> Under current law, Big Tech platforms have the final word on their services. They have the right to decide which thinkers, politicians, and businesses are allowed onto their platform and which they will expel. This seems reasonable until you consider Big Tech’s scale and how fundamental the internet is to modern-day life.

I think that's the heart of the matter. I've thought about this quite a bit, but when we say break them down, how does that work ?

Could there be legal thresholds such as what already exists with regards to ( actual ) hate speech and encouraging violence, based on publicly agreed upon standards ?

Platforms being legally accountable for enforcing arbitrary or biased deplatforming or shadowbanning ? They are a special kind of service ...

I guess you'd need a watchdog with teeth. Does anyone have a link to something that covers all this in depth ? Could well be a HN thread ( maybe this one .. )

I am considering offering my services for Bitcoin, at a custom rate, subject to regular review, for a part of my salary to be discussed. The main point is building an economy around that damn thing. Many people "believe" in it, but not many people put their Bitcoins where their mouth is. A bi-weekly salary is actually a good use case for the shitty transaction rate. I still have some details to iron-out, but it makes sense to me at this point. Anyone here who has experience in working / hiring for Bitcoin ? I do mean in the surface economy. Any authoritative resources on tax policies / issues and what not ? I haven't fully thought this through just yet, but I'm gonna.

I was looking at this just a few days ago ;

"Careful writing about traumatic or uncertain events, past, present or future, appears to produce a variety of benefits, physiological and psychological. Written accounts of trauma positively influence health. Recent investigations have shown that the explicit written description of an ideal future produces similar results. A large body of research conducted in the industrial and business domains also demonstrates that future authoring or goal-setting results in improved productivity and performance." [0]

[0] https://www.selfauthoring.com/ -> "Writing Benefits" =

https://selfauthoring.blob.core.windows.net/media/Default/Pd... (PDF)

Related thread ;

Bitcoin now uses more electricity than Argentina [0]

751 points - 1292 comments and trending

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26088455

[0] https://cbeci.org/cbeci/comparisons

This (here) article is also very interesting.

> And the results are revealing: Sichuan, second only in the hashpower rankings to Xinjiang, is a province characterized by a massive overbuild of hydroelectric power in the last decade. Sichuan’s installed hydro capacity is double what its power grid can support, leading to lots of “curtailment” (or waste). Dams can only store so much potential energy in the form of water before they must let it out. It’s an open secret that this otherwise-wasted energy has been put to use mining Bitcoin. If your local energy cost is effectively zero but you cannot sell your energy anywhere, the existence of a global buyer for energy is a godsend.

> But to ambitious data scientists like Pocovi, who has worked with major political parties in Latin America in recent elections, Cambridge Analytica, which shut down in May, was behind the curve. Where it gauged people’s receptiveness to campaign messages by analyzing data they typed into Facebook, today’s “neuropolitical” consultants say they can peg voters’ feelings by observing their spontaneous responses: an electrical impulse from a key brain region, a split-­second grimace, or a moment’s hesitation as they ponder a question.