top 100 commentsshow all 137

[–]philosopher 38 insightful - 4 fun38 insightful - 3 fun39 insightful - 4 fun -  (70 children)

I don't use Gab, but I heard they lost all ability to take payment this week, when Visa shut them down. The same happened to Wikileaks a while back. I don't think a small number of corporations should decide who I can give my money to or not.

[–]King_Brutus 24 insightful - 2 fun24 insightful - 1 fun25 insightful - 2 fun -  (47 children)

It's amazing that people haven't woken up to this. Banks should be neutral and not decide what money goes where.

[–]hector_died_of_aids 11 insightful - 4 fun11 insightful - 3 fun12 insightful - 4 fun -  (31 children)

they were, until leftist infiltration reached critical mass and their true colors show

[–]Karlfranz 20 insightful - 3 fun20 insightful - 2 fun21 insightful - 3 fun -  (30 children)

Tbh I don’t think it was leftist infiltration, I think the banks have supported globalism from the start, and the leftists are just their useful idiot footsoldiers

The banks are the enemy, they drew us into WW1 and WW2 in Europe. They want a stateless/weak world where banks and corporations dominate the individual nations.

[–]hector_died_of_aids 7 insightful - 2 fun7 insightful - 1 fun8 insightful - 2 fun -  (28 children)

no, it's easy to see. visa/mc never had a problem with processors facilitating all manner of disgusting depraved pornography, but if you say nigger you gotta go

by banks you mean jews, and i agree with that

[–]FlippyKing 10 insightful - 2 fun10 insightful - 1 fun11 insightful - 2 fun -  (25 children)

none of that has anything to do with actual leftist. If we let them change what "left" means, the way the are doing to the work "woman" and why said it is suddenly home to a bunch of feminist women, then we lose the ability to really see what is going on and we let them divide us.

"Left" only makes sense politically and historically as the political expression of the working class. The left were luddites, wobblies, trade unionists. They were reacting against horrible working conditions, child labor, and the fact that over the span of a few hundred years they had lost all ability to just make a living off the land they were on and had held "in common" ie the commons.

The left then were joined in a sense by some in the middle class who looked at the disparity in their own societies, the wealth enjoyed by their peers and the squalor suffered by those who physically created it through work, and came up with schools of thought in reaction against capitalism and liberalism (which go hand in hand). Liberalism may appear to be about freedom to do what you want, but it was and remains about freedoms that were created when massive amounts of wealth were accumulated, and the new class of rich people wanted the same freedoms enjoyed by the old nobility.

Those were the sides back then, and they still are the sides. Identity politics is just the new expression of the same old BS.

The idea that banks are run by "the left" is laughable. No billionaire is on the left. They might be as liberal as the old robber barons and their children, nephews, nieces, and grand kids, but it is a rewriting of history to pretend that is or was ever "left".

The "alt right" looks to me like the first wave the "left" over a similar transformation of the global economy. When agriculture and subsistence was replaced by industrial capitalism, the "left" was born. Now that globalization has shifted manufacturing far away and automation is eliminating the need for most labor, the alt right seems to be in the same role. The difference is that we have a history of analysis and data to look at, and a history of struggle from Bakunin to Fred Hampton to learn from. TO distance the working classes from that history of struggle, the false divide of left and right is created and along with it the ridiculous notion that there are left-wing billionaires.

[–]hector_died_of_aids 3 insightful - 2 fun3 insightful - 1 fun4 insightful - 2 fun -  (20 children)

tldr

[–]FlippyKing 4 insightful - 2 fun4 insightful - 1 fun5 insightful - 2 fun -  (19 children)

On the pyramid of debate this site is so proud of supporting, your response is beneath it. You could read it later and not respond till then, but I suspect you know you are just being a disingenuous racist who is not interested in actually understanding issues or solving anything. Was that too long too?

