joshuaxls's comments

You can definitely recover from burnout. The question is are you ready to face what happens after you recover? Because sometimes burnout is just burnout and you need a break. But other times burnout means you are on the wrong path, and you’ve got to make some kind of turn in your career.

Yes, we accept cryptographic proof of ownership for accreditation purposes.

This is why we've built CoinList: https://coinlist.co

We have seven years of experience running regulatory-compliant online fundraisings via AngelList. Now we're bringing that knowledge to ICOs.

No one opens a bank account for the interest paid. Most accounts barely pay a tenth of a percent annually, maybe a quarter percent from a credit union—meanwhile, inflation is 2% a year. You’re losing net worth by holding USD in a bank account.

If someone is willing to murder me for my money, a bank (or the FDIC) won’t keep that from happening. All the bank needs for me to wire all of my money into someone’s account is my ID, signature and the other account’s details. This would-be robber could strap a bomb to me while I execute the transaction, or hold a loved one hostage. The FDIC can do nothing in this scenario.

I’d suggest reading up on multisignature transactions and bitcoin, which is an even safer way to store bitcoin than I’ve mentioned: http://bitcoinmagazine.com/11108/multisig-future-bitcoin/

We simply disagree on the value of bitcoin.

Yes, you're right. The point is, with bitcoin, there's really no need for banks.

It's easier (and safer) for me to hold a million dollars in bitcoin than a million dollars in cash. If I had a million dollars in cash, I'd be constantly worried that someone will find it and steal it. Hence the need for a bank. I feel much more capable hiding a private key, which is just information, than I do hiding 10,000 pieces of paper, which is physical.

You don’t understand what the FDIC is for. It’s not there to protect your deposits from being stolen by robbers. It exists to ensure consumers that banks are guaranteed to be solvent while they practice fractional reserve banking. See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_Deposit_Insurance_Corpo...

If someone holds a gun to my head, I would give them my passphrase. I’d also go into my bank and wire my money into their account. In both scenarios, my money is gone forever.

Maybe someday, someone will invent a store of value that is safe, even if someone is threatening to kill you.

Yes, it has a long way to go, but it's off to a good start. I doubt a significant portion of Western Union transactions are to ultra-remote locations, but I could be wrong.

You're correct. I'm simply replying to his statement that there's no value proposition in bitcoin to consumers. My response is that it can easily replace a company worth $8.7B, thus showing it has consumer value, not that bitcoin will be worth $8.7B if it replaces Western Union.

We're in agreement. Since USD is a physical store of value, it suffers from problems like robbery. Hence the need for banks.

With bitcoin, you don't need a bank. I have a 24-word passphrase in my head that can be converted to my private key—a "brainwallet". I know it, and my parents do. It's not written down or stored anywhere. It simply isn't physical.

With those 24 words, you can unlock all of the value I have stored in bitcoin.

It's utterly amazing.

The point of bitcoin is that you don't need FDIC protection. You need FDIC protection with a bank because the bank isn't required to hold enough reserve to cover its deposits. If there's a run on the bank, and everyone wants to pull their deposits out, and the bank is insolvent, then the government guarantees to protect consumers by printing more money (inflation) to fulfill the bank's reserve requirements.

With bitcoin, you either have it or you don't. You can run your own bank, as long as you know how to safely store a private key.

This has been a bear market for bitcoin for months—many of the bears have been rooted out. It's not a conspiracy that bulls are coming in and pushing the price up. It's expected. Not every bull will close their position immediately. That's too simple of a view of how markets work.

There is massive value in bitcoin. Payments, asset tracking, international remittances, etc. Take just one of those markets, and just one company—say Western Union and international remittances. That's $8.7B worth of market cap that bitcoin obsoletes.

Coincidentally, California issued an arrest warrant today for a man with TB who refuses to stay in a hospital. The state does have the power to make personal health issues criminal.

http://www.hngn.com/articles/37165/20140725/homeless-man-wit...

It's preferred over texting in almost every country I've visited, but it's never caught on in the US.

Yeah, this article seems to be missing a lot. According to a piece on the Today show, he also said:

I think I’ma shoot up a kindergarten. And watch the blood of the innocent rain down. And eat the beating heart of one of them.

Hard to make a judgment about any of this without the full context. But being held without trial is definitely a heinous misstep of justice.

http://www.today.com/news/teen-charged-held-months-over-terr...

Great comment. We have found this to be true in our own A/B testing. It sometimes makes me cringe, but you can't argue with data.

"Golf is a game of luck. The more I practice, the luckier I get."

Ben Hogan, one of my favorite quotes.

Which emails are those? Besides our weekly digest I only see two emails sent from startups interested in you.

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Yeah, you're probably right. I'm removing my comment, though I stand by my point.