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So let me feed into your fears: a cyber-attack in a BitCoin (&etc.) world would stop all commerce at all levels everywhere. Except, perhaps, in the primitive country that uses actual currency (and who coincidentally launched the cyber attack).
Having access to all of your assets, directly and at all times, is both exciting and frightening.
As for currency values, or even gold: neither is good if you're hungry. Only what you can exchange them for - if anyone wants to exchange for them. Stocks? The real value of most stocks is, well, nothing! Voting power in the companies management (not for your or me, with 1/10,000th of 1% of the shares) - so a few blocks of stock run things for their own benefit. The only value they hold is the same as currency, gold, or BitCoin: what will someone give you to get them from you. Look up hyperinflation[^] to realize your faith is anything but well-founded.
In a very real sense, they're all the same: dependent upon a market for 'them' when, in fact, it is not 'them' that is wanted but what 'them' can be exchange for!
| Ravings en masse^ |
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| "The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein | | "If you are searching for perfection in others, then you seek disappointment. If you are seek perfection in yourself, then you will find failure." - Balboos HaGadol Mar 2010 |
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Bitcoin's problem is hyperdeflation 
Cheers,
विक्रम
"We have already been through this, I am not going to repeat myself." - fat_boy, in a global warming thread
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W∴ Balboos wrote: Having access to all of your assets, directly and at all times, is both exciting and frightening.
If you think about cloud computing, it's the same thing in a way. As a whole, we're moving towards a more connected whole, in more ways than one.
Jeremy Falcon
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I a pretty militant non-advocate of cloud computing. For now, I'm safe.
| Ravings en masse^ |
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| "The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein | | "If you are searching for perfection in others, then you seek disappointment. If you are seek perfection in yourself, then you will find failure." - Balboos HaGadol Mar 2010 |
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Your grandchildren won't think it's a big deal. Welcome to change.
Jeremy Falcon
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LOL, if the stocks become worthless, that means that our civilization store has become worthless as well, and I guarantee that folks won't be bartering with CCs - it would be like Mad Max, with any kind of physically valuable material (e.g., liquid or solid fossil fuel); those ruffians would not be transferring bits on their iPhones.
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What Jeremy said, plus, there is a much broader movement toward decentralization with particular emphasis on decentralizing social media.
Also, keep in mind that blockchain underlying technology can be used for creating any kind of contract/transaction, not necessarily one involving "coin" or even having a direct translation to hard currency.
Marc
Latest Article - Create a Dockerized Python Fiddle Web App
Learning to code with python is like learning to swim with those little arm floaties. It gives you undeserved confidence and will eventually drown you. - DangerBunny
Artificial intelligence is the only remedy for natural stupidity. - CDP1802
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Swampwiz.
Am gonna take the time to answer back with two hopes in mind
1) you can read my comments amongst the full barrage of responses, both bad and good you'll get with such an opinionated post.
2) you can have a real change of heart not because of my actual words, but by the intellectual process that occurs with the interchange of ideas which, in the end, form the basis of any modern society and form the inherent concept of value.
With that in mind, I will be brief.
First... I will refer to you, and older article which was written in 2011 which did precisely what you now do: overestimate a paradigm shift and catalogue all of them involve as fringe and subject to your contemptuous judgement.
The Rise and Fall of Bitcoin
Second... I will show you another article, which clearly shows what happened next and how Ethereum learned from bitcoin's mistakes and move further along the lines.
The Rise and Fall of Bitcoin and the New Kid on the Block
With those two things in mind, let us elaborate on your superficial post.
You put REAL MONEY in all caps, but fail to mention what your currency of choice is. Venezuelans, today, don't have that luxury and British thought that they had it two and after the Brexit vote, lots of products have inflated due to the inherent vision that things are gonna get bad before they get better in the U.K. after Brexit.
So, your idea of REAL MONEY is essentially an illusion but regardless, is a useful illusion.
Then you mention, the physical quality as something important and forget that the U.S. dollar overtook it's namesake, the Spanish Dollar or Piece of Eight or 8 real silver coin not with a coin, but with a banknote which ironically was worth in those silver coins it replaced. So physicality is neither something set in stone nor really important when speaking about currency.
Which takes to the central point of your rant, FORKING REAL CASH in favor of an illusion. Ironically, you'd been doing that since your birth. The actual REAL CASH is products and services. Money is the first instance of virtuality, that is, Bank Notes and coins are our first technological tool and it predates the pencil, paper and even monoliths. The only physical and real is what you produce in an economy, but ironically, you have to give it value in order for it to be desirable. Don't think a BMW Series 3 costs anything more than a VM Jetta. In Germany, Mercedes Benzs are Taxis and Ubers. The moment you export Corona Beer, Swaroski crystals, iPhones and Big Screen TVs, that's the moment that their value increases.