[–]rman 5 insightful - 1 fun5 insightful - 0 fun6 insightful - 1 fun -  (3 children)

I think the name calling here drops you down too unfortunately (sorry)- I thought the “tldr” was a bit low effort but I did chuckle a bit - your previous comment though was very insightful, problem is people want the tldr in the first place for complicated issues — playing left/right/racist cards ignore the real bad guys and only serves as a distraction. Big banks and big corporations have way too much power - I could care less their ethnic origin - because the real solutions lay not in the race or politics (Someone will always be there to be evil in their place) but rather in putting actions or policies that prevent or disrupt in the first place

[–]FlippyKing 1 insightful - 2 fun1 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 2 fun -  (2 children)

I'm pretty sure any name calling I did was not name calling but speculation and backed up with my reasons for the speculation. But sometimes you have to meet people where they are.

[–]hector_died_of_aids 3 insightful - 2 fun3 insightful - 1 fun4 insightful - 2 fun -  (14 children)

racist isn't a real word, it's a propaganda term created by a jew for later (now) use in stirring up a race war. in-group preference is natural and good. (except when it's whites, of course) but let's use your propaganda term for a moment, ya i'm "racist", and with good reason

[–]FlippyKing 4 insightful - 2 fun4 insightful - 1 fun5 insightful - 2 fun -  (11 children)

can you back that assertion up? That "racist" isn't a real word? It has a meaning in a dictionary. If someone coins a word or phrase, that does not mean it is not a real word. Otherwise, racist would be like supercalafragiliousexpealidoious. So, who created the word? Do you have a link to back that up?

You should address my previous comment, beyond admitting tdcr. That's the one that is most on-topic here, not: whether or not you're a racist, or if it is a real word, or as you seem to say that it is not a real word but you have good reason to be this thing that has no real word to describe it.

[–]dittendatt 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (3 children)

The SJW's / Woke people often get called the left. Because there is a surprising amount of collaboration, and because they are both represented by the Democratic party.

If you are an old school working class commie I can see how that is strange, but thats how the battle lines are drawn nowadays.

[–]asterias 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

The leftists serve to offer a pretext so that these companies will say something like "oh, we get so many complaints, and think of the children" and so on.

It's all staged and the leftists are the useful idiots.

[–]Double_A 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (14 children)

They are probably just following legal requirements though?

[–]King_Brutus 16 insightful - 2 fun16 insightful - 1 fun17 insightful - 2 fun -  (10 children)

Specifically with Gab, it wasn't a legal decision. They were "Taking a stand against hate speech".

[–]Karlfranz 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (8 children)

I can’t believe all of these corporations that are actively pressuring Facebook to suppress free speech

WE should be out burning and pillaging holdings for that stance.

[–]liberty_primer 5 insightful - 1 fun5 insightful - 0 fun6 insightful - 1 fun -  (5 children)

Who would have thought Facebook of all platforms would be the one to hold out the longest?

(at least to some extent.)

I think they might have a motive. Scanning data on their platform and selling it to political groups regardless of the group’s political affiliation would be mad profitable.

[–]asterias 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (4 children)

Facebook has been censoring since ages. They have even employed Soros funded organisations for censoring duties. Now they pretend that Facebook is not censoring enough when we know it's the opposite. Sounds like a staged situation.

[–]dart200 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

instead most people i know would support it.

[–]hector_died_of_aids 3 insightful - 2 fun3 insightful - 1 fun4 insightful - 2 fun -  (1 child)

how can you be on saidit and be so naive?

[–]Double_A 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

I didn't see this was a thread about Gab. I was more thinking of things like "You can't transfer money to Cuba" or "You can't recieve more than 10k$ without explaining where it came from" and things like that.

[–]Tom_Bombadil 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

The legal requirements they purchase.

[–]ManWithABanana 7 insightful - 2 fun7 insightful - 1 fun8 insightful - 2 fun -  (13 children)

https://www.zerohedge.com/political/gab-ceo-warns-visa-helping-bring-chinas-social-credit-score-america

It sounds like Visa is trying to comply with some kind of US law, and isn't explaining well what it is. I would like to know, actually.

