Déjà Vu ~ Times: Should we be concerned about cryptocurrencies?

Monday, November 27, 2017

Should we be concerned about cryptocurrencies?

cryp·to
[ krip-toh]
NOUN [PLURAL CRYP·TOS.]
1. a person who secretly supports or adheres to a group, party, or belief.
ADJECTIVE
2. secret or hidden; not publicly admitted: a crypto Nazi.
Source: Dictionary.com

Derivative? of crypt?
crypt
[kript]
NOUN
1. a subterranean chamber or vault, especially one beneath the main floor of a church, used as a burial place, a location for secret meetings, etc.
2. Anatomy. a slender pit or recess; a small glandular cavity.
Source: Dictionary.com

BREAKING DOWN 'Cryptocurrency'¹
The anonymous nature of cryptocurrency transactions makes them well-suited for a host of nefarious activities, such as money laundering and tax evasion.
Source: https://www.investopedia.com/terms/c/cryptocurrency.asp

Hmmm ...... Looks like we might be in the midst of another run-up to a BUBBLE bath. Perhaps we need a history refresher? In March of 2011, I wrote a blog post entitled “Vast Fund of Stupidity [& Recycling Cupidity]”?!^[2] It began thus:

In memory of the birth of the South Sea Company^[3] (in 1711 – 300 years ago), Deja Vu Times recycles a few comments/quotes from the “bubble-bath” of 1720. These words from the 1700s are also recycled in memory of the many bubble-baths^[4] since and in expectation of The Great Bath (TGB) to come (sooner than later), if we don’t renounce this Vast Fund (and all its fundamentalists).

[See also: http://dejavu-times.blogspot.ca/2011/04/growth-funds.html]

Are we in a grandiose run-up to The Great Bubble Bath? Investopedia assures us that cryptocurrencies “are difficult to counterfeit” and “theoretically immune to government interference or manipulation.” Do the words “difficult” and “theoretically immune” offer sufficient comfort? Isn't the major overwhelming economic problem NOT that governments interfere and manipulate, but that private central banks continually puppeteer governments and economies on a global scale? And who really believes that the secret creators of cryptocurrencies have not engineered backdoors to monitor and control whatever they wish. Are we being bambozzled? Is what they promise the opposite of what is or will be? déjà vu the perpetual schemes of all those who pursue and protect power and gain?!

What do we understand about cryptocurrencies and their connections to AI? Could any of these videos help?

Quinn Michaels:

Crypto Conspiracy and the Road to the AI Singularity (Time 1:05:35) at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jEWm1OOHLkw See also:
▪ King of BlockChain Peter Thiel #bitcoin #Ripple #Etherium #Aragon #Augur (Time 6:11) at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bH6BisBx3A0
▪ Kings of Blockchain Peter Thiel and Marc Andreesen #bitcoin #zcoin #earn #coinbase #slack #qadium (Time 14:13) at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C9CvHLn2xPU&t=436s
▪ Sophia and The United Nations Peter Thiel and Friends - #Jess #Tyler #Louise (Time 19:30 at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5kWqNATYxDo&t=3s
▪ SingularityNet and The Beast a Strange connection (Time 2:02) at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yyy-1CgBJEs

Other warning voices:
▪ Saudi, Bitcoin & The Sophia Singularity w/Anthony Patch (Time 1:43:51) at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LZiA9xAIt7A
▪ Blockchain Raising The I.Q. Of A.I. w/Anthony Patch (Time 1:43:50) at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WNCyZ7A9t9g&t=2272s

Plus dozens of other warning voices. So, should we be concerned about cryptocurrencies? Should we have been concerned years ago? You decide.

------------------------/
1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cryptocurrencies ; https://www.investopedia.com/terms/c/cryptocurrency.asp
2. http://dejavu-times.blogspot.ca/2011/03/vast-fund-of-stupidity-recycling.html
3. South Sea Company: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Sea_Company
4. Bubble-baths: http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/investing/article-1638078/Stock-markets-A-history-of-boom-and-bust.html

Revolving Accounts

"The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun. Is there any thing whereof it may be said, See, this is new? it hath been already of old time, which was before us." (OT:Ecclesiastes 1:9-10)

"Dwell in the past and you'll lose an eye. Forget the past and you'll lose both eyes." (Old Russian Proverb)

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Over time, this blog will contain:
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Déjà Vu ~ Times blog © 2008 - 2020 by SMSmith (unless otherwise noted). Some Rights Reserved. See Creative Commons License at the end of this column/page. NOTE: all quotes from others are subject to the terms of their copyrights and do not fall under my CC licensing.

