Topic: rpietila public diary -- Episode II - page 5. (Read 40823 times)

That makes me sad, she just wants to help 

I told you the capital controls and confiscations are coming. You are seeing the early signs. Armstrong had a post recently documenting the major banks in the USA are eliminating the ability to send international wires from normal accounts.


It is much too late. I know many in the region and they've already left for Manila because they can't afford anything in the disaster areas.

Massive (child) prostitution and human trafficking is ongoing.

The aid is coming into Tacloban for the media show and there falls into a black hole and is resold at high prices to the outlying areas. Your aid effectively is likely supporting the profits of private armies in the area.

If you really wanted to make a difference, you would need to come to the area and distribute the money yourself. And you would probably need bodyguards.

Sorry Bitcoin isn't accepted any where there. You would need pesos and real goods.

There is a need to quickly harvest all the fallen coco lumber into makeshift homes before it rots. So many homeless.

Just a quick note: My wife wanted to send some relief to Philippines disaster victims. It happened that the mediating organization is based in the U.S. and therefore accept USD in a U.S. bank. For some weird reason, international wires that used to be a standard in online bank (at a $37-$74 fee of course but still) have recently been disabled so that you need to go to the branch office to physically fill in the papers. Last time I had to do this was when I bought some bitcoins from Goat, it took about 3 hours total. Luckily we don't live in the rural areas - even 100km distance from here (heart of the capital of Finland) it may be that your nearest bank is 30km away.

After the money is sent, it will take an equally time-consuming journey to Philippines, and lose its value in fees, conversions and even inflation. Meanwhile the long delays make sure that the disaster victims have to suffer before the aid reaches them.

I hereby declare that I will not donate anything in other currency than Bitcoin anymore. I will not trust my money to anyone who does not understand Bitcoin, except when his life is in immediate danger.

This is in addition to the refusal to use anything except Bitcoin in internet purchases.

Today I've been pruning the threads (see OP for all the nice threads where specific matters are discussed) and adding more content.

A few weeks ago we had a discussion about what to do as the bitcoin holdings seem over-concentrated and most of the world don't have much. I think bitcoin holdings are not that concentrated after all, and the current mechanisms for distribution are effective enough. Partly I realized this as I have been called über-bull and whatnot, but I still decided to throw a dice whether I get a retirement at an expense of thousands of bitcoins, or get to buy them back cheaper and merely get a car and a house as profits. The markets have decided that I need a retirement, so be it. But the fact is that thousands of bitcoins are now in somebody else's hands.

To be able to enjoy your retirement, I suggest you make a very solid plan on when and how much to cash out. If possible, you should structure the sales to very small increments, to avoid exchange risk. Only sell when the price is rising, and do sell. If you hold through the peak, it just makes you anxious to sell afterwards when it's clear that the price is not rising back in a few weeks.

That I am "suddenly" advocating selling is based on the math that during every double in price, on average 17% of the previous holders' bitcoins are sold. So why not sell according to a reasonable model that mathematically rewards you + takes away the anxiety?

We will soon have updated wealth distribution in that thread. Probably we will need to increase the Bitcoin usership significantly. The previous estimate is only 350,000. Now the price has risen 5x, which - if directly correlated - would put the usership at 1.75M.

Also I've been trying to move the bitcoins back from China. Just a few days ago I could buy there at cost and sell in Bitstamp. Now the premium is already about 13%, which makes it more interesting to sell them back, and wait for the price to equalize.

I am thinking that currently there is quite much momentum in bitcoin's price, so at the moment I would not sell speculatively. Just sell according to the plan when the price goes up. There will be peaks and crashes on the way, and considering how pathetic the exchanges are, they will continue to be unusable at the time of action. My original speculation of going to $2000+ and then crash to $500 looks quite viable now. But if I lose money on speculation, who are you to believe you win? 

Hopefully even next year we would no more have the need to transfer to fiat at all. It is just a pain, a sad reminder of the past.

Is discussing one's trading intentions on a public forum "colluding to manipulate markets?"  


Uh oh Anonymint, looks like you expressed a real "desire to collude" here.  Better turn yourself in. 

I've never done it before, but I noticed in my Bitfinex account https://www.bitfinex.com that there are 15,000 LTC available for shorting at 2% APR.  I think you'd have to sell them on the Bitfinex exchange, however, as I don't think they route trades to BTC-e [but I may be wrong].

EDIT: Looks like there's enough LTC available for shorting at Bitfinex that you could actually take out most of the order book, Risto.  Give us the heads up before you drop da bomb yo  

Buy all the BTC?

What is the simplest way to short LTC?

I am quite satisfied that the discussion has changed from "we will never sell BTC" to how to transfer value to the masses as adoption peaks.

Progress. And note Litecoin is $36 now.

Starting to rake past a certain point makes the most sense.  Little fiat now won't change much, having more mbtc at $100+ obv a big deal.

I think the point with rake method is so you don't have to be estimating tops. If you feel you want to have a higher percentage of fiat over 100mbtc for example then make your rake strategy already now so that this will be the case. Either rake at a higher percentage from the start or start raking more at a certain point.

Audi A7? Wow, I thought you would be driving something more suitable to a Supernode. Something like a Lamborighini Reventon:

not necessarily in China
http://www.oftwominds.com/blognov13/China-overseas11-13.html

Today's been quiet. The tide of bitcoins has changed so that they are now flowing from BTC China to Mt.Gox and Bitstamp, to be sold (this is evidenced by the negative spread). The western appetite for bitcoins can thus be satisfied at these higher prices.

Whereas China wanted to buy bitcoins from us in the early stages of the rally (+ the pop and the crash after that), now as prices seem permanently higher, they sell them back. Good for them! 

I have been thinking what to do with the newfound wealth. Currently it seems prudent to buy a castle/manor house to be a second apartment, and keep the rest of the gains as a fiat position, which can be used in all kinds of trading activities, doing arbitrage etc. Then perhaps buy a new car if there are nice models available (last summer it was white Audi A7 that I was interested in). I already have a large stash of precious metals, several safes and a vault. (The castle would add another vault.)

Taking care of my own affairs is quite time-consuming; I just felt that the time was right to solidify the old world position while keeping the supermajority of the bitcoins. Some have said that they do not want any non-portable wealth no matter how expensive bitcoin gets. That is fine. I am more concerned about those that want to be rich, but do not understand what it takes. Currently, the positions to become rich are still available for everyone, as long as they do not sell their bitcoins prematurely.

#2 is pretty good too, and quite necessary. Enjoy.

Of course I had assumed this and assumed I was having an effect on you, or perhaps it was just serendipity

I am happy if I rescued a friend.

This should be known to you already. Possibilities are:

1. I get to buy back the same amount cheaper.
2. I get to cash out the money enough for retirement+ride the freebies.

It has not even visited the #1 territory so I guess it is #2 then. 

Ouch. Did you buy back?

That is good. I was hoping people would use Prezi more. It's a great tool for visual wikis and you can make one very large one and use it to make a whole series of videos discussing a topic.