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Cryptocurrents

Posted: November 21, 2020 by datechguy in Uncategorized

The Senate Judiciary Committee hauled tech titans His Most Serene and Excellent Kahuna of Twitter and Mark “I am not a Zeta Reticulan” Zuckerberg of Facebook to their Zoom cameras to testify about their policies for censoring conservatives on their respective sites this week. The Republicans on the Committee railed about how these businessmen were running their private companies the way they wanted to, which is wrong these days, while the Democrats cried out for more and better censorship- er, barriers against misinformation, which is typically information they wish everyone would miss.

But in a way, Twitter and Facebook are yesterday’s technology, anyway. More interesting developments took place in one of tomorrow’s technologies, that is, blockchains and cryptocurrencies. October 31 was the twelfth anniversary since a link to the pseudonymous Satoshi Nakamoto’s paper titled “Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System” appeared on a cryptography mailing list at metzdowd.com. A couple months later, Bitcoin launched — January 9, 2009. Two years later, one Bitcoin was worth 35 cents. On January 9, 2012, a Bitcoin was worth $6.65. Today, Bitcoin stands at $18,685, with some expecting it to hit $65,000, and has a market cap of almost $347 billion.

It’s a reflection of how cryptocurrencies are slowly but surely ingratiating themselves into the ecosystem. PayPal recently began facilitating the purchase of Bitcoin and one of the other leading cryptocurrencies, Ethereum. Both Mastercard and Visa offer cryptocurrency cards, and Visa has also partnered with leading crypto exchange Coinbase.

Cryptocurrencies exist on a digital technology called blockchains, which allows for secure, decentralized, and anonymous transactions beyond the reach of authorities. Which presents its own twists. Blockchains also allow complex financial transactions to take place in minutes, where the current system takes days, maybe a week.

And Friday, payments startup company Circle announced that it had partnered with the Venezuelan government-in-exile led by Juan Guaidó (recognized by the United States, Canada, Brazil and over 50 other nations as the legitimate Venezuelan government). In fact, Circle was also working with the U.S. government to essentially convert seized Venezuelan funds into a cryptocurrency called USDC – which is pegged to the value of one American dollar – to bypass financial controls imposed by Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro.

Of course, with any new technology, regulation in the blockchain world is thin (but thickening up), and the price ticker for bitcoin can look like the heart monitor of a tweeker going cold turkey. Caveat emptor,

But as the U.S. government buries the dollar in Marianas-level depths of debt – and this before the Democrat moves into the White House, promising to give out trillions more – there might be worse ideas than finding alternative forms of currency.

The fact that you can hide secret messages in the currency is just the icing.

Update, 11/21/2020 1:21 PM. Fixed a couple of the links.

DaTechguy off DaRadio Podcast 10:15 AM EST Dodging the Censors and Lockouts edition

Posted: November 20, 2020 by datechguy in blogs
Tags: , ,

Today’s DaTechGuy off Daradio podcast is starting at 10 AM EST both because of a shift I’m picking up at work (despite the horrible Trump economy) and to dodge the censorshp of twitter (& possibility youtube).

Topics include

  1. Trump’s path to stay in the White House
  2. Why we should fight
  3. odds and ends
  4. And Twitter’s repeated lockdowns of my account (including one likely during the podcast)

You can watch it all here (unless my connection goes unstable again (unexpectedly of course)

And remember every thing we get comes from you, if you like the podcast, the blog and the writers I employ please consider hitting DaTipJar.

Update Yup twitter locked me out live while I was on the air, unexpectedly of course

Update 2: Text of my appeal

Well the bad news is that for the 5th or 6th time you have locked me out after falsely accusing me of posting intimate images. (and after apologizing and claiming it was done in error each time) This make you look real bad.

On the plus side by continually locking me out and letting me back it gives me an excellent chance to break the world record for lock downs and victories in appeals

If you didn’t have this stuff on automatic you might be embarrassed.

