The Off Topic Topic

[Barrister]

Russia just got owned by the IOC of all things lol

Wow is the olympic hockey tournament ever going to suck.  No NHLers, no Russian team at all (which likely means non-Russians playing in the KHL won't be allowed to go)...

[Grey Fox]

Russia just got owned by the IOC of all things lol

Wow is the olympic hockey tournament ever going to suck.  No NHLers, no Russian team at all (which likely means non-Russians playing in the KHL won't be allowed to go)...

That depends if the KHL/RHF cares that the IIHF is going to fine & ban it from something else.

[Jacob]

Russia just got owned by the IOC of all things lol

What happened?

[garbon]

Russia just got owned by the IOC of all things lol

I was wondering if they would have the balls to do so

[Liep]

Russia just got owned by the IOC of all things lol

I was wondering if they would have the balls to do so

Didn't they already do so for the last summer olympics?

[Barrister]

Russia just got owned by the IOC of all things lol

I was wondering if they would have the balls to do so

Didn't they already do so for the last summer olympics?

No they mostly wimped out on the time, though they I think were banned in track and field.

[Duque de Bragança]

Russia just got owned by the IOC of all things lol

Wow is the olympic hockey tournament ever going to suck.  No NHLers, no Russian team at all (which likely means non-Russians playing in the KHL won't be allowed to go)...

IOC offers an "Olympic Athlete from Russia (OAR)" status for clean athletes though. Under the olympic flag, basically.
Now, will it be enough for Team Russia?
https://www.olympic.org/news/ioc-suspends-russian-noc-and-creates-a-path-for-clean-individual-athletes-to-compete-in-pyeongchang-2018-under-the-olympic-flag

[FunkMonk]

Russia just got owned by the IOC of all things lol

I was wondering if they would have the balls to do so

I was extremely surprised by the news as well

[Admiral Yi]

If I read it correctly, one bitcoin transaction takes 275 kwh.  In total bitcoin uses as much energy as Morocco. Yikes.

[crazy canuck]

One of my boys has set up a rig to mine crypto currency (not bit coin).  He figures he will break even in about 7 months.  If nothing else it was a good experience for him to get it going.  If only I had let him do it 5 years ago when he first proposed the idea of mining bit coin..... 

[The Minsky Moment]

If I read it correctly, one bitcoin transaction takes 275 kwh.  In total bitcoin uses as much energy as Morocco. Yikes.

I mentioned this a couple years back, but as an alternative form of currency, bitcoin was horribly designed from the outset in a unifixable way.  But by design (if successful) it was designed to be an inflating asset.  The two characteristics are related.  The very factors that cause bitcoin's value to inflate make it unsuitable as an alternative form of money, assuming you don't want a monetary regime with brutal deflation built in.

[frunk]

If I read it correctly, one bitcoin transaction takes 275 kwh.  In total bitcoin uses as much energy as Morocco. Yikes.

I mentioned this a couple years back, but as an alternative form of currency, bitcoin was horribly designed from the outset in a unifixable way.  But by design (if successful) it was designed to be an inflating asset.  The two characteristics are related.  The very factors that cause bitcoin's value to inflate make it unsuitable as an alternative form of money, assuming you don't want a monetary regime with brutal deflation built in.

Admiral Yi brings up one of the other nasty aspects of it, which is the cost to generate.  As it becomes more valuable there's more value in mining it, which means more participants working on it.  This doesn't mean more bitcoin is generated, just that it takes more and more effort to mine (as the target difficulty is increased).  More participants, raised difficulty, more energy spent for each block.  As long as miners make more money from mining than they spend on rigs and energy (mostly energy at this point) they'll keep throwing more effort at it.  Higher bitcoin value guarantees more energy thrown away on mining.  What bitcoin is trading at ~$10,000 and each block generates 12.5 coins I think.  So as long as the miner spends less than $125,000 for each block (1 block every ~10 minutes) they win it's worth it.  That's a lot of energy.

[The Minsky Moment]

Agreed.  The environmental toll is  awful especially given the non-existent social utility generated.

[The Brain]

Haters gonna hate. Sour grapes. Loose lips sink ships.

[garbon]

What has the environment ever done for you?