Says Who?

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“While there are thousands of cryptocurrencies — including the Elon Musk tweet-fueled Dogecoin — Bitcoin and ether account for nearly two-thirds of the entire $2.2 trillion global crypto market.”


Who decides what it’s worth and for how long?   I noticed a question about crypto currency on this year’s tax form, but how is it tracked?   How are publicly-traded companies verifying the value of crypto on their balance sheets? Trillions of bits and doges equal how much in actual dollars out of the old school economy? It seems like a high-tech Ponzi scheme, but it also seems to make as much sense as the legalized gambling operation we call the stock market.

https://www.cnn.com/2021/05/01/investing/ethereum-bitcoin-record-high/index.html

“But Ethereum has enjoyed an even bigger surge than Bitcoin because it is the cryptocurrency of choice for the purchases of many non-fungible tokens, or NFTs — which have taken the art and broader collectibles world by storm.“


NFTs seem more tangible, but as with all collectibles, the market may not always be there.

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39 thoughts on “Says Who?”

  1. ” … the market may not always be there.”

    BiD,  nor will the grid either.   what happens to the intangible world, that which only exists and is experienced through the grace of technology,  when there is no there there?

  2. https://www.moma.org/magazine/articles/547

    As I read this article, NFT’s seem more like a pretentious, Ponzi scheme. Well, I guess the whole world is built on trust and that trust is continually being tested (and often lost), but this just feels less real.

    “An NFT can’t be exchanged with a like entity (the way one dollar bill is equivalent to another, or one bitcoin has the same value as another.)”

    “NFTs themselves are just contracts. NFT artworks, unlike most traditional artworks, depend on being two things at once: the contract, and the thing the contract refers to.”

    “NFTs are definitely being sold as ownership. In the social media, Web 2.0 model, which is the old model, you’re not an owner of your own content, the platform is. Streaming, Kindles, Instagram, none of it belongs to you.”

    It’s also a perfectly, sensible reaction/resolution.

  4. of course this is applicable to almost all of our modern world whether financial or not, but particularly so when it comes to the money that only exists online.  kinda boils down to: it’s all a matter of faith.

    see articles like:

    Bitcoin’s Need For Electricity Is Its ‘Achilles Heel’ (forbes.com)

    or this from coindesk:

    While it’s a robust protocol online, Bitcoin might not be so resilient (or, dare we say it, “antifragile”?) in the non-digital world.
    What does that mean? It means that Bitcoin – like the internet itself – is dependent upon functioning global networks, reliable power supplies and standing cellphone towers. Switch off the routers and transformers, and knock down the towers, and Bitcoin has a problem.
    Imagine, for example, trying to conduct local commerce with bitcoins in New Jersey after Superstorm Sandy. People did get creative when it came to finding ways to keep their smartphones charged in the days and weeks following the Oct. 29, 2012, storm, but it wasn’t always easy.
    So the question of how to keep a future Bitcoin economy functional after a natural disaster isn’t a purely academic one: these situations do arise – and have arisen – causing a lot of inconvenience, and frustration along the way. In a system where plain old paper cash and coin are still an option, even people with no heat or lights at home and no gas in the car can usually hoof it to the nearest convenience store to shop with their flashlights on and buy a few cans of Spaghetti-O’s, crackers and Spam.
    […]
    There’s actually a name for the fear that technophiles face in such situations: nomophobia, the fear of being out of mobile phone contact. Whether that affliction is more a state of being inconvenienced than real-life pathology isn’t a question we’ll take on here. NJ.com writer Allan Hoffmann, however, concluded after Sandy that it’s basically a “first world problem” … and that a dose of “digital isolation” once in a while might be the cure.
    [continues]

  5. https://www.coindesk.com/crypto-markets-retreat-bitcoin-ether-yellen

    “Bitcoin suffered its biggest loss in two weeks and ether snapped a nine-day winning streak amid what appeared to be a broad sell-off Tuesday in cryptocurrency markets.“

    “Prices for most of the biggest digital assets appeared to turn down right around the time U.S. stock markets opened in the red.”

