@pre@boing.world2025-11-22 10:39:50
Despite much opinion to the contrary, the government money we use is crappy.
I'm at bitfest in Manchester to find out if Bitcoin could be a better money.
It could hardly be worse.
The mood is still good, people are joking about recent devaluation rather than crying. Those who aren't all in are trying to buy more at the discount.
After an introduction by Mad Bitcoins, Joe Bryan explains the problem with government money.
He imagines an island on which two types of money are tried, with a dividing wall between them.
When economic problems hit, government can just print more money on the fiat side. Everyone now using money which is worth less. Distorting prices, inflating asset prices, making the rich (who hold assets) richer and the poor (who have to pay inflated prices) poorer. Driving wealth inequality.
On the hard money side, government must tax properly. Take in more from the rich rather than inflating to take it from the poor. Reducing wealth inequality.
On the government money side, the wealthy monitize houses, stocks, resources. Saving in money is impossible, its inflated away. So they save in assets and hording resources. Capital is misallocated. The youth can't afford houses. Poverty traps are caused. The only way out is printing more for benefits. Making it all worse. More economic crises, more printing. More government debt.
Eventually, the wall is broken. Government money people can save in the hard money instead. It reduces the value of government money further. More printing. More inflation.
Eventually, war. Funded by printed money.
The dollar is the best of a bad bunch all other government money is falling in value even faster.
I wonder, is bitcoin really this better money though? It's limited, hard, and can't be printed without energy investment.
I'm still unsure that fixing money fixes the world.
--
Note: "crypto" is mostly more like government money than bitcoin. It can be printed indefinitely by it's makers, does not cost it's makers to print. Crypto is usually just a scam people to get more bitcoin. Bitcoin is not crypto.
#bitfest #bitcoin
@jacobgudiol@mastodonsweden.se2025-11-20 21:01:44
Det är nu över 10 år sedan dietboksförfattare och influensers påstod att de visste hur man fixade tarmfloran och med det en rad olika hälsoproblem.
Och än idag har vi i princip ingenting konkret från vetenskapen kring tarmfloran och behandling av olika besvär utanför just tarmproblem.
The Autism-Microbiome Hypothesis Is Falling Apart
@ruth_mottram@fediscience.org2025-11-21 10:34:41
An evening discussing falling enrollment in #STEM courses at universities across Europe, especially traditional studies like chemistry, geology and meteorology. I wonder if young people are unaware of just how interesting #STEM careers to be? Or do they have the perception it's "too hard" compared to other subjects where easier grades may be had? Or is it simply they think they can have "better"* jobs in other fields?
#AcademicChatter
*Where better might mean higher paid, more prestigious, more certain of employment, or less workload or some combination of all of these... ?
@AimeeMaroux@mastodon.social2025-08-22 07:16:14
Have a beautiful Day of Aphrodite aka Venus' Day aka Frigg's Day aka Friday 🌹
"The fourth star is that of Venus, Lucifer by name. Some say it is Juno's. In many tales it is recorded that it is called Hesperus, too. It seems to be the largest of all stars."
Pseudo-Hyginus, Astronomica 2.4
🏛 Detail of #Venus in the Planetarium mosaic
📸 Daniel Gonzšlez Acuñ…
@floheinstein@chaos.social2025-11-21 08:50:45
Datenschutz-WTF Moment:
Zum ersten Mal in einer neuen Arztpraxis, ich bekomme einen Stapel Formulare zum Ausfüllen. Eines davon eine Einwilligungserklärung in die Datenbearbeitung, die auf die "folgende Seite" verweist.
Diese "folgende Seite" war eingeschweisst, und ich erhielt sie nur zur Ansicht und sofortigen Rückgabe nach Unterschrift.
Dass ich beides fotografiert habe, hat man nicht verstanden.🤦♀️
@arXiv_csCR_bot@mastoxiv.page2025-09-22 08:59:11
Flying Drones to Locate Cyber-Attackers in LoRaWAN Metropolitan Networks
Matteo Repetto, Enrico Cambiaso, Fabio Patrone, Sandro Zappatore
https://arxiv.org/abs/2509.15725 https:…
@callunavulgaris@mastodon.scot2025-10-20 19:08:24
There's a lot going on at the moment including Mum being on palliative care in a nursing home and my uncle dying recently, someone I really loved. He's the first of that generation to go and it feels huge. My hair has started falling out due to stress though fortunately it's not noticable. It's my uncle's funeral tomorrow so just to make everything better my period arrived a couple of hours ago. I'm in my mid-50s - will the fuckers ever stop?
@Cognessence@social.linux.pizza2025-09-21 13:19:04
I really hesitated to share this, as it can feel crass and self-promote-y (especially when so many on here are probably going through hard stuff.) At the same time, in feeling crushed myself atm, unexpectedly receiving such a message about the album from someone I’ve not met was a major uplift. Plus, the artwork from @… gets a shout out too, whic…
@grumpybozo@toad.social2025-09-20 19:40:04
At least he understood the location and extent of our problem. Not great on the solution side, but we will be workshopping that... https://bird.makeup/users/macfarlanenews/statuses/1969117630578540785
@pre@boing.world2025-11-21 15:33:35
Angor is a crowdfunding protocol for nostr and bitcoin.
Dan here is building it. Kickstarter without middle men.
Accountability is key. What stops the fund raiser just fleeing with the coin?
Funds are programmed to be released in stages, time locked in a multisig.
So if they aren't meeting milestones, investors can withdraw. If the founders are buying lambos instead of building, just cash out at that point.
Permissionless and decentralised, no servers except nostr relays and bitcoin nodes. No third party's claiming 30 percent fees. The system is a nostr client scanning relays for investment object types. Allowing investment into the funding contracts and subscription to updates.
#nostr #nostrshire #angor
