bonus HN thread https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42014013 :

archive: https://archive.ph/osPSg

Hi,

For reasons too absurd to explain, this Wednesday I'm invited to a virtual "coffee break" with the speaker of one of Spain's cryptoexchanges, https://bit2me.com/. The event is organized by Cinco Días, one of the main economic newspapers in the country.

I'm looking for a list of potential questions I might ask if I have the chance. I already have the basics ("how's this different to a tulip", "what super-legitimate uses, apart from paying for drugs, hitmen, sex trafficking, launder money, evade taxes and inflate bubbles", "what about the electricity usage", etc), and given that BBVA (Spain's second largest bank) and Telefonica (Spain's main telco) are investing money, I also want to ask how they're handling the child porn they have in their servers.

If anyone has more suggestions, I'm all ears.

archive: https://archive.is/Ji6cs

This is somewhat tangential to the usual fare here but I decided to make a post because why not.

I’ve been listening to the back catalog of the Judge John Hodgman podcast, and this ep came up. This ep is the second crypto based case after “crypto facto” in ep 333.

John Hodgman is a comedian, probs best known for being the “I’m a PC” guy in the “I’m a Mac” ad campaign from ancient times. In the podcast, he plays a fake judge that hears cases and makes judgements. In this ep, “Suing for Soul Custody,” he hears a case in which a husband wants to sell his soul on the blockchain, while his wife does not want him to do that.

Some good sneers against the crypto bro husband (in both this case and the other I linked). Brief spoilers as to the rulings in case you don’t want to listen:

Note: I like John Hodgman. He’s funny. He’s not really inside the tech space, but he is good friends with Jonathan Coulton, who is. If all you know of him is the “I’m a PC” ads, he has an entertaining wider catalogue worth checking out.

no i have no idea who the satoshi of the week is

and I have long ebony black hair (that's how I got my name) with Objectivist streaks and helpful tips that reaches my mid-back and icy rational eyes like limpid tears and a lot of people tell me I look like Vitalik Buterin (AN: if u don't know who he is get da hell out of here!). I'm not related to Satoshi Nakamoto but I wish I was because he's a major fucking hottie, allegedly. I'm a Bitcoiner but my teeth are straight and white. I have pale white skin. I'm also an anarcho-capitalist, and I go to a magic school called Ethereum in Zug, Switzerland where I'm in the seventh year (I'm seventeen). I'm a Libertarian (in case you couldn't tell) and I wear mostly black. I love the Ron Paul forums and I buy all my ideas from there. For example today I was wearing dark markets with matching escrow around it and a black leather iPad cover, grey weed logo bag and black combat boots. I was wearing no makeup, none of that clown paint. I was walking outside Mom's basement. It was snowing and raining so there was no sun, which I was very happy about. A lot of banksters stared at me. I put up my middle finger at them.

archive: https://archive.is/M6EbD

On the hottest and coldest days, when demand for electricity peaks and the price rockets, the bitcoin miners either sell power back to providers at a profit or stop mining for a fee, paid by ercot. Doing so has become more lucrative than mining itself. In August of 2023 Riot collected $32m from curtailing mining and just $8.6m from selling bitcoin.

Archive link: https://archive.md/O8Cz9