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Does anyone here use Bitcoins?

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40hz:
(see attachment in previous post)
First U.S. bitcoin exchange opens for business
-Arizona Hot (January 27, 2015, 10:06 PM)
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I guess the US government and it's intel apparatus (along with its allies) finally had enough time to sufficiently analyze the way Bitcoin works and get some monitoring mechanisms in place that they no longer feel as threatened as they used to.

Then too, bitcoins could be extremely handy for moving covert ops and hush money around. Blood diamonds are sooo unseemly...

It pays to remember, as William Gibson so nicely put it in Burning Chrome, that "the street finds its own uses for things..." -

So too does government. ;) 8)

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Note: Can you say "co-opted?"

The giveaway is that Microsoft is now accepting bitcoins. That to me is the clearest indication Bitcoin has been greenlighted at the highest levels. Of course The Powers That Be won't acknowledge that's what happened. It's far more useful to let people think they're powerless to stop it and therefor bowed to the inevitable. Like the old saying goes: "You have to let the kiddies win every so often. Otherwise they won't play."

Stoic Joker:
It pays to remember, as William Gibson so nicely put it in Burning Chrome, that "the street finds its own uses for things..." -

So too does government.
-40hz (January 28, 2015, 08:08 AM)
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It's always struck me as funny how - behaviorally speaking - it always seems to be perceived as a pyramid with the government at the top and the - street fighting - rabble at the bottom. Because to me it's not a pyramid at all...but a circle...with middle management being the only ones that truly have to suffer "good" behavior. Because the closer you get to the top of the pile, the less oversight there is constraining ones behavior. And this continues until at the highest levels...where no one is/can be watching ... The typical street rules; posturing, aggressive attitudes, and a reliance/thirst for violence returns as everything circles back to the worst possible behavioral traits.

40hz:
It's always struck me as funny how - behaviorally speaking - it always seems to be perceived as a pyramid with the government at the top and the - street fighting - rabble at the bottom. Because to me it's not a pyramid at all...but a circle...with middle management being the only ones that truly have to suffer "good" behavior.
-Stoic Joker (January 28, 2015, 11:25 AM)
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I always saw it more like when you get two equally aggressive, loud-mouthed kids living on the same street.

They're gonna fight.

It's what they do. ;)

Stoic Joker:
As ultimate outcomes go, yes ... But that wasn't really the point I was trying to make. I was trying to point out the similarities in behavior at the perceived 'top' and 'bottom' of a hierarchy.

40hz:
^Some years ago, an article in The Harvard Business Review noted the curious phenomena of how many antisocial behaviors and attitudes (that are not normally tolerated in regular society, such as: egotism, unprovoked aggression, intolerance, snap judgement, and a callous disregard for the feelings and opinions of others) are somehow magically elevated to the status of virtues, and considered to be desirable and admirable traits when employed in business and government affairs.

Small surprise that so many business and government types seem to live in some weird virtual reality totally divorced from regular life. We apparently encourage our 'leaders' (and I use that term loosely) to misbehave. And furthermore, expect (or possibly even insist) they do so.

Is that more what you were talking about? ;)

(Side note: said tolerance also seems to exhibit strong gender-bias in that many people (including women) are less tolerant of such behaviors in a woman, even if she holds high office, or is the CEO of a corporation. If true, it's not only a matter of different rules - but different rules for boys and girls.)

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