Initiative Q

[Gwadien]

Hype hype, some bitcoin-esque shit, invite only atm, earlier you get in more of their currency you get.

Might be bullshit, might be interesting, PM me for invite linkage. (5 invites.)

Initiative Q

 

[Gwadien]

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rK3TFU_Xogs

 

[SilverHood]

Sounds like a pyramid scheme. And if their database gets hacked, someone has a nice list of potential targets.

If I need to pay someone a dollar, there are many ways to do so without inventing a new currency. The old payment systems in the USA are slowly getting modernised, just look at Zelle: Nearly instant transfers between US banks! Five years ago it was quicker to write a cheque than do a straight transfer. The technology that powers it will soon be in the hands of merchants.

It's ironic that the guy founding this ended up selling his company to PayPal, a payment system that came into prominence because it was accepted as a method of payment by its parent company, eBay. Crucially though, there was no conversion: You had to pay a dollar, a dollar left your bank account. I'm still waiting on Amazon to become a fully fledged bank

 

[DaGaffer]

Sounds like a pyramid scheme. And if their database gets hacked, someone has a nice list of potential targets.

If I need to pay someone a dollar, there are many ways to do so without inventing a new currency. The old payment systems in the USA are slowly getting modernised, just look at Zelle: Nearly instant transfers between US banks! Five years ago it was quicker to write a cheque than do a straight transfer. The technology that powers it will soon be in the hands of merchants.

It's ironic that the guy founding this ended up selling his company to PayPal, a payment system that came into prominence because it was accepted as a method of payment by its parent company, eBay. Crucially though, there was no conversion: You had to pay a dollar, a dollar left your bank account. I'm still waiting on Amazon to become a fully fledged bank

The US is weirdly forward thinking whilst being amazingly backwards at payments at the same time; it's still one of the highest cash using countries in the world (I mean cheques are still a thing), whereas Sweden and Norway are 90% cashless already and expect to be entirely cash-free by 2030 (they'll hit that target easily). Meanwhile in China:


No-one has change anymore so beggars have gone mobile.

NB. The smart money is on Amazon getting into banking in Europe first because of PSD2; there's a lot of credit card fees to be saved if they can go straight to customer bank accounts, which customers can allow from next September.

 

[dysfunction]

I see there are cashless payment things for buskers etc already in London. The machine takes £1 when you tap your card/phone on it.

And those people with the charity buckets will also be moving to that too.

 

[Ormorof]

Cards for that kind of thing dissapearing here, mobile pay for small one off transactions dont need a nfc reader just a phone number amd a bank account

 

[Vae]

A couple of shops that my company operates in Sweden are now cash-free as cash-use has plummeted in the last year to under 10%.

 

[bainteor]

A scheme by idiots, for idiots. Each to their own I suppose.

 

[Scouse]

You're missing the point. It's expensive to use VISA. Very, especially for vendors. And generally slower and less secure than a payment blockchain.

 

[Job]

Its only a matter of time before it all goes titsup.
Some senior engineer is going to have his family kidnapped and the entire digital money of a country will disappear

 

[Scouse]

Its only a matter of time before it all goes titsup.
Some senior engineer is going to have his family kidnapped and the entire digital money of a country will disappear

It can't work like that. By design. Unlike normal money.

 

[Gwadien]

It can't work like that. By design. Unlike normal money.

Be scared of things you don't understand.

 

[Embattle]

BBC iPlayer - Billion Dollar Deals and How They Changed Your World - Series 1: 2. Money

 

[Job]

It can't work like that. By design. Unlike normal money.

Everything can work like that, if you can build it , you can take it apart.

 

[Gwadien]

Here is my invite link: Initiative Q

 

[Scouse]

Everything can work like that, if you can build it , you can take it apart.

There's a reason every bank on the planet is investigating blockchain - you've an open ledger of every single transaction. You *can't* falsify transactions on a distributed blockchain.

But you "feel" that way, so that's how you're going to keep feeling. Meh.

