A fool and his not-really-money are soon parted
-
@izzion said in A fool and his not-really-money are soon parted:
@Polygeekery
So does that mean I can ask @boomzilla for a Poe badge, since I took you with that one?You can ask...
-
@Polygeekery said in A fool and his not-really-money are soon parted:
Someone is going to get seriously fucked by this.
How is that different from all other Bitcoins transactions?
-
@TimeBandit said in A fool and his not-really-money are soon parted:
@Polygeekery said in A fool and his not-really-money are soon parted:
Someone is going to get seriously fucked by this.
How is that different from all other Bitcoins transactions?
I would have posted the same thing, but without the troll face.
-
@Polygeekery said in A fool and his not-really-money are soon parted:
Someone is going to get seriously fucked by this.
True to the spirit of bitcoin
but inin my defence, I thought of it first, but had to wait for the joke transaction to be verified.
-
#CurrencyOfTheFuture
#ItOnlyGoesUp
-
@izzion it's too bad ASICS can't be repurposed into cracking certificates...
-
I know it's the Reg, but still relevant.
"We found a proliferation of press releases, white papers, and persuasively written articles," Burg et al wrote on Thursday. "However, we found no documentation or evidence of the results blockchain was purported to have achieved in these claims. We also did not find lessons learned or practical insights, as are available for other technologies in development."
Blockchain vendors were keen to puff the merits of the technology, but when the three asked for proof of success in the field, it all went very quiet.
Blockchain has been wildly mis-sold, but underneath it is a database with performance and scalability issues and a lot of baggage. Any claim made for blockchain could be made for databases, or simply publishing contractual or transactional data gathered in another form.
As with every bubble, whether it's Tulip Mania or the Californian Gold Rush, most investors lose their shirts while a fortune is being made by associated services – the advisors and marketeers can bank their cash, even if there's no gold in the river.
-
In an email (legitimately subscribed to) I received yesterday was this advertisement:
I felt obligated to click on it. For you guys. It led to this:
Fortunately, the video has a transcript, which basically tells you to buy up obscure crypto currencies, because there have been a few whose values skyrocketed (at least for a brief time, I guess). Here's a choice quote:
While I was telling everyone Bitcoin would succeed…
The mainstream media was saying the exact opposite.
A contributor for Business Insider called Bitcoin “something strange.” And they questioned “why anyone would think it’s useful.”
A CNN op-ed said it was “a big scam designed to enrich its shadowy creators”… and “a bubble that could soon pop.”
And Slate published an article with the headline “Bitcoin is a Ponzi scheme — the internet’s favorite currency will collapse.”
So if you missed the Bitcoin boom, it’s not your fault.
The mainstream media simply “brainwashed” most Americans into thinking Bitcoin was a scam.
Well, had you ignored the clueless mainstream media…
And listened to what I said on CNBC instead…
You would be up 3,710% today.
ZOMG....this shit just goes on and on and on. You can read it all here.
-
@boomzilla So if I'd forfeited only $100 then, I could have 400000 tethers today? A worthy investment!
inb4 whatever the actual exchange rates have been
-
My crypto currency holdings have increased in value a thousand fold over the last year.
A thousand times zero is still zero
-
@boomzilla said in A fool and his not-really-money are soon parted:
In an email (legitimately subscribed to) I received yesterday was this advertisement:
Your emails load
adspictures?A contributor for Business Insider called Bitcoin “something strange.” And they questioned “why anyone would think it’s useful.”
A CNN op-ed said it was “a big scam designed to enrich its shadowy creators”… and “a bubble that could soon pop.”
And Slate published an article with the headline “Bitcoin is a Ponzi scheme — the internet’s favorite currency will collapse.”
I love how he's embracing it all. By now everybody's heard that it's a scam, no point in denying those claims, just call them a conspiracy instead.
-
@topspin said in A fool and his not-really-money are soon parted:
Your emails load
adspictures?What do you take me for, some kind of Euro privacy weenie? I use regular gmail like a normal person.
-
@boomzilla said in A fool and his not-really-money are soon parted:
ZOMG....this shit just goes on and on and on
Well, penny stocks are just so last century... (thinking about it, I haven't been spammed by a "buy this" in ... forever!)
