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Bitcoin Newcomers FAQ - Please read!

Welcome to the /Bitcoin Sticky FAQ

You've probably been hearing a lot about Bitcoin recently and are wondering what's the big deal? Most of your questions should be answered by the resources below but if you have additional questions feel free to ask them in the comments.
It all started with the release of Satoshi Nakamoto's whitepaper however that will probably go over the head of most readers so we recommend the following articles/books/videos as a good starting point for understanding how bitcoin works and a little about its long term potential:
Some other great resources include Michael Saylor's "Bitcoin for Everybody"' course, Jameson Lopp's resource page, Gigi's resource page, and James D'Angelo's Bitcoin 101 Blackboard series. Some excellent writing on Bitcoin's value proposition and future can be found at the Satoshi Nakamoto Institute.
If you are technically or academically inclined check out developer resources and peer-reviewed research papers, course lectures from both MIT and Princeton as well as future protocol improvements and scaling resources. Some Bitcoin statistics can be found here, here and here. MicroStrategy's Bitcoin for Corporations is an excellent open source series on corporate legal and financial bitcoin integration.
You can also see the number of times Bitcoin was declared dead by the media (LOL) and what you could have earned if you didn't listen to them! XD

Key properties of Bitcoin

Where can I buy bitcoin?

Bitcoin.org and BuyBitcoinWorldwide.com are helpful sites for beginners. You can buy or sell any amount of bitcoin (even just a few dollars worth) and there are several easy methods to purchase bitcoin with cash, credit card or bank transfer. Some of the more popular resources are below, also check out the bitcoinity exchange resources for a larger list of options for purchases.
You can also purchase in cash with local ATMs. If you would like your paycheck automatically converted to bitcoin use Bitwage.
Note: Bitcoin are valued at whatever market price people are willing to pay for them in balancing act of supply vs demand. Unlike traditional markets, bitcoin markets operate 24 hours per day, 365 days per year.

Securing your bitcoin

With bitcoin you can "Be your own bank" and personally secure your bitcoin OR you can use third party companies aka "Bitcoin banks" which will hold the bitcoin for you.
Note: For increased security, use Two Factor Authentication (2FA) everywhere it is offered, including email!
2FA requires a second confirmation code or a physical security key to access your account making it much harder for thieves to gain access. Google Authenticator and Authy are the two most popular 2FA services, download links are below. Make sure you create backups of your 2FA codes.
Avoid using your cell number for 2FA. Hackers have been using a technique called "SIM swapping" to impersonate users and steal bitcoin off exchanges.
Google Auth Authy OTP Auth andOTP
Android Android N/A Android
iOS iOS iOS N/A
Physical security keys (FIDO U2F) offer stronger security than Google Auth / Authy and other TOTP-based apps, because the secret code never leaves the device and it uses bi-directional authentication so it prevents phishing. If you lose the device though, you could lose access to your account, so always use 2 or more security keys with a given account so you have backups. See Yubikey or Titan to purchase security keys.
Both Coinbase and Gemini support physical security keys.

Watch out for scams

As mentioned above, Bitcoin is decentralized, which by definition means there is no official website or Twitter handle or spokesperson or CEO. However, all money attracts thieves. This combination unfortunately results in scammers running official sounding names or pretending to be an authority on YouTube or social media. Many scammers throughout the years have claimed to be the inventor of Bitcoin. Websites like bitcoin(dot)com and the r / btc subreddit are active scams. Almost all altcoins (shitcoins) are marketed heavily with big promises but are really just designed to separate you from your bitcoin. So be careful: any resource, including all linked in this document, may in the future turn evil. As they say in our community, "Don't trust, verify".

Common Bitcoin Myths

Often the same concerns arise about Bitcoin from newcomers. Questions such as:
All of these questions have been answered many times by a variety of people. Here are some resources where you can see if your concern has been answered:

Where can I spend bitcoin?

Check out spendabit or bitcoin directory for millions of merchant options. Also you can spend bitcoin anywhere visa is accepted with bitcoin debit cards such as the CashApp card or Fold card. Some other useful site are listed below.
Store Product
Bitrefill, Gyft Gift cards for thousands of retailers worldwide including Amazon, Target, Walmart, Starbucks, Whole Foods, CVS, Lowes, Home Depot, iTunes, Best Buy, Sears, Kohls, eBay, GameStop, etc.
Spendabit, Overstock and The Bitcoin Directory Retail shopping with millions of results
NewEgg and Dell For all your electronics needs
Piixpay, Bitbill.eu, Bylls, Coins.ph, LivingRoomofSatoshi, Coinsfer, and more Bill payment
Menufy and Takeaway Takeout delivered to your door
Expedia, Cheapair, Destinia, Abitsky, SkyTours, the Travel category on Gyft and 9flats For when you need to get away
Cryptostorm, Mullvad, and PIA VPN services
Namecheap, Porkbun Domain name registration
Stampnik Discounted USPS Priority, Express, First-Class mail postage
Coinmap and AirBitz are helpful to find local businesses accepting bitcoin. A good resource for UK residents is at wheretospendbitcoins.co.uk.
There are also lots of charities which accept bitcoin donations.

Merchant Resources

There are several benefits to accepting bitcoin as a payment option if you are a merchant;
If you are interested in accepting bitcoin as a payment method, there are several options available;

Can I mine bitcoin?

Mining bitcoin can be a fun learning experience, but be aware that you will most likely operate at a loss. Newcomers are often advised to stay away from mining unless they are only interested in it as a hobby similar to folding at home. If you want to learn more about mining you can read the mining FAQ. Still have mining questions? The crew at /BitcoinMining would be happy to help you out.
If you want to contribute to the bitcoin network by hosting the blockchain and propagating transactions you can run a full node. You can view the global node distribution for a visual representation of the node network.

Earning bitcoin

Just like any other form of money, you can also earn bitcoin by being paid to do a job.
Site Description
WorkingForBitcoins, Bitwage, Cryptogrind, Coinality, Bitgigs, /Jobs4Bitcoins, BitforTip, Rein Project Freelancing
Lolli Earn bitcoin when you shop online!
OpenBazaar, Purse.io, Bitify, /Bitmarket Marketplaces
/GirlsGoneBitcoin NSFW Adult services
A-ads, Coinzilla.io Advertising
You can also earn bitcoin by participating as a market maker on JoinMarket by allowing users to perform CoinJoin transactions with your bitcoin for a small fee (requires you to already have some bitcoin).

Bitcoin-Related Projects

The following is a short list of ongoing projects that might be worth taking a look at if you are interested in current development in the bitcoin space.
Project Description
Lightning Network Second layer scaling
Liquid, Rootstock and Drivechain Sidechains
Hivemind Prediction markets
Tierion and Factom Records & Titles on the blockchain
BitMarkets, DropZone, Beaver and Open Bazaar Decentralized markets
JoinMarket and Wasabi Wallet CoinJoin implementation
Decentralized exhanges Decentralized bitcoin exchanges
Keybase Identity & Reputation management
Abra Global P2P money transmitter network
Bitcore Open source Bitcoin javascript library

Bitcoin Units

One Bitcoin is quite large (hundreds of £/$/€) so people often deal in smaller units. The most common subunits are listed below:
Unit Symbol Value Info
bitcoin BTC 1 bitcoin one bitcoin is equal to 100 million satoshis
millibitcoin mBTC 1,000 per bitcoin used as default unit in recent Electrum wallet releases
bit bit 1,000,000 per bitcoin colloquial "slang" term for microbitcoin (μBTC)
satoshi sat 100,000,000 per bitcoin smallest unit in bitcoin, named after the inventor
For example, assuming an arbitrary exchange rate of $10000 for one Bitcoin, a $10 meal would equal:
For more information check out the Bitcoin units wiki.
Still have questions? Feel free to ask in the comments below or stick around for our weekly Mentor Monday thread. If you decide to post a question in /Bitcoin, please use the search bar to see if it has been answered before, and remember to follow the community rules outlined on the sidebar to receive a better response. The mods are busy helping manage our community so please do not message them unless you notice problems with the functionality of the subreddit.
Note: This is a community created FAQ. If you notice anything missing from the FAQ or that requires clarification you can edit it here and it will be included in the next revision pending approval.
Welcome to the Bitcoin community and the new decentralized economy!
submitted by BitcoinFan7 to Bitcoin [link] [comments]

