Falsehoods Unchallenged Only Fester and Grow
https://thefogbow.com/forum/
Phoenix520 wrote: ↑Mon Feb 14, 2022 1:41 pmKim Stanley Robinson, in Ministry of the Future, has crypto as the world’s currency because it’s the only thing the mafia-types can’t get to.
Bitcoin miners revived a dying coal plant – then CO2 emissions soared
The Hardin coal plant in southern Montana was on the brink of closing when Marathon, a bitcoin ‘mining’ company bought it, and it roared back to life.
Oliver Milman in New York
Fri 18 Feb 2022 11.00 GMT
Environmentalists in Montana called it the “death watch”. Following years of financial losses one of the handful of remaining coal-fired power plants in the state appeared doomed, its likely fate offering a small but noteworthy victory in the effort to avoid disastrous climate change. But then a bitcoin mining company stepped in to resurrect it.
The Hardin generating station, a 115-megawatt coal plant located a dozen miles from the historic site of the famous battle of Little Big Horn in southern Montana, was slated for closure in 2018 due to a lack of customers only to somehow limp on, operating on just 46 days in 2020. “We were just waiting for this thing to die,” said Anne Hedges, co-director of the Montana Environmental Information Center. “They were struggling and looking to close. It was on the brink. And then this cryptocurrency company came along.”
In a deal struck in late 2020, Marathon, a bitcoin “mining” company, became the sole recipient of the power station’s electricity. It established an elongated data center on 20 acres of land beside the facility that is packed with more than 30,000 Antminer S19 units, a specialized computer that mines for bitcoin. Such thirst for power is common in crypto – globally bitcoin mining consumes more electricity than Norway, a country of 5.3 million people.
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/ ... ons-soared
Cheap?
Justin Baragona @justinbaragona wrote: An AP spokeswoman told me the video of an overcrowded migrant raft was "a poor choice of imagery for an NFT" and "it has not and will not be put up for auction."
She also said the "AP's NFT marketplace is a very early pilot program, and we are immediately reviewing our efforts."
Is this the new face of organized crime? Decoding Razzlekhan, the rapping bitcoin fraudster
Heather Morgan, the wannabe Tiktok and hip-hop star, and her husband allegedly stole $4.5bn worth of cryptocurrency
Luke Winkie
Thu 24 Feb 2022 07.00 GMT
Heather Morgan is free, for now. The 31-year-old fraudster was offered bail on Valentine’s Day, releasing her from incarceration while her husband, Ilya “Dutch” Liechtenstein, remains in federal bondage.
Morgan is at the centre of a psychedelic cryptocurrency saga, that began when the pair were arrested on suspicion of laundering $4.5bn worth of stolen bitcoin. That money was originally pilfered from a Hong Kong-based crypto exchange firm called Bitfinex, and it breaks the record for the most digital currency that’s ever been seized by a criminal sting operation. (The pair allegedly spent the money on NFTs, gold and a Walmart gift card.) It’s the first major crime saga of the Web3 era – Blockchain noir, ripe for a Safdie Brothers film – and each twist in the storyline is more implausible than the last.
But who is this Bitcoin crime queen and what does she tell us about the future of organized crime and the stark new inequalities that it might create?
The money that Morgan and Lichtenstein are accused of laundering was originally pilfered six years ago, and honestly it’s a minor miracle that the Department of Justice was capable of digging it up in the first place as crypto is notoriously difficult to recover. So far they have seized $3.6bn. So if you are already the sort of person who might be seduced by the grifter’s lifestyle, cryptocurrency is a natural hideout point.
Everything about this case is more evidence of the worryingly psychotropic texture our monetary system has taken on in 2022 – a year when late-night hosts are dropping thousands of dollars on cartoon apes and YouTube prankster Logan Paul is making $20m per boxing match. It is hard to articulate how it feels to be alive in an age of massive wealth disparity and multiple deregulatory lines of questionable crypto minting, but I think watching an alleged Bitcoin embezzler struggle through painful rap bars in a flat-billed cap that reads “0 FCKS” is a good summation of the overwhelming confusion.
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/ ... ized-crime
Andreessen Horowitz to share in windfall from Bored Ape crypto coin
‘ApeCoin’ debut comes as NFT creator Yuga Labs pushes beyond digital collectibles
Billions of dollars worth of tokens were issued to the creators, backers and owners of the Bored Ape Yacht Club digital collectibles
Venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz is among the investors that received a windfall this week when billions of dollars worth of tokens were issued to the creators, backers and owners of the Bored Ape Yacht Club digital collectibles.
