General

Rumors of Bitcoin's death greatly exaggerated...

AJ — Thu, 31 Jan 2013 13:39:55 GMT

The potential future "currency of the internet" zoomed past $20/BTC today, with its market cap about to overtake the all-time high reached in the 2011 bubble top. As the world's most powerful computing network, the p2p transaction technology - like p2p file transfer technology - is making end-runs around monopolistic control so easy that they look natural and even obvious.

But let's face it: Bitcoin is nothing more than a glorified point system. It is only the scarcity of the points (bitcoins) that forces a man to lay down 20 smackers just for the privilege of having a point chalked up to his account (his bitcoin address) in the universal internet ledger (the blockchain).

He is giving up cold, hard cash for nothing more than a mark in a ledger that the majority of users agree upon. He is essentially paying for the rest of the users to acknowledge his right to transfer that point to someone else (spend the bitcoin) at a later date. However, because of the way the point system works no one can reneg on that acknowledgement, so - unlike a bank debit - there is no trust involved.

What can this trustless, decentralized point system do? Well, everything a bank debit system can do, except without relying on banks or anything bricks-and-mortar, not even any company. The convertability to traditional currency is quick, cheap and liquid - if you want it - but as of now products you yourself might actually want can be obtained more cheaply (and more anonymously) in bitcoins: computers, RAM, and half a million others items at bitcoinstore.com, an upgrade for your Wordpress blog, dispute resolution services through judge.me, or a VPN through various providers - to name just a few.

Not to mention the world's largest (known) fully virtual hidden company: Silk Road, where every one of the $2 million per month of transactions are done in bitcoins. Meanwhile, one Bitcoin-only online gambling site reported 2012 earnings of over $0.5 million, while the Y-Combinator startup coinbase.com secured an additional half a million in venture capital from Silicon Valley angel investors.

Mr. Market - naturally starting with the black and gray markets - is making his own rules, unfortunately leaving some monetary theorists behind as the biggest boon to anti-statism since the internet itself slips by them unnoticed, because it is guised in garb that resembles some thousand-times refuted monetary fallacies and in a form none were expecting.

Ancapistan is already here, folks, but you don't recognize it because it's not a place, it has no borders, and it's not very big yet (only a few million dollars flow through its "streets"). It is virtual, and it doesn't secede or declare independence. It accretes. It develops, like any natural order, from a countless sum of almost indiscernable changes, each deemed negligible, dubious or useless on their own.

From a geeky novelty to a rag-tag collection of niche markets and agora of negligible mainstream interest, to gradual mainstream adoption for a few purposes where it is clearly superior... the way this voluntary order will unfold cannot be foretold.

While no one knows the future and if this experiment will succeed, it is no surprise that long-time market anarchists like Doug French (former LvMI President) and Jeff Tucker (former LvMI Editor-in-Chief) have turned tentatively positive about Bitcoin, while LvMI Founder Lew Rockwell has started accepting bitcoin donations at lewrockwell.com, receiving nearly $2000 in bitcoin donations shortly afterward.

The revolution is not being televised; it is being monetized.

Torrent for Michael Cloud?

Chyd3nius — Sun, 28 Nov 2010 10:33:48 GMT

Michael Cloud have made two very interesting works in his career, book Secrets of Libertarian Persuasion and a tape, Essence of Political Persuasion. I would love to read/ listen those works to improve my argumentation, but I'm out of money at the moment. Do any of you own these works, and have a chance to seed those in torrent? "Essence" is out there as a torrent, but there is no-one sharing it.

Against Stefan Molyneux

Niccolò — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 01:00:27 GMT

I wrote this in a response to my tiring attitude of Molyneux and his militant Atheism.

Teach Kids How to Think - How?

limitgov — Tue, 02 Oct 2012 16:40:18 GMT

I'm a teacher. People always say we need to teach kids how to think.