[–][deleted]  (11 children)

[deleted]

    [–]ManWithABanana 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (4 children)

    That's certainly possible. How do you know there's no law involved ?

    Visa/MC also refuse to do business with the marijuana industry. That's illegal federally but legal in many states. Because it's illegal federally it's against the US banking laws to process payments for marijuana businesses so they CANNOT process those payments. Thus marijuana businesses rely heavily on cash.

    If it happens for marijuana, I suspect it can/will happen for other reasons.

    [–]dart200 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (2 children)

    i've only paid for weed with my debit card the last year i've been buying. not credit though, but the wall is letting up a bit.

    [–]ManWithABanana 2 insightful - 2 fun2 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 2 fun -  (1 child)

    Didn't know that. Thanks for the heads up.

    I dug up an article here https://www.creditcards.com/credit-card-news/marijuana-dispensaries-pay-with-credit-cards/ that perhaps explains what you're getting. Are you doing the ATM thing described in the article ?

    Some dispensaries have ATMs on-site, allowing you to get cash for a terminal fee.

    Other dispensaries feature cashless ATMs.

    With cashless ATMs, the customer requests, say, $60 from the machine. It spits out a voucher that can be used only at that dispensary. The customer hands the voucher to a clerk, who returns, for the purposes of this illustration, $52.50 worth of product. The customer also is charged taxes and a fee for using the ATM. Whatever is left, the clerk returns in change.

    [–]dart200 2 insightful - 2 fun2 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 2 fun -  (0 children)

    hmmm. i was looking at my bank statements and it may be that the particular dispensary i use misrepresented what they are. it came up as a veterinarian charge, lol.

    [–][deleted] 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (5 children)

    In the case of Visa and Mastercard though, how could they possible care about their brand and the possibility of some left-wing boycott? I can understand some companies being bombarded by abuse by campaign groups that target them and deciding to pull advertising etc, but these two in particular can just tell them all to fuck off.

    [–][deleted]  (3 children)

    [deleted]

      [–]AllStr8SexIsRape 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

      They should be forced to serve us. If Christian cake bakers can be forced to serve gays, then credit card companies should not be allowed to deny service to conservatives. Ideological discrimination is discrimination. Either treat it as such or get rid of civil rights laws altogether.

      [–]rman 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

      I don’t think it’s a left vs right thing - There’s only one thing that matters to every single one of these corps: $$$ - they are all two faced and play both sides tricking you into seeing it like this so that you misplace your anger to your fellow citizen that happens to disagree with your political thinking but I guarantee you when it comes down to the bottom line, these places only speak one language and it’s money, they don’t give two shits about community, justice, morals or ethics no matter the politics of it

      [–]rman 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

      It’s virtue signaling - they don’t actually care - they just want to point to some minor action and say “see we did something” — if it was a big money maker to them to ignore some kind of injustice they would and do it gladly

      [–]Article10ECHR 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

      There is no US law that obliges a payment processor to atop providing services because of the content of communications.

      In fact such a law would be unconstitutional.

      [–]Pendergreens 5 insightful - 1 fun5 insightful - 0 fun6 insightful - 1 fun -  (2 children)

      A great reason to start buying some cryptocurrency and using that instead for some stuff.

      [–]Slutbuster 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

      Until you need to cash out any realistic amount - then you have to go back to the payment processors.

      [–]RuckFeddit 4 insightful - 2 fun4 insightful - 1 fun5 insightful - 2 fun -  (1 child)

      ah, ddossing the paypal and mastercard homepage. the good old days

      [–]hector_died_of_aids 3 insightful - 2 fun3 insightful - 1 fun4 insightful - 2 fun -  (0 children)

      move over /., we saidit now

      [–]asterias 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

      In Europe, many countries try to outlaw the use of cash and impose the use of credit cards for all transactions. Currently in Greece you are limited to purchases of up to 300 euros when using cash and similar limits exist in other European countries as well, and I hear things are even tougher in other places.

