not even in the list of ‘New’ posts. Censorship?
Same, tried New, Top, Controversial, Rising and no results. Using old reddit web version.
In reply to: Hard border in Ireland would trigger return to violence, says report | UK news
The report was compiled by Mark Daly, a senator with Ireland’s main opposition party, Fianna Fáil It's absurd to pass this off as an objective study under the auspices of UNESCO, damaging to the UN's credibility. Also disturbing to see a representative of a party created in a split in the IRA threaten violence over Brexit. The IRA has no support any more, any attacks would be outright rejected by the vast majority of NI's population.
In reply to: Hard border in Ireland would trigger return to violence, says report | UK news
Fianna Fáil is Ireland's general centre right party. They're basically light Tories Policy-wise, they're just like the party now in government, which was the other half of that split in the IRA. Fianna Fáil have nothing to do with the IRA being referred to here That's not correct. It's how they were formed and they continued to support their version of the IRA for decades after, and here they are back threatening violence. they've worked with the UK in the past against the IRA That was Sinn Féin's version of the IRA, they don't support them. UNESCO and the UN really shouldn't be associated with this kind of opinion-based political manoeuvring.
In reply to: Hard border in Ireland would trigger return to violence, says report | UK news
It's reasonable that once it had sovereignty the Republic had an army of sorts. FF do have a history highly relevant to this context though, that extends from Ireland's independence to today. https://www.clririshleftarchive.org/document/view/287/ It's fair to point out this is not an objective party to author a report under the auspices of UNESCO, not to mention one threatening violence in this context.
In reply to: Alibaba is the force behind hit Chinese Communist Party app: sources
And now this: https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-usa-china-huawei-tech/huawei-founder-says-will-not-share-data-with-china-cbs-news-idUKKCN1Q81H9?il=0 I don't believe him anyway but it's an interesting shift in tone.
In reply to: Hard border in Ireland would trigger return to violence, says report | UK news
You don't understand this very well either. but are also brazenly warping history to claim that the two biggest political parties in Ireland are basically the IRA. I'm not, because I understand the distinctions very well. But it's funny that nobody can correct me on the exact differences between all these strains of IRA and from where they drew political support. Fianna Fail and Fine Gael are the most tepid centrists you can imagine You say they're both tepid centrists, but that's an odd definition of a party that was created from the IRA, ran Ireland as a theocracy, supported the Lisbon Treaty against the Irish population and supported Varadkar and Juncker's attempt to use Brexit as a pretext to take over NI. When everyone's claiming to be a centrist, there's something wrong in your democracy.
In reply to: Alibaba is the force behind hit Chinese Communist Party app: sources
Said in another article every Party member has to download it and then build up points to keep a good score. It's the gamification of totalitarianism.
In reply to: Auto Loans Are Not the Next Subprime
These are generally referred to as asset-backed securities, and there are related bonds in car finance companies. Central banks have been investing in the latter.
In reply to: Hard border in Ireland would trigger return to violence, says report | UK news
Fianna Fail comes from what was probably the bulk of the IRA breaking away because they saw the treaty as a betrayal. They lost the civil war and the bulk of their leadership reconciled with the state enough to become one of the two biggest parties. Yes. FF were born of their rejection of NI as a political entity and support of violence to reject it. Now one of their senior Party members is threatening violence if their path to a united Ireland is thwarted. Both Fianna Fail and Fine Gael descend from the IRA of the 1920's that fought in the War of Independence. This is generally not what British people are thinking of when they think of the IRA As you mention, FF was already fighting a war against the Irish state and the British, supported by the Catholic Church. People might be confused about the relationship between FF and SF, the IRA and the Provisional IRA and the New IRA, and that's for good reason. The boundaries have never been clear. Both parties, despite being born of civil war division, basically just became the two centrist parties with centrist policies A tax haven with the highest welfare costs in Europe and one of its biggest asset bubbles is not a normal state implementing 'centrist' policy. The IRA that British people are familiar with is not the IRA of the Irish Revolutionary period, but what's called the Provisional IRA, or PIRA. I know all this, but you're deliberately choosing to pretend there was never a relationship between the Provisional IRA and the Irish state under both FF and FG, when life just isn't that simple. This is all publically available information. You chose to be ignorant and chose to talk about something where you may as well be a slow child. I chose not to spell things out to people pretending to speak with authority on a subject they know little to nothing about. Ireland has always had an enormous government compared to its private sector, never had a major classically liberal party. It was created as a socialist republic, and was ruled as a socialist nation under Catholic doctrine until it became part of the EU project. FF have been a major part of all three elements of those identities: socialism, Catholicism and republicanism. That means they aren't an objective party to write on NI for UNESCO, and they shouldn't use it as an opportunity to threaten violence. Let me show you another example of Irish political communication. The last time this subject was raised was just a month or two ago by Leo Varadkar, in a speech delivered the day after the IRA successfully detonated a bomb in Derry. The threat must have felt very tangible, I'm sure the timing was just coincidental.
In reply to: Alibaba is the force behind hit Chinese Communist Party app: sources
Maybe this is a web version: http://www.zjtxdj.com/ 学习积分！
In reply to: Radio 4 Today: Gavin Williamson Tory Defence Secretary deploying warships and an aircraft carrier to ‘sort out’ China. Phillip Hammond “I’m a bit disappointed in how China has reacted” John H “how did you expect them to react?”
So does r/ukpolitics think the Communist Party of China should be allowed to threaten military takeover of Taiwan unimpeded? Tsai said the military threat posed by China was growing "every day" in line with a more assertive foreign policy under its President Xi Jinping. "If it's Taiwan today, people should ask who's next? Any country in the region -- if it no longer wants to submit to the will of China, they would face similar military threats," said Tsai. https://edition.cnn.com/2019/02/19/asia/tsai-ing-wen-china-us-interview-intl/index.html
In reply to: Radio 4 Today: Gavin Williamson Tory Defence Secretary deploying warships and an aircraft carrier to ‘sort out’ China. Phillip Hammond “I’m a bit disappointed in how China has reacted” John H “how did you expect them to react?”