[Cryoverse] The Last Precursor 041: My Admiral is Augmented

The Last Precursor is an HFY-exclusive web-serial which focuses on the exploits of the last living human amidst a galaxy of unknown aliens. With his species all but extinct and now only known as the ancient Precursors, how will Admiral José Rodriguez survive in this hostile universe? Make sure to read the earlier chapters first if you missed them!
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...
Previous Part
Part 001
.......................................
Megla, Soren, and several dozen Kessu stand outside the Bloodbearer's primary medical facility, staring at the frosted glass as if trying to bore holes in it with their eyes. The two Kraktol rub and wring their claws together, anxiously awaiting Umi's announcement.
Of all the creatures present, only little Lele appears unperturbed. The kitten sits on her father's shoulders, lazily flopping over his head with a bored look on her face.
"You guys are so weird. Umi said the surgery wasn't dangerous. Terran bio-implants just slide into their bodies. There's no risk at all."
Soren nods. "Logically speaking, I agree with you. That being said, we've already lost the Admiral once. I won't take any risks."
Megla nods furiously. "Even if there's only a one percent chance of something going wrong, I don't want the Admiral to die alone on that operating table. I'll break through the glass and rush to his side."
Patriarch Nyoor appears at the end of the hall and starts walking toward the mass of Kessu in front of the medical bay. As he approaches, leaning on his walking staff, the old cat meows in surprise. "Mraww! The Great Precursor is still in there? Why, it's been nearly three days!"
"You came at a good time," Soren says, as she waves a datapad in the Patriarch's general direction. "According to the completion results, the Admiral should complete his surgery in fifteen minutes or so."
Nyoor slows to a stop at the periphery of the crowd. He nods slowly. "Mmm, yes. The Machine God spoke to me. She told me the Great Precursor would soon emerge. I look forward to his return! Has he managed to heal the wounds inflicted upon his mind?"
"We don't know," Megla answers, shaking her head. "The Admiral didn't speak to anyone after he left the holodeck. Apparently, he ate some food, went to bed, woke up, and went straight to the medical bay. If I didn't know any better, I might think he was avoiding us."
"I'm sure he is," Soren says. "Can you blame him? The Admiral found out that his species went extinct, he was sent one hundred million years into the future, and now a bunch of unknown aliens walk his ship's halls. He probably felt somewhat vulnerable and wished to restore himself to full combat readiness. If I were in his position, I would make the same choice."
Megla frowns.
"So... he still doesn't trust us."
"We've given him no reason to do so," Soren replies. "But, I believe that in due time, especially while working to defeat a common enemy, we'll be able to restore the Admiral's faith in us. He's the same man he was before, but the circumstances have changed a little."
"Kyargh!" Megla cries. "I hope you are right, sister."
Both crocodiles fall silent, as do the Kessu. Everyone waits with bated breath while twenty-something minutes pass.
Just when the crowd starts to get fidgety, Umi speaks from overhead.
"Attention, all ship personnel and civilian guests. I have successfully completed Admiral Rodriguez's surgery. All of his biomods have been reinstalled, and his body is in perfect condition. No abnormalities occurred during the installation processes."
Soren, Megla, and Lele all breathe sighs of relief. The Kessu, not fully understanding everything Umi said, but still getting the gist that 'the Admiral is just fine,' also exhale happily.
Eventually, the door to the medical bay opens, and José Rodriguez steps out. He arrives amidst fifty or so meowing Kessu, all of them clearly excited to see him. His eyes widen as he instantly surveys the assembled crowd.
The Terran chuckles. "Haha. Is everyone here to see me? I'm fine, guys. Just fine."
"Mraww!" Nyoor meows. "Great Precursor, almighty one! You have made it through the fires of tribulation unscathed! Truly, you are an inspiration to us all."
"Yes!" Ruuki yells, as the tiger-striped Kessu waves to get José's attention. "You are far too hardy a fellow! We are all so glad to see you again!"
More and more Kessu crowd around and hug José's legs, leaving the Terran to scratch his chin awkwardly. Eventually, he leans down and pets their heads, while a genuine smile crosses his face.
"Oh, goodness. You're all too cute for my liking. Fine, fine, come here. I'll pet all of you if it's the last thing I do."
Soren and Megla watch silently from a distance. Megla's expression becomes noticeably more downcast as the minutes pass. Eventually, she murmurs to her sister.
"The Admiral... he likes the Kessu even more than I thought."
"Yes," Soren agrees. "Before his rebirth, he would act friendly toward everyone, but he appears noticeably less reserved toward the Kessu now, and moreso toward you and I."
Megla nods. "Mmm."
...
Some time later, the Admiral and the Kraktol head toward the Bridge. Ruuki and Lele follow along, mostly for Lele's sake, since Ruuki doesn't pay much attention to the higher-level political intrigue.
"How are you feeling, Admiral?" Soren asks.
"I'm doing well," José answers, before hesitating a moment. "Err...?"
"Soren. And my sister's name is Megla."
"Right, sorry. I don't usually forget, but things have been a bit hectic."
"It's fine. We understand."
Megla listens, but doesn't add anything to the conversation, seemingly content with letting Soren and José speak.
"Tell me about the demons we found on Tarus II," José says, as he continues the conversation. "Surely, you've developed some conjectures about them?"
"Yes," Soren replies. "A few. Unfortunately, I'm not familiar with 'demons' at all. Everything I know about them comes from Umi's databases. Naturally, with her databanks having degraded over time, the vast majority of her knowledge is limited to the memories she's downloaded from you, and various red-level files she wouldn't allow me to access."
Soren hastily adds, "Not that I'm complaining. I don't expect to view any restricted information without permission, Admiral."
"Indeed," José answers, his tone neutral. "So what are your thoughts?"
The Terran, Kraktol, and Kessu approach the Bloodbearer's Bridge, with its entry doors appearing a quarter-mile in the distance.
"The Demon Emperor, Yama, did not appear to be extremely powerful," Soren says. "He did trap us, and... well, he killed you. That being said, his weakness to light was extremely profound. I believe that, had we known of his existence, we would have been able to defeat him soundly."
José nods. "Agreed. Shades and shadow-walkers are deadly adversaries, but only if unseen. Once you notice them, it's easy to counter them. Additionally, the orcs, goblins, and trolls were all low-level minions, easily defeatable under ordinary circumstances. If I hadn't let my guard down, they'd never have stood a chance against me."
The Admiral's words carry a slightly mocking tone, one of self-flagellation and annoyance. This doesn't escape Soren and Megla's notices, although they keep quiet about it.
"Kyargh! Ahem," Soren grunts. "In any case, I believe the fact Yama appears to be working with the Buzor is the most alarming thing we've uncovered. Since when were there Buzor in this region of space? Why would they be hiding underneath Tarus II's surface?"
José glances at Soren out of the corner of his eye.
"Oh? Are the Kraktol enemies with the Buzor?"
"No. We're not enemies, but we aren't allies, either," Soren responds. "To be fair, I've only heard trickles of information related to the Buzor, all thanks to my former commander, Orgon the Unkillable. However, what I always understood to be true was that the Buzor and Kraktol worked together on a few strategic alliances in the past. Now that we've found them under the Kessu's surface... I'm uncertain about what action we should take."
Finally, Megla speaks. "Agreed. Admiral, the Buzor are very different from the Rodaks and Mallali. We Rodaks are hierarchical, with singular monarchs ruling us from the top down, like a pyramid. The Mallali, however, typically form political parties and work together out of necessity, or when their interests align. The Buzor act differently. Every subspecies has its own hierarchy."
"For example," Megla continues. "The Mitteras have a queen who rules from the top. Her worker and military drones follow her orders absolutely and without question. There are many colonies of Mitteras, each one possessing their own world. Each colony has its own queen. They sometimes fight each other, but without exception, all of their differing colonies will instantly cooperate if they discover a common interest."
"Then there are the Wuspa, who similarly have a single queen leading them. However, among the Buzor, the Wuspa are often considered the most aggressive. They feud with other Buzor constantly, and are nowhere near as civilized as the Mitteras."
José listens to Megla's explanation without interruption. As everyone enters the Bridge, Megla continues describing other subspecies of the Buzor, including the Mentii, the Cantors, and the Disperra.
At that last one, José raises a finger. "The Disperra. You said they were the Buzor you observed working with the demons?"
"That's right. If any Buzor would be working alongside these 'demons,' it makes sense they'd be the Disperra. They are among the most treacherous and blackhearted of all the Buzor. Some Disperra family units even eat their own young, as horrifying as that sounds."
Ruuki snorts. "Hmph. The ancient records state many times that you Kraktol did the same thing. You're one to talk."
"Stupid furball!" Megla shouts. "What nasty lies! How could you believe such imbecilic claims?!"
José chuckles. "Methinks you doth protest too much."
"Admiral..."
"I'm kidding, I'm kidding."
The conversation shifts direction as José turns his attention to the Bridge. Inside, a few dozen bio-entities sit at the ship's various consoles, plugging away silently at all the necessary work that needs doing.
"Umi, did you finish collating a list of items necessary to eliminate the Shadow Emperor?" José asks.
"Affirmative, Admiral," Umi beeps. "Under ordinary circumstances, attempting a slay a Demon Emperor would require a full complement of Terran soldiers. In terms of combat strength, Yama is a target we can classify as 'low power, high elusiveness.' This means that, once you don a combat suit, he will be unable to harm you. However, at the same time, anywhere that there is darkness, Yama and his shadow army can hide, eluding our search parties."
"Therefore, this is not a mission that you can perform alone, Admiral. To kill the Shadow Emperor, we will need to encircle him with light-casting devices. Then, we must slowly tighten our borders until he cannot escape. An army of 500,000 may not be enough, let alone the few combat-capable personnel we have aboard the Bloodbearer now."
"Is that so?" José asks, his expression darkening. The Terran takes a seat in the Admiral's chair, while Megla, Soren, and Ruuki all sit nearby. "We can't rely on the Kessu for this mission. They're too ignorant with regards to technology. Realistically, our forces will have to consist of myself, Megla, and Soren."
"Ooh!" Lele meows. "I can help! Me, me! I'm a tech-wizard!"
José shakes his head. "Maybe so, but you're just a child, Lele. I appreciate the enthusiasm, but... the battlefield is no place for a kitten."
"Aww... that's no fair."
Lele crosses her arms and grumbles under her breath, but José merely chuckles and returns to his conversation.
"Umi, can you, perhaps, synthesize a drone army? If we can gather a few hundred drones, we might be able to use them for this mission. They can bathe the underground tunnels in light, preventing Yama's escape. Based upon the videos you've shown me, that Demon Emperor seemed incredibly cocky and self-assured. He probably won't expect me to show up again. Perhaps we can catch him in a trap."
"Drones are not out of the question," Umi replies. "However, I will require a significant amount of time to synthesize enough of them to flood the inner caves. If Yama realizes our intentions, he may use an escape route we cannot predict and escape our grasp. Once he goes on the alert, killing the Shadow Emperor will prove all but impossible. By that point, no number of drones will help us."
José falls silent. The Terran Admiral closes his eyes and frowns as he falls deep in thought.
"Yama is no ordinary demon. During the Expansion Era, when humanity fought the Volgrim, the demons united with our alien adversaries and nearly destroyed us. Yama, naturally, was one of the demons we faced on many occasions. He is an expert assassin, a demon capable of silently killing any target in the dead of night. Where there is darkness, he can appear."
The Admiral continues. "I studied records of every ancient Demon Emperor extensively, as did all of Ramma's Chosen. We knew never to take any chances with them. Even after killing them, we knew there were dark, heretic methods capable of reviving them. The Bone Emperor, Mephisto, for example. He was one such demon capable of bringing the dead under his control. If such a demon arose in secret, unbeknownst to us, then reviving our ancient enemies would always be a possibility."
The Admiral opens his eyes. He looks at Megla and Soren. "Something is bothering me, though. You two hadn't heard of demons until a week ago, when Yama attacked us. Isn't that right?"
Soren nods. "Yes, Admiral."
"And you hadn't heard of Terrans, either?"
This time, Megla nods. "That's right."
"But Yama does exist," José says, his voice low. "He would remember the Terrans. If we assume that to be the case, and if we assume he is working with or alongside the Buzor, then why wouldn't he mention my people, even in passing? Don't you find that strange?"
Megla blinks. "I'm sorry, Admiral. I don't follow."
"Think about it," José explains. "None of us know the extent to which Yama's relationship with the Disperra extends, or if any other Buzor might be involved with him. However, if these Disperra aren't cut off from the galaxy, and keep in contact with the other Buzor, it seems likely someone would know of the demons by now, and potentially even the name of humanity. Yet, you've never heard of demons until finding them on Tarus II. It's almost as if... the Buzor are deliberately keeping Yama's existence a secret."
Soren strokes her chin. "You may be correct, Admiral. But I'd go a step further."
"In what way?" José asks.
"There's something odd about Tarus II," Soren explains. "Something doesn't add up. Over the past several days, I've had a lot of time to think. Why would the Disperra and Yama choose Tarus II, a planet belonging to the Kessu, to settle down? Why go to such great lengths to hide their presence? You can't explain the Trifrancium deposits we found as being a natural formation. Someone placed those deposits deliberately. Might the Buzor be hiding something down there, in the planet's depths?"
José's breath catches. "Hiding something? Like what? You know more about the Buzor than me."
"I do," Soren says, "but not 'much' more. My knowledge is admittedly shallow. If I had to guess, my first assumption would be that the Buzor and Yama were working together. Perhaps they're planning to use his shadow army for their own purposes?"
"...Hm. I suppose that's possible..." José mutters. "But the ancient records regarding Yama stated that he was a proud and haughty demon. His 'harem' was like an extension of himself. I can't see him lending out his precious converts to someone else, at least not on principle."
"Does Yama possess any abilities that might be useful from a logistical perspective?" Megla asks. "The Buzor might want to use him as a secret weapon. A trump card."
"Yama manipulates shadows and darkness," José answers. "His magic is high-level, but outside of assassinations, I can't see his utility being extraordinarily high."
"Admiral, there is one thing I'd like to mention," Soren says, her voice raising an octave. "The Buzor. Their space-faring capabilities are terrible, the worst of all the factions in the Milky Way. How did they arrive on Tarus II undetected? Is it possible they were here before the Kessu chose Tarus II as their homeworld?"
"I have no idea," José says. "You two know far more about the Buzor than me. Now is your chance to demonstrate your value."
"The Buzor have virtually no space-worthy vessels," Soren explains. "Instead, certain Buzor have learned to grow void-traversing carapaces. Gigantic fleshy bodies that float around planets. Then, many Buzor of a certain species will enter those carapaces and use them to travel to other star systems."
José frowns. "Pardon my incredulity, but... how?"
"I'm... not entirely certain," Soren replies. "I asked my superiors about the Buzor on several occasions, but the answers I received were mixed. The best I can guess is that the Buzor somehow create wormholes using Trifrancium, or perhaps they control a secret inter-system travel device, such as a Subspace Cannon. That's all I've hypothesized."
"More mysteries," José says. "Delightful. Well, if possible, I'd like to find a Disperra down there, capture them, and bring them to the Bloodbearer for... 'questioning.' Perhaps then we'll get the answers we need."
Hardly has José finished speaking before Umi beeps from overhead.
"Admiral Rodriguez. I have detected a warp signature at 003-mark-711. In seven minutes, fourteen seconds, a ship will arrive inside Tarus II's gravity well."
Both of José's hearts skip a beat. He sits up straight in his chair and pulls the computer console arm inward to face himself. "What details can you give me?"
"According to the Kraktol database I downloaded several months ago, the incoming vessel appears to be a Fifth Era Diplomat-class starship. Its combat capabilities are negligible, even among other Fifth Era ships. I have identified it as the KRC Red-Tongue, a vessel belonging to the Kraktol empire."
"The Red-Tongue?" Megla repeats. "That's... that's my father's ship. Drall Brighteye."
"Your father? Does that mean he's on our side?" José asks.
"I don't know," Megla says, sheepishly. "He and the Thülvik were once partners. They both sired a daughter, Kisa Kindris, the true heir to the Kraktol empire. By comparison, I'm only a member of Lord Drall's offshoot family. We've never been particularly close."
Soren clears her throat. "Erm. Also, Admiral... Drall was directly involved in planning the attack on Tarus II. He wanted the Kessu dead."
"As did the Thülvik," Megla adds. "To be fair, most Kraktol don't particularly care about the Kessu. Their sins against our forefathers were ages ago. The vast majority of us have long-since moved on from those ancient wounds. However, Lord Drall and the Thülvik were alive during those days, many thousands of years ago. It's likely they both still hold resentment in their hearts toward the Kessu."
José looks at Lele, then smiles.
"I see. It's likely he's our enemy. Well, whether he is or not, his ship is no threat to us. Umi, didn't I order you to erase the memories of all the Kraktol personnel? Also, to erase any knowledge regarding our vessel from their data files?"
"Affirmative, Admiral." Umi replies. "Recovering anything useful would most certainly have been impossible. I am unable to calculate a possibility wherein the Kraktol recovered any knowledge regarding the Bloodbearer. I postulate that Lord Drall, as a top leader of the Kraktol, has come to Tarus II alone to investigate what caused his fleet's return home."
"That's probably the case," José mutters, his tone uncertain. "Just to be safe, let's keep our guard up. Go to yellow alert. Calculate Lord Drall's arrival vectors and prepare to lock onto him with a tractor beam. When he does discover us, I don't want him to pull a fast one and skip away with knowledge of the Bloodbearer in his ship's files."
"Orders acknowledged, Admiral. The Red-Tongue's scanners are greatly inferior to the Bloodbearer's. I can state with a 99% confidence threshold that Lord Drall will not detect our vessel until the moment of his arrival."
"Perfect."
José leans back in his chair and exhales.
"Megla, Soren. I must apologize in advance if I end up harming your father. I hope he doesn't try to fight back, or this could get messy."
"My father is many things," Megla says. "but a fool is not one of them. The moment he recognizes the difference in firepower, he will concede peacefully. If I speak to him, I'm sure he'll listen. At the least, he'll know that Soren and I went missing from the Dragon Breath's bridge crew. He may even expect us to be somewhere on Tarus II."
"That's right," Soren adds. "It's more than likely the reason Lord Drall has come in person is to investigate what happened to my sister and I."
"I thought you two weren't close to him?" José asks.
"Well, we aren't," Megla says. "But you never know. He might be more of the sentimental type than I remember."
"Fair enough. Human parents could surprise their children sometimes, too," José laughs.
The Admiral's laughter fades away, leaving him with a familiar sense of emptiness in his chest.
Mom. Dad. I miss both of you dearly. If only I could have said goodbye.
The Admiral falls silent.
His gaze fixates on the temporal map, where Lord Drall will soon appear.
Next Part
.......................................
Author Note:
Yo-yo-yo my fellow Precursors, if you liked what you just read, consider subbing to my Patreon! I post patron-exclusive writing posts, with typically one post dedicated to TLP each month, and another to Cryopod. You help me survive long enough to not starve to death, and I give you fun things to read. It's a win-win! Check out some of those posts here and here!
Also consider reading The Cryopod to Hell, the primary story in the Cryoverse! Both TLP and TCTH are part of the Cryoverse, so they're deeply interlinked. You don't wanna miss either of them!
Thank you!
submitted by Klokinator to HFY [link] [comments]

