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Tech moguls want to build a crypto paradise on a Native American reservation

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  • Libertarian attempts make it pretty obvious why libertarianism fails wholesale. Everybody says “live and let live” at first, but as the author notes in that article it must inevitably devolve into “arguments over who is living free in the correct way”. Which is blatantly antithetical to the concept they started from.

    And if they didnt devolve into those arguments, then they would just all drown in a sea of trash and angry bears. Libertarianism is fundamentally flawed and inherently lose-lose no matter how it plays out. Governance is actually important. Whoda thunk?

    Everyone cant just be free of their neighbor. If your neighbor feeds the bears you will deal with the consequences too. Probably worse ones, since you arent so friendly with the bears (from the bear perspective)

    I wrote a long reply to explore some ideas I've been entertaining recently. I guess I just wanted to straighten my own thoughts out, so please don't take this as pontificating or "this is how it is for sure". I just like thinking while typing. Feel free to not read.

    I see your point and definitely agree with the conclusion:

    Clearly, when it comes to certain kinds of problems, the response must be collective, supported by public effort

    But umm.. Sometimes the larger threat isn't bears that randomly come over from the woods. Sometimes the people that were elected to protect you from bears and were supported by the public, even cheered and applauded... Idk, circumstances are important.

    I also feel like lots of people focus a lot on the inherent flaws of different systems of political organization that they don't adhere to, while turning a blind eye on their own.

    ::: spoiler Libertarianism
    Yes, libertarianism is flawed and fails at a certain scale for both individuals and large populations as a whole in the presence of widespread distrust or relevant threats within or outside the population and will inevitably devolve into "anarchy" (which means warlords/cartels each with as much territory their ruthless leaders can secure and handle). Won't disagree with you there.
    :::

    ::: spoiler Capitalism
    What about good, old fashioned, standard American capitalist democracy? Well then it seems people get ruled by what results of the negotiation between corporations and political parties, who are largely controlled by the psychos who are ruthless enough to climb to the top of those systems... Ok so I guess this means getting ruled by psychos again. But at least people get to vote! At least people respect the law! right? Well... elections are basically a competition on what individuals and organizations are most effective at persuading or manipulating, and the law is the result of those competitions through time.
    :::

    ::: spoiler Communism
    But now let's think about communism. How's that turned out historically? Seems to me like people stop accumulating private property and start accumulating political influence to improve their position within a state that attempts to control or at the very least regulate everything to impose equal distribution of different resources, except.. you know.. for the people that have influence. This has happened time and time again. Seems devolve into authoritarianism really fast because people get desperate about trying to get to the top of that ladder of influence that decides who gets what. (trust me on this one, I live in south america). And when you have authoritarianism you have literally every psychopath in the country doing everything they can to have access to the absolute power its leadership entails. So.... ruled by psychos.
    :::

    ::: spoiler Socialism
    Ok, ok, but maybe communism was too extreme. How about socialism? That works, right? I mean, sure! It works under the following conditions: Your country has so much wealth it can afford to secure services to the less fortunate (as defined culturally), the struggle for power between people that want large powerful governments and those who want large powerful corporations is relatively balanced and carried out in good faith (or else unstable system), and both your private sector stays competent enough to keep the country rich and your government stays sharp enough to promote adequate legislation in order for corporations to not wreak havoc... So wait.. Doesn't this mean that this is just like American Capitalism or Communism, where this happens but in an earlier stage of its life cycle, before it devolves into "corporations win" or "the state wins"? Because the population is still able to identify charlatans and the culture is cohesive so people don't consider their political rivals to be sworn enemies yet?
    :::

    ::: spoiler Final thoughts.
    Given enough time, whatever system a country uses or constitution it adheres to, the psychos will rise to different positions of power, they'll fight each other for a bit and then one team will win, turning the lives of everyone who isn't in their team a living hell. Then, given enough time, the oppressed seize a victory and then change stuff up, for the better or the worse and on and on it goes until an idea/creation myth powerful enough to unite a fractured society comes and money can be made and things can be built again with idealism and unity... But nothing lasts forever.

    That's just how it works. There are no good systems. Elections are as useless as royalty or theocracy. It's not about systems, it's about where in the life cycle of the society/empire you randomly got born into. All we can really do is adapt.