Déjà Vu ~ Times blog was established April 24, 2008 while the author was living in southern Utah.

My World / Transworld View

(Subject to change over time: experience/learning/ evidence)

▪ Life is a three-act drama with pre-mortal, mortal, and post-mortal stages.
▪ The second act boils us down toward test one:^[1] the test of power.
▪ Abusers of power lose it in Act Three when justice and equity take the bench.
▪ Tipping points happen—over time and a fulcrum.
▪ Motes and beams are everywhere.[2]
▪ Folly is a shadow of every ism, including capitalism.
▪ Money talks louder than morals—all the way to the tipping point.
▪ The direction you are facing, matters.[3]
▪ Extremism in the defense of liberty is extremism.[4]
▪ When the blind follow the blind, it is time to blow the whistle.[5]
▪ Opposites attract the same lobbyists.
▪ Solon of Athens espoused, “Nothing in excess;” laissez-faire capitalists pursue “Everything in excess” (except the costs of gross profit).
▪ “Simplify” displayed on the counter-top of a new 21,000 sq. ft. home does not compute.
▪ High fructose corn syrup is not the staff of life. Unfortunately, sweets can twirl your teeth.
▪ Revolving doors between government and business do not admit sufficient fresh air.
▪ The common good doesn’t seem to be very common.
▪ N. American football is a testosterone pageant in tights.[6]
▪ Exploitation is a delusion of grandeur. Stewardship is a grander conclusion.
▪ The excesses of major religions occur when members fail their espoused values. The excesses of ideological tyrannies occur when tyrants act upon theirs.[7]
▪ Praise is best deflected toward God.
▪ Too many who say, “I do, I do,” don’t.
▪ Electronic media has become the Roman Coliseum of the 21st Century.
▪ The First Law of Attraction[8]: the Devil is more obsessed with persons striving to do and be good than with persons who are not.
▪ The trans-rational[9] is beyond most of us, so if it’s “turtles all the way down,”[10] maybe it is “revelation all the way up.”[11]
▪ Egoism accounts for 80% of human problems. The remaining 27% lies with rhetoric and propaganda.

In the near words of Groucho Marx, “These are my [views]; if you don’t like them, I have others.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
[1] New Testament: Matt. 4:2-4—The first temptation presented to Jesus, to misuse His power to satisfy self-interest/-will/-gratification.
[2] Ref: Matthew 7:3-5
[3] Old Testament: Jer. 32:33
[4] A Barry Goldwater phrase “Extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice. And moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue.” A phrase applauded by some of the GOP. (Suggestion: reverse liberty and justice to see if it sounds more palatable, or is the latter half merely castor-oil for the first?)
[5] Ref: Matthew 15:14
[6] Observation of a friend, MS, who wishes to remain anonymous for obvious reasons.
[7] Ref: Ravi Zacharias
[8] Ref: Adam & Eve; Biblical Job; Jesus in the Wilderness; CS Lewis’ Screwtape Letters, etc., etc., etc.
[9] Ref: Flatland by Edwin Abbott. In summary, circles, squares and other flatlanders can’t get a fix on spheres and cubes; can’t quite reason themselves into the properties of those in 3-D space. Enlightenment of things beyond (i.e., trans-) Flatland takes condescension from those above & beyond. Any parallels here in 3-D?
[10] Google this phrase if you have not heard of it. It’s just one way of saying we don’t have a rational explanation for some things.
[11] Conditional on the will of the Revelator and the willingness/ ability of the revelatee to receive.

About SMS

A few 6-to-7-Word Memoirs:
▪ Hope for the world comes and goes.
▪ Loves to read more than eat.
▪ Loves to think more than eat.
▪ Eats too much while reading and thinking.
▪ Always running out of time and daylight.
▪ Finds extremes too far from the center.
▪ Troubled by the world’s failure of memory.
▪ Has a tendency to counsel God.
▪ Learned gratitude before it was too late.
▪ Apparently hasn't learned enough gratitude yet.

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No Comments Rationale

1) Time & more needful priorities;
2) Problems observed with many open-comment blogs as so bluntly expressed at http://www.ritholtz.com/blog/comment-policy/ ;

3) People are free to post divergent or convergent views on their own blogs;
4) Learning from comments here would be preferable, but— (see 1, 2, & 3).

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Monday, November 27, 2017

Should we be concerned about cryptocurrencies?

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