    “…traditional markets came under pressure as U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said interest rates might have to rise to keep the economy from overheating.”

    Someone had better start clapping for Tinkerbell.

  6. patD – I left my phone at the office once. I just have it on for music all day, and,  check messages and the trail at lunch.  It was a miserable evening and now I check my purse before I leave the office and after I get into my car.   

  7. Donald Trump Obstruction Memo Was a Fig Leaf for Bill Barr, Judge Says, Ordering Release (newsweek.com)

    U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson had harsh words Monday for former Attorney General William Barr, saying the Justice Department should not have withheld a memo from a watchdog group.

    […]

    “In other words, the review of the document reveals that the Attorney General was not then engaged in making a decision about whether the President should be charged with obstruction of justice; the fact that he would not be prosecuted was a given,” Jackson said in an order dated Monday.

    The decision by Barr and senior Justice Department leaders to clear Trump of obstruction, even though Mueller and his team pointedly did not reach that conclusion, was a significant moment for the president that he touted as vindication.

    […]

    In her order this week, Jackson chastised Barr for his general handling of the Mueller report, saying his “characterization of what he’d hardly had time to skim, much less, study closely, prompted an immediate reaction, as politicians and pundits took to their microphones and Twitter feeds to decry what they feared was an attempt to hide the ball.”

    She also noted that another judge had rebuked Barr last year for what he said were misleading public statements that spun Mueller’s findings in the president’s favor.

  8. During the height of covid (or severe weather), personal economies were toilet paper and non-perishable goods based.  This is when price-gougers and horse traders and angels showed up. 

  9. today from our favorite cartoonist in northwest florida — yes, from that very very red GOPerland area:  

     

  11. I’ll try to find it again,, but a recent commentary on NFTs informed you that you aren’t buying a painting.  You are buying the price tag on the painting, and you are then permitted to hang the receipt for your purchase of the price tag in a broom closet attached to your favorite mop.  

  12. https://www.texastribune.org/2021/05/05/texas-critical-race-theory-schools-legislature/

    “…Texas Republicans are attempting to reach into classrooms and limit what public school students are taught about the nation’s historical subjugation of people of color.“

    “Texans reject critical race theory and other so-called ‘woke’ philosophies that maintain that one race or sex is inherently superior to another race or sex or that any individual, by virtue of his or her race or sex, is inherently racist, sexist or oppressive,” Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick said last week…”

    Wow, talking out of both sides of his mouth in a single sentence. It sounds like it’s against white supremacy at the beginning, but by the end of the sentence it supports the structure of white supremacism.

    Again, says who? Financially, and in every other way, the world is one collective illusion against others. In the end, only the math remains. One plus one is always two.

  13. patD – I prefer Aidy Bryant as Ted Cruz on SNL to the real thing.   Somehow, she turns him into a misguided-but-creepily-charming, little puke. 

  14. wonder how more incensed that TX legislature would get if in addition to the 1619 project there would also be an attempt at a 1491 project.   such a curriculum ensuring a fuller understanding and knowledge of the western new world’s rich culture before it was invaded and obliterated by europeans (as well as the full inclusion of the atrocities they perpetrated on more POCs once they got here)  is needed for a citizen’s well-rounded education.  

  15. @tedlieu
    Some thoughts this new ruling brings to mind:

    1. History will not be kind to Bill Barr
    2. The former President engaged in obstruction of justice
    3. The Mueller team chickened out
    4. Congress needs to see the full unredacted Mueller report
    5. Don McGahn still needs to testify
    Quote Tweet
    Michael S. Schmidt
    @nytmike
    · 12h
    Barr and his DOJ are rebuked by federal judge for misleading courts, Congress and public on Mueller report and how Barr made decision not to charge Trump with obstruction. https://nytimes.com/2021/05/04/us/politics/barr-trump-obstruction-russia-inquiry.html

  16. Here’s a link to the decision about Fat Bill’s lies to the Court.  
    Brief summary is in Judge Jackson’s section headings:

    A. Defendant has not met its burden to justify withholding under the deliberative process privilege.
    B. The defendant has not met its burden to establish the applicability of the attorney-client privilege. 