    If you made it this far, I'm impressed. Thanks for reading! Appreciate you hearing out my thoughts and would love to hear your opinion.
    :::

  • Guess what traits tend to make for people better at securing and conserving power within groups, and keeping loyalty within their ranks?

    In a time of crisis. The biggest downside of these leaders is that they keep creating new crises to stay in power. There are cases of killing such a leader because of that.

    And in a lot of leaders, their status was defined for how much they could give away and how generous they were, not how tough they were.

    Then there is religion, that manages to encoded certain rules and pass them on to the next generations.

    The world is a lot more than psychopaths.

    Agree 100% to every statement you made.

    But umm.. you realize that just by changing religion's name it doesn't stop being religion? Like, just because now instead of striving to go to heaven or achieve enlightenment or some other afterlife or any other form of supernatural transcendence, we now strive for a better society of tomorrow and understanding the universe... as long as people are willing to kill and die for their version of how to achieve their notion of paradise/transcendence/whatever is meaningful to them, and leaders are capable of using this conviction to build empires, there isn't any meaningful difference?

    You might argue we got rid of "magic", but again.. changing names... Statistical anomalies, higher curled up dimensions, superimposed states.... Just because we have observed bizarre phenomena that has blown our minds and have the ability to predict some of it's behavior does not mean the eradication of all the unknown is possible. And that's all "magic" is and was. The unknown over which we have little control.

    Yes, the world is a lot more than psychopaths, and yes, religion was and is fucked up, and there is enormous value to kindness and compassion which we should all strive for, but I'm sure we can agree psychos play a big role in leadership and people have a hard time seeing the stories of their time for what they are.

    And, as a reminder, if someone has an advantage over others in the game of achieving power does not mean it's wise to do as they do or that they are any more (or less) valuable than anyone else. They're just good at a game. My comment was in no way a message of admiration, rather a declaration of resignation.

  • You're going to call protestors "agitators" while the broligarchs keep coming up with the most outrageous, evil bullshit they could think of, just for the hell of it.

    """""""""""""""""""""""""""""""paradise"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""

  • BTC has an unregulated currency (yes, it still is capable to function as that) to show for it. Probably somebody could have invented a better emission mechanism for it, but not being that somebody, I can't think of anything with the same qualities.

    Its called paper money, every country has a currency they use to exchange goods and services.

  • Look into the history of libertarians trying to set up paradises of like minded people to find out why this will fail. They start into the 19th century and just keep failing.

    There are people who, disturbed by "big government" today and its tendency to curb the advantages they might gain if their competitiveness were allowed free flow, demand "less govern- ment." Alas, there is no such thing as less government, merely changes in government. If the libertarians had their way, the distant bureaucracy would vanish and the local bully would be in charge. Personally, I prefer the distant bureaucracy, which may not find me, over the local bully, who certainly will. And all historical precedent shows a change to localism to be for the worse.

    —Isaac Asimov, Nice Guys Finish First, collected in The Sun Shines Bright, 1981

  • Those are owned by Native Americans... Not white billionaires

    Your point?

  • I believe that was the joke?

    Edit: it's basically a trope at this point. Crypto/tech bros, like the Libertarian scum they evolved from, yearn for the sea

  • You're going to call protestors "agitators" while the broligarchs keep coming up with the most outrageous, evil bullshit they could think of, just for the hell of it.

    You mean the US?

  • You're going to call protestors "agitators" while the broligarchs keep coming up with the most outrageous, evil bullshit they could think of, just for the hell of it.

    "Crypto paradise" is the first example in the dictionary when you look up Oxymoron

  • BTC also uses massive amounts of resources, and we have an impending climate crisis on our hands. Tell me, how is that useful to further the climate destabilization for whatever momentary convenience you think you have. We're gonna be really sorry in 5-10 years as this thing accelerates. We are getting some seriously bad news in the scientific community right now bcz we are far outpacing even the most pessimistic studies on warming and CO2 output. We have dumbasses in charge who want to pretend climate change doesn't exist.

    There are other cryptocurrencies without the overhead of bitcoin. Bitcoin is actually a really shitty implementation in regards to efficiency.

    Cryptocurrency as a concept is incredibly useful and as time goes on it will likely be how most business is done.

    Governments just aren't as good at regulating currency as computers. Look at inflation on the US dollar.

  • Your point?

    Idk why I'm asking this, but I'm genuinely curious why you think reservations exist?

  • Idk why I'm asking this, but I'm genuinely curious why you think reservations exist?