What lessons would you create to teach kids how to think? I'm interested in teaching my students "how to think", but I'm not sure what the lessons would be like. I'm willing to use what the people on this forum come up with if its something good.

Is science prediction?

NonAntiAnarchist — Tue, 07 May 2013 14:38:53 GMT

I don't think so. It can be a feature of science, but I don't think it is at the core.

From thinking about it just for a minute, I'd say (good) science is something like true premises + internal consistency + predictability. Some times we maybe will have to settle for imperfect premises when we model things, but I think a correct premise is always preferable to an incorrect premise in the realm of science.

Curious to see what everyone else thinks.

* May 2013 Low Content Thread *

Primetime — Wed, 01 May 2013 06:38:41 GMT

even good for nothing ass hats catch on every once in a while...

Bill Maher actually talks some sense...

(Please visit the site to view this media)

What Bitcoin is

AJ — Mon, 01 Oct 2012 16:24:51 GMT

Debate about Bitcoin has remained extremely murky, leading to a sort of gridlock with entrenched views, particularly as to whether bitcoins are money. With this post I hope to shed some light on Bitcoin with a view that I think transcends the central points of debate as it has so far transpired.

Step 1 in clarifying discussion about Bitcoin is to distinguish between Bitcoin (the protocol) and bitcoins (the token units). Bitcoin is a transaction system; bitcoins are the "things" that are being exchanged.

That brings us to Step 2 in clarifying discussion about Bitcoin: if we define money as a "physical object that serves as a medium of exchange," bitcoins are certainly not - and can never be - money. They are something different, yet they serve the same purpose. No, in fact it's more elucidating to say that the system (Bitcoin) serves the same purpose.

Step 3 is to discern this connotation that perhaps "money isn't needed anymore" from the leftist, Zeitgeister call for the elimination of money (really the elimination of transactions and hence the division of labor). Since transacting using the Bitcoin protocol, insofar as it is sound, would not in any way entail the destruction of the division of labor (in fact a great enrichment of it), this would only be a kneejerk response. Bitcoin - the system - simply obviates the need for money (and money substitutes) in many situations.

The following story illustrates a situation where a division of labor can function without money ("physical object that serves as a medium of exchange") or even money substitutes.

A bunch of college students decide to do a houseshare. They take turns making dinner. One day the dinner guy (A) is too busy, so he asks someone else (B) to fill in for him, with a promise to return the favor later.

Everyone in the house witnesses this, remembering that A owes B one.

There are many people in the house and this starts to happen a lot. People's memories get fuzzy, and some are not around to witness the transactions. So they decide to put a whiteboard on the fridge keeping track of who owes who how many dinners.

Some people start to rack up quite a tab. Eventually it is decided that no one can owe more than three dinners; if they skip three times they can skip no more.

To keep track of this, each person's name is written with a number underneath it. Everyone starts with a 3 underneath their name, like this:

Guy A Guy B Girl A etc...

3 3 3

Then if A skips because B agrees to fill in for him, the board now looks like this:

Guy A Guy B Girl A etc...

3 3 3

2 4

[signatures of every person in the house]

Everyone signs off that they witnessed the agreement for this transaction.

Cumbersome as it may be, this is now a working transaction system. We could call the units "housecoins." Later, for instance, Girl A can offer 2 of her housecoins in exchange for a DVD that Guy B owns. Everyone signs under the change to the ledger and it's a done deal.

What are these housecoins backed by? Nothing, in the usual monetary sense. However, they can be used reliably as long as the system remains popular with the house residents and people don't find a way to cheat the signature system.

I'm sure it's easy to see why this is so incredibly impractical that it has never been done before on a large scale. The existence of a ready medium of exchange makes this even more unnecessary for local commerce. Before the Internet and before public key cryptography, such a system would have been completely unworkable, and locally often unnecessary.

