yscale

I can't help but think of the reaction that online poker players had when first told that UltimateBet admins were cheating, or that celebrity-backed FullTiltPoker was insolvent.

When it came to UB, the common response was that the company was making money hand over fist and that cheating a few high rollers out of $50 or $100k would jeopardize the much larger legitimate source, so they clearly wouldn't do that. Except that some of the admins really were cheating individual high-rollers.

And with FullTiltPoker, the business really was as profitable as the players guessed, but the company directors weren't actually treating customer deposits as deposits, but were instead paying themselves most of the money and paying withdrawals using new deposits (which works seamlessly, so long as deposits exceed withdrawals which is the usual case for both gambling websites and bitcoin exchanges).

So, I hope you're right. But I'd note that MtGox's actions are ALSO fully aligned with the actions of an insolvent company that wants to continue operations, and realizes that it is possible that they can recover so long as sufficient confidence is maintained by depositors such as yourself.

After all, if Gox is insolvent, then Tux's best hope for a new fortune is to use your deposits as his working capital... which is exactly what you're letting him do.

Your comment reads like this:

"It's rational for officers to arrest law-abiding citizens who are slightly annoying officers."

And I get that a lot of people believe that. But you're wrong. You're so, so wrong.

It saddens me that a lot of cops (like the one in this story) feel as you do, that it's fine for police to grossly abuse their powers.

In a rational world, the cop would no longer be a cop.

In this world, he probably could've raped the kid with a toilet plunger and still remained on the force.

* this was supposedly in the Bitcoin protocol itself*

Cue a line of BTC-promoting ostriches claiming that the protocol is fan-fucking-tastic and in no need of improvement.

It saddens me that some people look at travesties like this and think "fuck him, the system is great, three cheers for the status quo."

This despite the fact that any honest reading of our medical outcomes shows that America gets very average medical care, and that we pay about twice per capita what the best care in the world costs.

I mean, I know there's a lot of propaganda out there, and I know there are a lot of sociopaths who are eager to believe it... but I'd think you'd keep your dishonest pro-status-quo, anti-efficiency nonsense out of a thread like this one. Especially since your post implies an utterly nonsensical (and clearly grossly uninformed) dichotomy that the only options are pure state control or the status quo, when any informed survey of developed nations would show many other models, some of which would work well in the US.

Sadly, progress is stalled and we all suffer because there are obstructionist assholes like you, willing to ignorantly pretend that the status quo is the best in the world.

I'd also be willing to bet that he programs in languages like Ocaml and Haskell.

Saying "cost of replacing the thing" about a baby, to a father, was not calm speech about a difficult topic.

It was pointlessly rude and provocative. It was an indefensible way to express his underlying opinion.

And if you were paying attention, you would've realized I emphasized his method of expressing the opinion far more than the opinion itself.

He's entitled to his (ignorant) opinions, but he's not entitled to be so pointlessly rude and cruel with his method of expressing it.

If this was a dinner party, I'd quietly ask him to excuse himself, and he'd never be invited again. His choice of language was pointlessly cruel and outrageous.

You are an ignorant, arrogant idiot, and a callous asshole.

BTW, we already knew you didn't have kids. We knew that both from your beliefs, and moreso from the the hurtful language you chose to use.

We all already knew you were childless. And single. And white. And male. And a programmer. And an asshole.

Now do the world a favor, and shut up. Forever.

HFTs tend to add liquidity when it's least valuable, and they tend to consume liquidity when it's most vital.

For example, an analysis of the 2010 flash crash shows it was worsened by HFTs fleeing their positions once volatility increased, which is the exact time that liquidity and market-making are most valuable.

If there is any social benefit to HFT it is utterly trivial.

They already did, but many people are satisfied with the Apple app and wouldn't appreciate being forced to switch to a different and not-meaningfully-better app.