      So this state-imposed monopoly is real and it's a matter of time before it becomes the status quo everywhere.

      [–][deleted] 11 insightful - 2 fun11 insightful - 1 fun12 insightful - 2 fun -  (20 children)

      Yeah. You're right and not alone. The book-money system is a giant clusterfuck for all sheep. I touched this problem several times, but it seems very hard to break, because to me it seems like you need control over a lot of natural resources to build a new money system, that can grow naturally without the small snakes sitting on their mountains of FIAT-money taking control of it. If you want anonymity in it, you need negative interest in a timely sense, i believe. But i'll never forgive google for all the shit they're trying to pull off and pulled off. They divided the internet in two communities, by building a big wall. Or maybe you need a lot of real estate, where people can move into, so you can shield your smart money and smart contracts for a long enough time period , so they cannot break your blockchain or take control of it by more buying more current. I thought about this a lot recently. Maybe the money system is the key to hurt Alphabet. Or the Chinese pull out a bunny of their hat on their own to break the dollar supremacy. This could help alot.

      [–]Double_A 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

      The problem is not that it's not backed by something physical... The money system we have now is more or less backed by peoples debt and thus the trust in their future work power. That's not necessarily bad if it's done within reasonable limits and society is generally stable.

      The problem or advantage (depending on how you look at it) is that the government can freely control in- and deflation.

      [–][deleted] 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

      You are right. And we arrived at P is equal or more or less then NP in a set-sense again.

      [–]rman 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (9 children)

      I’d argue all you need is scarcity (difficultly of forgery) and liquidity (ease of exchange) to build a monetary system - not huge pools of money/resources - in some cases it may seem like you need the pools of money but many things throughout history meeting these two criteria have been used as currency without the need for a fiscal jump start - just gotta make it easy to use

      [–][deleted] 2 insightful - 2 fun2 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 2 fun -  (8 children)

      So we will buy an island, just gotta find the right shells :) . Excellent idea. The Spartans had heavy iron rods as a currency, which also seems interesting, because they are hard to hoard if you control the transportation system and make them scarce, everyone gets an iron saw, problem solved if the whole system is shielded against the outside world. For trade with them you just need a blockchain you control and shield adequately.

      [–]rman 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (7 children)

      Can’t tell if you’re making fun too much but one problem with blockchain I think is the Semi lack of privacy — I have a fairly well thought out approach to a newer blockchain style that would create true privacy but I still need to work through a few proofs to make sure it doesn’t suffer from the double spend problem ( I actually work in crypto for my day job)

      [–][deleted] 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

      Please tell me more .

      [–]Pendergreens 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (4 children)

      Isn't the best you can get plausible deniability like Monero offers?

      [–]rman 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (3 children)