That's a strange justification for a military invasion by a regime using concentration camps in the twenty-first century. Is this Labour policy, Conservative policy or are you just speaking in a personal capacity?
In reply to: Radio 4 Today: Gavin Williamson Tory Defence Secretary deploying warships and an aircraft carrier to ‘sort out’ China. Phillip Hammond “I’m a bit disappointed in how China has reacted” John H “how did you expect them to react?”
Worth adding the PLA belongs to the Communist Party of China, not the state.
In reply to: Radio 4 Today: Gavin Williamson Tory Defence Secretary deploying warships and an aircraft carrier to ‘sort out’ China. Phillip Hammond “I’m a bit disappointed in how China has reacted” John H “how did you expect them to react?”
This makes no sense.
In reply to: Radio 4 Today: Gavin Williamson Tory Defence Secretary deploying warships and an aircraft carrier to ‘sort out’ China. Phillip Hammond “I’m a bit disappointed in how China has reacted” John H “how did you expect them to react?”
What does it have to do with us? Xi's ambitions don't stop at Taiwan, as evidenced by his One Belt One Road plan. How are we going to prevent it? Playing an active role in supporting China's suspension from the UN and WTO. Even if we could ship our entire armed forces to the other side of the planet, how do we keep them supplied? Fortunately, the principle of freedom of international waters is reasonably intact, despite the building of artificial military islands in the South China Sea. To even suggest that we could prevent an invasian is madness, to suggest that we should is ridiculous. I think it's ethically and economically in our interests. Ethically because I personally don't support arbitrary detention in concentration camps, and economically because I don't think communism is good business.
In reply to: Radio 4 Today: Gavin Williamson Tory Defence Secretary deploying warships and an aircraft carrier to ‘sort out’ China. Phillip Hammond “I’m a bit disappointed in how China has reacted” John H “how did you expect them to react?”
I'm not suggesting that at all.
In reply to: Radio 4 Today: Gavin Williamson Tory Defence Secretary deploying warships and an aircraft carrier to ‘sort out’ China. Phillip Hammond “I’m a bit disappointed in how China has reacted” John H “how did you expect them to react?”
I guess you can take that prick Williamson seriously if you want I'm taking the issue of a military invasion of a democracy by the Communist Party of China seriously. I haven't made any comment on his response, though I do support maintaining a game-theoretical balance of forces in the interests of peace. see if sending British aircraft carrier survives standing up to Chinese army that could sink it with sheer weight of their soldiers dead bodies Why do people point so quickly to the indiscriminate killing of Chinese people as something normal to be expected? I understand it being wielded as a threat by Mao Zedong, but not used as a justification for trade as normal with a totalitarian regime. Other than that can you explain what strong wording of British minister can achieve patronising country that does not care WTF Britain thinks about them ? The issue of China's speaking rights at the WTO has already been raised by the UK, EU, Japan and the US, and that seems like a move in the right direction.
In reply to: Radio 4 Today: Gavin Williamson Tory Defence Secretary deploying warships and an aircraft carrier to ‘sort out’ China. Phillip Hammond “I’m a bit disappointed in how China has reacted” John H “how did you expect them to react?”
I'm not an expert, but I think the general strategy outlined in the speech that someone posted above looks reasonable, though obviously the situation is changing rapidly.
In reply to: Radio 4 Today: Gavin Williamson Tory Defence Secretary deploying warships and an aircraft carrier to ‘sort out’ China. Phillip Hammond “I’m a bit disappointed in how China has reacted” John H “how did you expect them to react?”
There's some tension at the moment between member states willing to speak out against China's concentration camps, total surveillance and military aggression, and the EU Commission, which remains closely aligned with the Communist Party of China. But let's stick to the topic at hand.
In reply to: Radio 4 Today: Gavin Williamson Tory Defence Secretary deploying warships and an aircraft carrier to ‘sort out’ China. Phillip Hammond “I’m a bit disappointed in how China has reacted” John H “how did you expect them to react?”
Perhaps I misinterpreted then, but there certainly does seem to be a lot of justification for it around these days.
In reply to: A $3 trillion tsunami is about to flood the stock market warns fund manager.
Who'll buy the debt?
In reply to: Syria White Helmets members rehomed in UK
This is disturbing after the report by the BBC Syria produce, Riam Dalati, found that the white helmets were involved in staging the 'gas attack' that led to the UK, France and the US bombing Syria. I'd link to his tweets but his account has been closed to public view.
In reply to: Radio 4 Today: Gavin Williamson Tory Defence Secretary deploying warships and an aircraft carrier to ‘sort out’ China. Phillip Hammond “I’m a bit disappointed in how China has reacted” John H “how did you expect them to react?”
You should at least make sure you always have a working vpn (you need to set up a few before you leave on all your devices) and enough money for an emergency return ticket.
In reply to: Syria White Helmets members rehomed in UK
Thanks. That website looks a bit dodgy but it did have a link to the archive: https://web.archive.org/web/20190214082919/https:/twitter.com/Dalatrm That includes the tweet I saw: After almost 6 months of investigations, i can prove without a doubt that the #Douma Hospital scene was staged. No fatalities occurred in the hospital. All the #WH, activists and people i spoke to are either in #Idlib or #EuphratesShield areas. Only one person was in #Damascus.
In reply to: Radio 4 Today: Gavin Williamson Tory Defence Secretary deploying warships and an aircraft carrier to ‘sort out’ China. Phillip Hammond “I’m a bit disappointed in how China has reacted” John H “how did you expect them to react?”