Apartment lease ends 2/1/21, had to give noticed 20 days prior but fail to

(Updated)
I recently went to turn in the keys for the apartment and let them know I was moving. The landlord said I still have to pay for the next month rent because I didn’t notify them earlier. I asked they can charge less since I wasn’t leaving there anymore and they recline, I don’t have the money to pay for two apartments. Is there’s the anything I can do?
Seattle,WA
Thank you!
Rent lease part
The monthly rent for said apartment, which Resident agrees to pay is $$1,225.00, plus such interest as may accrue to Landlord during the term of this lease from Landlord's deposit in trust account of Tenant's security deposit. This rent, plus Parking $130.00 Utilities/tenants $115.00 Rent $1,225.00 Total: $1,470.00
per month shall be payable in advance, in one check or money order, on the first day of each calendar month to Kelly Anne Apartments, LLC, or to such other party, or at such other place as the Owner may designate. Cash is not acceptable as a form of payment. In the event that rent shall commence on any day other than the first day of the calendar month, the rent shall be collected from the date of commencement to and including the last day of the month, after which time all rents shall be due and payable on the first day of each succeeding calendar month.
Late Payments
If rent is paid later than the third day of the month, Resident shall pay a $50.00 late fee plus $5.00 per day until the balance is paid in full.
Returned Checks
Any check which fails to clear the bank shall be treated as unpaid rent and shall be subject to the aforementioned late payment charge, plus a $35.00 returned check fee. Should Resident submit a check that is dishonored or returned for non-sufficient funds, or should Resident offer payment to cure any default such as following receipt of a 14 Day Notice to Pay or Vacate, Resident shall make such payment by certified funds only. If Resident gives Owner a check that is returned for non-payment two (2) times within a 12 month period, all future payments by Resident shall be made by certified funds only.
Notwithstanding the foregoing, Owner may issue a 14 Day Notice to Pay or Vacate Immediately after the rental due date without waiting until late payment charges begin to accrue.
Prepayments
Resident is required to make a prepayment towards Last Month's Rent in the total amount of $0.in accordance with the schedule set forth in the Payment Plan Agreement attached. The prepayment of Last Month's Rent will be applied in full once written notice has been received of all residents and date for full surrender of Apartment has been confirmed by signature from all parties. When the prepayment is applied to the last month of tenancy, Resident is required to pay any difference between the total prepayment and the actual last month's rent where the rent has increased before the last month of tenancy.
If for reason of non-payment of rent Owner shall give a statutory 14 Day Notice to Pay or Vacate, or if Owner shall lawfully issue any other notice permitted pursuant of RCW. 59.12 et seq., Resident agrees to pay in addition to the delinquent rent and late payment charges provided for above, the sum of $35.00 for preparing and giving the notice, which shall be paid by the deadline for compliance with the Notice.
Owner and Resident acknowledge and agree that a minimum sixty (60) days prior written notice will be given to the Resident whenever the periodic or monthly housing costs to be charged to the resident will increase by ten (10) percent or more over the periodic or monthly rental charged the same Resident for the same housing unit and same services for any period or month during the preceding twelve (12) month period.
submitted by CharmKarm to legaladvice [link] [comments]

Bitcoin Newcomers FAQ - Please read!

Welcome to the /Bitcoin Sticky FAQ

You've probably been hearing a lot about Bitcoin recently and are wondering what's the big deal? Most of your questions should be answered by the resources below but if you have additional questions feel free to ask them in the comments.
It all started with the release of Satoshi Nakamoto's whitepaper however that will probably go over the head of most readers so we recommend the following articles/books/videos as a good starting point for understanding how bitcoin works and a little about its long term potential:
Some other great resources include Lopp.net, Gigi's resource page, and James D'Angelo's Bitcoin 101 Blackboard series.
Some excellent writing on Bitcoin's value proposition and future can be found at the Satoshi Nakamoto Institute.
Some Bitcoin statistics can be found here, here and here. Developer resources can be found here. Peer-reviewed research papers can be found here, also course lectures from the Princeton crypto series.
Potential upcoming protocol improvements and scaling resources here and here.
The number of times Bitcoin was declared dead by the media can be found here (LOL!)

Key properties of Bitcoin

Where can I buy bitcoin?

Bitcoin.org and BuyBitcoinWorldwide.com are helpful sites for beginners. You can buy or sell any amount of bitcoin (even just a few dollars worth) and there are several easy methods to purchase bitcoin with cash, credit card or bank transfer. Some of the more popular resources are below, also check out the bitcoinity exchange resources for a larger list of options for purchases.
Here is a listing of local ATMs. If you would like your paycheck automatically converted to bitcoin use Bitwage.
Note: Bitcoin are valued at whatever market price people are willing to pay for them in balancing act of supply vs demand. Unlike traditional markets, bitcoin markets operate 24 hours per day, 365 days per year.

Securing your bitcoin

With bitcoin you can "Be your own bank" and personally secure your bitcoin OR you can use third party companies aka "Bitcoin banks" which will hold the bitcoin for you.
Note: For increased security, use Two Factor Authentication (2FA) everywhere it is offered, including email!
2FA requires a second confirmation code or a physical security key to access your account making it much harder for thieves to gain access. Google Authenticator and Authy are the two most popular 2FA services, download links are below. Make sure you create backups of your 2FA codes.
Google Auth Authy OTP Auth andOTP
Android Android N/A Android
iOS iOS iOS N/A
Physical security keys (FIDO U2F) offer stronger security than Google Auth / Authy and other TOTP-based apps, because the secret code never leaves the device and it uses bi-directional authentication so it prevents phishing. If you lose the device though, you could lose access to your account, so always use 2 or more security keys with a given account so you have backups. See Yubikey or Titan to purchase security keys.
Both Coinbase and Gemini support physical security keys.

Watch out for scams

As mentioned above, Bitcoin is decentralized, which by definition means there is no official website or Twitter handle or spokesperson or CEO. However, all money attracts thieves. This combination unfortunately results in scammers running official sounding names or pretending to be an authority on YouTube or social media. Many scammers throughout the years have claimed to be the inventor of Bitcoin. Websites like bitcoin(dot)com and the btc subreddit are active scams. Almost all altcoins (shitcoins) are marketed heavily with big promises but are really just designed to separate you from your bitcoin. So be careful: any resource, including all linked in this document, may in the future turn evil. As they say in our community, "Don't trust, verify".

Where can I spend bitcoin?

Check out spendabit or bitcoin directory for millions of merchant options. Also you can spend bitcoin anywhere visa is accepted with bitcoin debit cards such as the CashApp card or Fold card. Some other useful site are listed below.
Store Product
Gyft Gift cards for hundreds of retailers including Amazon, Target, Walmart, Starbucks, Whole Foods, CVS, Lowes, Home Depot, iTunes, Best Buy, Sears, Kohls, eBay, GameStop, etc.
Spendabit, Overstock and The Bitcoin Directory Retail shopping with millions of results
NewEgg and Dell For all your electronics needs
Coinbills, Piixpay, Bitbill.eu, Bylls, Coins.ph, Bitrefill, LivingRoomofSatoshi, Coinsfer, and more Bill payment
Menufy and Takeaway Takeout delivered to your door
Expedia, Cheapair, Destinia, Abitsky, SkyTours, the Travel category on Gyft and 9flats For when you need to get away
Cryptostorm, Mullvad, and PIA VPN services
Namecheap, Porkbun Domain name registration
Stampnik Discounted USPS Priority, Express, First-Class mail postage
Coinmap and AirBitz are helpful to find local businesses accepting bitcoin. A good resource for UK residents is at wheretospendbitcoins.co.uk.
There are also lots of charities which accept bitcoin donations.