      I don’t believe so and I intend to prove it but to be honest I could be chasing a ghost (I.e. I’m ok if I fail at it, I just really want to try) The basic idea came from the belief and attempted solution that until we can take crypto currency offline it will ultimately still exist at the government’s mercy (can compel ISPs to block crypto ports/protocols or make it illegal to run a server) - in the end I just didn’t like this possibility and have set out to try my hand at a solution. One of the first problems that needs solving for this to work is the double spend/replay problem — crypto prevents this using a public ledger - but taking it offline means that’s no longer an option — first thought was to use a ledger system akin to gpg’s ring of trust model but this wouldn’t particularly prevent the issue as much as identify and eject bad actors after the fact effectively disincentivizing them (Could invalidate all currency in an identified bad wallet for example) would work well at scale but would be particularly vulnerable with less users or less connected users (basically would only work with a large enough pre-existing user base that would need to be regularly transacting with each other such that the Kevin bacon factor if you want to think of it that way existed for all users at any given time and they were all actively exchanging to prevent pockets that were stale and susceptible to fraud) - Another problem of this first solution is that the gov could still get on the web of trust either from subpoena of crypto exchanges or just active engagement in the system and download the ledger history for financial analysis... so I ditched that idea... my current idea involves using a distributed hybrid online/offline system using something that looks kind of like google Authenticator combined with a Kind of cypher block chaining (CBC) Cryptographic signature ledger such that transactions can’t be altered on the ledger without destroying a transient key used to sign transactions (Being derived from the previous transactions and time stamp of the transaction basically would create the fragile (Difficult to tamper with) ledger I need. So now this would mean that the online portion no longer needs to track a ledger but instead holds part of a signing key that depends on the state of the Local ledger and can’t be rewound because it would make the wallet non-functional - it’s still a work in progress because even though this provides privacy it’s still not totally offline — the hybrid nature of being offline/online is that as long as the two wallets to make an exchange has not had a different transaction since last downloading / uploading of their last hashes they can do this offline until they need to interact with a different wallet which would require an upload to derive the next transient Public key — anyway I think I might be able to get the entire thing to be offline but it’s tricky and it may not be possible — though the idea of offering total privacy to crypto transactions is a real possibility generally speaking you just have to use CBC and key exchange in such a way that trying to edit the wallet causes it to break ad become unusable until you put it back

      [–]rman 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (2 children)

      So the private system kind of turns on its head that the ledger becomes private and some of the keying portion becomes public - to keep it private and not trackable when it comes to seeing who exchanged currency with whom is basically where the google auth like feature comes into play based on time — I have yet to completely prove this all out and honestly might be missing an attack I or my friend didn’t think of but it seems pretty promising and I’m hopeful about it

      [–]Vigte 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (5 children)

      If you want anonymity in it, you need negative interest in a timely sense, i believe.

      I'm not sure I quite understand this, how do interest rates affect anonymity?

      Other than that, I agree :D

      [–][deleted] 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (4 children)

      People will hoard your currency which is feeding their greed and other sins , if you put anonymity as a protecting veil in it. So you gotta mitigate this problem, by making the hoarding very hard in a timely sense that means putting a negative exponent in the equation that defines the "growth"-direction of the money or inflation /deflation as a given starting direction / constraint. If you can hold people accountable for "bad" hoarding by putting anonymity out of this system, you can go after the people doing this quickly enough, because the positive "growth" (it is only virtual, because you can't generate worth exponentially only in a O( nx ), or polynomial sense) generates enough overflow money for it. But you put in the old might and hierarchy-questions there also again.

      And i don't like hierarchies, that we all know failed so often. Its either a meritocracy or plutocracy at some time point then again. But you can mitigate this one, by tightening other screws and putting some sand in that gearbox that defines the hierarchies of the whole new system. How corruption can be defined better to be solved is the real brain bomb for me, if you choose the old direction. Another question for me is: where you loose more energy, so more or less which direction to choose here is better.

      [–]itsoktobewhite 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (3 children)

      negative interest

      Isnt that just inflation?

      [–][deleted] 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (2 children)

      No. To understand this imagine money as rl stamp cards. In our currently (most of the world) implemented money systems, every money unit generates stamps over time if taken out of the system from the owner to save it up for worse times and enough new stamps generate a new money unit. Negative interest means, you loose stamps on every money unit over time, so it makes no sense to save it up that clearly, because you loose some of it by saving it over time.

      Inflation / Deflation on the other hand is the change in the relation of the growth between the rl economy ( produced new tangible goods ! ) and the amount of money in the whole system of the currency.

      [–]itsoktobewhite 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

      I see your point but I dont understand how they aren't effectively doing the same thing.

      Negative interest - you take money away from hoarder.

      Inflation - the hoarders money has less buying power over time.

      Inflation is why people generally dont hoard money. They invest in things to make the money grow. So wouldnt some form of 'negative interest' system on wealth not money work better. Something like once you hit a billion bucks that is enough. You can still generate more wealth but you must give half to the needy.

