Short answer:

> "People want an authority to tell them how to value things, but they choose this authority not based on facts or results, they choose it because it seems authoritative and familiar." - Michael Burry; The Big Short.

> Why don't any of the people around us understand bitcoin? Why do they ignore it? Why do they refuse to look below the surface?

Because critical thinking consumes energy, and is not pleasant. Whenever we learn new things we have to fire up parts of the brain that we don't use as often.

For example: Learning to drive a car is a stressful and unpleasant time because your brain is fired up learning all the new skills, at once. After a few years you can drive without even thinking.

It's called Fast Thinking and Slow Thinking, slow thinking being when you are learning new skills, material, ideas etc., and fast thinking when you can do things automatically.

In short: People, all of us, don't like to think slow.

Long answer:

There's a book on the subject Thinking, Fast and Slow by Deniel Kahneman

> Major New York Times bestseller
> Winner of the National Academy of Sciences Best Book Award in 2012
> Selected by the New York Times Book Review as one of the ten best books of 2011
> A Globe and Mail Best Books of the Year 2011 Title
> One of The Economist's 2011 Books of the Year
> One of The Wall Street Journal's Best Nonfiction Books of the Year 2011
> 2013 Presidential Medal of Freedom Recipient
> Kahneman's work with Amos Tversky is the subject of Michael Lewis's The Undoing Project: A Friendship That Changed Our Minds

> In the international bestseller, Thinking, Fast and Slow, Daniel Kahneman, the renowned psychologist and winner of the Nobel Prize in Economics, takes us on a groundbreaking tour of the mind and explains the two systems that drive the way we think. System 1 is fast, intuitive, and emotional; System 2 is slower, more deliberative, and more logical. The impact of overconfidence on corporate strategies, the difficulties of predicting what will make us happy in the future, the profound effect of cognitive biases on everything from playing the stock market to planning our next vacation―each of these can be understood only by knowing how the two systems shape our judgments and decisions.

> Engaging the reader in a lively conversation about how we think, Kahneman reveals where we can and cannot trust our intuitions and how we can tap into the benefits of slow thinking. He offers practical and enlightening insights into how choices are made in both our business and our personal lives―and how we can use different techniques to guard against the mental glitches that often get us into trouble. Winner of the National Academy of Sciences Best Book Award and the Los Angeles Times Book Prize and selected by The New York Times Book Review as one of the ten best books of 2011, Thinking, Fast and Slow is destined to be a classic.

1. Consider more secure means of backing up your 12 or 24 BIP39 backups in case of floods or fire - https://cryptosteel.com/ Or https://billfodl.com/products/the-one-and-only-billfodl or https://bitkee.com/ or https://cryptokeystack.com/ or https://www.amazon.com/Vector-Number-Capital-Letter-Punch/dp/B01A1CTYG2/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1521669827&sr=8-5&keywords=punch+tool+set+letter Use steel , brass, or copper or other durable metals. Wood and aluminum are unacceptable.
   
   https://medium.com/@lopp/metal-bitcoin-seed-storage-stress-test-21f47cf8e6f5
   
   https://medium.com/@lopp/metal-bitcoin-seed-storage-stress-test-part-ii-d309e04aefeb
   
   
2. Keeping that backup safe and private
   
   
3. Use a passphrase with the hardware wallet (most the security concerns with HW wallets are solved with a passphrase.) Make sure the passphrase is also secured in laminated paper or metal because if you forget this than even with the 12/24 words you will lose your Bitcoin.
   
   https://wiki.trezor.io/Passphrase
   
   https://support.ledger.com/hc/en-us/articles/115005214529-Advanced-passphrase-security
   
   
4. Order your ledger or trezor directly from the company (supply chain attack concerns)-
   
   Check for authenticity - https://blog.trezor.io/psa-non-genuine-trezor-devices-979b64e359a7
   
   https://support.ledger.com/hc/en-us/articles/360002481534-Check-if-device-is-genuine
   
   https://support.ledger.com/hc/en-us/articles/115005321449-Check-hardware-integrity
   
   Than upgrade the firmware, backup the 12/24 BIP 39 words, than send a small amount of BTC to it, than reset and restore the hardware wallet making sure the BIP39 words never get entered in to a computer or stored digitally(you should be only getting the words and typing them into your hardware wallet and paper/metal backups), Once your restored the wallet and see the tx and BTC you can feel confident and have experience in event you lose/damage your HW wallet and than can send a larger amount of Bitcoin to it.