Merchant Resources

There are several benefits to accepting bitcoin as a payment option if you are a merchant;
If you are interested in accepting bitcoin as a payment method, there are several options available;

Can I mine bitcoin?

Mining bitcoin can be a fun learning experience, but be aware that you will most likely operate at a loss. Newcomers are often advised to stay away from mining unless they are only interested in it as a hobby similar to folding at home. If you want to learn more about mining you can read more here. Still have mining questions? The crew at /BitcoinMining would be happy to help you out.
If you want to contribute to the bitcoin network by hosting the blockchain and propagating transactions you can run a full node. You can view the global node distribution here.

Earning bitcoin

Just like any other form of money, you can also earn bitcoin by being paid to do a job.
Site Description
WorkingForBitcoins, Bitwage, Cryptogrind, Coinality, Bitgigs, /Jobs4Bitcoins, BitforTip, Rein Project Freelancing
Lolli Earn bitcoin when you shop online!
OpenBazaar, Purse.io, Bitify, /Bitmarket Marketplaces
/GirlsGoneBitcoin NSFW Adult services
A-ads, Coinzilla.io Advertising
You can also earn bitcoin by participating as a market maker on JoinMarket by allowing users to perform CoinJoin transactions with your bitcoin for a small fee (requires you to already have some bitcoin).

Bitcoin-Related Projects

The following is a short list of ongoing projects that might be worth taking a look at if you are interested in current development in the bitcoin space.
Project Description
Lightning Network Second layer scaling
Liquid, Rootstock and Drivechain Sidechains
Hivemind Prediction markets
Tierion and Factom Records & Titles on the blockchain
BitMarkets, DropZone, Beaver and Open Bazaar Decentralized markets
JoinMarket and Wasabi Wallet CoinJoin implementation
Decentralized exhanges Decentralized bitcoin exchanges
Keybase Identity & Reputation management
Abra Global P2P money transmitter network
Bitcore Open source Bitcoin javascript library

Bitcoin Units

One Bitcoin is quite large (hundreds of £/$/€) so people often deal in smaller units. The most common subunits are listed below:
Unit Symbol Value Info
bitcoin BTC 1 bitcoin one bitcoin is equal to 100 million satoshis
millibitcoin mBTC 1,000 per bitcoin used as default unit in recent Electrum wallet releases
bit bit 1,000,000 per bitcoin colloquial "slang" term for microbitcoin (μBTC)
satoshi sat 100,000,000 per bitcoin smallest unit in bitcoin, named after the inventor
For example, assuming an arbitrary exchange rate of $10000 for one Bitcoin, a $10 meal would equal:
For more information check out the Bitcoin units wiki.
Still have questions? Feel free to ask in the comments below or stick around for our weekly Mentor Monday thread. If you decide to post a question in /Bitcoin, please use the search bar to see if it has been answered before, and remember to follow the community rules outlined on the sidebar to receive a better response. The mods are busy helping manage our community so please do not message them unless you notice problems with the functionality of the subreddit.
Note: This is a community created FAQ. If you notice anything missing from the FAQ or that requires clarification you can edit it here and it will be included in the next revision pending approval.
Welcome to the Bitcoin community and the new decentralized economy!
submitted by BitcoinFan7 to Bitcoin [link] [comments]

I'm a 21 year old college senior, living in New York and making $18/hour as an intern

