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from the you've-never-seen-1000-tonnes-of-gold-instantly-evaporate dept.
User mistakenly takes control of hundreds of wallets containing cryptocurrency Ether, destroying them in a panic while trying to give them back
Unlike most cryptocurrency hacks, however, the money wasn't deliberately taken: it was effectively destroyed by accident. The lost money was in the form of Ether, the tradable currency that fuels the Ethereum distributed app platform, and was kept in digital multi-signature wallets built by a developer called Parity. These wallets require more than one user to enter their key before funds can be transferred.
Source: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/nov/08/cryptocurrency-300m-dollars-stolen-bug-ether
This is less than 1% of the entirety of the total value of Ethereum (as perceived by speculators). One must remember that the national debts of issuers of some fiat currencies could effectively destroy 100% of those currencies, so is it appropriate for dollar users (which indirectly is all of us) to sneer at cryptocurrency users for this apparent weakness which will, presumably, be fixed and never happen again?
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Thexalon on Thursday November 09 2017, @06:03PM (4 children)
If you don't want to pay taxes (which is what you are referring to with the "toll bridges on the One True Path" metaphor), you're welcome to try living someplace where government either doesn't exist, or is totally unable to control the territory you're living in. There are quite a few places to choose from: Somalia, northern Afghanistan, the Amazon rainforest, northern Canadian forests or islands, uninhabited Pacific islands, or of course international waters. Some of those places are claimed by a government, but if you go off on your own and don't let slip where you're going or do anything to call attention to yourself, you can probably hide out on your own for quite some time.
I mean, maybe you'll be happy with your new life, but I wouldn't be surprised if you returned to government-controlled territory with a new-found appreciation for what governments do for you.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 2) by Justin Case on Thursday November 09 2017, @06:30PM (2 children)
Actually I was referring to a lot of other things besides taxes.
Like health insurance, which government made mandatory, and which (for me) will see an 18% increase next year, to over $1000 a month even though they rarely pay a dime, along with bigger copays for me and less choice of doctors.
"But Trump, and Congress, and the rich, and industry lobbyists...!"
Yeah, that's my point.
And I give you credit for expanding the "Somalia anarchy" argument just a bit. (Why is it always Somalia?) Something beyond copy-paste thinking. Good for you.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Thexalon on Thursday November 09 2017, @10:44PM
If you're out in the middle of nowhere without a functioning government that even knows you're there, I'm fairly certain you don't have to worry about paying for health insurance and medical copays. Because you won't be getting a doctor anywhere near you anytime soon.
As for the ACA, the only thing worse than the ACA in recent years was what was going on before the ACA: The consistent pattern was that you'd pay in premiums when you were healthy with faith that this would turn into payments from the insurance company when you got sick, then the moment you got sick the insurance company would find excuses to not pay and cancel your policy as quickly as possible. And then you'd be stuck without insurance at all, because no insurer would ever allow you to get a policy without first proving you were healthy. Now there are at least some cases where illness doesn't immediately mean you're financially ruined.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 17 2017, @09:47AM
I live in Germany. I pay 15% of my salary for medical insurance. Last year I used 0% of that since I didn't visit any doctor. And I gladly pay that so others benefited last year from my payments because in the future, if I'm sick, I know that I may benefit from other people's payments into the system too.
And that is what is really fucked up in America - people's inability to comprehend that healthcare is always needed, sooner or later, by everyone. The perception that you can only pay for health coverage if you need it, or that some do not deserve to get help because they are poor, it's really really fucked up. They think "it will not happen to me" and then just read all the stories about people that lose everything, their homes, even their families, because of medical issues that they never thought would occur to them. Example after example. Just like the entire gun debate - completely irrational. And completely "made in America" problem.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 09 2017, @07:19PM
That kind of defeats the point, doesn't it? And what if you want an anarchist community? That might be difficult to hide. You say that such people should just go live in the wilderness if they want their freedom, but then admit that there are essentially no actual locations they can go to where they won't be oppressed by thuggish governments at some point. What options do they even have?