Regarding justification, it can't be denied that the Chinese government gets up to some fairly dodgy practices. I'm glad you acknowledge that, most comments here suggest it's more important to circlejerk. However, the logical progresssion that this can and should be responded to with demonstrations of force and creating encroaching military bases is not valid, because it won't achieve the stated aim. This isn't actually a valid logical assertion, for a few reasons. - The response is mainly at UN and the WTO levels; - Nobody is creating encroaching military bases except China; - The antecedent doesn't imply the consequent. Think of every "rogue state" this has been tried on; it either achieves nothing at all or leads to a (usually bungled) war. Again, you have a misguided focus on military response when in reality the diplomatic response is more important.
In reply to: Elon Musk on Twitter: "I still only own 0.25 BTC, which a friend sent me several years ago."
I also got a gift of 0.25 BTC a few years ago from some kind strangers. Bought a vpn subscription, traded a little, mostly still hodling it with a greenaddress wallet. Thanks again.
In reply to: Radio 4 Today: Gavin Williamson Tory Defence Secretary deploying warships and an aircraft carrier to ‘sort out’ China. Phillip Hammond “I’m a bit disappointed in how China has reacted” John H “how did you expect them to react?”
It's a bit disingenuous to point out all the things the US is doing you don't like, without reference to the context and which regimes are influential in each country. If you want to go through them all, we'd need a separate thread. To say the diplomatic response doesn't work and the military balance that underpins global peace doesn't need to be protected seems to me like you're not in good faith and not engaging with the actual problem, just making excuses for what you perceive to be the status quo or some party policy.
In reply to: Radio 4 Today: Gavin Williamson Tory Defence Secretary deploying warships and an aircraft carrier to ‘sort out’ China. Phillip Hammond “I’m a bit disappointed in how China has reacted” John H “how did you expect them to react?”
This is just too oversimplified and inaccurate, the scope of your topic is too big and you're not arguing in good faith.
In reply to: GCHQ setup a special office to check Huawei products for malicious code. It's staffed almost entirely by Huawei employees
So GCHQ is actually a threat to national security?
In reply to: GCHQ setup a special office to check Huawei products for malicious code. It's staffed almost entirely by Huawei employees
You think GCHQ wasn't aware? I've been aware, and sceptical, of the claims that this office is like a magic bullet that solves all Huawei problems for a few years now, and experienced first-hand the total surveillance in China, fortunately not the concentration camps. I wasn't expecting this degree of collaboration, takes time to come to terms with.
In reply to: GCHQ setup a special office to check Huawei products for malicious code. It's staffed almost entirely by Huawei employees
This office has been known about for a long time. The People's Liberation Army belongs to the Communist Party of China, and Huawei is a PLA spinoff. It's all the Chinese regime, and at this point it's very clear we should not be working with them as normal, and not building authoritarian systems on their hardware and/or software. Edit: The US is refusing to continue sharing intelligence with the UK if they continue this collaboration: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-huawei-tech-usa-pompeo-idUSKCN1QA1O6 The BBC seems to think a police parking query is more important.
In reply to: GCHQ setup a special office to check Huawei products for malicious code. It's staffed almost entirely by Huawei employees
You're ok with the totalitarianism and the concentration camps?
In reply to: GCHQ setup a special office to check Huawei products for malicious code. It's staffed almost entirely by Huawei employees
Just a few bugs that slipped through. https://www.thebeaverton.com/2019/01/canadas-ambassador-to-china-john-mccallum-takes-second-job-as-lawyer-to-huawei-cfo-meng-wanzhou/
In reply to: Chinese wages
星巴克的工资单都是密封的 由店长交到每个人手上自己拆开看自己上个月工资 我当时也没问过全职员工的工资感觉怪不好意思的 而且这也涉及一些公司隐私之类的问题 据我了解全职员工比兼职的多了底薪 工时也是一样算12一小时 现在好像涨到13了 有五险一金 早班和晚班有补贴 不过不多 没有食补 有的员工自己带饭拿微波炉里热我一般都叫外卖 休息时间不定 看店长安排 如果你下周哪天有事必须提前和店长说好那天不要排你班 做五休二 大学毕业要从储备见习经理做起 然后慢慢往上升见习经理 店长 区域经理等等 全职的大概是这样 可能还有一些别的福利我就不是很清楚了 最简单的办法就是直接给门店打电话咨询ps：可以悄悄透露下我们店长工资一般5K左右 杭州星巴克 这也是听同事聊天知道的 希望可以帮到你 作者：郭强 链接：https://www.zhihu.com/question/22603984/answer/21961785 来源：知乎 Starbucks salaries are kept sealed. The store manager hands each staff member who tears it open to see last month's salary. At that time I didn't ask the full-time staff about their salaries, felt too embarrassed. Also this touches on company confidentiality, that kind of issue. As I understood it full-time staff had a higher base pay than casual staff. Working times are the same, 12 hours. Apparently now it's gone up to 13. There's insurance. There's a supplement for morning and evening shifts. Some staff bring their own food and heat up in the microwave, I normally get takeaway. Breaks aren't fixed, you can see with your store manager. If you have something on the next week, you need to raise it in advance with your manager and tell them not to put you on that day. 5 days on, 2 days off. Graduates have to pass a probation period to get started, then you can slowly work in the direction of a promotion to manager, area manager etc. The whole company is more or less like that. There might be a few other benefits, I'm not really sure. The best way is just to give them a call. I can reveal the store manager earned around 5k. Hangzhou Starbucks. I heard that from colleagues. I hope that helps. This site says the average was around 3000, which is what I'd heard: https://www.kanzhun.com/gsx8853.html I understand Starbucks paid a bit better than the average service job, you can see there it's considered ok for a graduate if not great.
