What Bitcoin Is, and Why It Matters Unlike other currencies, Bitcoin is underwritten not by a government, but by a clever cryptographic scheme. For now, little can be bought with bitcoins, and the new currency is still a long way from competing with the dollar. But this explainer lays out what Bitcoin is, why it matters, and what needs to happen for it to succeed. Where does Bitcoin come from? In 2008, a programmer known as Satoshi Nakamoto—a name believed to be an alias—posted a paper outlining Bitcoin’s design to a cryptography e-mail list. “Satoshi’s a bit of a mysterious figure,” says Jeff Garzik, a member of that core team and founder of Bitcoin Watch, which tracks the Bitcoin economy. How does Bitcoin work? Nakamoto wanted people to be able to exchange money electronically securely without the need for a third party, such as a bank or a company like PayPal. The Basics A Bitcoin address looks something like this: 15VjRaDX9zpbA8LVnbrCAFzrVzN7ixHNsC. Transferring Bitcoins Those clients make two checks on a transaction.
Keynesian beauty contest A Keynesian beauty contest is a concept developed by John Maynard Keynes and introduced in Chapter 12 of his work, The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money (1936), to explain price fluctuations in equity markets. Overview[edit] Keynes described the action of rational agents in a market using an analogy based on a fictional newspaper contest, in which entrants are asked to choose the six prettiest faces from a hundred photographs. Those who picked the most popular faces are then eligible for a prize. A naive strategy would be to choose the face that, in the opinion of the entrant, is the most beautiful. "It is not a case of choosing those [faces] that, to the best of one's judgment, are really the prettiest, nor even those that average opinion genuinely thinks the prettiest. National Public Radio's Planet Money tested the theory by having its listeners select the cutest of three animal videos. Subsequent theory[edit] See also[edit] Tactical voting Notes[edit] References[edit]
Tor (anonymity network) Tor (previously an acronym for The Onion Router)[4] is free software for enabling online anonymity and censorship resistance. Tor directs Internet traffic through a free, worldwide, volunteer network consisting of more than five thousand relays[5] to conceal a user's location or usage from anyone conducting network surveillance or traffic analysis. Using Tor makes it more difficult to trace Internet activity, including "visits to Web sites, online posts, instant messages, and other communication forms", back to the user[6] and is intended to protect the personal privacy of users, as well as their freedom and ability to conduct confidential business by keeping their internet activities from being monitored. The term "onion routing" refers to layers of encryption, nested like the layers of an onion, used to anonymize communication. In 2013, Jacob Appelbaum described Tor as a "part of an ecosystem of software that helps people regain and reclaim their autonomy. Steven J.
R.I.P. Peter Falk – La dernière enquête du Lieutenant Columbo En exclusivité pour Objectif Liberté, voici la dernière enquête du lieutenant Columbo, Alias Peter Falk, décédé ce 24 juin 2011. Reposez en paix, lieutenant. Columbo, The last episode : « Eco Lumbo » Acte I, Scène 1 (vers 2015) Columbo - Sergent Wilson, qui est la victime ? Wilson - Eh bien, lieutenant, c’est l’économie mondiale. Columbo (au bord du vomissement) - Euh, non, occupez vous en, Wilson… Je lirai votre rapport. Wilson - Oui, l’enquête est trop facile. Columbo (pensif) – Oui, Wilson, continuez à chercher de ce côté-là… Ah, un instant, Wilson, qu’est-ce que c’est que ce papier, à côté de la victime ? Wilson - Euh… Attendez… Columbo - On dirait un billet de mille dollars… A peine de quoi s’acheter un plein d’essence aujourd’hui… Bon, faites analyser, Wilson. Wilson - OK, Lieutenant ! Acte II, scène 1Une riche maison d’une grande ville inconnue. Lord Keynes - Pardon, monsieur, mais je ne reçois pas les clochards. (Il ferme la porte. Columbo - Ah, ça… C’est comme ma femme, tiens.
U.S. Underwrites Internet Detour Around Censors Abroad The effort includes secretive projects to create independent cellphone networks inside foreign countries, as well as one operation out of a spy novel in a fifth-floor shop on L Street in Washington, where a group of young entrepreneurs who look as if they could be in a garage band are fitting deceptively innocent-looking hardware into a prototype “Internet in a suitcase.” Financed with a $2 million State Department grant, the suitcase could be secreted across a border and quickly set up to allow wireless communication over a wide area with a link to the global Internet. The American effort, revealed in dozens of interviews, planning documents and classified diplomatic cables obtained by The New York Times, ranges in scale, cost and sophistication. Some projects involve technology that the United States is developing; others pull together tools that have already been created by hackers in a so-called liberation-technology movement sweeping the globe. The Invisible Web Then there was Mr. Mr.