I have a hardware wallet and these price increases are making me nervous so I just bought:

[Number and Letter Stamp Set (36 PIECE PUNCH SET / A-Z & 0-9) Industrial Grade Hardened Carbon Steel Metal - 1/8" (3mm) Characters - Perfect for Imprinting Metal, Wood, Plastic, Leather, & More!]
(https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B06XCZ3TDG)

and

Online Metal Supply 304 Stainless Steel Sheet (26 ga.) .018" x 12" x 12" - 2B Finish


I'm hoping the stainless steel sheet isn't too hard for the stamp set to mark.

Once I get my backup seed stamped on the stainless steel though - I have to find a good hiding spot.

I've decided against a safe because as others have mentioned a safe just says 'Steal me please'.

I've decided against a safe deposit box at the bank because - well this is bitcoin and that just seems wrong.

[edit] links and stuffs

[edit2] also thinking of covering the stamped sheet in something like hard clay (have to break the clay to make the seed visible)

> The only solution at the moment is to let true capitalism takes its course and allow the banks to fail.

Just to make it clear. Capitalism is a separation of state and economics. No regulation of private business only protection of rights. What we have now is NOT capitalism. Banks and money is the most regulated and controlled industry ever.

What is failing is cronyism, regulation, central banking. Bitcoin is free market money and is a step towards capitalism.
Capitalism is the solution. Let the free market choose. End of story.

Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal: http://www.amazon.com/Capitalism-Unknown-Ideal-Ayn-Rand/dp/0451147952

I've been using Purse with the "Name Your Discount" feature (pairs with Amazon wishlist) with pretty good results.

Add the eyepiece to your wishlist (make sure to follow steps to make it public) and try it out!

Edit: Also, you can buy products on Overstock.com and games on Steam.

Interesting - while amazon.com only features the paperback you can buy the Kindle version on the international Amazon sites like amazon.de at roughly half price:
https://www.amazon.de/Internet-Money-English-Andreas-Antonopoulos-ebook/dp/B01L9WM0H8

I'd be good to be able to buy it as epub or a similar open format directly from Andreas through openbazaar or directly on his site.

Gday, OK, I'll go see what formal sources I can track down for you.

Firstly, I can mention 'Gold Warriors' by the Seagraves, which looks into Yamashita's Gold. Supposedly Marcos had a stash of 73,000 tons when he fled. Apparently, later, the Philippines military initiated a court case (reported in Soldier of Fortune magazine IIRC?) to get their share of the 63,000 tons they helped loot for Marcos.

https://www.amazon.com/Gold-Warriors-Sterling-Peggy-Seagrave-ebook/dp/B00413QFLK

Fascinating read.

> So far, past performance has perfectly predicted future results

No, it hasn't. This is the precise error that the original quote is intended to challenge. You've basically been fooled by a correlation into thinking you have a useful indicator.

The claim you're making relies on hindsight to adjust for errors in the prediction, and to select which features of past performance should be extrapolated.

For example, looking at the Bitcoin price chart right now, there are two obvious major trends: one is a steady and consistent downtrend that began on Dec 4 and predicts that the price will hit $200 by October; the other is the uptrend that claims that the recent trend is part of a correction that will reverse and continue its upward climb.

If past performance were really a predictor, you should be able to predict when the current downtrend will end. Want to take a stab at that, so we can check how well this really works?

There are also other trends that can be drawn, depending on where you start from and how you fit your predictive curve to the data. With enough parameters, it's possible to fit any curve to a given dataset, and make it look like you've found a predictive formula. But it's only predictive for the past. But exactly the same is true for the simplest curve-fits.

A good introduction to thinking properly about such things is Taleb's book Fooled by Randomness, which among other things, "examines what randomness means in business and in life and why human beings are so prone to mistake dumb luck for consummate skill."

> this is subject to change in the future.

Then it's not a predictor. It's as simple as that.

Another great book on Yumcoin, available in all the popular formats:

• EPUB: https://yumcoin.com/p/UJL6
  
• MOBI: https://yumcoin.com/p/p3VN
  
• PDF: https://yumcoin.com/p/CB1n
  
  You can also find this book on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/The-Coffeeist-Manifesto-More-Coffee/dp/1480047201

I found this eyepiece on Amazon https://www.amazon.com/Televue-31mm-Nagler-Type-Eyepiece/dp/B00063G0U0

which means: You don't need to convert your bitcoin to another currency to buy it. Instead you use the purse.io site. Purse.io is a marketplace that links those with amazon credit/points and those with btc together. Those with BTC create an auction and list an item they want by linking a wishlist. They can change the discount on this item so they can typically get it for %15 under the value of the item because someone with the amazon credit/points/coins wants the BTC that badly. It will tell you your chances of success as you change the % of the auction. I had a few go through for 20% off and no issues

Mastering Bitcoin by Andreas is a good start.