-
-
@dcon said in A fool and his not-really-money are soon parted:
(thinking about it, I haven't been spammed by a "buy this" in ... forever!)
edit added link to video, not ppt.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fQPspL_VuD8&index=89&t=0s&list=PL9fPq3eQfaaDjnjDsjgmtASOWg8a8neEE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fQPspL_VuD8&index=89&t=0s&list=PL9fPq3eQfaaDjnjDsjgmtASOWg8a8neEEtldr:
Stock spamming was everywhere, and for some stupid reason was actually working. Dudes started tracking the stocks being spammed, and the performance. One particular spammer was very good at this. They would send out stock, buy some stock before the "get huge" time. Others buy, spammer cashes out, $$$.Then spam filters got better, and could easily filter out things with stock symbols. So some (but not all) spammers turned to sending out the email as an image. Those that didn't had all their spam filtered away.
The SEC at some point does a huge raid, catches a bunch of spammers, investors, etc. Lays some fines, makes some changes. (they only acted because the head of the SEC received a spam message and didn't like it)
Now that everyone knows what the scam is, how it works, and there's measures in place to prevent it, it isn't profitable anymore. Spam filters can easily kill text-based emails, and by now are probably good enough to read a stock symbol from an image.
-
@Lorne-Kates said in A fool and his not-really-money are soon parted:
@boomzilla said in A fool and his not-really-money are soon parted:
-
@DCoder Is there a way to be truthful with statistics?
-
@Kian Theoretically. So, no.
-
@Kian said in A fool and his not-really-money are soon parted:
@DCoder Is there a way to be truthful with statistics?
Yes, if you don't use any
-
@Kian said in A fool and his not-really-money are soon parted:
@DCoder Is there a way to be truthful with statistics?
We can prove that either way - with statistics!
-
@Kian said in A fool and his not-really-money are soon parted:
@DCoder Is there a way to be truthful with statistics?
Numbers don't lie. People using numbers lie.
-
@Kian There's lies, damned lies and statistics.
-
As any student of Bitcon can tell you, December is always an amazing month for the currency. And what with the pressure in the stock market, there will be more demand than ever as people look for a store of value to protect their money...
-
Bitcoin Options Bought for $1 Million Will Soon Be Worthless
Purchased for almost $1 million on LedgerX’s trading platform just days after Bitcoin peaked a year ago, the call options have a strike price of $50,000 and an expiry date of Dec. 28, 2018. For the contracts to retain any value at expiry, Bitcoin would need to rally more than 1,400 percent.
-
-
@boomzilla
$1M spent on calls that were out of the money by over 200% at the time of purchase? That had to be a money launder or embezzlement, right?Edit: Also, he spent $1M on calls that were that far out of the money for a $13.75M notional value position. Meaning he spent more than $3600 per coin for the option, at a time when coins were selling for $16,000 each. AND THE OPTION WAS 200% OUT OF THE MONEY!!! Either the article has to be mis-written or this guy was up to some serious financial malfeasance.
-
@Cursorkeys Context I think I managed to infer:
this guy started some sort of business mining shitcoins for people, then I guess with the ongoing crash they all started pulling out so he has no income from them and is shutting down his operation.
Odd; anyone would think that, with so much mining equipment, he'd be raking in the currency of the future.
-
@kazitor said in A fool and his not-really-money are soon parted:
@Cursorkeys Context I think I managed to infer:
this guy started some sort of business mining shitcoins for people, then I guess with the ongoing crash they all started pulling out so he has no income from them and is shutting down his operation.
Odd; anyone would think that, with so much mining equipment, he'd be raking in the currency of the future.
From a quick look, it was a colocation facility for other peoples bitcoin mining rigs. Except that it looked ghetto as all hell. Cooling was from a home-made evaporative cooling wall and the rigs weren't in racks they were just on the floor sitting on bathroom mesh-shelving.
He couldn't move to being real CoLo hosting when the magic-bean customers left because he didn't have any proper peering or any actual infrastructure, I can't see many commercial customers wanting their gear in high-humidity on the floor.
Edit: And from the nasty sludged-up state of their cooling system when they dismantled it I guess they weren't using any inhibitors or biocide. Probably lucky they closed down before giving everyone in their town Legionnaires Disease.
-
@Cursorkeys
I mean, I'd be rushing to co-locate my servers in a warehouse that used box fans for cooling. You can't beat deals like that.
-
@izzion said in A fool and his not-really-money are soon parted:
@Cursorkeys
I mean, I'd be rushing to co-locate my servers in a warehouse that used box fans for cooling. You can't beat deals like that.Four-thousand-dollar box fans!