Hi everyone! Long time follower, first time poster :) I know college MDs can get a bad rap, but I tried to talk about a lot of the financial details of my parents and how I think about money as an almost post-grad to account for some of the criticisms of older college diaries. I’m definitely very grateful for all of the financial privilege that I have and don’t take any of the money given to me for granted.
Covid disclaimer: Every time I step outside my apartment, I have a mask on. I do take my mask off on runs, but only remove the mask when I’m physically on the running path and put it on as soon as I finish. Based on what we know about running and covid, I feel okay and safe about this.
Assets and debts:
Retirement balance:
Roth IRA: 12,000
Vanguard 500 index fund: $7,085
Equity: Yeah, no
Savings account $12,530. This is all in the Money Market, I have a huge fear of losing this money as I’ve planned on using this for covering costs as I transition into post-grad. As I start earning a regular salary, I’ll probably begin investing some of this.
Checking account:
Checking account 1: $10,356 - this is my main checking account linked to most of my purchases
Checking account 2: $3,665 - this WAS my travel saving/checking account (cries in covid), but now it serves as my college life account. At the start of the semester, my parents gave me a set amount of money for groceries and books (I think in total it was $1,000). Now, it’s up to me to budget that money accordingly and last me all semester. I keep this money separate from my main checking account so that I can more easily track what I’m spending on groceries each week.
Credit card debt: None. As early as I can remember, I was taught that you never put anything you can’t immediately pay off on a credit card.
Student loan debt: None. I am incredibly, incredibly privileged that my parents pay for the entirety of my tuition. I don’t qualify for need-based financial aid and my college doesn’t award merit-based aid. In total, my tuition will be about $280,000 over four years. Every semester, my dad tries to cause some issues about paying, but it’s actually in my parents’ divorce contract that they have to equally split the cost of college for both my brother and me.
Section 2: Income
Income Progression: I started making money first as a babysitter. I charged $8/hour at first (I think? It was 10 years ago, haha) and slowly worked my way up to charging between $17-20/hour, depending on the family and responsibilities. I’ve had 8 internships since entering college, and 4 of those have been paid at the standard intern rate of $15/hour. My current internship is the first office job where I’m making above $18
Main Job Income: I have two internships this semester. The one I spend more of my time doing (21 hours/week) I get paid $18/hour pre tax. This usually works out to $650/750 every two weeks (variable based overtime)
Other monthly take home: My second internship (11 hours/week) pays a flat-rate stipend of $80/week. This is paid under the table (kinda suspicious for an established company but whatever) so I get the full amount
Parents’ income: Something I’ve seen in response to a lot of college MDs is curiosity about parental finances. Especially considering that I am very financial intertwined with my parents, I thought it would be useful to include here.
Mom: $280,000-300,000/year. She’s self employed so her income changes slightly each year based on capacity.
Stepdad: Approx. $400,000/year
Dad: Approx. $150,000/year
Stepmom: Absolutely no clue. She and I have almost no relationship and I don’t even really know what she does for a job honestly. While my stepdad does support me financially in different ways, my stepmom does not, so her salary wouldn’t really be relevant here anyway.
Section 3: Monthly expenses that I pay
-$5: Emily’s List (it’s small, but I’ve had this recurring donation for over 4 years now
-$3: iCloud storage
-$5: Spotify student plan for premium Spotify, basic Hulu and basic Showtime. What a steal! I share my Hulu and Showtime passwords with my family #favoritechild
-$16 for the most basic Classpass subscription, paused since March due to Covid
-$15 for Nike Training Club app, paused since March due to Covid
-$65 for Amazon student prime membership - Annual expense
Section 4: Monthly expenses my parents pay
-$1,665: Rent. I live in a 3 bed/1 bath apartment with two roommates
-Phone bill (Mom pays)
-Health insurance (on Dad’s)
-Netflix (Dad pays)
Was there an expectation for you to attend higher education? Did you participate in any form of higher ed? How did you pay for it?
Yes, there was never any question that I would be attending a traditional four year university. Both of my parents have advanced degrees (PhD and Law School Degree) and it’s actually a bit disappointing to them that I don’t plan on going to grad school (at this point, never say never!). There was also, and this is hugely privileged, never any question that I would take out loans to pay. My parents began saving for my college when my mom got pregnant and had about a year of college saved by the time they got divorced (I was 9). Each parent was required, per their divorce agreement, to save up enough to cover half of the remaining three years (so in total all four years were covered). My dad has made it very clear he disagrees with this agreement, but my mom overfunded my 529 account and now if I ever go to grad school the first year will be covered by her. I don’t take this gift lightly, and am very cognizant of how much of a financial help this is.
Growing up, what kind of conversations did you have about money? Did your parent/guardian(s) educate you about finances?
My mom always gave me age appropriate money talks really from as soon as I could talk. I have a very clear memory of being 3 or 4 and her giving me a bath and talking about how important it is that mommies have jobs and don’t have to ask daddies for money. She took my brother and I to open our first real bank accounts at 6 and 9 respectively, and was always very clear about how important financial responsibility and independence is. As I got older, she got more transparent about her income, her various financial decisions (why she invested in X account and not Y account, etc etc) and has helped me make financial decisions like what retirement accounts to open. We’re very transparent about money and I have access to all of her financial accounts (save for her joint accounts with my stepdad) and she has access to all of my accounts (She’s very respectful about my account info, she has my log-ins mostly in case I croak since I don’t have a will yet!)
Additionally, I was taught how to turn a profit early on from my dad. I was really big into American Girl dolls as a kid, and would always ask for them for birthdays and holidays. As I got more and more dolls, I began to sell the dolls I got tired of on Ebay. Dad taught me how to take pictures of the dolls, look up the prices of dolls listed online to decide on a competitive listing price and would take me to garage sales around town to find used dolls I could buy for $5-10 and then sell for around $60-70. I made a ton of money (especially for a 7 year old!) and used the profits to buy myself more dolls, as well as buy an iPod nano using completely my own money. My dad and I have never been super close, but he did teach me growing up that I was never too young to make an honest dollar and to appreciate the hustle.
What was your first job and why did you get it?
Aside from my online doll business, I started babysitting right after I turned 11 because I wanted money. My parents have always been clear that the money we earn is ours to spend, and I very quickly got addicted to earning money, saving money and then getting to buy big special purchases. I would literally “work” the social scene at various friend parties and gatherings and play with the little kids and then schmooze the parents to get them to hire me. I mostly babysat after school and date nights, but had quite a few recurring gigs for several families up until I graduated high school.
My first office job was an internship the summer after my freshman year of college, but I didn’t actually start securing paid internships until my sophomore spring.
Did you worry about money growing up?
Yes. When my parents got divorced, my mom was stressed about money all of the time. She was incredible about budgeting and always made sure to put money away for birthdays, holidays, field trips, etc but there were some very lean years in my late elementary/early middle school years that I was hyper-aware of. My family used to joke that we would know my mom won the lottery if we ever went out to dinner and we were allowed to order appetizers. Additionally, both of my parents subscribed to the mindset of over-saving for things and being super panicked about hitting savings goals. For example, my family loves to travel and starting in about 7th grade, my mom/brotheI would take one international trip a year. My mom would pinch pennies for months and get super stressed about saving for these trips but then we would get to wherever we were going and we could do, eat and see whatever we wanted. Or, she stressed for years about paying for college, and whenever I would accidentally leave a light in the house on she would snap about “you can either live in a well lit house or go to college” and then it came time to apply to schools and the financials didn’t matter at all. It was a little bit of money whiplash that made me feel stressed. It was only in my senior year of high school that my mom made it clear we were actually financially comfortable and a lot of money anxiety I had went away.
Do you worry about money now?
Mostly I worry about how my expenses impact my relationship with my parents.
My dad has made it very clear that he sees my college (and everything it took to get me here: expensive extracurriculars, a year of ACT tutoring, etc) as a huge burden. As a result, I feel like every time I talk to him I have to justify the price to him by overemphasizing how amazing things are, or understating the cost of things to him. I also feel like I can’t talk to him about my finances because I worry he might use that against me and demand that I pay for certain things that are his responsibilities. For example, I love to solo-travel and have taken two trips (Colombia and Norway) and would have taken three more (Singapore, Cuba and Brazil — Fuck Covid) on my own that I never told him about because I was worried he would ask about the cost. I also just signed a lease for my first ever big girl solo apartment, but haven’t been able to tell him yet because I’m so worried about what he’ll say about the cost. He’ll be responsible for splitting the rent with my mom until I graduate, and even though it’s only about $200 more/month he’ll be paying, I worry he’ll get upset with me about it.
With my mom, she tends to overcompensate financially to make up for my dad, brother and her own faults. Obviously, my relationship with my dad isn’t great (although now it’s actually better than ever), but my relationship with my brother is also very challenging. He has quite a few disabilities that have made him my parents’ main priority over the years and my mom feels bad that this is the family she’s given me, so she tends to send me money whenever one of them disappoints me. For example, just two weeks ago she had to cancel our plans to deal with my brother and so she sent me $50 because she felt bad. It’s a weird place to be in, feeling like I’m paid to be the “good kid.”
At what age did you become financially responsible for yourself and do you have a financial safety net?
It’s very clear I’m still financially dependent on my parents (lol). I definitely have my own savings to fall back on, but I also know that my mom and stepdad would be my real financial safety net.
Do you or have you ever received passive or inherited income? If yes, please explain.