 

[DaGaffer]

There's a reason every bank on the planet is investigating blockchain - you've an open ledger of every single transaction. You *can't* falsify transactions on a distributed blockchain.

But you "feel" that way, so that's how you're going to keep feeling. Meh.

You can't falsify the transactions but in Europe you also can't use distributed blockchain the way it was originally envisaged because GDPR has fucked it up. A classic example of the laws of unintended consequences; blockchain used properly would give people practical control over their own data, but now GDPR which was designed to give people more control of their own data, has hamstrung one the most promising ways to achieve that goal.

Good explanation of it here.

 

[Scouse]

Very interesting!

But not overly concerning. Laws can and do change in the face of new realities.

 

[Job]

Are you suggesting someone couldnt temporarily wipe out a countrys digital cash..because if they cant then we are locked out of our own tech.

 

[Scouse]

Are you suggesting someone couldnt temporarily wipe out a countrys digital cash..because if they cant then we are locked out of our own tech.

Explain what you're whittering about please. Including clarification of 'locked out', and 'own tech'.

And yes. We couldn't temporarily wipe out the blockchain. Every node in the chain has a copy of the entire ledger, so all nodes have a copy.

I guess you could 'shut down the internet' but given a) it was born of ARPANET, designed to keep comms up during nuclear conflict and b) if you did then everything would grind to a halt, not just the blockchain, then it'd be a bit harsh to blame crypto for that.

Job. Seriously. You understand so little about the tech you can't hold a reasonable discussion about it. That's not an insult, it's common to most of the planet and something that needs to change to drive adoption.

 

[Job]

Scouse you are talking about tech that isnt in place for banking yet..if ever.

The telephone network is multilevel protected from attack over the actual lines and microwave commlinks, but when I was a senior data manager I could have brought it down with one command.
FO-PWG,1,2,3.
If youre interested.

 

[caLLous]

I'm sure we could all make up some self-aggrandising bullshit at the drop of a hat if we needed to as well.

 

[Job]

Jesus..I had to look that up.


No the network is run by two primary wave generators..PWG.
2 in service, one back up.

If you force out..FO...all 3.
Then the sync us lost and the entire network goes down, though it would start to auto boot in a few minutes; or you could RS..return to service, them straight away.

There was only about 50 people in BT whos access would let them do that, when I left they made me hand over my card before I left the building.
Exchange language was actually very simple.
FO force out
RS return to service
CH change
LI list
RD read
OS would wait till people ended a call, FO just cut them off.

 

[Scouse]

Jesus..I had to look that up.

Nobody is surprised by that.

The old telephone network isn't anything to do with the internet, or blockchain, or this discussion. It's entirely irrelevant.

Much like most of what you type.

 

[Job]

You knew the term self aggrandising ?

I coukd take a stab in context and grand, but its exact meaning escaped me

Seriously scouse you are pulling me up by saying that something couldnt happen atm because you are talking about a future tech inplementation that would prevent it...

 

[Embattle]

Blockchain isn't about democracy and decentralisation – it's about greed | Nouriel Roubini

 

[Gwadien]

Truth is, no-one knows.

 

[Scouse]

Blockchain isn't about democracy and decentralisation – it's about greed | Nouriel Roubini

Guy who worked for IMF and american central bank down on tech which proposes the replacement of these not exactly whiter-than-white institutions, which themselves have overseen the biggest concentration of wealth into the smallest number of hands in history non-shocker.

Edit: Also, not entirely relevant to this thread, which is actually about a very real and useful use-case for blockchain (competition for slow and expensive centrally controlled Visa) - which in and of itself undermines this guy's argument that there is no use for blockchain.

I can tell you that the big banking institutions are taking blockchain very seriously.

 

[Ormorof]

Frankly currency seems like one of the least interesting parts of blockchains for me

 

[Bodhi]

Frankly currency seems like one of the least interesting parts of blockchains for me

It allows people to buy drugs, so it has its uses

I've signed up for this Q thing as well, didn't ask for cc details so already less dodgy than a free trial of Amazon Prime.