In reply to: GCHQ setup a special office to check Huawei products for malicious code. It's staffed almost entirely by Huawei employees
claiming that these people are Huawei employees is deeply misleading. Huawei pays for everyone, but has no control over what they do I'm having some trouble with this logic. If I pay someone for work, I'd consider them my employee. I consider the person who pays me for work to be my boss. Are Huawei just donating to charity here?
In reply to: GCHQ setup a special office to check Huawei products for malicious code. It's staffed almost entirely by Huawei employees
Huawei pays for this team in exchange for the UK government not banning them. Very interesting arrangement.
In reply to: GCHQ setup a special office to check Huawei products for malicious code. It's staffed almost entirely by Huawei employees
Of course, I can't imagine any other outcome. "Something naughty on railway property" seems like an accurate analogy too.
In reply to: GCHQ setup a special office to check Huawei products for malicious code. It's staffed almost entirely by Huawei employees
You'll have to forgive me if I'm a lot more sceptical than you. I'd worry this scheme might have been primarily intended to allow the 'partnership' to continue, regardless of the underlying risks.
In reply to: GCHQ setup a special office to check Huawei products for malicious code. It's staffed almost entirely by Huawei employees
Surprising amount out there these days, doesn't look great I must say.
In reply to: Chinese wages
That seems like a lot, you can get a graduate software developer for 5-6k.
In reply to: Chinese wages
Just with a quick search: https://bbs.aliyun.com/detail/473932.html https://www.zhihu.com/question/39100557 You might be a top end of the spectrum.
In reply to: #Panodrama LIVE
This is a live screening of a documentary on the BBC's Panorama, by Tommy Robinson and Lucy Brown. There are events happening elsewhere around the country. I don't agree with Tommy Robinson on everything, but it looks like he's worked hard and well on this. That stream finished but there are a few on periscope: https://www.periscope.tv/search?q=panodrama
In reply to: #Panodrama LIVE
I'm going to watch and find out, there have been a few trailers you can find with the hashtag but it's too early to say really.
In reply to: Chinese wages
五险一金 is a bit vague but I'm fairly sure they don't, and I've never heard of other fast food companies doing that either to be honest.
In reply to: #Panodrama LIVE
This is getting really good. Edit: this is extremely serious evidence of crime and corruption at the highest levels of media and the state. Tommy Robinson deserves nothing but respect for this work.
In reply to: #Panodrama LIVE
Quite the opposite.
In reply to: #Panodrama LIVE
No, but you can do your own research and make your own mind up.
In reply to: #Panodrama LIVE
It's better I point out to you where to look and leave it at that.
In reply to: #Panodrama LIVE
Watch the videos, read the BBC's article, then read up on anything else you think might be relevant, then start to make your own decisions. If you really can't do this stuff, ask nicely and people will help you learn.
In reply to: Tommy Robinson in BBC Panorama protest
Could you tell me if this post is visible when you look at r/unitedkingdom sorted by new? https://www.reddit.com/r/unitedkingdom/comments/atvrrb/panodrama_live/
In reply to: #Panodrama LIVE
I didn't comment before I watched the stream because I didn't know what they were going to broadcast. I didn't make a summary afterwards because I think a tl;dr isn't helpful in this case, and I think you're not engaging with me in good faith.
In reply to: Tommy Robinson in BBC Panorama protest
Thank you, I was sure they'd hidden it.
In reply to: Tommy Robinson in BBC Panorama protest
I think we're good here, cheers. If you're curious you can see two posts were removed: https://www.reddit.com/r/ShadowBan/comments/aty8ns/_/ The r/ukpolitics maybe auto-modded. The r/unitedkingdom one was removed manually when they'd had enough insulting me.
In reply to: Tommy Robinson in BBC Panorama protest
That's not correct, see the link above, or below.
In reply to: Tommy Robinson in BBC Panorama protest
Nice one, I'll bookmark that. I'd reply quicker but I'm also rate-limited.
In reply to: Tommy Robinson in BBC Panorama protest
Very revealing, thanks. If you have any more wisdom to share, do feel free.
In reply to: #Panodrama LIVE
Very clever. If you look on the thread on this topic that hasn't been deleted, you'll see of the level of debate when someone provided some details.
In reply to: #Panodrama LIVE
Well everything after the no in your comment was irrelevant. No, you just haven't worked out yet why it was relevant. And then you had the cheek elsewhere to say "If you really can't do this stuff, ask nicely and people will help you learn". Nor have you worked out why this was actually a generous response.
In reply to: #Panodrama LIVE
None of it was interesting, it was hearsay, anecdotal evidence. Either you watched it and really didn't grasp the significance, or perhaps you just haven't watched it.
In reply to: #Panodrama LIVE
I'm not here to spoon-feed you. Watch the documentary, read up on what seems relevant, come back with a considered opinion and then I'll respond.
In reply to: #Panodrama LIVE
That's disappointing.
In reply to: #Panodrama LIVE
I'm quite ready to discuss it in detail, but you need to come prepared with an informed opinion you reached yourself.
In reply to: Tommy Robinson in BBC Panorama protest
Can you elaborate on this, I don't see how it's relevant. Are you saying Tommy Robinson is a nazi?
In reply to: Tommy Robinson in BBC Panorama protest
An example of this would be saying Nazis were evil. Then I thought oh maybe Tommy Robinson is someone who wouldn't agree with that statement. So, to be clear, you are saying you think Tommy Robinson is a nazi? Why would you think that?
In reply to: Tommy Robinson in BBC Panorama protest
You seem a little hesitant, I'll let you get on with collecting your thoughts.
In reply to: Tommy Robinson in BBC Panorama protest
That's disappointing.
