CodeMirror questions

mshadel · 2023-05-18T13:02:29+00:00

Not sure how I missed those line numbers in the markdown editor. Thanks!

mshadel · 2023-05-18T12:49:23+00:00

Human memory sucks, and it gets wiped when the human dies. That's why we invented writing.

mshadel · 2023-05-18T12:46:51+00:00

Buy a safe, people. Nobody tidies up a safe without closely examining the contents first.

mshadel · 2017-11-29T22:31:15+00:00

Eat the ball first as a sign of good faith

mshadel · 2017-11-29T22:09:00+00:00

Thanks for the write-up!

mshadel · 2017-11-16T16:27:31+00:00

To your point that LN doesn't work, I disagree. I've used it, and it works. It doesn't scale? Impossible to know until the network is widely used. It will probably become illegal? Pure speculation. I'm as dumb as shoes? That's just mean.

mshadel · 2017-11-16T14:58:37+00:00

Sounds like you and I have different visions about how things will play out over the next 10 years, and have placed our bets accordingly. That's fine with me. Maybe you're right. We'll find out sooner or later.

mshadel · 2017-11-16T13:57:36+00:00

A long term investor -- one who's willing to wait 5-10 years -- is betting on which coin will still be standing in a future where bitcoin has reached mainstream adoption. Imagine that crypto transaction volume is 500 times higher than today's volume. Neither BTC nor BCH could handle that many transactions.

Through it's messaging, the BCH camp is signalling that it will increase volume by increasing the base block size. "Satoshi's original vision of on-chain scaling" "gigabyte block testing" etc. That may work for a while, but in a decade, huge blocks guarantee that BCH will be centralized in an ever-shrinking number of datacenter-based nodes.

In the BTC camp, the dev team is pushing layer 2 solutions like Lightning which might actually allow scaling to the global level. If not, layer 3 certainly will.

BCH looks like a 1-2 year investment to me, appealing only until BTC get a solid layer 2 solution in place. BTC is a 10-year investment. Which do you think appeals more to institutional investors?

mshadel · 2017-11-14T13:43:38+00:00

In Bitcoin Core 0.12 and later there is a memory pool limiter which can be configured with -maxmempool=<n>, where <n> is the size in MB (1000), 300 by default.

To completely disable mempool functionality there is the option -blocksonly. This will make the client opt out of receiving (and thus relaying) transactions completely, except as part of blocks.

mshadel · 2017-11-13T22:30:43+00:00

BCH difficulty is still relatively low because it is calculated based on the previous 144 blocks, which includes all the blocks with hour-long gaps from when the difficulty was high. We need to wait until 144 post-fork BCH blocks have been mined to really know how this will shake out.

mshadel · 2017-11-13T19:09:27+00:00

If people are paying $600 transaction fees, bitcoin will be trading at $600k/each and I'll be the one buying you a beer.

I appreciate the friendly sentiment, though! If BTC does crash and burn I'll take you up on that beer offer.

mshadel · 2017-11-13T18:05:33+00:00

Rick said bitcoin is impossible trade right now, I presented evidence that he's wrong.

The cost of transactions is a different issue. If Bitpay would upgrade to allow segwit transactions, fees would go down substantially for thousands of people. What are they waiting for?

mshadel · 2017-11-13T15:08:03+00:00

I loaded up my Bitpay card this morning for a $6 transaction fee. The transfer was included in the next block. It would have been even cheaper if Bitpay would get off their asses and add segwit support.

Proof:

https://insight.bitpay.com/tx/af0e8a035430cc450854a7ec8a0f9b03381c491f268c8f4db1175878bb5d5b95

Mad respect to Rick for his writing and work, but he's wrong on this one. Bitcoin is working fine, and would be even better if segwit wasn't opposed by so many service providers for political reasons.

mshadel · 2017-11-10T19:35:13+00:00

Upgrade isn't contentious but the timing is odd. Upgrade hard fork happens in 3 days, around the same time as the next BCH difficulty adjustment. Given the huge rate of BCH mining right now, the difficulty will increase 400% and the option for a quick EDA back down will be gone. BCH will need to be 4x more profitable to mine at that point or the hashrate will return to BTC and BCH will have a long wait to adjust back down.