    For the natives to explore loopholes.

  • BTC is useful though.

    It's very easy to judge from the EU, but if you are in Russia and need to pay for something in the interwebs, it's very convenient to have an imperfect, but kinda functioning system like this.

    (Idiots replying with "go rebel" or "change location" need not bother, I happen to have family, friends, dog, ASD and BAD, my sister who's on my support every time she makes a planning mistake can change location, I can't. I'm also not a Jedi chosen one to have useful options of "rebelling".)

    You mean those really cool conductive rubber dome over PCB with slider keyboards, right?

  • Napster/BitTorrent for machine learning?

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    What would a use case look like? I assume that the latency will make it impractical to train something that's LLM-sized. But even for something small, wouldn't a data center be more efficient?
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    If you're a developer, a startup founder, or part of a small team, you've poured countless hours into building your web application. You've perfected the UI, optimized the database, and shipped features your users love. But in the rush to build and deploy, a critical question often gets deferred: is your application secure? For many, the answer is a nervous "I hope so." The reality is that without a proper defense, your application is exposed to a barrage of automated attacks hitting the web every second. Threats like SQL Injection, Cross-Site Scripting (XSS), and Remote Code Execution are not just reserved for large enterprises; they are constant dangers for any application with a public IP address. The Security Barrier: When Cost and Complexity Get in the Way The standard recommendation is to place a Web Application Firewall (WAF) in front of your application. A WAF acts as a protective shield, inspecting incoming traffic and filtering out malicious requests before they can do any damage. It’s a foundational piece of modern web security. So, why doesn't everyone have one? Historically, robust WAFs have been complex and expensive. They required significant budgets, specialized knowledge to configure, and ongoing maintenance, putting them out of reach for students, solo developers, non-profits, and early-stage startups. This has created a dangerous security divide, leaving the most innovative and resource-constrained projects the most vulnerable. But that is changing. Democratizing Security: The Power of a Community WAF Security should be a right, not a privilege. Recognizing this, the landscape is shifting towards more accessible, community-driven tools. The goal is to provide powerful, enterprise-grade protection to everyone, for free. This is the principle behind the HaltDos Community WAF. It's a no-cost, perpetually free Web Application Firewall designed specifically for the community that has been underserved for too long. It’s not a stripped-down trial version; it’s a powerful security tool designed to give you immediate and effective protection against the OWASP Top 10 and other critical web threats. What Can You Actually Do with It? With a community WAF, you can deploy a security layer in minutes that: Blocks Malicious Payloads: Get instant, out-of-the-box protection against common attack patterns like SQLi, XSS, RCE, and more. Stops Bad Bots: Prevent malicious bots from scraping your content, attempting credential stuffing, or spamming your forms. Gives You Visibility: A real-time dashboard shows you exactly who is trying to attack your application and what methods they are using, providing invaluable security intelligence. Allows Customization: You can add your own custom security rules to tailor the protection specifically to your application's logic and technology stack. The best part? It can be deployed virtually anywhere—on-premises, in a private cloud, or with any major cloud provider like AWS, Azure, or Google Cloud. Get Started in Minutes You don't need to be a security guru to use it. The setup is straightforward, and the value is immediate. Protecting the project, you've worked so hard on is no longer a question of budget. Download: Get the free Community WAF from the HaltDos site. Deploy: Follow the simple instructions to set it up with your web server (it’s compatible with Nginx, Apache, and others). Secure: Watch the dashboard as it begins to inspect your traffic and block threats in real-time. Security is a journey, but it must start somewhere. For developers, startups, and anyone running a web application on a tight budget, a community WAF is the perfect first step. It's powerful, it's easy, and it's completely free.
  • Covert Web-to-App Tracking via Localhost on Android

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    Thanks for sharing this, it is an interesting read (though an additional comment about what this about would have been helpful). I want to say I am glad I do not use either of these services but Yandex implementation seems so bad that it does not matter, as any app could receive their data
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    I don't see Yarvin on here... this needs expansion.
  • WordPress has formed an AI team

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    Mmm fair point
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    Niemand hat geantwortet
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    No, just laminated ones. Closed at one end. Easy enough to make or buy. You can even improvise the propellant.
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    If you want to stay on the bleeding edge you've got to be a reversal of Europe, which means allowing innovation and competition. Hence why VT is nearly 70% US.