-
@Cursorkeys The saddest thing is all the hardware going to waste. I'm envious of all the graphics cards still around as my PC is nearly a decade old, but the hardware can't probably be 100% trusted anyway from working 24/7.
On the other hand, nobody can afford a burn-in test like this, so at least you know that such a second-hand part has no obvious manufacturing defects...
-
@JBert said in A fool and his not-really-money are soon parted:
On the other hand, nobody can afford a burn-in test like this, so at least you know that such a second-hand part has no obvious manufacturing defects...
Good old bathtub curve, I can't find the MTBF for any consumer graphics card. Guess they keep them under their hats.
I'd take a punt on a mining 1080 to replace my creaky 970 if it was priced right...say 200 quid or so.
I certainly can't afford a new RTX card, I wonder how big the market really is for those prices.
-
@Cursorkeys said in A fool and his not-really-money are soon parted:
I certainly can't afford a new RTX card, I wonder how big the market really is for those prices.
The new RTX cards are an absolute rip off. The performance boost hardly justifies the price hike, you're essentially paying a fortune for early access to raytracing. Right now only Battlefield V uses it to limited effect and it absolute shreds your FPS when turned on. It's going to take a while for it to reach widespread adoption and chances are that by then you'll be needing a new graphics card anyway.
-
@Cursorkeys said in A fool and his not-really-money are soon parted:
@JBert said in A fool and his not-really-money are soon parted:
On the other hand, nobody can afford a burn-in test like this, so at least you know that such a second-hand part has no obvious manufacturing defects...
Good old bathtub curve, I can't find the MTBF for any consumer graphics card. Guess they keep them under their hats.
MTBF has always been a joke; the standard failure estimation is "manufacturer's warranty plus the minimum time to convince whoever calls tech support that it's out of warranty".
-
@JBert What you said about all the hardware mirrors my thoughts exactly.
-
I wonder if any "mining center" has been robbed yet. Sounds like a fine source of quality hardware...
-
@Medinoc said in A fool and his not-really-money are soon parted:
I wonder if any "mining center" has been robbed yet.
Yep, it was ASICs though: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/mar/07/hundreds-of-bitcoin-mining-servers-stolen-in-iceland
@Medinoc said in A fool and his not-really-money are soon parted:
Sounds like a fine source of quality hardware...
A place like this one was should be good for a couple of shopping trolleys full of 1080Ti's
-
@Medinoc said in A fool and his not-really-money are soon parted:
I wonder if any "mining center" has been robbed yet. Sounds like a fine source of quality hardware...
I'm sure they hired security person, installed multi-factor locks on the doors, isolated the server room with further identification/authorization, and all the servers are bolted to racks that are industrial bolted to cement.
{whisper whisper}
Hmm, okay, I'm being told that the servers are sitting on the floor, the floor is a huge open room that IS the server room, the front door has a Dudley combination lock the owner had left over from high school, and the homeless guy they hired to sit by the door and guard the place quit because they tried to pay him in bitcoins.
-
@Cursorkeys said in A fool and his not-really-money are soon parted:
Let's see here...
The ceiling is unfinished so the only thing above the servers is the thin tin-roof. That roof is most likely a "builder's special", so there are gaps, and holes from where the not-meant-for-outdoor nails have rusted away. Cool.
And the servers are just-- open. No tarp covering the server area. Not even a teeny tiny cocktail umbrella playfully stuck to each graphics card. Neat. I guess it's a good thing he put his server farm in a desert far away from any precipitation. Hang on-- zoom and enhance.
Awesome. Forget Legionnaire's Disease, he's lucky he didn't just electrocute everyone in a three block radius.
-
@Lorne-Kates said in A fool and his not-really-money are soon parted:
@Medinoc said in A fool and his not-really-money are soon parted:
I wonder if any "mining center" has been robbed yet. Sounds like a fine source of quality hardware...
I'm sure they hired security person, installed multi-factor locks on the doors, isolated the server room with further identification/authorization, and all the servers are bolted to racks that are industrial bolted to cement.
{whisper whisper}
Hmm, okay, I'm being told that the servers are sitting on the floor, the floor is a huge open room that IS the server room, the front door has a Dudley combination lock the owner had left over from high school, and the homeless guy they hired to sit by the door and guard the place quit because they tried to pay him in bitcoins.
Don't forget, they used that fingerprint padlock.