      [–][deleted] 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

      I think now, this is an excellent idea. But the greed problem stays and that is why i think there still will be people trying to circumvent it just for the kicks.

      [–]Karlfranz 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

      the small snakes sitting on their mountains of FIAT-money taking control of it

      Snakes in tiny hats, as they always have been

      Maybe the money system is the key to hurt Alphabet

      I agree, collapse of our fist currency would be a helluva blow to Zog, but I am just afraid that it will be controlled, after they have already looted the wealth from our nation.

      [–][deleted] 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

      But they can't loot or contain all really new ideas, because these are by nature bulletproof and bullets themselves. I know some people, who are waiting for a collapse in this scale, so that patent-trolls don't buy them out that easily.

      [–]ManWithABanana 8 insightful - 1 fun8 insightful - 0 fun9 insightful - 1 fun -  (5 children)

      I think people have been trying, for years. Credit cards are pretty safe to use for consumers in the sense of fraud, so everyone wants to use the big names. Consumer Credit protection laws worked well and really entrenched them.

      Cryptocurrency is one way to break their backs. But it's missing a key component of most currencies - stored value. Playing with Bitcoin is like playing the stock market, not safe.

      Everything else seems to fall down and give up. I have read countless stories about this or that payment system that disappear. The latest entrant in the race seems to be Venmo, which might finally catch on with people so addicted to their phones. I don't use it since they desupported use of a computer to access their system. Maybe they'll just sort of fade away like Paypal has - all I see Paypal as today, is something weird I have to use sometimes to get charges onto my credit cards.

      Realistically, the way to process payments without Visa/Mastercard is to use cash.

      [–]hector_died_of_aids 4 insightful - 1 fun4 insightful - 0 fun5 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

      we need a new law like consumer credit protection, consumer ACCESS protection, disallowing censorship of ppl's commercial activity

      [–]magnora7[S] 4 insightful - 1 fun4 insightful - 0 fun5 insightful - 1 fun -  (2 children)

      Cash or cryptocurrency is another way to get around payment processors.

      [–]jamesK_3rd 5 insightful - 1 fun5 insightful - 0 fun6 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

      You know I've seen several retailers and restaurants recently who refuse to take cash, they have signs abound that state this is due to the ongoing pandemic and cash is inherently risky.

      [–]magnora7[S] 6 insightful - 1 fun6 insightful - 0 fun7 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

      And there's this ongoing "coin shortage" in the USA that seems artificial, to drive people away from cash as well

      [–]apoliticalinactivist 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

      I disagree that stored value is a key component in the short term adoption phase. Your premise of transactional safety is based on relative value based on the value of a traditional currency, when the whole point of a crypto currency is so that you don't have to "cash out" back into traditional currency. In crypto, 1coin will always be worth 1coin and when you stop comparing it to purchasing power of normal fiat currency, it's easier to put in your $20 every once in a while and spend it where you can to support the tech/philosophy.

      You're actually touching on a big debate in the cryptocurrency community, store of value vs. ease of transaction. This difference in dev philosophy is the root cause of the fork between bitcoin (BTC) and bitcoin cash (BCH), where BCH is focused on having low fees and reasonable sized blocks so it can be useful for many small daily transactions.

      [–][deleted] 6 insightful - 4 fun6 insightful - 3 fun7 insightful - 4 fun -  (0 children)

      'master' seems to be a very offensive word these days...

      [–]Tarrock 6 insightful - 3 fun6 insightful - 2 fun7 insightful - 3 fun -  (0 children)

      As much as it needs to happen, it won't. Payment processing is a trillion dollar industry. If any politician went after them, they'd get JFK'd.

      [–]Tom_Bombadil 4 insightful - 5 fun4 insightful - 4 fun5 insightful - 5 fun -  (0 children)

      The icon is Link from The Legend of Zelda. What's he crying about?

      Hyrule shops don't accept Visa, or MasterCard.

      They only accept rupees.