Also, the M1xolyd1an Youtube channel has a bunch of bitcoin programming tutorials. The same guy also has a decent book on Building Bitcoin Websites.

And if you're into Python, Sentdex has some great bitcoin programming videos that explain the protocol and demonstrates bitcoin trading with Python.

Also, the Bitcoin Dev Resources and Lightening Dev resources.

Digital Gold is the best one re: the history of Bitcoin and the characters in it . Highly recommend it.

• “Mastering Bitcoin: Unlocking Digital Cryptocurrencies” by Andreas Antonopoulos
  
  
• “The Internet of Money” by Andreas Antonopoulos
  
  
• “The Internet of Money (Volume 2)” by Andreas Antonopoulos
  
  
• "Mastering Ethereum: Building Smart Contracts and Dapps" by Gavin Wood and Andreas Antonopoulos (Available for Preorder)
  
  
• “Digital Gold” by Nathaniel Popper
  
  
• “Cryptoassets” by Chris Burniske and Jack Tatar
  
  But, the internet is also your best resource.
  

To those of you who want to know what Bitcoin is and what it does, here's a great book that I recommend to everyone: https://www.amazon.com/Internet-Money-Andreas-M-Antonopoulos-ebook/dp/B01L9WM0H8

LOL, do you think we are stupid?

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  https://www.amazon.com/Upgraded-Version-RunningSnail-Emergency-Flashlight/dp/B01MFCFKG5/ref=sr_1_4?keywords=solar+flashlight+with+usb+charger+hand+crank&qid=1556493544&s=gateway&sr=8-4

Update Dec 31st, 2016:

First, the claim:

http://digiconomist.net/beci

"Estimated energy used over the last 24 hours (KWh) 30,144,177

Now the facts.

Total hashing, today: 2,359,569 TH/s (per BitcoinWatch.com)

Using current (efficient) Antminer S9s. ( https://www.amazon.com/Antminer-S9-13-5TH-098W-Bitcoin/dp/B01MCZVPFE ) Each does 13.5 TH/s, and uses ~1,323W. So if all mining was using these, that would be 174,782 of these units (2,359,569 / 13.5). X 1,323W = 5.5 GWh/day.

The claim above was 30.1 GWh, or more than 5X this metric.

Ok, maybe not all mining is done with efficient S9s. Let's use all last-generation (essentially economically unviable, obsolete) hardware, the Antminer S7.

Using older (less efficient) Antminer S7s. ( https://www.amazon.com/Antminer-~4-73TH-Fans-Bitcoin-Miner/dp/B014OGCP6W ) Each does 4.73 TH/s, and uses ~1,293W. So if all mining was using these, that would be 498,851 of these units (2,359,569÷4.73). X 1,293W = 15.5 GWh/day.

So Digiconomist's index is based on a total that is too high by about twice (2X) this value.

But we know the biggest mining farms are not using obsolete hardware, and they represent a majority of the hashing.

So, at best, Digiconomist's numbers are 2X or 3X too high, and likely are even worse.

Aha! That's why it's crashing!

​

;D

HODL

​

-edit-

but seriously, get it off the exchange asap. i use ledger nano s and works great.

https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B07J66BHPT/ref=ox_sc_saved_title_4?smid=A8CC12NEQBXH1&psc=1

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Lucas_Jr.

further reading: on basically all 4 bullets https://www.amazon.com/Fooled-Randomness-Hidden-Markets-Incerto/dp/0812975219/ref=pd_sim_14_2/133-0444399-0427912?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=0812975219&pd_rd_r=20G8KZ7HRQTB9EV8KRMF&pd_rd_w=QI4pT&pd_rd_wg=y8262&psc=1&refRID=20G8KZ7HRQTB9EV8KRMF

further further reading on the last bullet, and the actual explanation of "black swan" that is starting to show up in crypto but totally incorrectly used https://www.amazon.com/Black-Swan-Improbable-Robustness-Fragility/dp/081297381X


you could also dig into efficient market hypothesis.

also, if you're into technical analysis/charts, this could shake your views a little but it's good to be challenged

Just built this Bitcoin Ticker for my raspberry pi. Github repo to download the files is here:

https://github.com/taoteh1221/BTC-Ticker

​

Please report any install issues here, and I'll do my best to assist:

https://github.com/taoteh1221/BTC-Ticker/issues

​

My setup is an old raspi v2 b+, and this case / screen:

https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B07N38B86S/

> If you like to read a book about this you should download "death of money" by Rickards.

