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Great sign, but we still need ETH and BTC to become recognized as money in big entities like the USA and the EU.

Nebu  ·  1393 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Stablecoins dominate the Ethereum blockchain

A big news is that Tether (TUSD) can now be used on a 2nd layer solution that allows 4-5 thousands of transactions per second. Sadly, that requires the OMG token I believe, but it's a good sign. We might have tokenless 2nd layer solutions soon.

It seems like its only utility nowadays is to hold it and hope that others buy it, so that your "investment" goes up in value. Unlike ETH, which has utility as a payment method because of tools like xDAI or its faster transaction speed, or the fact that you can use it for contracts.

Nebu  ·  1816 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Decentralized crypto margin trading is interesting.

Expo seems to have had low volume in the first 45 days, and then it slowly transitioned to no volume. The last time I lent there, I actually lost money because of the fees. I'm not even considering the time lost here.

Nebu  ·  1816 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Scientists rise up against statistical significance

I predict nothing will change. Flaws in p-values and confidence intervals have been apparent since almost their inception. Jaynes spoke out against it strongly from the 60's on (see, for example, his 1976 paper "Confidence Intervals vs Bayesian Intervals"). Although I can't find it right now, there was a similar statement about p-values from a medical research association in the late 90's. It's not just a problem of misunderstanding the exact meaning of p-values either. There are deep rooted problems like optional stopping which render it further useless.

The problem is that with all its problems, statistical significance provides one major advantage over more meaningful methods: it provides pre-canned tests and a number (.05, .01, etc) that you need to 'beat'. The pre-canned-ness/standardization provides benchmarks for publication.

Nebu  ·  1816 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Brexit: What's the f**k is going on?

I wish I could have bet on this somehow from the beginning, but I was sure that it would be a shit-show which would end in a re-vote and no brexit.

They just keep reconfirming to the people that have their eyes open that the current financial system is a joke.

Nebu  ·  1900 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Facebook's WhatsApp stablecoin

I hope it fails.

Nebu  ·  1900 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Ethereum Plans to Cut Its Absurd Energy Consumption by 99 Percent

It's funny that since this happened, Ethereum Classic has actually outperformed Ethereum in price. The crypto markets are still a joke, run not by whales and intelligent algorithms, but by the exceptional stupidity of the common man - the overwhelming majority.

Nebu  ·  1900 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Ethereum Plans to Cut Its Absurd Energy Consumption by 99 Percent

If only they'd do it faster.

Nebu  ·  1900 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: 'Five Eyes' governments call on tech giants to build encryption backdoors — or else

I've never been as mistreated at borders as I was when trying to get in or out of these four countries: UK, US, NZ, AU

Canada is fine, but those 4 are worse than various African or Latin American countries that I've been through.

Nebu  ·  1900 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: The insect apocalypse is here. What does it mean for the rest of life on Earth?

Too long.

Bugs population is in sharp decline, here are the numbers, here are what scientists think are the causes, and the possible consequences, and the possible remedies -- this is what I want to read.

Nebu  ·  1900 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Is Sunscreen the New Margarine?

Protect the face and the neck, when the sun is powerful and the risk of burning is high.

> How did we get through the Neolithic Era without sunscreen?

Actually, perfectly well. It's modern times. We optimize for long individual lives, not propagation of the species. As lifespans increase, so should efforts to avoid cumulative, damaging radiation.

Similarly, heavy meat consumption gave early humans an advantage, but you shouldn't adopt that caveman behavior for a 100-year lifespan - it doesn't "work" at that scale.

Nebu  ·  1900 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: SpaceX to lay off 10% of its workforce

It all makes sense when you look at basic facts.

Rocket reuse became a normal occurance, probably earlier than the majority of the industry anticipated. Their competitive pricing took the market by storm, changing the equation of sending anything to space. There are less new payloads to launch in 2019, because it takes much longer to contract and build a satellite than to send it to space, and the market hasn't yet adapted to this new mechanic.

Their need for manufacturing new boosters scaled down greatly because of reusability. You cannot reasign all engineers to other projects, some must go.

On top of that SpaceX is moving to new risky projects like the Starship, and they need to cut any fat that poses risk to their long term plans.

Lastly, as few pointed out, it's a great opportunity to get rid of underperforming employees and restructure the company.

Nebu  ·  1900 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: How Much of the Internet Is Fake? Turns Out, a Lot of It, Actually.

Internet traffic or web traffic. What are you talking about?