      [–][deleted] 5 insightful - 2 fun5 insightful - 1 fun6 insightful - 2 fun -  (10 children)

      Bitcoin is the future

      [–]Slutbuster 1 insightful - 2 fun1 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 2 fun -  (9 children)

      Sure, if you want to wait 45 min to process a payment.

      [–][deleted] 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (4 children)

      not true, i use it all the time, its fast

      [–]Double_A 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (3 children)

      Bitcoin transactions are actually fairly slow and expensive. It's currently at ~1$ for a transaction that takes up to 10 minutes to complete. And that fee will rise with usage.

      The bitcoin system is designed so that it always takes about 10 minutes to mine a block (this can't be sped up with more computing power, it's by design), and a block can only hold a limited amount (~4000) of transactions. That obviously doesn't scale. I.e. in early 2018 when everyone wanted to get bitcoins that fee was at about 50$ because everyone was competing for one of those 4000 spots.

      But yeah there are other faster and cheaper coins, like ETH or Stellaris. There's also the lightning network for Bitcoin which is faster and for small transcations... but it's still kinda in beta.

      [–][deleted] 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

      Retard detected

      [–]BigDawg 5 insightful - 2 fun5 insightful - 1 fun6 insightful - 2 fun -  (0 children)

      crypto

      [–]StillLessons 5 insightful - 1 fun5 insightful - 0 fun6 insightful - 1 fun -  (6 children)

      The most important lesson too few people have yet learned is that money is power. While most would agree with that statement, our actions don't back up our agreement. Where are we spending our money? Large corporations are large because lots of people interact with them. If people stopped sending our money there, these corporations have nothing. They are so powerful because we keep them alive. Boycotts, if truly understood and implemented in a broad way, would work. Because our "shopping habits" are so engrained, however, we reap what we sow. Sadly, the corporatocracy really does represent us. :(

      [–][deleted] 5 insightful - 2 fun5 insightful - 1 fun6 insightful - 2 fun -  (4 children)

      If people stopped sending our money there, these corporations have nothing.

      That was true until relatively recently. Now the fed is directly purchasing securities and corporate bonds (even junk bonds) with freshly minted fiat currency. Governments can't be trusted with unfettered money creation. They all monetize debts eventually, and now it's only a matter of time until the USD loses it's reserve status.

      [–]StillLessons 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

      I agree.

      This is why zombie corporations are such a desperate measure. As large corporations have in fact become unprofitable (even without formal boycotts, people are migrating away to other arenas), showing that they don't represent us, TPTB have stepped in to rig the game so they are not allowed to die. As you point out, however, this game has a limited lifespan. The monetary system is about out of ammo to keep fighting a clear disintegration of large capital. How we get from here to a renewal of small-scale local manufacturing and service, however, is the $64,000 question. Dating myself... ;)

      [–][deleted] 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

      How we get from here to a renewal of small-scale local manufacturing and service, however, is the $64,000 question. Dating myself... ;)

      Chaos, anarchy, pain, and quite possibly the balkanization of the US along ethnic/religious lines. Since you see it coming too I'm sure you're prepared/preparing as well. It's gonna be a good time, well, not really. A necessary time. Plenty of opportunity on the horizon for those that have ensured they are not 100% dependent on the existing paradigm / system.

      [–]Karlfranz 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

      it's only a matter of time until the USD loses it's reserve status.

      Would anyone mind explaining what this means?

      [–][deleted] 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

      The long version is, we'll no longer be the default currency to which others are pegged. Expect deflation, followed by massive inflation. We've been injecting trillions of fake dollars into the system every week now for months and it has to flow somewhere. If you want to see how monetization driven inflation spirals have played out in the past look at Venezuela, Zimbabwe, Weimar Germany, etc. https://i1.wp.com/object.cato.org/sites/cato.org/files/zimba3-min.jpg


      Short version: I'd like 2 loaves of bread please! https://2012patriot.files.wordpress.com/2011/05/us-1000000000000-one-trillion-dollar-bill.jpg


      Even longer version: Most people don't understand what money or banking is. If you understand that it will all make sense. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mII9NZ8MMVM

      [–]hector_died_of_aids 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

      to build on that, money is power but fraudulent fiat moneTARY systems are a scheme central banks (jews) use to be able to take money power, and magically invent an infinite amount of fake money (real power)

      [–][deleted]  (3 children)

      [deleted]

        [–]magnora7[S] 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (2 children)

        How do you think they pay for servers? Where do you think that money comes from?