Thanks. I find the history of money a really interesting subject, so will check it out. I've just finished The Ethics of Money Production, Jörg Guido Hülsmann, which is of a similar vein...

http://www.amazon.com/product-reviews/B003NX6Z3W
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B003NX6Z3W

I also read this one a while back which is a good read with a narrower focus:

Fiat Money Inflation in France, Andrew Dickson White
https://mises.org/library/fiat-money-inflation-france

FWIW, he's the author of the book Digital Gold, one of the best accounts of the early days of Bitcoin I've read:

http://www.amazon.com/Digital-Gold-Bitcoin-Millionaires-Reinvent/dp/0062362496

I thought the article captured the essence of the issue as well as any piece written for a general audience could. Especially given the subject was Mike Hearn.

For those interested in how or why this happened, the short story is that OP failed to use a Trezor Model T which allows you to enter ALL of your crucial seed and PIN information on the device ITSELF thus bypassing any malignant keyloggers, Trojans, or other spyware that might be installed on your device.

Best peace of mind their is.

Also, OP, why did you not just send your crypto directly to an exchange, particularly if you were selling ALL of it in one go? Instead you elected to move it to electrum first? Sounds quite odd to me...

Stranded electricity isn't a half bad place to mine bitcoins at least you can get back some money. Like buy some S7's and try?

https://bitmaintech.com/product.htm

https://www.amazon.com/Antminer-~4-73TH-25W-Bitcoin-Miner/dp/B014OGCP6W

EDIT: just adding a quick link to a mining calculator (but this calculator needs updating, the reward is not 25 btc/block, its now 12.5+fees)
https://alloscomp.com/bitcoin/calculator

Another thing you could consider is the costs of building a power wall or buying one from Tesla:

"Powerwall | The Tesla Home Battery - Tesla Motors
https://www.teslamotors.com/powerwall
Tesla Motors
Powerwall is a home battery that charges using electricity generated from solar panels, or when utility rates are low, and powers your home in the evening. ... Tesla home batteries maximize the usefulness of your solar panels and offer a variety of backup electricity supply solutions."

In comparison, Antminer S7 uses 0.25W/GH according to http://www.amazon.com/Antminer-S7-~4-73TH-Bitcoin-Miner/dp/B014OGCP6W.

I have had to look up what 0.09w/GH means, but now i know that's a very impressive power usage.

I'll add it to my list. Might have to read it after https://www.amazon.com/Thinking-Fast-Slow-Daniel-Kahneman/dp/0374533555

which seems pretty similar as well.

The Little Bitcoin Book: Why Bitcoin Matters for Your Freedom, Finances, and Future https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07W957N7T/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_YOJxDbWJB2HZC

I have an actual Trezor hardware wallet, not the app. One of these guys:

https://www.amazon.com/Trezor-T-Model/dp/B07B8Q2G3K/ref=sr_1_4?keywords=trezor+wallet&qid=1558644145&s=gateway&sr=8-4

From my research, it is the most secure way to hold BTC.

This guy and this book should help.

https://m.youtube.com/user/m1xolyd1an

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/153494544X/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1472217942&sr=8-1&pi=SY200_QL40&keywords=bitcoin+development&dpPl=1&dpID=51hsSduT-rL&ref=plSrch

You would want to run your "heaters" because they have an upfront cost ~6-12x an equivalent real heater.

http://www.amazon.com/Antminer-~4-73TH-25W-Bitcoin-Miner/dp/B014OGCP6W
http://www.amazon.com/TPI-Corporation-188TASA-Forced-Portable/dp/B002FCK8X0

bitcoinway.com has a very good plugin for wp+woocmmerce sites. Works directly to your Electrum wallet, no fees, no intermediaries, no blockchain to download, you are always in control of your btc.
Once you have done the BTC payment, post your websire on https://spendabit.co so you can reach more bitcoiners.
Another way, more advanced from this book: https://www.amazon.com/Building-Bitcoin-Websites-Beginners-Development/dp/153494544X

https://www.amazon.com/Internet-Money-collection-Andreas-Antonopoulos-ebook/dp/B01L9WM0H8/

Lasts you a lifetime:

Amazon-Link to Metal Stamping kit

Also notice, that all words in a BIP39 mnemonic are uniquely identifiable by their first 4 characters. So for a 12 word seed you only have to stamp 12 * 4 = 48 characters (not counting spaces).

Can you provide more detail on why you expect $50M can buy 25% of the hashing majority?
Here's my estimate: F2Pool claims 243,000 TH, the equivalent of ~52,000 Antminer S7 ($1500 on Amazon, with 4.7TH). Before you can buy $80 million in miners to match F2Pool, you'd have to corner the market on new bitcoin miners without driving up the price... but even that ignores data center and electricity costs.