Yes - both. This past summer, my mom sold my childhood home (traumatic). The house was in a very competitive and popular New Jersey suburb, and this coupled with the mass covid exodus from NYC into the suburbs means the house sold for $250,000 above asking price. Because my mom felt bad about selling the house(see comments above for context), she gifted me and my brother with $20,000 each into our retirement funds.
In terms of passive income, I have my Fitbit/apple health linked to an app that tracks my health stats and sends me $10 every so often. I figure that enough of my data is out there already that I might as well get paid for some of it. I also received a weekly allowance from age 6 to 17. My allowance correlated with my grade, every year I would get a dollar increase (so 1 dollar in first grade, 2 dollars in second grade, up through 12 dollars senior year of HS). Calling this passive income because I definitely did not do enough chores to earn it, lol.
Day 1: November 11
5:00am: My alarm goes off and despite not sleeping well, I feel wide awake. I’m an (mostly) early riser and try to get up between 5-6am most days. I scroll on my phone for ten minutes before heading into the kitchen to make breakfast. I make coffee with oat milk and grab two healthy(ish) apple/chocolate-chip muffins I baked on Sunday.
6:30am: Breakfast is eaten, coffee is drank and homework is in progress but I stop to get ready for a run. I’ve been a runner for about two years now, and even though it still feels weird and like imposter syndrome to call myself a runner, I’m currently training for my first marathon, which is definitely runner status.
7:00am: I’m lucky enough to live really close to Central Park, so I head there to begin my run. I have a 10 mile run slated for today, and it’s hot and humid so I carry an electrolyte drink with me and sip on my bottle every 3 miles.
9:00am: I’m slow but steady! Run is done and I head back to the apartment where I do a quick ab workout, shower, change, do my makeup and throw a load of laundry in the washer before throwing myself into my bed (which currently serves as my office, classroom, dining room table as well) one minute before my first internship of the day starts
9:30am-12:00pm: Work. This semester, I have two internships: one in the non-profit world and one in the consulting world (two very different fields!). I always thought I would go into non-profit development and I’ve had seven development/fundraising internships thus far, but my operations/sales internship this semester is making me think differently about my post-grad future. Regardless, on Wednesday mornings I’m at my non-profit job, and the morning is spent in meetings and completing some small tasks. At some point I eat some greek yogurt and also switch out my laundry to put in the dryer.
12:10-2pm: I switch gears and log into my virtual class. I front loaded my credits into my first three years of college, so this semester I’m just taking three classes. They meet once a week for two hours a day which is a mental drain to do via Zoom but I still enjoy my classes. Today’s class is my class about protests and social movements - my favorite of the three because I love the professor. She’s a total badass and I signed up for this class because I had taken a class with her last semester and enjoyed her teaching so much. Since I only have ten minutes between work and class, I eat lunch (sesame garlic noodles with kale, cucumber and green onion) for the first few minutes of class with my camera off and then I switch my camera on and participate in the class discussion for the rest of the two hours.
2:30pm: I walk to campus for my weekly covid test. Despite being 100% remote this semester, my school offers a free weekly testing program for all students living near campus. The test takes less than a minute, the swab doesn’t go all the way up my nose, and I really like knowing my testing status (all negative!) each week so I can’t complain.
2:45: On the way back to my apartment, I stop for a post long-run treat, boba. I get a medium lychee slush with bubbles which costs $6.35
3:00pm: Log into my other internship (consulting job). Technically the office is closed for Veterans Day but my boss is working on some time sensitive projects that I need to assist with. Usually I work 3-5, but he only keeps me for an hour. I don’t mind that I had to work today, I get paid hourly so there’s an incentive to log in! I use my freed-up hour to work on some homework
5:15pm: Weekly FaceTime appointment with one of my best friends
6:00pm: I make dinner. I roast a sweet potato and top it with sautéed red onion, kale, tomatoes, as well as half an avocado, a runny egg, hot sauce (#teamchoulula) and everything but the bagel seasoning. I love this meal because it’s easy, healthy, and cheap.
6:00pm-9:00pm: Time waste purgatory, I watch last night’s episode of the Bachelorette (Tayshia!), finally fold and put away my laundry and scroll through Instagram until I dissociate. I also eat a bowl of ice cream.
10pm: Bed!
Daily total: $6.35
Day 2: November 12
5:00am: I wake up and am hit with what my family calls the Covid grumpies. I don’t want to get out of bed, I don’t want to go to work, and once again I’m furious about how shitty my senior year of college is turning out to be. I intermittently snooze my alarm until 8, the absolute latest I can until I have to get ready for the day.
9:00am: Log into my non-profit internship. Get started on an assignment that should have taken 20 minutes but due to the way the document was formatted, takes almost two hours. I shove my prepped muffin and a coffee down my throat in an effort to calm down. It works for about 5 minutes.
11:40: Break from work to walk a few blocks to Whole Foods - I’m making a salad for dinner and realized I forgot to buy lettuce! I also pick up a prepacked, cold white iced tea from the beverage aisle, you know, to help with the covid grumpies. The lettuce and drink together come out to $6
3:00pm: Take another break from work to roast chicken and veggies for the salad tonight. In true covid-grumpy fashion, the veggies come out burned and the chicken is dry. Most of the food is salvageable so I pack up what I can and sadly toss some out.
5:00pm: I sign out of work and do some homework while I wait to get hungry for dinner. I have two major assignments due on Tuesday for different classes. Both assignments are ancillary assignments leading up to my final papers due in both classes. The topic matter of the classes are incredibly similar so I’m writing my final papers on the same topic for both classes. Work smarter, not harder, right? I have an extensive outline due for one class, and a paper draft for the other, so I’m working on the outline first, knowing that will help a lot with getting the draft done. For anyone who cares, I’m writing about the sexual assault against women migrants that happens in US immigration detention centers
6:00pm: I eat my sad, burned salad. It’s fine.
9:00pm: It’s the grey’s anatomy season premiere! I set up camp with one of my roommates in front of the TV.
11pm: Um, WHAT was that ending?! No spoilers but iykyk. It’s completely past my bedtime so I fall asleep shortly after reading after possible season17 theory on the grey’s reddit.
Daily total: $6
Day 3, November 13:
6:00am: Ugh. I roll myself out of bed and plop myself in front of my computer to get some readings done.
8:00am: Breakfast and some Netflix. I have the same breakfast as the past two days while watching the docu-series Immigrant Nation on Netflix. It’s infuriating but an important watch.
8:30am: I remember that it’s payday and check my bank account! For my consulting internship I usually get paid on the 15th and last day of the month, but since the 15th falls on a Sunday, I get paid today. I also get my under-the-table stipend deposited today too, score. My hours for my consulting job always change a little week-to-week, and this week was weird with Veteran’s Day, but I’m pleasantly surprised to see my paycheck from them is $645.53, which is higher than what I was expecting.
9:00am: Log onto consulting work. Today I’m asking my boss if I can extend my internship into the spring, and I’m so nervous. I’ve never asked for an internship extension before but I remind myself that I’ll never progress in a career if I can’t stick up for myself.
11:00am: I’ve been working and now it’s time to message my boss asking for a meeting. I rewrite the message a bunch of times and settle on a brief message asking if he can set aside 20 minutes to talk about my time at the company since my internship is almost over. He responds immediately and tells me to put some time on his calendar this afternoon. I take it as a good sign that he didn’t immediately shoot me down.
1:00pm: Sad burned salad leftovers.
2:00pm: I get on the call with my boss and spit out a speech about how much I’ve enjoyed my time so far and how I think my boss and I communicate well and that I can see myself as an asset to the team as they continue to work given how much I’ve come to work on. My boss says that he agrees with what I’ve said, and that he wasn’t fully sure on intern protocols for the spring so he can’t really do much now. Still, we chat about what time commitment I might be able to make to the company in next semester and he says that he’ll reach out to the intern coordinator to ask about what happens next. I leave the call feeling proud of myself for speaking up and asking for what I want, and stressssed as hell about what happens next.
2:45: The intern coordinator messages me asking if I have time on Monday to “check-in.” We set a time to talk on Monday and I feel even more stressed now! I assume this is probably a positive thing, because if they weren’t going to hire me again, she would have told my boss to pass that message on to me, but still. “Check-in” is so vague.
4:00pm: I get an email from my college saying that my spring semester bill is uploaded and ready to be paid. I get a little gut check that this is my last semester. I never expected to feel sentimental about a large tuition bill, but it’s a reminder that college is fleeting.
4:15pm: Still in my feels, I get an email from my mom confirming that her half of my college bill has been paid. My parents split the entirety of my tuition equally, a gift that I cannot express my gratitude for. I feel especially proud of my mom, who was a single mom for the majority of my life, who saved up MORE than the entirety of my tuition to make sure I never had to take out loans. I text her about how I feel like I blinked and now I’m done with college essentially.
5:00pm: Bossman tells me to sign out and enjoy my weekend, so I head out on a run. I do an easy five miles, and enjoy watching the lights come on in different buildings as I lap Central Park.
6:00pm: Do a quick 20 minute arm workout and then make pasta. I always eat pasta with veggies mixed on on Fridays, it’s my superstitious pre-Saturday long run tradition. Since I have such a long run planned tomorrow, I eat a few pieces of sourdough bread too.
8:00pm: I shower and wash my hair. After, I sit down to make some more progress on this outline, which has been nagging me all day.
10:00pm: Still not done with homework, but cie la vie. It’s time for bed!
Daily total: $0
Day 4, November 14:
6:30am: I drag myself out of bed and into the kitchen where I make a bowl of oatmeal with a healthy dollop of both peanut butter and Nutella. Also a cup of coffee, but that’s obvious. I watch some random YouTube videos while I eat and then take notes on another reading
8:30am: I head out to the park with my packed running vest. It’s Saturday long run, baby!
1:00pm: 20. Freaking. Miles. Done. Easily the hardest run I’ve ever had (and the longest - the most miles I’ve done up until now was 16). I knew it was going to be tough when my legs started feeling seriously fatigued a quarter of a mile in. I thought I would be done closer to 12, and my total moving time would have got me there, but I had so many moments of just stopping my watch and telling myself I was done and then talking myself back into not quitting. I ran, jogged, walked and dragged myself those 20 miles, and I feel seriously proud of myself.
