I've been a sponsor of this project on Github for $5/month. That said, I'm more of a consumer rather than a developer. I know my trackpad on Linux seems to sux, and I can't see how anything gets better for consumers on Linux without us paying for work like this. I'm curious for feedback -- is this team making good progress, did you install the code, etc?
Yes incredible what they're getting done with a shoestring budget.
From the announcement "The number of people keeping this project going is tiny (currently just 121 supporters), but this small group of passionate Linux users are creating meaningful forward progress to improve the touchpad ecosystem for hundreds of thousands of Linux touchpad users. For those who don't want to rely on a future beholden to Apple, we hope that you'll consider supporting us? We could be getting more done if we had 250 supporters. "
I sponsor this project for $5/month. Started a few months ago. I'm happy to support! For Linux desktop to succeed with consumers like me, it has to move beyond being for mechanics only, which means we have to do our part and pay money for it.
ENS is solving for this by creating a common identity across crypto wallets: https://ens.domains/
That way he can be patio11 across all platforms if he wishes (and doesnt need to worry about getting "patio11" on every new platform that's created). Or, he can just create a subwallet with a different identity but still rolls up into his main wallet.
It also protects against somoene putting their twitter in their profile and pretending to be patio11. i.e.:
Yes, and as I'm a notorious crypto skeptic, someone squat on that ENS domain (with good intentions) and I really don't care that much.
Casually, rather than e.g. legally or as a matter of trademark, I "own" patio11 across all the namespaces because I've put in the work over the years to make people associate that with me. This doesn't necessarily work in reverse; you should probably not assume patio11 DMing you in a Chinese MMORPG is actually me and will actually wire you money if you give them all your dragon eggs.
If I need to auth myself to a savvy technologist in a channel not known to be controlled by me, I don't say "Trust the display name" or "Trust that I also know my username on Twitter." I publish something somewhere where the technologist would know "Hmm compromise of that account would be a much larger problem for him than this transaction." (Bonus: invariably relies on public key cryptography; no blockchain required.)
He mentioned someone squatted it so I looked up the owner, pinged them, and sent a link to this thread. They said they want to get it to him for free and may reach out on their own. Sounds like he's likely not interested but worth a shot.
It is a shame that Zoom appears to have killed Keybase. Having a safe, secure identity management system to link social media and software development accounts is currently a gaping hole in providing trust online.
ENS is useful for crypto wallets specifically, but there is still missing a general identity management solution.
Mailoji looks neat! Do you have a link to the gift box feature?
You and the author might also check out the new ENS (Ethereum Name Service), it support emojis for use as crypto identity/wallets. "Triple pures" (three base-level emoji) are popular as a wallet address.
At the time I used the gift feature it was just an option within the dashboard, but checking now there is an entire page explaining it (really well done)
And I’m a giant fan of ENS as a protocol. FYI even though there is a 3 character minimum because they use Unicode there are a few hundred emojis that are technically 3 characters allowing for registration of single character emoji ENS names. Beware though Unicode also allows Zero Width Joinder characters so there are people who add them in bad faith in attempt to sell desirable names to unsuspecting buyers that don’t get what they think they are paying for.
Edit: the link was bad, but example of legit single character emoji ENS is [pirate flag].eth you can search it directly in the ENS App
It's a video that shows the characters talking about the future of 3D reality and then a bunch of guns shooting out the tires of agents chasing them in cars.
Even if it's a render, it's probably just 3d capture played back. You can see how unrealistic the young Keanu is versus the current one. The jaw specially moves in a weirdly inhuman way both in game play and in intro when he suddenly shape shifts.
This article is also speculation and I don't believe them. If it was all a render, all faces should have maintained the same detail and realism. But only Keanu's face is real enough. You can even see his individual hair which are out of shape. That's way too real. Those hair can't possibly be 3d captured like that.
As someone else pointed out, he does change to 3d render at 1:39 in a far view and you can easily see how unrealistic that one is.
Apparently so. How that works as a matter of law escapes me.
Had you told me in the 1980s that anonymous individuals would create thousands of new currencies backed for the most part by nothing at all, with the stated intent of evading all government regulation (what I would have called "crime" back then), and that the regulatory agencies would simply pretend it didn't exist, I would have laughed.