In reply to: Tommy Robinson in BBC Panorama protest
This is very interesting: https://archive.fo/nuSpq New twitter accounts appearing direct tweeting musicians to ask them to use takedown notices to stop the spread of this video. These are the same techniques that have been used elsewhere. The whole 'anti-fascist' movement is very reminiscent of the Chinese who for one reason or another ended up becoming red guards: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Guards For example, from that wiki: On August 22, 1966, a central directive was issued to stop police intervention in Red Guard activities.[20] And two days ago in Portland: At the public townhall event in Portland, activists are launching diatribes against police, accusing them (falsely) of being collaborators with right-wing extremists. They are calling for resignations. When they dislike a speaker, they hiss. https://twitter.com/MrAndyNgo/status/1098772149131571200
In reply to: Can you tell me if this post has been hidden on r/unitedkingdom, especially under new?
It was removed, no explanation why though. https://www.reddit.com/r/ShadowBan/comments/aty8ns/_/
In reply to: Who remembers the sparticle mystery?
God I loved it because it felt like such a grown up show but looking back it was just complete bollocks/cringe. I think they call it gaslighting these days. It's normal to get taken in by special effects, nothing to be ashamed of.
In reply to: Tommy Robinson in BBC Panorama protest
That refers to communications around protests between the police and protestors from the extreme right and extreme left. The extreme left claim police should only liaise with them. This is like the red guards who, always defining their own point of view as normal, considered everything else beyond the pale. That's what Ngo is referring to, and explains in more detail elsewhere.
In reply to: Tommy Robinson in BBC Panorama protest
Quite the opposite, since they were implying it, I wanted them to commit openly to it and then defend it, because I don't think it's a defensible position. I think at a certain age, they often believe it because they were raised to believe evil comes in a nazi uniform with an extreme-right ideology, and they lack the perception to understand their little role in a greater system with the potential to be equally totalitarian. They read too much Harry Potter and not enough Hannah Arendt. In the UK, there is currently a tiny extreme right, which is nothing to do with Tommy Robinson but which is used as a pretext for all kinds of repression, and a large extreme left we're apparently not allowed to acknowledge or discuss. When your Marxist Shadow Chancellor is talking about nationalisation of all land, it's time to drop the guard and admit your ideology is extreme.
In reply to: China suddenly takes BBC news off air after Muslim detention camps mentioned
Al Jazeera spoke to more than a dozen former detainees. Many confirm they either witnessed or were themselves tortured and abused in these centres. Abduweli Ayup, a teacher and writer, spent 15 months in three facilities in Urumqi, the capital of Xinjiang province. On the day of his arrest, he says police officers allegedly took him to a holding cell and raped him. "The first day was very bad," says Ayup. "They stripped me of my clothes, slapped my buttocks and then they abused me ... more than 20 Chinese guys. The next day, police asked me, 'One day, if you guys are in power, what will you do to us?' I said, 'Look, I'm a human being, I'm not an animal like you'." https://www.aljazeera.com/blogs/asia/2019/01/exposed-china-surveillance-muslim-uighurs-190130011449217.html These are concentration camps, and we have no way of knowing how many deaths have occurred inside them.
In reply to: Tommy Robinson in BBC Panorama protest
You are believing things you read without questioning them, because they confirm your perspective. But Tommy Robinson actually stood up to the extreme right when they infiltrated his young EDL movement, burning a Nazi flag to make his position clear. That didn't work so he left. There are a lot of people who have a problem with the levels of immigration we have experienced, a very small number of them also have an extreme right ideology. Tommy Robinson is not one of them. You should at least watch his Oxford Union address before you give a view on the internet.
In reply to: Tommy Robinson in BBC Panorama protest
This should quantitatively and qualitatively compare the extent and nature communications between both sides and other forms of protestor to identify differing treatment, but it doesn't, so it tells us nothing. This is a movement that's calling for the police not to interfere with extreme-left violence, that's eerily reminiscent of the red guards. I know you think I'm a right-wing idiot here to attack you, but actually my first job was as a policy officer for a social democrat party, I'm not speaking from any extremist position. I can see how extreme the ideology that's being passed off as normal is becoming - there are people making excuses for concentration camps - and I think it's part of a wider problem the left needs to openly address.
In reply to: Tommy Robinson in BBC Panorama protest
Perhaps I misinterpreted your previous comment, sorry if I did.
In reply to: China suddenly takes BBC news off air after Muslim detention camps mentioned
I try to take everything with a pinch of salt, but there's a clear picture now of an expanding network of concentration camps in Xinjiang, and the measures that preceded their construction are being rolled out in other provinces. The surveillance is total across the country now, coercive government is routine and the space for individual freedom has been reduced to very close to zero. No media has covered this until absolutely forced to do so. Qatar was slow because it's a net exporter to China. The UK has been dire because we're more financially exposed to China than any other nation and our university bubble depends on Chinese students. China operates through financial dependency and the EU and UK are addicted to debt.
In reply to: China suddenly takes BBC news off air after Muslim detention camps mentioned
This is a technique specific to areas currently being targeted, but obviously no area is exempt from targeting: In an echo of the Cultural Revolution practice of “sending down” city dwellers to the countryside, Chinese officials and intellectuals, mainly Han, have since 2014 been dispatched to live for certain periods in the homes of Uighur families. During a campaign named “Ethnicity Unity ‘Becoming Family Week’” in December 2017, a million C.C.P. cadres moved in to live, eat, and work with Uighurs. In these repeated stays, the Han officials are meant to teach Chinese to Uighur “little brothers” and “little sisters,” instruct them in Xi Jinping Thought, and sing the Chinese national anthem, while helping out around the house. http://www.chinafile.com/library/nyrb-china-archive/reeducating-xinjiangs-muslims
In reply to: China suddenly takes BBC news off air after Muslim detention camps mentioned
Exactly, just like they censored my Panodrama thread yesterday, presumably because I'm some kind of nazi. https://www.reddit.com/r/unitedkingdom/comments/atvrrb/panodrama_live/
In reply to: China suddenly takes BBC news off air after Muslim detention camps mentioned
Specifically, what is bullshit though, and why is it ok to use the same techniques of censorship practised by the CCP on a website created by Aaron Swartz?