And of course for the record this accusation is false but you guys already knew that when you locked me each time.

didn’t get restored instantly this time, likely because I called them out on it, so we’ll see how long it takes.

“Senator if the Hair on my Head Knew My Plans I would Cut if Off” Team Rudy vs the Dem Media

Posted: November 20, 2020 by datechguy in elections, politics
Tags: , , , ,

Senator: Perhaps the General would please tell us what his plans are.

General Andrew Jackson: Senator if the Hair on my head knew my plans I would cut it off.

One of the weapons that the left has been using in their quest to make sure their Magic BallotsTM are not thrown out either by the courts or by actions from the state legislatures has been to continually keeping any obvious cases of fraud or overwhelming circumstantial evidence out of the news cycle while demanding the Trump campaign reveal their hand.

While this has had a demoralizing effect on some it has had little or no effect on the Trump team itself.

Today at their press conference the Trump team pointed out that there are rules and procedures to be followed and that their case supported by hundreds under oath will be presented there.

Let’s cut to the chase, media may spin, and may scoff but in the end this team is in it to win it and they realize that nothing that is said on TV or in the newspapers or on social media actually means a thing.

What matter is the case that goes before the legislatures and the courts and given the fact that the media has been a wholly owned subsidiary of the Democrat party if I was the president’s team I’d not say a word that I’d not give them a clue until the moment things are presented in court.

As I’ve said before the media believes it’s primary duty is to convince Americans that Al Capone is not and never has been a gangster and no matter how many smart remarks & memes on social media or commentary on cable TV the left makes convincing any American not still in their bubble that these cities are not corrupt is no going to be easy. It’s Rudy’s job to make a good enough case to convince the courts and or the legislatures that they must not let the steal of an election stand.

And as for convincing the people as a whole that the election was stolen apparently he’s already convincing…DEMOCRATS :

But, Joe Biden’s problems are not simply because many Republicans believe the election was stolen. It’s true that the poll showed a significant partisan divide on this issue: 75 percent of Republicans believe it is very likely (61 percent) or somewhat likely (14 percent) that the election was stolen from Trump. But, according to the poll, while 69 percent of Democrats say it is not at all likely (61 percent) or not very likely (8 percent) that the election was stolen from Trump, 30 percent of Democrats believe it is very likely (20 percent) or somewhat likely (10 percent) that it was.

Let me repeat, nearly a third of Democrats believe it is likely that the election was stolen from President Trump. That’s a remarkable number. Huge, in fact.

If the people already believe it then the job of the legislatures to stop the Democrat coup against the American republic becomes easier.

Closing thought, that link is via instapundit where Sarah Hoyt makes a humorous but sobering note:

WHAT NO ONE HAS TOLD US IS IF THEY DISAPPROVE

sadly I’ve reached the point where I presume most democrats don’t disapprove of such a theft at all.

Guess who is locked out of twitter again (this makes 5 times since the election) Update: Instantly let back on appeal in under a minute

Posted: November 19, 2020 by datechguy in Uncategorized

I’ll give them this they are getting smarter. They didn’t lock me for retweeting that 1st tweet, they locked me out for a new tweet with the same link

I’ll be appealing when I get home from work again

Update: The text of my latest appeal (forgot the save the one before it)

Well this makes five times that you’ve locked me out for tweeting about Benford’s law in connection to the election when claiming I’ve done something else untoward and the 4th time after apologizing for doing the very same thing.

One would think eventually some degree of shame might kick in or embarrassment both for the false accusations and for the idiocy of locking me right after apologizing and claiming to make a mistake, but as I’ve resigned myself to the fact that I’m dealing with dishonest and dishonorable people I’ve not come to expect better from you.

I am gratified that you are still afraid enough of the position of Mr. Biden that you’re still afraid of people reading that piece, given that nearly a 1/3 of DEMOCRATS believe the election was stolen your fear is justified.

But in the end your claims about me are patently false and I expect to win this appeal as I’ve won the previous five.

How many times to do intend to go though this charade before you stop?

The appeal was instantly approved, Unexpectedly of course

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