The Novi site for the Whatsapp partnership says this:
> "When you add money to your Novi account, we convert it to USDP (Pax Dollar), a stable digital currency issued by Paxos Trust Company, a regulated financial institution. USDP is designed to have a stable value relative to the US dollar. So on Novi, 1 USDP is equal to 1 US dollar."
To me that implies it's done on chain...I guess it could just be in their centralized database though.
Curious what the Whatsapp UI does for moments when USPD hits $0.99 like December 1 2021 when it hit $0.989.
Protip: this is how Tether works but people in the west dont want to believe that people in the east actually deposit fiat into bitfinex.
Multiple US regulators came to the same conclusion. One regulator said “well you usually create tethers 1:1 in response to deposits the vast majority of times and vast majority of amounts, but for the brief few times you didnt at least put a disclaimer up, also here is a fine for not having the disclaimer up”
Here's one blatantly noticeable difference that makes me more trustful of USDP than USDT even without being informed about Pax : total USDP in circulation ("market cap") went down nearly 50% when Bitcoin and cryptos crashed in May-June [0], as you would expect if they indeed offer an off-ramp to USD as people will be bailing out in downturns and if the coin is pegged to cash flows.
USDT? Up and up, it has not once significantly went down [1]. Do people truly believe that they are pegged to treasury and money flows to Bitfinex (despite knowing it is BS) and that they've never been in a significant out-flow period? (Edit: There is one I notice in October 2018 of also nearly 50% from $2.8B, much later than the actual 2017-18 crash. Doesn't take away from the peculiarity of the rest of the chart, but gotta point it out in fairness.)
Anyone with significant money in crypto should be terrified by these sketchy money printers (the irony) rather than complacent of. If and when something like Tether blows up, these are dozens of billions in liquidity that will go poof over night.
Right, the redemptions. The counterpoint to that is how much do people withdraw from their investment accounts? They just go to cash within their investment accounts, while other people are still earning and depositing.
The same standard would apply to Bitfinex. Only explicit tether redemptions for fiat at the issuer cause tethers do be destroyed. People just sitting in database-fiat on the exchange during a risk-off moment wouldnt cause tether redemptions.
If a more respected exchange like say TD Ameritrade issued a stablecoin upon every deposit, it would go up and up and up too, even in market crashes, as people use their investing accounts as value storage even in market crashes, anticipating to buy dips or wait for other market conditions.
There are just enough behaviors to explain it and enough subpoenas by US authorities that also inspected this and matched this contrarian view.
Maybe tether just hopes to be so entrenched and trusted that they become their own "Central bank of crypto". Doubt it would work considering the whole point of crypto is "minimal trust", but being the money printer could be a valid business model.
An understatement, it's a fantastic business model. As I recall they have less than 12 employees, and they have printed like $80B with zero accountability. There's a saying that a good and strong business has a licence to print money, in their case it is literal.
Frankly I am baffled it is still going, I think it has to do with it being the first, but can't understand it hasn't fallen apart since or been taken over by better designed stable coins. People called Bitcoin fairy dust, but at least its supply is determined by its protocol and its price by a market - poorly regulated as it may be. Tether is proper fairy dust, holding together thru sheer wishful thinking of this tacit agreement that it is worth $1 a pop.
> usually create tethers 1:1 in response to deposits the vast majority of times
This as quite often been in whole round billions in the middle of the night on a weekend ...
> people in the east actually deposit fiat into bitfinex
In non-convertible RMB?
I appreciate that the demand for a way round currency controls is a big driver for cryptocurrency, but I'm still not clear how that sustainably functions.
I would be interested in seeing other articles on this topic.
As someone new to DeFi, I found the article sparked new questions, even though as you said it wasn't deeply researched.
If Celcius is basically reinvesting into a bunch of other assets, it's possible, or even likely, that the high yield assets are too good to be true. That's where my concern would be. Is BadgerDAO rock solid? Compound? I would be curious to see expert analysis of these. Celcius is simply built on top.
Should I double my sponsorship of this project?