In reply to: China suddenly takes BBC news off air after Muslim detention camps mentioned
The thread was first brigaded with downvotes, and eventually removed by the moderators. It's the same censorship that's creeping across all social media platforms. I'll reply to u/cal_smith in the same post because I'm still rate-limited. You said yourself, you’d not watched it at the time of posting. Plus it’s defending known racists, or at least someone i definitely do not agree with politically. It was not defending known racists. Stop trying to smear me by association, There is no good reason for it to be censored.
In reply to: China suddenly takes BBC news off air after Muslim detention camps mentioned
What neither you nor any of those have understood is very simple: I was reserving judgement on the documentary until I had seen it I won't engage much with someone who isn't engaging in good faith The reasons for the downvoting was the mention of the name Tommy Robinson. In China, you can justify arbitrary injustice by invoking the threat of Islam. In the UK, you can do so by alluding to insinuations that someone is associated with a racist. And then you censor.
In reply to: Is Winnie the Pooh really banned in china?
Your mistake is to assume a law passed by legislators is the basis of consequent enforcement action. With regard to censorship, it's much more complicated to understand what is removed with highest priority, but none of it is based on rule of law.
In reply to: China suddenly takes BBC news off air after Muslim detention camps mentioned
Rectify your thoughts, harmonise with r/unitedkingdom society, refrain from reactionary ideas.
In reply to: China suddenly takes BBC news off air after Muslim detention camps mentioned
This is what we call whataboutism in NI. The internment in Ireland were anyone suspected of being a republican was imprisoned without trial. There was internment without trial, which was wrong. It was not applied on the scale you suggest, and certainly nowhere close to the levels currently being used in China. This still goes on today in maghaberry. Tony taylor is one well known case. There are currently no examples of arbitrary detention in NI. The man you are talking about was returned to prison for very good reason: However, the Northern Ireland Office said his licence was revoked by the Parole Commission because of the risk he posed to the public. Taylor was sentenced to 18 years in prison in 1994 after he was seriously injured in a premature explosion in Derry [Taylor blew himself up instead of innocent civilians]. The Provisional IRA inmate was released under the terms of the Good Friday Agreement. In 2011, he was then sentenced to three years behind bars for possession of a rifle in a case that made history by using covert surveillance evidence gathered by a drone. http://www.irishnews.com/news/2016/03/12/news/leading-republican-tony-taylor-returned-to-prison-after-licence-revoked-447862/ You're now defending a convicted violent, ideological criminal to try to deflect attention from China's use of concentration camps.
In reply to: China suddenly takes BBC news off air after Muslim detention camps mentioned
Yaxley Lennon is scum who brainwashes morons. Why would anyone ever watch one of his videos without a good reason? You obviously still haven't grasped the value of doing your own research and making your own mind up, and you're blissfully unaware of the irony dripping from every word you just wrote. You should watch it because a significant number of people in this country find him compelling, honest and brave, and you are no more intelligent or competent than they are, so you might learn something.
In reply to: What is Labour's position on the Chinese government's use of concentration camps in Xinjiang?
Does nobody in your party know? Do none of you care? That's a step up from the overt derision last time I asked the question. I'm glad the media spotlight is forcing you to shift positions, but I still don't understand why I would need to write an email to find out what the opposition's policy is on Beijing's use of concentration camps, months after they became public knowledge.
In reply to: #Panodrama LIVE
It's subject to a lawfare attack by Hope Not Hate at the moment, so the publication has been delayed until 6pm. You can watch the live broadcasts from yesterday by searching the hashtag.
In reply to: China suddenly takes BBC news off air after Muslim detention camps mentioned
I hope those upvotes were worth the suffering you just caused. This comment and its popularity do not reflect well on the dominant ideology around here.
In reply to: What is Labour's position on the Chinese government's use of concentration camps in Xinjiang?
This sub is not an official Labour sub. Well it's doing its best to pass itself off as one, and the Labour Party clearly hasn't intervened to stop you using its branding and messaging. I personally am not aware of Corbyn making any kind of statement on it and I don't think Labour have an official position on it either. This is nauseating. That is not to say Labour doesn't care, just that I don't know. I'll draw my own conclusions. Well it seems the position is not widely known. In the current media climate that is entirely unsurprising. The situation is very clear. What's not known is Labour policy, presumably because of your alignment with Venezuela, Iran and China. What I do know is Corbyn has campaigned his entire life against this sort of thing That's controversial, I would say the reverse based on the available evidence. If it is important to you then you might like to get in touch with the party and find out using this policy contact form. Can I politely decline and recommend you come up with a reasonable policy before we find out they're using death camps.
In reply to: What is Labour's position on the Chinese government's use of concentration camps in Xinjiang?
This is a regurgitated briefing, your party has done as little as humanly possible to raise awareness of the issue without losing votes.
In reply to: What is Labour's position on the Chinese government's use of concentration camps in Xinjiang?
Thank you.
In reply to: China suddenly takes BBC news off air after Muslim detention camps mentioned
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/resources/idt-sh/China_hidden_camps
In reply to: What is Labour's position on the Chinese government's use of concentration camps in Xinjiang?