However, the Internet makes it possible for remote participants to sign off on transactions. With the Bitcoin protocol, the system is backed only by the willingness of people to participate, and the protocol prevents cheating by rewarding the transaction validators ("miners"). Technically anyone could change the protocol to benefit themselves, but that would result in a fork in the blockchain (two different public ledgers) and probably no one would use the rogue version.

Now there are a few more details that need to be seen in order to grasp how the system is able to function as it does, but the above should show that money (physical medium of exchange) and "backing" are not absolutely necessities for a division of labor; "housecoin"-type systems have failed to spring up so far simply because the technology known as "physical media of exchange" is a far easier one than the Internet, cryptography, "proof of work" systems, and the Bitcoin protocol that ties these together.

A physical medium-of-exchange system is only one type of transaction system. At a certain level of technology, others become feasible or even superior.

(Semi-)Official Mises.org EPUB Release Topic

Tex2002ans — Tue, 02 Apr 2013 03:46:06 GMT

Over the past year, I have been converting EPUBs in my spare time for the Mises Institute. I started my EPUB journey initially, because of the poor state I noticed Mises EPUBs were in. There were many typos, and overall design decisions which made me quite frustrated (bloated images, bloated files, embedded fonts, HUGE margins, etc.). Coming from a coding background, I see all of these mistakes as bloat/bugs, which must be fixed.

I also wanted to get as many books as possible into EPUB format, because it is so much more enjoyable to read the books on ANY device, and in any font size and/or font you prefer. EPUB also has the advantage of being convertible into any other format easily (for example, if you have a Kindle).

Because of my continual EPUB output/emails (annoyances :) ), in ~October 2012, I was put in touch directly with Brandon Hill ((the Store Manager at LvMI), he is in charge of running the Mises store, Amazon sales, and many other important duties). Since October 2012, I have begun working extremely closely with LvMI, and started to get more and more of my EPUBs in the Literature section.

As of today, I will officially be working on EPUBs for LvMI. :)

I wanted to create this thread as a one stop shop for all of my WIP EPUBs, instead of me flooding many of the other EPUB topics with my posts.

All of the EPUBs in this topic will be posted when I complete everything on my end (covers/eISBNs are handled on LvMI's end, and I output things too quickly for them to keep up with. :) ). If you want beautiful fancy covers? Feel free to wait until they are on the Literature section, for all those who want to read the actual text? Read my versions. :)

Feel free to post requests in this topic as well, I take them into consideration, and can/will add them to my list to work on in my spare time.

All of my work can also be found at my site (link can be found in my signature).

If you find any typos in ANY of the books (PDF/EPUB/Physical), please report it in this topic, the "Book Typos" topic, or the "Book Typos" Wiki article:

https://mises.org/Community/forums/p/29982/479290.aspx#479290

http://wiki.mises.org/wiki/MisesWiki:Typos

Every single typo that can be caught/fixed is a HUGE help.

As a side note, if anyone wants to help with hosting these elsewhere, I would be very grateful. As of now, I rely on filesharing sites (Mediafire was my favorite), but these are extremely unreliable due to the DMCA (my Mediafire account became suspended, and all of my links have been deleted). Please get in contact with me privately through email, Mises PMs, or leave me contact information as a comment on my site.

There is also the case of some gray area copyrights on some PDFs on Mises.org. If I do work on these books, they are in no way sanctioned by LvMI, and I work on these in my spare time to make more enjoyable versions for everyone to read.

Top Torrent sites Used Most often

limitgov — Fri, 10 May 2013 14:01:28 GMT

What are the top torrent sites that you or others use most often?

ka.ph - kickass torrents

isohunt.com

piratebay.org - pirate bay, of course

And of course, utorrent is the software that seems to be the best.

The more people that use these sites, the better for all of us.

Freedom Images...

Conza88 — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 11:18:05 GMT

The saying goes "A picture's worth a thousand words"... well let's do some writing. Just looking for images that articulate the freedom / liberty agenda. What you got? [:)]

Tort Reform Documentary?

