[ExI] DuckDuckGo

[spike at rainier66.com]

From: extropy-chat <extropy-chat-bounces at lists.extropy.org> On Behalf Of Mike Dougherty via extropy-chat
Subject: Re: [ExI] DuckDuckGo

 

 

On Sun, Nov 28, 2021, 12:58 PM Brent Allsop via extropy-chat <extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org <mailto:extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org> > wrote:

 

To me, being so private is just selfish.  On the eff’n privacy HIPPA form they now have for all the Docs, where it asks who can access my data, I always put everyone, for any reason, forever…

 

>…Surely you can imagine scenarios where your openness makes you easily exploitable ... you might even convince yourself that you're ok with being a farm animal because conditions are nicer than expected in the wild ... but something (maybe something ineffable) is lost when a wolf is turned into a lapdog…

 

 

Ja I am aware of some of the risks, but I might not know the full story.  I was reminded of this when I discovered that I had signed up for a longevity-related blood test 30 years ago which spanned 30 years.  I was really vulnerable to wrongdoers by participating in that, but it seemed legitimate at the time, perhaps too good to be true.  But it was true, which indicates it was only good enough to not be good enough to be too good to be true.  Had it been any better, it would default to false.

 

>…You don't know what activities you may contribute to a blockchain with intent to be fully transparent that might later be retroactively illegal…

 

Ja.  This is the reason I am not a skerjillionaire, the reason plenty of us are not rich today.  We were here when Hal Finney was discussing a digital currency, way back in the 90s.  I didn’t buy into it because of caution from the stock options experience.  During the late 90s, a lot of cap-starved startups paid their eager young employees in stock options and dreams.  So many talented young software developers lived on a stipend and millions in options, which were only good if their product caused those options to pay.  Mysteriously… the price point of so many stocks settled to exactly the option trade value, making them worth exactly zero point zero.  The CEO mysteriously vanished to a condo in Tahiti, where she is likely still sipping mai tais as she relaxes on the beach with nekkid servants bring her food and drink.  Then… the US government decided the penniless developers who slaved away for two or more years for nearly nothing now owe tax on the value of the options at the time they were awarded, so they get a huge tax bill on top of being broke and pissed.

 

I imagined BitCoin would somehow end up being taxed in such a way that buyers would end up with a cap gains tax based on the peak value of the currency, since they couldn’t actually prove if I had sold it at that peak.  The IRS would be free to assume I had sold it and tax me at that rate.  A prole could end up holding a bunch of BitCoin whose collective value is lower than the amount of tax owed on it, even though none of it had been sold.  Note that this has still not been fully resolved.  This could be an inherent risk to BitCoin or any other cryptocurrency.

 

spike

 

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