1:30pm: No rest for the weary. After a quick and much needed shower, I get dressed and walk about 15 blocks to Trader Joes. This location is tough because it’s walkable but just far enough to be kind of a trek, but not long enough to justify taking public transit. The TJs line moves quickly and I get into the store about 20 minutes after getting in line. I buy a bunch of staples for my meals this week: red lentils, kale, avocado, more pasta, a few frozen meals (super convenient for the days where I only have 10 minutes between work and class), fruit, etc. I also manage to grab the last pint of the candy cane Joe-joe ice cream, a huge victory considering it was sold out every.single.time. I checked last year. I put the groceries on my debit card linked to my “college life” account and the total comes to $36.
3:00pm: On the walk back from TJs, I stop by a liquor store to pick up a bottle of champagne. I wanted to get my mom a thank you acknowledgement of the last college payment. I’ll also get a bottle for my dad, but I’m not seeing him until Thanksgiving and I’m seeing my mom tomorrow, so I keep it to one bottle for now. I pick up a slightly smaller bottle of Veuve Cliquot (they were all out of the regular sized bottles) and wince as the cashier rings the bottle up. I remind myself that if my mom can drop $120K on her share alone for school, I can drop almost $40 on a bottle to thank her. I don’t get carded, which bums me out because I only recently turned 21 and I love getting to saunter up and use my real license as ID knowing that my days of searching out sus corner stores that’ll take a fake are over. $38
3:00pm: Home and unpacked groceries, eating a frozen lamb vindaloo I got from TJs for lunch. I never get hungry after long runs but I know I need to eat and I like that this has guaranteed protein and carbs
6:00pm: I order dinner. I usually always get takeout on the weekends. That’s definitely my biggest financial splurge. I don’t love cooking and so not having to worry about dinners on Saturday and Sunday is huge for me. I order grilled beef pho and boiled pork dumplings from a local Vietnamese place and price compare between UberEats and Postmates for the cheaper price. Ubereats wins out. I tip 25% for the delivery person, and with tip, the order comes to $36 (what’s with all of these $36s today?!). Expensive, but hey, it was payday yesterday.. $36
11:00pm: Spent the rest of the night goofing off online, but now it’s time for bed.
Daily total: $110
Day 5, November 15:
8:45am: I slept in! I feel great, I definitely needed that sleep. While I’m still groggy enough to talk myself into it, I roll over, grab my laptop and bang out two pages of my paper. Once that’s done, I eat a breakfast muffin and start getting dressed and ready for the day.
9:45am: I head out and walk the 40 blocks to brunch with mom. It’s a beautiful, windy day out and the fresh air feels good. On the way, I stop at a street cart for a cup of coffee. The coffee is $1.25 but I give him two dollars in cash and tell him to keep the change. I find myself a bit more generous with tips when I’m paying in cash, because I use my debit card for almost everything, cash has a bit of a “play money” feeling to me - I don’t count it in my accounts so spending cash feels less consequential. $2
10:30am: Meet up with mom! We weren’t planning on drinking but… we order two rounds of apple cider bellinis. I have French toast, mom has eggs and we talk for three hours. The restaurant is slow today so the waitress tells us there’s no rush (we checked with her a few times to make sure we weren’t holding a table!). Mom pays and the total was around $70.
1:30pm: Head back uptown on the bus. My stepdad’s job gives employees a crap ton of metro cards (not sure how the system really works but he just gets piles of cards at a time with amounts ranging from $30-90 on them), but he likes to walk to work. I’m so incredibly fortunate that he gives me all of his metro cards. Not having to pay for any public transit fare for the past 4 years has been a huge privilege. I usually give metro cards to my friends as well, but since no one is in the city, I have a huge backlog right now. A woman on the bus asks for a swipe, so I give her a metro card I know is new and has $ on it.
2:00pm: Back at my apartment, changed into comfy clothes and doing laundry and homework.
6:00pm: I’ve mostly been relaxing this afternoon but now it’s time for dinner. I have a $5 off coupon at dig inn, and I had planned to go there, but I’m really craving Mexican food now. I spent way too long looking at all the places on Seamless/Postmates/UberEats and am just about to checkout on a pricy Seamless order before I talk some sense into my self about how spending $25 on takeout when I don’t even fully know what I want to eat is absurd. I close out my cart and order from dig inn instead. I get a chicken bowl with veggies for $7, which is way less hurt to my wallet. I nearly get blown over by the hurricane-grade winds on my walk to pick up dinner. $7
8:00pm: Shower, get ready and organized for the week, relax until bed
10:00pm: Lights out!
Daily total: $9
Day 6, November 16:
6:00am: I wake up and simply don’t have it in me to go for a run. Instead, I do homework (it’s literally never ending) and drink coffee under the blankets. I also eat an multigrain English muffin with peanut butter and cinnamon — switching it up this week
9:00am: Work at my consulting internship today. Busy busy. I have various assignments that keep me occupied the entire morning.
1:00pm: Break for lunch. I have another loaded roast sweet potato, topped with avocado, kale, corn, onion and hot sauce. I get some homework done, but not enough.
2:00pm: I sit in on my team’s weekly meeting and take notes for my boss.
3:30pm: I have a meeting with the intern coordinator. It goes really well! I get an unofficial offer to stay on for next semester, and she tells me to keep an eye out for an official offer letter next week. I get off the call and jump around my room, and then obviously text my mom immediately to tell her the good news.
5:30pm: Work runs over, but I have to log off now because I have a meeting. I’m on the senior class fundraising committee for my college, and we have meetings every Monday night. I multitask during the meeting and finally, finally manage to finish my paper. I send it off to my professor.
6:15pm: Dinner, thank god. I copped out and made a bag of TJs cauliflower gnocchi drizzled with a little olive oil and EBTB seasoning. It’s… fine. I also smash the rest of the peppermint Joe joes ice cream.
8:00pm: I realize that the necklace from Catbird I’ve been wanting for months is back in stock, and text my mom about it. She had offered to buy it for me as a birthday present (back in September) but the necklace had been out of stock for MONTHS, and so I tell her that I’m happy to just have it be a Christmas present instead if she doesn’t want to spend any more money on b-day stuff. She tells me to go ahead and count it as birthday present, what a homie. For those Catbird enthusiasts out there, I got their signature gold key necklace and the adjustable chain. I have the option to get it engraved, and I go with the message I’d been planning since I finally accepted my family would be selling my childhood home and moving away: the telephone area code of my hometown. It feels like a perfect way to have a little piece of home with me and I love the symbolism of the code on the key. I have a 10% off coupon (from when Catbird mistakenly sent out an email saying the necklace was back in stock when it wasn’t) and the total comes to $206. I’m so excited about my new jewelry! Almost everything I wear on a daily basis comes from catbird (I’m a jewelry minimalist and love little tiny sparkly things that I can put on and then never have to think about again), and this necklace really rounds out my collection.
10:00pm: Bed!
Daily total: $0
Day 7, November 17:
6:00am: Another day of waking up with little motivation to get out of bed. My room is shafted and so no matter when I wake up, it’s pitch black outside. That coupled with the dropping temps makes it way hard to escape my blanket cave. I decide to give myself a chill morning and watch netflix until I have to get ready for the day. Breakfast is coffee and the same English muffin combo as yesterday.
9:00am: Sign into consulting work again. It’s a weird day where I have a lot of assignments, but none are particularly pressing or time sensitive. I press through and get them done, albeit slowly.
12:00pm: Sign off work and make the fastest avocado toast topped with an egg. I have class in 10 minutes!
12:10pm: Sign into my first class and eat my lunch, then switch my camera on. This class is a senior seminar for the political science major. The class looks at im/migration through a international human rights framework. Today we’re talking about deportation.
2:00pm: Class ends and I grab a banana before heading into my next class.
2:10pm: This class looks at the gendered aspects of immigration (Didn’t plan on taking two immigration-related classes back to back, but it actually works really well!). By the ever-loving grace of god, my professor decides to end class after only 20 minutes (usually this class is two hours)
3:30pm: After relaxing for a bit, I head out for a run. It’s COLD but the sunset over Central Park is unreal. I stop a few times during the six miles to take pictures of the sky.
5:00pm: Home. I do a quick butt workout and then head into the kitchen to make dinner. I make a double batch of pasta (always thinking about lunch leftovers) mixed with sautéed broccoli, peas and kale. I add in an easy sesame garlic sauce and also crack open a can of sparking apple juice.
6:00pm: While I eat, I debate buying a set of Tiffany’s martini glasses for my new apartment. I just signed a 12 lease on the most perfect apartment EVER - a true one bedroom on the UWS, with incredible views of the city, TWO giant closets in the bedroom plus an additional coat closet, brand new kitchen appliances, in a doorperson building with laundry and gym in building. We (by we I mean my stepdad) negotiated rent down from $2,300 to $1,760. My parents will pay my rent through may as this is technically my college housing, and I’ll pick up the rent payments once I graduate.
I received a set of four Tiffany’s wine glasses for my birthday, and I feel like 2 martini glasses would be perfectly kitschy to add to my collection, but $60 for two glasses is not an insignificant price. I go back and forth on the matter for nearly 30 minutes, and have my card out ready to make the purchase before quickly shutting down the page. I have a lot of anxiety around spending money on things I don’t need and have a hard time with the idea of buying something just because I want it - I was brought up with the idea that if you don’t budget or plan for something, it shouldn’t be bought. I’m working through this money anxiety, but for now I decide that these glasses would be a good Christmas present to ask for.
10:00pm: Couldn’t tell ya what happened between 6 and now. I showered, ate candy, watched tv? Anyway, it’s time to sleep, I’m tired!
Daily total: $0
Weekly total: $131
Reflection: I think this reflects a pretty accurate week of spending for me, though it can vary depending on weeks where I buy more non-essentials. For example, I definitely need some more cold weather running gear, so this week I’ll probably drop some $ on hats, gloves, better jackets. I have a lot of anxiety around making these non-essential purchases though so I tend to talk myself out of spending money on things I want because I’m super scared that I won’t find a job and will need to rely on my savings for a while. I wanted to write this MD to document the weirdest, busiest semester of college so far and am happy to answer any questions about my financial relationship with my parents, my savings philosophies, etc!
submitted by Internationalspite9 to MoneyDiariesACTIVE [link] [comments]