Willy Truth — Mon, 10 Sep 2012 01:22:36 GMT

I was subjected to the disgusting documentary "Hot Coffee", which blithely depicts personal injury lawyers as the selfless, tireless defenders of the downtrodden (usually wronged by those mean ol' corporations), and I was wondering if anyone knows any good rebuttals from a non-retarded angle? For *some* reason only leftist documentaries seem to be easily accessible...

Hello everyone. :D What is the biggest anarcho-capitalist/voluntaryist site online?

Treverend — Tue, 07 May 2013 23:15:21 GMT

I'd like to join the one with the biggest community. I heard a lot about Mises.org so I thought I'd go here first.

Go HAM Images

Student — Mon, 08 Apr 2013 03:53:05 GMT

Alright, y'all. It is April. We are talking a matter of weeks until finals. Not to mention the papers you should be writing. It is time to GO HAM!

Here is some appropriate imagry.

Which Jobs Actually Require a Degree?

Physiocrat — Wed, 08 May 2013 12:22:32 GMT

Apart from teaching, engineering and medical industries which jobs actually require a degree? In the UK accountancy and law have seperate exams to become professionally qualified.

EDIT: to give more context I'm the equivalent of a high school teacher and occasionally advise students on their career path. Thinking back over my past, if I know what I know now most likely I would have left school as early as legally possible, got a job and worked my way up in the labour force; I would have studied economics and philosophy in my own time- I take a similar position to Gary North on these matters. However I'd like to be able to back up my tentative position with some stats. So if any of you have an links that would be useful or any comments on the value of achieveing a degree I'd like to hear them?

This was prompted by the go HAM thread,

Django Unchained.

Friedmanite — Sun, 28 Apr 2013 21:44:22 GMT

Just saw it. What do you all think of it? Did Tarantino portray slavery accurately?

Thoughts on Gender?

Neodoxy — Tue, 05 Mar 2013 04:44:23 GMT

Does anyone here have thoughts on gender roles and identity?

Yeah blah blah "I support people to live how they want libertarianism", but what do you think the reality of gender roles in terms of nuture/nature and their positive/negative aspects in society are?

This is something that I've been thinking about lately, and it's something that's helped me realize exactly how radical my own position really is on social matters like this.

Thoughts?

Historian Niall Ferguson

Student — Mon, 06 May 2013 20:34:05 GMT

Does anyone have any opinions about Niall Ferguson?

I've always liked the guy. I find his popular writings very accessible and ussually informative.

But I think his feelings on empire may not sit well with a libertarian crowd. What do you lot think?

I need this thread unlocked

genepool — Wed, 01 May 2013 08:06:43 GMT

http://mises.org/community/forums/p/32797/511162.aspx#511162

Someone wrote:

Unemployment is by no means a safe measure of an "excess supply of people".

Consider for a second a world where all work is done by friendly robots, and people can devote all their time to leisure.

I want to reply that in such societies, only robot creators and programmers are in demand. The rest are oversupply. Unless, you like democracy (which is not too bad). The role of everyone else will be to protect or vote for the interests of the productive and enjoy their welfare check. It still means that most people that don't operate robots will be superfluous.

In fact, that's how our world works now. Blue collar works are just overly supplied.

The purpose of the thread is to point out that poverty is a choice. It happens because poor people keep breeding. Giving them incentive not to breed will greatly reduce tax, welfare, etc. Not to mention population born out of financially responsible dad are more likely to vote for even less welfare.

Character Alignment

Michelangelo — Mon, 06 May 2013 19:26:27 GMT

I've never thought about it much till now, but what are your respective character alignments? I'm assuming most here, being libertarians, tend towards the Chaotic side, but I might be wrong.

http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/dnd/20001222b

Chaotic Good here by the way.