        [–]solder0 4 insightful - 1 fun4 insightful - 0 fun5 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

        Yeah, they're at the top of this, and it scares me more than silicon valley death cults. Good ol' mags always puts up the good topics.

        [–]hydr0lyze 4 insightful - 1 fun4 insightful - 0 fun5 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

        American Express!

        [–][deleted] 4 insightful - 1 fun4 insightful - 0 fun5 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

        I never used credit cards. I wanted to buy a house and had the cash in the bank for the down payment. I was told I couldn't because I had no credit score. Not that I had a bad credit score, just that I didn't have any at all, so I was told to get a credit card and make minor payments with it and pay them back right away for 3 months then I would be approved for a mortgage. Here I was thinking that having zero debt made me look good financially.

        [–]teelo 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

        Thats a weird one that seems to be unique to USA. I got my home loan without any credit history. All they cared about was that I didn't have any history of unpaid debts or bankruptcy. Maybe because thats all they're allowed to track publicly here, legally.

        [–]beermeem 3 insightful - 2 fun3 insightful - 1 fun4 insightful - 2 fun -  (2 children)

        I was just recently thinking this. It’s an extra governmental form of control much like the insurance industry. They each set many rules and limits simply to minimize “risk” and in so doing cut off a plethora of free expression.

        I do my best by sticking to my Discover card as much as possible which is certain not as hard to do as it was 20 years ago. It also offers the plus of having by favorite my favorite customer service and relations not just in the industry but in almost any industry I interact with.

        [–]magnora7[S] 2 insightful - 2 fun2 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 2 fun -  (1 child)

        Yes the limits on government don't seem to mean much when corporations run most everything. I'd like to see anti-monopoly and anti-trust laws actually be enforced again.

        And to see actual meaningful limitations on the revolving door between regulatory agencies and the industries they're supposed to limit. But how can we pass the laws when the lobbying structure and congresspeople are all basically in the pockets of these big money corporate interests? It's a frustrating situation for the American people to be in.

        [–]beermeem 2 insightful - 2 fun2 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 2 fun -  (0 children)

        I mean honestly, I think the regulatory to industry revolving door is the worst. But, yes, there does at the moment appear to be a vice grip.

        [–]Riva 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

        But we should also worry about Google.

        [–]bagano1 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

        Google definitely needs to be handled too for the ad systems they use to control what website commenters can say.

        [–]filbs111 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

        Agree there's a problem, but not with the suggested solution. Giving the government complete power over transactions is a huge risk unless it's anonymous and people can't be "deplatformed" from it - basically true "digital cash".

        [–]magnora7[S] 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

        I agree, the government shouldn't get all the power. It's merely a matter of the anti-trust laws we already have in place, actually being applied, to break up the monopolies and duopolies that snuff out any competition before it has a chance to truly challenge them. So ideally it would create a freer market by removing these oppressive monopolies that deliberately destroy smaller companies

        [–]solder0 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

        What about something like the Hawala system?

        [–]Double_A 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

        That's basically Western Union but without permanent records. You can't really replace daily transactions with that.

        [–]soundsalad 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

        Too bad Bitcoin was co-opted by these very same institutions via Blockstream and AXA/Bilderberg.

        [–]spezz 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

        Use searx for search engine

        [–]AllStr8SexIsRape 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

        Discover Card: Am I a joke to you?

        [–]MediaShatters 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

        Now you're talking... This is going to be a bigger problem if it's not handled.