So, value is not a matter of physicality, tangibility or even usefulness. It's a matter of perception and conviction. A Xiaomi phone might be physically more adept than an iPhone 7, but brand awareness makes it better.
So that we can leave past doom predictions and dogmas, let's focus on the the essence of your post. Are we in a bubble (of bits)? Is Ethereum (or Bitcoin for that matter) just vaporware and it will vanish because it's a fad by fringe groups? Only time will tell.
But in the meantime you could be on the side of success or you can be on the side of failure. You only can decide. Any great rewards demands a great risk. If you are not a risk taker and you let your dogmas move your business decisions, go ahead, you have nothing to lose.
But the again, in REAL ECONOMICS there's something called the Opportunity Cost, that is, as per the Wikipedia:
"In microeconomic theory, the opportunity cost...is the value (not a benefit) of the choice of a best alternative cost while making a decision. A choice needs to be made between several mutually exclusive alternatives; assuming the best choice is made, it is the "cost" incurred by not enjoying the benefit that would have been had by taking the second best available choice."
Are you willing to have that Opportunity Cost? Are you 100% your choice is not the second best?
Only time will tell...
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I'd rather place my trust in strong (sovereign) states instead of some anarcho-technologists.
On a side note, I remember when I was a lad in my first well-paid gig, a colleague was telling me about this Ponzi scheme that he "investing in". He said that all he needed was for his branch to go a very levels and he'd be fine. I suppose that investors in these CCs figure that there are "greater fools" out there that will continue to drive the price up. There is no doubt that the folks who bought in a year or so ago have done well, but the only thing I can say about them is that they had a good handle on human psychology to be able to correctly predict, at that time, that more folks would buy into this, driving the price up.
Getting back to the original topic, I get a sense that these CCs are extraordinarily thinly traded, which means that they are very sensitive to any kind of run on demand. If I'm going to invest in this, I think I will invest in CC shorts.
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I had been using KeepVid.com, but it seem that now it requires a "pro" subscription to get the top level of quality. Certainly, there must be another website that is offering this service without requiring a subscription - unless of course, YouTube et al somehow have the video in some type of encryption, only allowing the highest quality download to those that pay up. 
For YouTube, I know there is a console app youtube-dl I could use, but I'd rather just have a website do this.
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Try www.videograbby.com/. It automatically attempts to download the highest quality video.
if (Object.DividedByZero == true) { Universe.Implode(); }
Meus ratio ex fortis machina. Simplicitatis de formae ac munus. -Foothill, 2016
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What browser do you use?
I have the YouTube™ Video and Audio Downloader[^] in Firefox, and there's Bulk Media Downloader[^] for Chrome.
What do you get when you cross a joke with a rhetorical question?
The metaphorical solid rear-end expulsions have impacted the metaphorical motorized bladed rotating air movement mechanism.
Do questions with multiple question marks annoy you???
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For YT, you can save offline through their android app. Same applies to Amazon as well. same applies to DailyMotion as well. I don't visit any other places often to care.
"It is easy to decipher extraterrestrial signals after deciphering Javascript and VB6 themselves.", ISanti[ ^]
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lw@zi wrote: I don't visit any other places often to care.
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Thanks for the plug. 
/ravi
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Your welcome......I currently accept donations and commission in BTC ETH XRP LTC DOGE or in ERC20 token ???
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What, no Zimbabwe Dollars?
/ravi
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Ravi Bhavnani wrote: Zimbabwe Dollars
Where 13,000,000,000 of them are needed for a stick of gum. 
"the debugger doesn't tell me anything because this code compiles just fine" - random QA comment
"Facebook is where you tell lies to your friends. Twitter is where you tell the truth to strangers." - chriselst
"I don't drink any more... then again, I don't drink any less." - Mike Mullikins uncle
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Looks like their economy's improving! I think a stick of gum cost 15B earlier this year.
/ravi
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OK, I downloaded this and tried on a YouTube video. The highest resolution was 360. My VideoDownloadHelper Firefox extension tool showed 360x480, which I presume is the same - but also showed ADP 640x480; however, it seems that ADP doesn't really download anything (what is it anyway?) KeepVid showed 480 as the highest non-Pro level, but also showed 1080P/4K for its Pro subscription.
I wonder if what KeepVid is offering at this high level is simply a blowup of the video, one that would the same the VLC would do on its own if viewed in a larger window. Similarly, I wonder if ADP is something like this too.
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I use savefrom.net on occasion.
"One man's wage rise is another man's price increase." - Harold Wilson
"Fireproof doesn't mean the fire will never come. It means when the fire comes that you will be able to withstand it." - Michael Simmons
"You can easily judge the character of a man by how he treats those who can do nothing for him." - James D. Miles
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[aTube Catcher Official Web Site – The best video software] (http://www.atube.me/) is the best for me. Has lots of converter functionality too.
modified 20-Oct-19 21:02pm.
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There are chrome extensions and add-ons for firefox available that can be used for this.
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