While you're trying to create the facade of a party that cares about this issue over here, your colleagues are bombarding me with hate messages on other subreddits, so forgive me if I remain sceptical. I'm asking what the opposition party's policy is on the use of concentration camps by the world's second biggest economy. Last time I asked here, I was mocked for doing so. This policy is not something you should offer conditionally on my begging politely.
In reply to: What is Labour's position on the Chinese government's use of concentration camps in Xinjiang?
I care a lot more than any of you, apparently.
In reply to: China suddenly takes BBC news off air after Muslim detention camps mentioned
Perhaps your support for Stalin is clouding your judgement: https://archive.fo/YZCnl I understand the limits of your understanding of NI politics, which are also leading you to false conclusions. A reason which was not revealed in court or able to be challenged. Internment without trial. The reason was provided, I included it above. The mechanism for early release under the Good Friday/Belfast Agreement involved conditions for revocation of licences under strict conditions, which were met in this case. The most relevant trial was carried out after Taylor's failed bombing of civilians in 1994, and another hearing compliant with the Agreement led to Taylor's return to prison, where he enjoys rights denied to those arbitrarily held in concentration camps in China. You can call the people in the chinese camps convicted violent ideological criminals, it doesn't make it any more true. Why would I do that, they're completely innocent. And you accuse me of "whataboutism", a word used to make my argument seem wrong without a hint of reasoning, when just the same could be applied to you. No, it refers to your deflection of criticism, whereas I engaged with your NI-based deflections. You're the one saying that british crimes aren't bad This is dishonest and untrue. You also say British human rights abuses are fine This too. The only difference is that yours are genuine tu quoque fallacy. This is a concept quite unrelated to what we were discussing, but in any case I have only engaged with your arguments.
In reply to: What is Labour's position on the Chinese government's use of concentration camps in Xinjiang?
I see, only people who submit to your online attack dogs deserve to be told the policy on the concentration camps. Can’t really comment on the motivations of other posters on other subs though, so that’s more of a guess. The hordes are all regurgitating Labour messages, it's hardly a coincidence. Might be worth trying to be less confrontational. Or even just make an effort to read the entirely reasonable responses you got here even though you were being incredibly rude. Your judgement and focus on the suitability of my tone, while gratefully appreciated, is less important than your policy on concentration camps in China.
In reply to: China suddenly takes BBC news off air after Muslim detention camps mentioned
I don't think I'm the ignorant one here, but if you can explain what you think I've missed, we'll see.
In reply to: What is Labour's position on the Chinese government's use of concentration camps in Xinjiang?
a comprehensive explanation of why this isn’t an official labour policy forum We are a subreddit run by Labour party members and do not have an official association with the party. I don't appreciate your splitting hairs when this is clearly the Labour Party's most identifiable presence on reddit. directions to the exact place to get your question definitively answered No, that's one member of the Labour Party regurgitating a briefing note, without any endorsement. some references to the actual relevant spokesperson for the issue speaking on it. That was the same, solitary mention anyone could dig up. None of those responses were good enough for you and instead you choose to be aggressive and accusatory to the people that tried to help. I still don't know what Labour policy is on China's use of concentration camps. If you’re not going to show any good faith, then people will simply get sick of you and tell you to piss off. Perhaps the response began as overly defensive, dissolved into overt aggression with me being told to "fuck off" and "piss off" by a number of your gracious members. Maybe I made a reasonable request, nobody here had given the issue a second thought and nobody is willing to admit that. Maybe it's a delicate question because of the socialist alignment with Venezuela, Iran and China. In any case, I'm still waiting on an answer.
In reply to: China suddenly takes BBC news off air after Muslim detention camps mentioned
The Yaxley Lennon who has been convicted of fraud and tried to travel internationally on someone else's passport? I know you've been well briefed on his criminal record, there are some interesting stories behind both if you care to look. But neither take away from his bravery and honesty in raising the issue of widespread child rape and the failure, at best, of state institutions to address that crime over a period of years. Nope, I'm still smarter than somebody who supports SYL. You're clearly quite convinced of that, based on what you've been told I assume.
In reply to: What is Labour's position on the Chinese government's use of concentration camps in Xinjiang?
I said identifiable, not visible. This is r/labour after all, despite these strange claims that it has nothing to do with Labour.
In reply to: What is Labour's position on the Chinese government's use of concentration camps in Xinjiang?
I see this is all a joke then, nothing serious about it whatsoever.
In reply to: What is Labour's position on the Chinese government's use of concentration camps in Xinjiang?
What is Labour's position on the Chinese government's use of concentration camps in Xinjiang?
In reply to: What is Labour's position on the Chinese government's use of concentration camps in Xinjiang?
Thank you, I've made a note for future reference. https://archive.fo/piEG8 https://archive.fo/NhRW5
In reply to: China suddenly takes BBC news off air after Muslim detention camps mentioned
I'm glad you've done some research. Yes, I think that its pretty interesting that he knew he was banned from the USA but decided to try and use someone elses passport to try and get in. You're still missing half that story, keep trying. Like when he stood outside the court where rapists were on trial and tried to claim the authorities weren't doing anything about it. Or when he tried to fit up a refugee kid who had been racially attacked. Or when he went after a rape crisis centre because they offered services to non English speakers. Or when he went to jail for attacking a copper who tried to stop him beating up his girlfreind. I'm familiar with all these accusations, none are convincing especially as you've exaggerated them for effect. Each one has been refuted already, and you could have found the refutations just as easily had you looked. All very honest, very brave. I'll continue to believe that taking a stand against the rape of children is honest and brave, and that censorship of opposing ideas is wrong.
In reply to: China suddenly takes BBC news off air after Muslim detention camps mentioned
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wNd2bvLvyk4
In reply to: #Panodrama - An Exposé of the Fake News BBC!
That says more about your attention span than the quality of the documentary.
In reply to: #Panodrama - An Exposé of the Fake News BBC!
