Major League Baseball thinks it’s cheaper than bobbleheads:
MLB ?? Crypto
The first 5,000 qualified fans who sign up using the code BASEBALL get $20 in their @Blockfolio account! Download: https://t.co/lovdSf6Vva
Much more coming soon. ?? pic.twitter.com/XwsjF3Bg1a
— MLB (@MLB) June 23, 2021
Optimistic opportunists want to use it to raid ‘supplement’ retirement accounts, which no honest financial planner would allow:
Perspective: Some 401(k) plans may start offering cryptocurrency as an investment option. Here’s why that’s a bad idea. https://t.co/iLFrwCbl16
— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) June 23, 2021
And a certain very large powerful authoritarian empire has a new reason to crack down…
Hong Kong’s Apple Daily to live on in blockchain, free of censors https://t.co/qxOCorZVKV pic.twitter.com/12IHlLyMZp
— Reuters (@Reuters) June 24, 2021
Tolerating environmental piracy, ransomware bandits, and the facilitation of drug smuggling, sexual abuse, and money laundering is one thing. Letting free-speech publications threaten public order — *that* cannot be tolerated.
China’s ban forces some bitcoin miners to flee overseas, others sell out https://t.co/Xsjoq4fwE2 pic.twitter.com/LMpLWQZpJr
— Reuters (@Reuters) June 25, 2021
SHANGHAI, June 25 (Reuters) – China’s sweeping ban on cryptocurrency mining has paralysed an industry that accounts for over half of global bitcoin production, as miners dump machines in despair or seek refuge in places such as Texas or Kazakhstan.
“Many miners are exiting the business to comply with government policies,” said Mike Huang, operator of a cryptomining farm in the southwest province of Sichuan.
“Mining machines are selling like scrap metal.”…
Chinese authorities say cryptocurrencies disrupt economic order, and facilitate illegal asset transfers and money laundering. Analysts say Beijing is also worried about potential competition for the digital yuan and that the power-hungry business of bitcoin mining could damage the environment…
Bitmain, China’s biggest maker of cryptocurrency mining machines, said on Friday it had suspended sales of its products and was looking for “quality” power supplies overseas alongside its clients, in places including the United States, Canada, Australia, Russia, Kazakhstan and Indonesia…
I personally suspect some of the True Believers will be happier, once the amateurs are gone again:
“after everyone has a few fingers blown off using a stick of dynamite as a hammer is when dynamite will become a popular tool to drive nails”
— kilgore trout, dna harvester (@KT_So_It_Goes) June 21, 2021
The two things people need to know about cryptocurrency are completely non-technical:
1. If it doesn’t work, it’s just an easy to lose casino chip
2. If it works, it creates an end run around all financial regulation, and will be dominated by uses those regulations try to stop— Pinboard (@Pinboard) May 30, 2021
The third path out of this dilemma is to legitimize cryptocurrency by bringing it into our existing regulatory structures, at which point it becomes indistinguishable from technologies that do the same thing at a fraction of the complexity and one millionth of the resource cost.
— Pinboard (@Pinboard) May 30, 2021
WaterGirl
I want BitCoin to be over in every possible way, at the soonest possible moment.
That would be a great way to cut down on criminal activity.
Danielx
Would rather invest money in something more tangible, say tulip futures.
Baud
@Danielx:
I’ve invested in NFTs of tulips. They’re pretty.
debbie
Honest and financial planner In the same sentence? ?
Amir Khalid
@WaterGirl:
The computing power now being wasted on “mining” Bitcoin would be far better used to create fantasy worlds in which to battle dragons and mages. Or to create cat videos. I like cat videos.
Benw
That reason quote is colossally stupid, but it is interesting that it admits up front that they expect everyone else to take the risk so that they can profit.
WaterGirl
@Amir Khalid: Absolutely.
Bitcoin. Corruption. Instability. Ridiculous waste of power when we need to be fighting global warming.
A hundred reasons to get rid of it, no good reason to keep it that I have seen.
FelonyGovt
Wondered why my favorite baseball player (Jacob deGrom) was featured prominently in a Balloon Juice post! With lasers coming out of his eyes!
BoC
LOL.
The subtle damnation of equivalency.
But seriously, can the power grid in Texas accommodate a sudden influx of crypto mining operations?
NotMax
So only took a hundred years to go from Black Sox to Black Gox?
//
WaterGirl
@BoC: I approved your comment, but I wasn’t sure if you are new or if your nym got goofed up somehow. If it’s the latter, let me know and I can fix it. If it’s the former, welcome!
mrmoshpotato
China, and all other countries, could put a, now extra, 8 gigawatts of electricity to better use.
mrmoshpotato
@BoC:
If the horrorshow of this past winter in Texas is any indication…
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Amir Khalid:
I want my holodeck, dammit!