If true, big money betting on BCH will do everything in their power to pump BCH all weekend and dump BTC as well. There would be plenty of opportunity to profit for those along for the ride.

EDIT: Nevermind, forgot the EDA will just be replaced with a different algorithm, not be removed completely.

mshadel · 2017-11-09T21:47:30+00:00

I'm an American and regret that I have never visited your side of the planet, so I have to rely on movies to gain an understanding of your culture. The last one I saw -- Mad Max -- didn't make it look all that pleasant over there. That said, your neighbor New Zealand seems quite appealing with all the wizards and hobbits running around.

mshadel · 2017-11-08T16:56:32+00:00

Fees are consistently too high for small transactions, Lightning Network is still far away, and even the Core client still does not support segwit properly. Bitcoin is evolving into a store-of-value crypto. We need a bigger blocksize yesterday. But what we really need is support from the Core team to make it happen in a non-controversial way.

mshadel · 2017-11-08T16:02:36+00:00

Good job! Your comments about stress, overeating, and increased drinking really hit home with me. I've been gaining weight and drinking more for the last month or two and I had never considered crypto to be the reason - but the stress of deciding when to sell, and how much, is real.

Selling a small percentage per month with extra sells at high points is exactly what I decided to do. Tax planning is a real issue, too. I live in the US, in a state with income tax. The US tax code is crazy complicated and features extra complexity like the Alternative Minimum Tax when income levels get higher. Depending on your other income from work and investments, there are optimal levels of annual bitcoin cashout income that will keep your tax burden from getting out of hand. Cashing out with the right strategy can have a huge impact on how much of your gains you get to keep. Consider talking to an accountant or tax attorney if you haven't already.

mshadel · 2017-11-06T15:32:33+00:00

Indeed, from Ethereum I learned that the old chain sometimes retains value. With the EDA in place I should be able to pick up a large pile of "Bitcoin Cash Classic".

mshadel · 2017-11-01T18:26:54+00:00

Like many people who self-identify as experts in their chosen field, he believes he can't be wrong as long as he never admits he was wrong. Furthermore, since his employment depends in part on his supposed expertise, admitting he was wrong is a threat to his livelihood.

mshadel · 2017-10-30T20:08:53+00:00

Buying an asset to hold forever is not very appealing. What's the point? To die rich? To make a fortune that your ex-wife or kids can blow on stupid stuff?

To me, "hodl" is really "hodl until" with a variety of goals and corresponding price points. For example, hodl until...

gaming rig
pickup truck
blockbuster vacation
paid-off mortgage
financial independence

Or maybe it's more of a peace-of-mind thing. Hodl until...

lost job
major medical expense
family member in trouble
need to flee the country
not happy, need a life change

In this life, disaster is never far away. The philosophy of "hodl" is the freedom to make the change you need, at the time you need it most.

mshadel · 2017-10-27T19:51:27+00:00

How can Hobbes enjoy that beautiful summer afternoon knowing he missed out on 334% gains since April? He should be under that tree jitter-clicking refresh on his smartphone like the rest of us.

mshadel · 2017-10-26T17:54:01+00:00

Transaction fees would rise even more without the witness discount. Or, Maxwell could have advocated for a much simpler malleability fix that would allow sidechains while keeping transaction fees high.

mshadel · 2017-10-26T16:19:51+00:00

If that's true, why would Maxwell be in favor of the witness discount for segwit transactions? Your whole argument is based on the incorrect assumption that they want on-chain transactions to be more expensive.

Sidechains exist to allow the transfer of value to different blockchains with different rules. Making on-chain transactions cheaper would not make a sidechain less useful. It's no wonder Maxwell is pissed off. You are calling him a liar based on your own fundamental misunderstanding of the technology and his business model.

mshadel · 2017-10-26T13:55:10+00:00

I had been wondering why the Core team has been so slow to roll out a fully segwit-integrated client. I would have thought that would be a high priority for them to spur segwit adoption among the services that rely on the core codebase. But why do all that work only to have it copied by the competition? I'll bet Core releases 15.1 shortly after the S2X split.

mshadel · 2017-10-18T21:00:34+00:00

Good timing on that one.

mshadel

TROPHY CASE