You red guards are getting nervous.
In reply to: #Panodrama - An Exposé of the Fake News BBC!
And yet the 89% downvotes suggests the groupthink is entirely on the red guard side.
In reply to: #Panodrama - An Exposé of the Fake News BBC!
You should keep looking, you might learn something.
In reply to: #Panodrama - An Exposé of the Fake News BBC!
Looking through someone's comment history shows you're attacking the person, not engaging with the argument at hand. But apparently you don't even have the self-discipline to do that, let alone watch a documentary and make up your own mind.
In reply to: #Panodrama - An Exposé of the Fake News BBC!
don't need to watch it to know its a tissue of lies & half truths. That's your loss, but you're revealing your shortcomings very clearly.
In reply to: #Panodrama - An Exposé of the Fake News BBC!
Oh, I think you're in for a surprise when you finally watch this.
In reply to: #Panodrama - An Exposé of the Fake News BBC!
You haven't watched it either.
In reply to: #Panodrama - An Exposé of the Fake News BBC!
Your loss.
In reply to: #Panodrama - An Exposé of the Fake News BBC!
I think I'll live dangerously. I don't think you know what that means.
In reply to: English councils accused of hiding scale of homelessness crisis
landowners are extorting the rest of the population It's primarily the Bank of England who are doing this in the UK. By buying gilts under QE, they push pension funds and other investors into equities and property, creating the asset bubbles the rest of us now need to deal with. When nobody has a pension that provides for basic dignity, the first person to blame will be Mark Carney.
In reply to: #Panodrama - An Exposé of the Fake News BBC!
Genuinely interesting that he sees himself as an activist and journalist, yet doesn’t understand basic media law concepts such as contempt. We'll see if the attorney general agrees with you. It’s difficult to tell if he is just ignorant or purposefully misleading his followers. I’ve only had chance to watch a small part of this admittedly but the factual inaccuracies are racking up quickly. That's helpful to have yet another opinion from someone who hasn't watched it. Now try watching to the end and stop making things up.
In reply to: #Panodrama - An Exposé of the Fake News BBC!
If you had bothered to look just before my comments on this subject, you'd see the last one was translating Chinese texts to show how Starbucks employees in China are paid derisory wages and work in poor conditions. You probably saw I'm also worried about the use of concentration camps in China, and the failure of all main parties to address it, particularly Labour due to its alignment with Venezuela, Iran and China. That's hardly what a nazi gets up to in their spare time. I'm not a supporter or a fanboy of anyone. The evidence presented in the video shows conclusively the relationship between Hope Not Hate and the BBC in manufacturing a false narrative, between them using the standard techniques of the extreme left: blackmail, intimidation and smears by association. The relationship between Hope Not Hate and various branches of government in disseminating this false narrative, and attempting to create conflict between different ethnic groups, is also well evidenced elsewhere. The extreme right, and actual hate crimes, in the UK are both absolutely marginal. Hate crimes are vaguely defined and constantly redefined through shoddy legislation that provides for arbitrary justice, a hallmark of totalitarian regimes. I understand you think people who oppose unlimited immigration and support leaving the EU are idiots. You're wrong though, and on the latter question you can't attempt to reverse a referendum decision, the most direct form of democracy, and convincingly claim to be anti-fascist. In light of the striking parallels between your ideology and that of Mao Zedong, the evidence presented in the documentary and the rapidly increasing levels of violence involving Antifa and associated groups, it's more logically arguable that the movement you are supporting is totalitarian in essence. That's why I'm pointing out the historical precedent of the red guards, not to get upvotes on a website but to point out something of which you may not be aware. Your approach is rigidly defensive regarding your own ideology, and laced with vitriol and aggression with regard to what you perceive as mine. But you've misunderstood everything, and you seem oblivious to the harm you're doing. Edit: And this post was censored again, as was Tommy Robinson himself from Facebook. It's really very clear what's going on here if you could just suspend your disbelief for a moment.
In reply to: Any Books Accounting Life During or Shortly Before the Maoist Revolution?
Are you referring to the cultural revolution? http://multimedia.scmp.com/cultural-revolution/ If so, this is a good introduction.
In reply to: Labour's Sir Keir Starmer says second EU referendum should include Remain but no no-deal
What has 'the EU' ever done to us to promote such outrage? Allied itself with Iran and China over the US, because Trump is clearly more evil than Xi. The traitors are those that put their self interests above those of the country again, and again, and again. Across the UK, referendum votes correlate most closely with house price inflation. If you're carrying a lot of debt, you're almost certain to vote remain. The more your house price has appreciated on paper, the more you're likely to have voted remain. That's pure short-term financial interest over the democratic will expressed at referendum. It is massively in the interest of the country to remain part of the EU Being in a trade bloc with a group of communist dictatorships and Islamic states isn't great for future business prospects.
In reply to: Concentration camps?
How do you know?
In reply to: Concentration camps?
But what are your sources, and how do you know they're accurate? Have you been in a concentration camp yourself?
In reply to: Concentration camps?
That's a great anecdote but your government, your bureaucrats, your security services and your police are all completely untrustworthy. On the other hand, there is photographic and witness-based evidence for the construction of an expanding network of concentration camps large enough to hold over the million victims already arbitrarily detained. There are no reliable statistics for the number of deaths that have occurred in the concentration camps.
In reply to: I Guess I Won't Hear From You Again... youtube censors commenting on laowhy86's videos
A new product called dissenter has been released to tackle this form of censorship. For now we have reddit too. Bitchute has a more censorship-resistant architecture than YouTube, and Mastodon has a more censorship-resistant architecture than Twitter. If YouTube censors this video too, you can find it here: https://www.bitchute.com/video/igb1d0UEcM5D/
ARCHIVE NEXT
ARCHIVE