Crypto traders rushed to get a slice of the action on Thursday when a consortium, in which Bored Ape creator Yuga Labs is the largest single shareholder, debuted “ApeCoin”. More than $9bn worth of ApeCoin changed hands in the first 24 hours of trading, according to data from CoinMarketCap.com.
A billion ApeCoin were created on the Ethereum blockchain by an organisation that Yuga helped to found alongside a small group of backers and advisers.
The tokens suddenly became very valuable after millions were given away to Bored Ape holders on Thursday and they began trading on major crypto exchanges such as Coinbase, FTX and Binance, where any other investor was able to buy them.
ApeCoin’s release is one of the most high-profile examples of “airdrops”, in which cryptocurrency projects effectively give away free digital tokens to collectors, employees and investors, sometimes minting new millionaires overnight. The coins tapped into the success of Bored Ape non-fungible tokens, which have taken off in popularity in recent months.
https://www.ft.com/content/86aed0ff-ba6 ... 0b7a7e0a61
Traditional currencies, commodities and gold are valued based on national and international banking standards. Cryptocurrency is generated by a distributed network of computers linked together in a closed Internet community; the computers execute a set of complex cryptographic algorithms, resulting in cryptocurrency in the form of digital monetary units.Fortinbras wrote: ↑Sun Feb 06, 2022 12:57 am I am unclear on the details of Bitcoin, but it sounds too much like a warehouse bank to me.
A warehouse bank is, in essence, sending real money to someone who will keep it secret and presumably safe, and usually getting a receipt for the deposit. When the depositor wants some of his money back, the warebouse banker will send it to him or a designated recipient (usually in the form of a money order) and take a service fee out of the remaining deposit. The point of this is to conceal money from the IRS, ex-wives, litigants, and other creditors. This is very illegal.
The problem is with the reliability of the warehouse banker. The National Barter Assn was running a warehouse bank about 40 years ago when the banker very inconsiderately died - supposedly taking with him the secret of where the cash was and who it belonged to; his family alleged they did not know how to access the money. But the Postal Inspectors and the IRS kept track of who was sending letters to the defunct banker.
About two years ago a crypto-currency operation, very much a warehouse bank, similarly had its banker/admin die without (allegedly) talling anyone how to access the millions of dollars accumulated or who owned how much. Another crypto-currency bank was plundered by hackers who managed to break through its security.
They are generated by such https://forexstore.com/free-forex-robots tools. Robots that think for you, decide transaction and investment data. They can only be paid for within digital communities; individuals and organisations can open accounts.
Oh, and it consumes more electricity than Norway, puts more carbon in the atmosphere than Central America, creates insufferable little punchable nonces who keep telling you there is value being created here somewhere and is a go to way to launder money, sell drugs or traffic sex workers.Suranis wrote: ↑Sun Mar 20, 2022 1:25 pm Ya, but the "Complex Digital algorithms" don't result in the bitcoins. Bitcoins are awarded to miners semi randomly from a central authority as a reward for performing the complex process that ate needed to keep bitcoins running. This of course means that more complex processes are needed to run the new bitcoins, so the need for new miners keeps growing.
https://www.dailydot.com/debug/lets-go- ... it-nascar/‘Let’s Go Brandon’ Coin: NASCAR, Brandon Brown, Candace Owens sued for promoting failed crypto in pump-and-dump scheme
LGB coin founders, promoters targeted in Florida class-action lawsuit.
A class-action suit has been filed in Florida alleging the founders of the right-wing “Let’s Go Brandon” (LGB) cryptocurrency engaged in a pump-and-dump scheme.
According to the court filing, the plaintiff, Eric De Ford, is suing not only the company associated with the LGB coin, but also its promoters including political commentator Candace Owens, NASCAR driver Brandon Brown, and NASCAR itself. The suit alleges that the defendants “made false or misleading statements to investors” about the coin, “disguised their control over the Company and a significant percent of the LGB Tokens,” and said investors could make “significant returns from the LGB Tokens like other so-called ‘meme coin digital assets.’”
Yeah, but with the "Let's Go Brandon" MAGA crowd I say phuck 'em. Not only are they terrible people who I care less about, but seriously, these people don't ask to be ripped off, THEY GET DOWN ON THEIR KNEES AND BEG.