LRB · John Lanchester · Once Greece goes… The economic crisis in Greece is the most important thing to have happened in Europe since the Balkan wars. That isn’t because Greece is economically central to the European order: at barely 3 per cent of Eurozone GDP, the Greek economy could vanish without trace and scarcely be missed by anyone else. The dangers posed by the imminent Greek default are all to do with how it happens. I speak of the Greek default as a sure thing because it is: the markets are pricing Greek government debt as if it has already defaulted. This is, at the moment, the best-case scenario and the current plan A. There is a good moment in one of the otherwise terrible Star Trek movies, in which Spock quotes an ancient Vulcan proverb: ‘Only Nixon could go to China.’ That was the old plan A, and it didn’t work. Does that sound plausible? The Indignati are not stupid, and are well aware of two salient points. It is that prospect which spooks everyone else in the EU, and the world economic order generally. 30 June
The Bitcoin Bubble | Bottom-up My friend Jerry Brito is one of the best-connected and most insightful observers of the Internet I know, so when he starts talking up an Internet trend , I pay attention. But after reading his case for Bitcoin, a new digital currency, I remain a skeptic. The article is worth reading in full, but here’s an important part of his case for Bitcoin: The web has also seen all-purpose digital currencies, from defunct dot-com bubble start-ups Flooz and Beenz, to the slightly more successful e-gold. Unlike cash, however, digital currencies to date have had a third party intermediary monitoring transactions. Bitcoin is the first online currency to solve the so-called “double spending” problem without resorting to a third-party intermediary. It’s an intriguing concept, but the fundamental question about any currency is whether its value will be stable over time. But dollars have at least two advantages over Bitcoins. The more subtle difference has to do with network effects and transaction costs.
Le Blog d'Olivier Berruyer sur les crises actuelles Poursuivons notre analyse de l’immobilier en France. Nous avons vu dans le billet précédent que les prix immobiliers français sont entrés en phase de bulle spéculative vers 2002. Rappelons-l’évolution : Les conséquences sur la situation des ménages Toutefois, si le prix à l’achat a augmenté, les loyers n’ont pas suivi : En conséquence, la rentabilité locative a chuté (autour de 2 % par an actuellement), ce qui décourage les bailleurs, et entretient donc la pénurie, donc les prix hauts… Ceci illustre donc l’impact sur le pouvoir d’achat des personnes disposant d’un capital pour payer au comptant un appartement. Ce n’est évidemment qu’une minorité, les autres réalisant un emprunt immobilier. Ainsi, les prix ont augmenté, mais les taux ont baissé, donc le coût de l’emprunt a diminué. On voit donc que nous connaissons bien un pic historique. Bien évidemment, à ce stade, il faut s’endetter plus longtemps : Et la dette totale explose : De même, les taux d’effort ont fortement augmenté :
Bitcoin’s Collusion Problem | Bottom-up Yesterday I questioned whether we should expect demand for Bitcoins to be stable over the long run. Today I want to look at the supply side. A constrained supply of money is important to a currency’s stability. One of Bitcoin’s key selling points is that the number of Bitcoins issued will never exceed 21 million. The Bitcoin peer-to-peer network can be thought of as a giant, shared accounting ledger. The system has a clever incentive system: each node is allowed to insert a fixed reward (currently 50 Bitcoins) for itself into the block it is working on. The limit is a social convention baked into the BitCoin software. If a group of nodes colluded to change the rules (say, awarding themselves 100 Bitcoins rather than 50 for “winning” a round), the result would be a “fork” of the Bitcoin network. So the question is whether it would be possible for a critical mass of nodes to collude to change the rules.
Diagnostic Pauvreté : 5- L’aide internationale aux pays africains L’aide internationale aux pays pauvres d’Afrique n’améliorent pas leur sort. Ce dont les pays africains ont besoin est l’instauration d’un cadre institutionnel d’État de droit ainsi que d’une meilleure définition et protection des droits de propriété. Ils ont besoin d’une plus grande liberté économique. —- Un article de la série « Diagnostic pauvreté » du blog Le minarchiste Depuis Montréal, Québec Diagnostic pauvreté : 1- Le BangladeshDiagnostic pauvreté : 2- Le ChiliDiagnostic pauvreté : 3- L’évolution économique de la SuèdeDiagnostic Pauvreté : 4- La Libéralisation de la Nouvelle Zélande Le « cirque » de U2 est récemment passé par Montréal avec ses deux immenses concerts extérieurs ayant attiré plus de 160.000 personnes. Néanmoins, je réfléchissais sans cesse à tous ces plaidoyers de Bono pour augmenter l’aide aux pays pauvres, lui qui évite de payer la totalité de ses impôts en Irlande grâce à une pirouette fiscale (voir ceci). Conclusion : Comme le mentionne William Easterly :