[CLEAN] Why Libertarianism Is So Dangerous

CounterIntuition.com — Fri, 03 May 2013 00:07:51 GMT

Hey everyone, many of you may have seen this already but were reluctant to share it because it contains a little bad language at the end. HI've made clean version of this fantastic video by School Sucks Podcast. Also, this version is available in most countries unlike the original as inclusion of the song at the end violated Youtube's T&C's - this version cut the song. Enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7GYf8Ph8KNQ

New Idea: Empirical Anarchy

Ben — Sun, 05 May 2013 12:36:13 GMT

Hello, I'm new to this forum, just decided to join recently.

This is an idea I've had for a while: A website or book which ignores the moral arguments for market anarchy and focuses only on empirical examples. If anyone wondered how a service might be provided without government, they could just look at this site. The website would also disprove common misconceptions about anarchy and Austrian economics (like that Somalia is the inevitable result of anarchy).

Is there another website already like this? I couldn't find any, but there may be one. Also, do you think this is a good idea?

UFC Post - Help me with Post about Free Market Judges

limitgov — Tue, 30 Apr 2013 18:36:00 GMT

http://www.bloodyelbow.com/2013/4/26/4270348/free-market-judging-vs-government-judging

I made a post on bloodyelbow about why the UFC needs free market judges, refs, etc, instead of government appointed ones. Bloodyelbow gets read by alot of mma fans. Any help, by registering and posting on the site would be appreciated.

in the news today:

http://www.latimes.com/sports/sportsnow/la-sp-sn-ufc-dana-white-20130430,0,3612597.story

Dana White is calling for the government to update its rules on eye pokes. The rules were written for boxing. And of course, we all know, the government uses a one size fits all solution to everything.

Open Source Storywriting

GregSun — Sat, 04 May 2013 02:08:58 GMT

Hey libertarian community. I am trying to organize an effort to create an open source work of fiction (maybe a novel) in an open source enviornment. If anyone is interested, please contact me.

The Myth of White Male Geek Rationality

Caley McKibbin — Mon, 29 Apr 2013 09:45:45 GMT

Catchy headline, right? I thought so.

According to this article there is a tendency for white male geeks to overestimate their own "rationality". It links to Project Implicit, a study of implicit attitudes.

What is an attitude?

An attitude is your evaluation of some concept (person, place, thing, or idea). An explicit attitude is the kind of attitude that you deliberately think about and report. For example, you could tell someone whether or not you like math. That is your explicit attitude. Implicit attitudes are positive and negative evaluations that occur outside of our conscious awareness and control. Even if you say that you like math (your explicit attitude), it is possible that you associate math with negativity without knowing it. In this case, we would say that your implicit attitude toward math is negative.

I will do it later when I have time. Maybe some others here want to try it and tell us the result.

I found this comment quite funny:

Jus to add another facet to the argument, rationality itself, or the notion of “making raional decisions”, is a myth. People who sustain damage to the amigdala, which is often described as the seat of emotion, become emotionally somewhat flat; but more importantly they can completely lose the ability to make decisions. Choosing their clothes in the morning or ordering form a menu become endless torutures of finer and finer hair splitting in an attempt to rationalise a choice that they don’t have the emotional engagement to commit to. This scales up to any commitment ot an opinion, intellectual as well as mundane.

What is the best trade to learn during this recession? Please help.

Gregfrom Somewhere — Sun, 01 Jan 2012 02:03:06 GMT

As a university student who's wasted 3 years of his life on earning a worthless philosophy degree I've decided to change course in my life and pursue a trade.

I've listened to Peter Schiff praise the learning of a trade as opposed to attending a university but I don't know WHICH trade to pursue.

I'm currently interested in attending an apprenticeship to be either an electrician, HVAC technician, or boilermaker.

Considering the high unemployment rate what trade would be best pursued during these hard economic times? Do any of you know a tradesperson whose trade is still earning him or her a living during this economic catastrophe? How valued are electricians, HVAC technicians, and boilermakers in this recession?

I'm being very serious here because I really want to learn a skill but I'm uncertain of which skill will be valued during these economic times. In addition, I desperately want to end my financial dependence on my parents.