Barbara
@Benw: The most valuable currency in the world — ours — is valuable precisely because it doesn’t ask owners to bear the risk of a sudden loss in value. How hard can that be to understand?
counterfactual
@BoC:
When China started cracking down on cryptocurrency mining, the glibertarian techbros set up server farms in Kazakhstan and Afghanistan. They quickly learned that they actually needed the “oppressive” government functions of a working court and police system, so now they’re talking Texas.
Ruckus
@BoC:
Well if it’s not raining or hot, dark or light, hot or cold, NO it still can’t.
The governor
isseems to be willing to invest in electric generation if a bit of coin was to land in his palm however.Amir Khalid
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):
Holodecks are currently out of stock. please check with us again next month.
Ruckus
@Barbara:
For those that are trying to get a lot of something-something for, well a lot, very hard.
For those that are trying to get a lot of something-something for nothing, still, very hard.
For those trying to earn money honestly, not hard at all.
Ruckus
@counterfactual:
Texas has a functional government?
That seems like a contradiction in… everything.
Starfish
@WaterGirl: Agreed.
I do not understand these people who say that they are going to go mine crypto in Texas though. Don’t you need a functioning power grid for that to work?
Did you watch the hilarity of that crypto conference in Miami?
I thought some people got COVID-19, and there was some ridiculousness.
JaneE
Bitcoin in your 401k. Just what every working stiff needs.
The stock market has taken half my 401k twice now, not quite 10 years apart. The first time just delayed my retirement a few years. Second time, not going back to work, thank you. At least the companies underlying my retirement investment have some underlying value.
I wouldn’t mind having a Dogecoin just for the smiling dog, but not for much more than the cost of the plastic it would be made from.
It would not surprise me if lots of people who really can’t afford to lose their retirement fund jump on it anyway. They are all going to be Elon Musk and make tons of money. They forget he had tons of money to start with and could afford to hold it when it had down days.
I remember when having to associate with drug dealing criminals was a reason to not buy pot. Same should apply to buying Bitcoin, I think.
craigie
Pretty much the same thing
moops
@BoC: bitcoin miners can throttle their mining based on fluctuating power costs, and Texas has several power companies that will expose you directly to the wholesale market if you choose it. In Kazakhstan I doubt you would ever get reliable power.
NotMax
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
(sultry whisper)
VR.5 … 5 … 5 …;)
Craig
I’m just hoping this will make graphics card prices go down to something reasonable.
moops
sadly, this won’t be the end of BitCoin. This market has taken existential hits with alarming regularity and yet the market manages to get even more irrational. It is somehow tapping into the alternative reality thinking showing up from every direction these days.
NotMax
Now that’s enough of a coincidence to have elicited a chuckle. Now Playing listing for the three channels* I’ve marked as favorites on a streaming service just switched over to is showing these items, in this order:
The Outlaw — The Rachel Maddow Show — Messiah of Evil
*In case anyone gives a hoot, TCM, MSNBC and Film Detective
Barbara
@JaneE: When you talk to financial advisors they usually give a reason for investing in bonds versus stocks or having international exposure or whatever. If you want cash, gosh, you live in the best country in the world, buy a money market. If you want investment risk, try something you have a prayer of understanding. Those talking Bitcoin up are engaged in marketing and sales, not investment advice because most people have no reason to own e-currency.
Anne Laurie
There will be a market for BitCoin into the foreseeable future — the same way there’s markets for model railroads, vintage cars, Beanie Babies, and a lot of other “collectibles”.
What I’m looking forward to, please Murphy the Trickster God, is the day when cryptocurrency returns to its natural state as a hobby for cultists, not a topic *I* have to keep up on!
Omnes Omnibus
@Anne Laurie: The thing is, collectors of model trains and vintage cars tend to like the things they are collecting and get enjoyment out of them completely divorced from their potential as investments.
Anne Laurie
“Investments” is a shorthand, IMO, for a lot of the BitCoin hardcore. What they seem to mean, when they use that magic word, is that We Enlightened Ones Will Laugh When You Peons Find Yourself Penniless & Afraid. Like Gollum, with his Precious…
Bill Arnold
@Anne Laurie:
There has never been a better time to buy a Parody of Gold!
(That’s a riff on an old advert often seen on CNN with a hand model fondling gold coins.)
There are a lot of aspects of contemporary markets/finance that are offensive to trickster deities. (Shameless pieces about how Bitcoin is Green are especially so.)
Ksmiami
@Barbara: Drug dealers resemble this remark….
hitchhiker
all I can say is that I’m still enraged with MLB for not insisting that teams get vaccinated.
every time I see a screen with my home team dugout full of guys in masks, I’m reminded how stupid this is and I get pissed off all over again.
hey, MLB! if you want fans put a team on the field that has brains enough to help end the pandemic, and if they don’t have that many brains, do the right thing and make them.
no bitcoin promos will be necessary.
assholes.
MontyTheClipArtMongoose
@craigie: what are two places where rudy giuliani can be blown by a 16 year old?