Hacker News: magnamerc

New comment by magnamerc in "Cut global emissions by 7.6% per year for next decade to meet 1.5°C Paris target"

magnamerc — Wed, 27 Nov 2019 18:20:56 +0000

In countries like the DRC or Nigeria, with large oil and natural gas reserves, who are we to tell them that they can no longer exploit those reserves for their benefit? If we don't want oil and gas to be extracted for wealth, then we need to force market dynamics in such a way as to make the exploitation of oil and gas unprofitable worldwide. We have zero moral authority on dictating what these countries can and cannot do with their own resources

New comment by magnamerc in "Cut global emissions by 7.6% per year for next decade to meet 1.5°C Paris target"

magnamerc — Tue, 26 Nov 2019 21:31:49 +0000

I don't want to discourage you, because everything counts, but I think the real problem with climate change isn't in the West, it's in the rest of the world. The West had the luxury of using cheap carbon in the early 20th century to industrialize and build out infrastructure. India and countries in Africa haven't had that luxury, therefore they are going to use as much carbon as is necessary to industrialize. It would be hypocritical for Westerners to criticize them for it. The only way to change that is if Western countries governments actively exported low-carbon tech to help them leap-frog a centralized power distribution network and go straight to in-situ decentralized power generation without it affecting their rising quality of life. This is a societal, market economics and technological problem. Cutting out meat won't help nearly as much as developing lab grown meat will. Rather than attempt to change individual behaviors, we should strive to make low carbon technologies that align with existing behaviors.

New comment by magnamerc in "Diamonds Keep Getting Cheaper"

magnamerc — Wed, 13 Nov 2019 16:20:39 +0000

Except bitcoin can't be manufactured on demand. I'm sorry, but this is a terrible analogy. There's a reason why people compare bitcoin to gold, because it makes for a better analogy, despite the fact that gold is actually ubiquitous throughout the solar system, and bitcoin is actually finite. For the record, I own zero bitcoin.

New comment by magnamerc in "Factual Inaccuracies of “Facebook Libra Is Architecturally Unsound”"

magnamerc — Tue, 05 Nov 2019 20:28:06 +0000

As did I, hence why I commented that it feels like ultracrepidarianism.

New comment by magnamerc in "Facebook Libra Is Architecturally Unsound"

magnamerc — Tue, 05 Nov 2019 20:07:20 +0000

If that were true, then they would come to a different conclusion. There are several examples of useful applications that are live today that would be otherwise impossible without a public programmable blockchain.

New comment by magnamerc in "Facebook Libra Is Architecturally Unsound"

magnamerc — Tue, 05 Nov 2019 15:29:45 +0000

As soon as blockchain is even mentioned on HN, everyone loses their freaking minds. For some people that tout themselves as intellectuals, they just seem to parrot that 'blockchains are useless' without even taking a cursory look into the technology. It seems to me that a lot of people here fall into the category of ultracrepidarianism.

New comment by magnamerc in "Tether: The Story So Far"

magnamerc — Mon, 04 Nov 2019 20:04:25 +0000

Bitcoin isn't programmable money. That's Ethereum

New comment by magnamerc in "Tether: The Story So Far"

magnamerc — Mon, 04 Nov 2019 20:03:25 +0000

Why re-invent the wheel when MakerDAO DAI exists, which is a much better solution to the problem of a decentralized stablecoin.

New comment by magnamerc in "Lone Bitcoin Whale Likely Fueled 2017 Price Surge, Study Says"

magnamerc — Mon, 04 Nov 2019 14:56:41 +0000

Yes I remember this as well, but the real rally was from 1.2k to 10k from January to November. I do remember the spike from 10k to 20k in December, and it did seem very unnatural to me, but it could have also partly been due to euphoria.

ICO mania really started in April, and the ETH/BTC ratio rose to its ATH in June/July. This drove a ton of hype into cryptocurrencies, and naturally every single crypto rose spectacularly. BTC would have never gotten to 10k if it wasn't for the ICO mania of Summer 2017, IMO.

New comment by magnamerc in "Lone Bitcoin Whale Likely Fueled 2017 Price Surge, Study Says"

magnamerc — Mon, 04 Nov 2019 13:33:23 +0000

The Bitcoin rally of 2017 was caused by Ethereum, specifically the rise of ICOs.

New comment by magnamerc in "Grandmaster level in StarCraft II using multi-agent reinforcement learning"

magnamerc — Thu, 31 Oct 2019 18:03:51 +0000

I would pay a lot of money to be able to play a human level Emperor+ level AI on civ

New comment by magnamerc in "Close Encounter with a Gigantic Jet"

magnamerc — Wed, 30 Oct 2019 12:11:28 +0000

I work with planes and it's not at all uncommon to find lightning damage. In fact, there are generic repairs for particular locations prone to lightning strikes.

New comment by magnamerc in "Bitcoin Energy Consumption Index"

magnamerc — Thu, 17 Oct 2019 12:37:42 +0000

You can take a look at the eth2.0 specification here https://github.com/ethereum/eth2.0-specs. They have solved the nothing at stake problem, and they currently have 8 independent client implementations written in different languages that can 'talk' to each other on a multi-client testnet. They are much further along then people may realize.

New comment by magnamerc in "Magic Mushrooms Can Help Smokers Kick the Habit"

magnamerc — Thu, 17 Oct 2019 12:28:48 +0000

Yeah that's why I added analog in brackets haha. But I believe you're correct

New comment by magnamerc in "Magic Mushrooms Can Help Smokers Kick the Habit"

magnamerc — Wed, 16 Oct 2019 20:29:05 +0000

You can buy pre-cursors (or known as analogs) like 4-AcO-DMT online from Lysergi. They are sold as a 'research chemical', however they metabolize into psilocin so it is indistinguishable to psilocybin. Obviously you should take every pre-caution before ingesting any substance by doing your own research, and looking into the authenticity of the supplier.

New comment by magnamerc in "Soli"

magnamerc — Wed, 16 Oct 2019 17:45:34 +0000

You can extend this to mechanics/technicians. Manipulating a large screen when your hands are full of grease.

New comment by magnamerc in "Currency (Restrictions on the Use of Cash) Bill 2019"

magnamerc — Mon, 29 Jul 2019 15:19:33 +0000

Even pseudoanonymous blockchains like Bitcoin aren't completely fungible like cash. You need to use privacy only cryptos like Monero, or zero knowledge proof contracts on Ethereum for that.

New comment by magnamerc in "Quantum Darwinism, an Idea to Explain Objective Reality, Passes First Tests"

magnamerc — Thu, 25 Jul 2019 13:14:23 +0000

Would the Universe exist if there were no conscious beings to observe it?

New comment by magnamerc in "Ex-Microsoft dev used test account to swipe $10M in store credits"

magnamerc — Thu, 18 Jul 2019 12:27:09 +0000

Apparently this also breaks Moneros privacy by identifying a BTC address associated it (even without KYC). You need to buy Monero from LocalMonero if you want to be truly private.

New comment by magnamerc in "Tether loaned USDT to investors and illegally traded in New York, says NYAG"

magnamerc — Wed, 10 Jul 2019 20:51:40 +0000

I believe Veil (which is a dapp built ontop of the Augur protocol) supports DAI, which is a decentralized stablecoin built by MakerDAO.

The only market on Augur right now for USDT is the following one: https://predictions.global/augur-markets/will-tether-usdt-tr...

There's no liquidity though, which is a problem obviously.