    Now, you should go take  a look at pages 20-25 of the decision to see what you can’t see.

  17. BiD, the problem with Texas and the critical race theory bullshit is that they do not know what critical race theory is.  And to be honest, I’m not sure either – in fact I can’t say that I ever heard the term until sometime within the past month, so I’m not exactly clear on just what it is or how it might differ from presenting the facts of slavery in America without attributing it to perceived white supremacy or black inferiority with respect to each other.  But what I can say is that the Texas stupidity (and there are other states doing the same thing) is that they are trying to whitewash (pun intended) the history of slavery in the US, much as Tennessee has tried to ignore that Nathan Bedford Forrest was the first Grand Dragon of the KKK and keep his bust (or is it a full statue?) in the Tennessee state house.

  19. And in other (NYT) news:

    Facebook Oversight Board Upholds Social Network’s Ban of Trump

    A company-appointed panel ruled that the ban was justified at the time but added that the company should reassess its action and make a final decision in six months.

    SAN FRANCISCO — A Facebook-appointed panel of journalists, activists and lawyers ruled on Wednesday to uphold the social network’s ban of former President Donald J. Trump, ending any immediate return by Mr. Trump to mainstream social media and renewing a debate about tech power over online speech.

    Facebook’s Oversight Board, which acts as a quasi-court to deliberate the company’s content decisions, said the social network was right to bar Mr. Trump after he used the site to foment an insurrection in Washington in January. The panel said the ongoing risk of violence “justified” the suspension.

    But the board also said that Facebook’s penalty of an indefinite suspension was “not appropriate,” and that the company should apply a “defined penalty.” The board gave Facebook six months to make its final decision on Mr. Trump’s account status.

    “The Board insists that Facebook review this matter to determine and justify a proportionate response that is consistent with the rules that are applied to other users of its platform,” it said in a statement.

    Good, at least there may be a 6 month reprieve from Dumbass’ Facebook stupidity.

  20. Three cell phones, maybe more if I am deployed. One landline, one office desk phone. One Google voice phone.  Two phone numbers that are floating around somewhere,maybe I will remember later.  I unplug the landline, too many scam calls.  The office phone is forwarded to one of the cellphones and a laptop computer.  I have a charging station to recharge the cellphones.  Sometimes I forget where I left the cell phones and they discharge.  The new ones do not discharge as well as the old ones, nuts.

  24. Pogo – those are just the phones.  Internet email. social media, chat, etc, I have spreadsheets which are not enough to keep track of it all.  I do a lot of no electronics days to get away from it all.

  25. Jamie – If only the US could do to Faux News what Australia did to their Murdoch tumor.

    Texas teachers won’t even be allowed to discuss current events unless they discuss diverse points of view.  So, they have let kids know why the GQP thinks and lies the way it does, or, can they only report the lie itself?  

  27. Reality Winner is also going to win.  Just gonna take a bit longer.   They’re wrapping stuff up as wee spokes.
    Where’s X and flate

  30. Poobah, you don’t often hear someone use the term “paved path to the future” literally.

  32. Just saw another noodge on the tweeter agreeing with my Liz Cheney assessment.   He says it’s cause she’s hard-wired into intelligence circles and hence knows they’re going to fail.   Which would also explain cheney pere’s not deigning to weigh in.  He says she’s going to eat their lunch.   
     
     
     
     
     
     
     

  33. Craig – That was a really lovely article about your dad.  He was a really lovely person, even the times I called him Jim. He was a friendly face at that book party.  I must’ve looked lost and your mom was off working the room.  

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