-
@Deadfast said in A fool and his not-really-money are soon parted:
The new RTX cards are an absolute rip off. The performance boost hardly justifies the price hike, you're essentially paying a fortune for early access to raytracing. Right now only Battlefield V uses it to limited effect and it absolute shreds your FPS when turned on. It's going to take a while for it to reach widespread adoption and chances are that by then you'll be needing a new graphics card anyway.
Not to mention they have a abnormally high rate of failure, including going up in smoke in one case.
-
@dcon said in A fool and his not-really-money are soon parted:
Don't forget, they used that fingerprint padlock.
Ironic, since they're now
-
SFYL...of freedom
-
@Cursorkeys said in A fool and his not-really-money are soon parted:
Indictment not linked to exchange's loss of $400 million worth of bitcoin
Agreed. I am a huge advocate of giving CEO's long prison sentences unrelated to anything they've done. Just being a CEO is enough to deserve it.
But he also embezzled a bunch of money from Mt. Gox.
Karpeles has denied embezzling the funds, saying the money was meant to be accounted as a temporary loan.
Yes, that is exactly what embezzlers do.
"It was just a loan. I'll pay it back, it doesn't have to go past the two of us. Here, I'll write the check and deposit it now."
{when no one is looking, shreds the check, and puts it into QuickBooks anyways}
Wait, I just checked the bank account and we're still missing those funds!
"I'll call the bank in the morning and sort it out. They probably are just holding a big check."
{in the morning, opens a line of credit with a different bank, under the company's name, using the company's credit history. Does not put THAT account on the books. Withdraws money from that account and dumps it into the main one}
"Ah, see, there's the money. All is fine!"
{continues to do this, acting as intermediary between the secret accounts and the actual financial officers-- letting the debt rack up while he still syphons off the accounts. People start to get suspicious, but by then the company is drowning in secret debt and goes bankrupt. The liquidators don't care about anything except selling off all assets to recoup the bank's money. No one ever looks into the books, which are now closed and dissolved. Embezzler moves on to the next company}.
-
Razer, the maker of
pure heavenly virgin gold HDMI cablesoverpriced PC accessories, gives you a new way to make money:Have a gaming rig on idle at home? Here's a new way to score Razer Silver: launch Razer SoftMiner on your PC and start racking up Silver—one step closer to the reward you want, for doing nothing at all.
Source: @Razer
Reverse-engineering shows it to be … yep, that's why it's in this thread…
in a huge surprise to everyone, i'm sure, the @razer "get free fun bucks!" thing is literally just a sleazy frontend to NiceHash
NiceHash?
the benchmark they do lets them know which shitcoins are the most profitable to mine given your machine's capabilities, of course.
anyway here's some other data left in the executable. you can download their shitty client from the installer in a vm and then pop it open in ILSpy or whatever.
ah, my favorite kind of garbage software. installs a service along with the program you actually wanted, and then the uninstaller doesn't work. classic. lmao
they are very careful to state repeatedly that "Razer Silver is not a cryptocurrency" but gloss over what this crap program actually does
and of course the shit scrip you get from making them even more money fucking /expires/
lmao @razer you're fucking trashSource: @xkeepah
… And further digging in that same thread shows their connections to more and more skeevy shitcoin sites.
-
-
@DCoder A question, if I may. I was not aware that Razer had manufactured anything else than mice. I was also not aware that their wares were overpriced. Probably because of the market in Finland is a bit... odd.
Can you tell me what all they've been caught doing that is untoward?
-
@acrow ignoring this specific shitcoinage… They're simply accelerating the process of separating an idiot from his money — they manufacture overpriced shiny shit with fancy labels and bold claims of superiority. In Eastern European terms, it's the stuff новые русские with more money than brain would buy.
Much like companies that charge $1095 for a 3 feet long "Diamond quality" HDMI cable.Oh, and there's also this:
-
@DCoder Ah. Products break down. LAptops with bulging batteries.
OK, that's on another level. Overpriced, shiny, fancy and false claims is normal in that market. Breaking too soon is... not.
-
@acrow said in A fool and his not-really-money are soon parted:
@DCoder Ah. Products break down. LAptops with bulging batteries.
OK, that's on another level. Overpriced, shiny, fancy and false claims is normal in that market. Breaking too soon is... not.Razer is famous for being the shittiest polished-turd brand. Another frequent thing is that the scroll wheel on their mice breaks after 6 months under normal use.