Smart contracts on Blockchain as an alternative to the proposed Online Court as a way to reduce the Magistrates Court of Victoria's workload

Access to justice by way of using the Magistrates Court of Victoria (MCV) is currently impracticable in low value civil disputes as it is too costly, too slow and too complicated due in part to its outdated way of operation. As the public waits for modernisation of the MCV, companies such as eBay have been forced to take dispute resolution into their own hand’s and surprisingly appear to be successful in settling disputes arising on their platform. However, relying on large private companies for solutions neglects occasional sellers , and stifles public pressure on government to find a practical solution. A current idea is to modernise the court using technology with an online dispute resolution (ODR) system, however, what exact type of online system and whether a system could work is a hot topic and still in its infancy phase. This article surveys whether an online dispute resolution platform may be able to draw upon the use of ‘smart contracts’ on a ‘blockchain’. It finds ideas built on blockchain technology in the private sector that may be a more successful alternative in regard to the status quo ODR systems because they contain a fully automated, immutable transaction recording system and a ‘self-execution’ mechanism. The federal government is using blockchain technology to make the NDIS system more efficient and it is argued here that the same could be done to inexpensively modernise the MCV.
  1. What is the blockchain The blockchain is an innovation that removes centralised trust of a private individual third party or the state and replaces it with decentralised consensus of the public when keeping ordered records. It does this through a combination of cryptographic, data management, networking and incentive mechanisms, that support the public checking execution and recording of transactions between parties.
This means there is a publicly available, tamperproof, and traceable record of every transaction ever made. The record is kept secure with an enormous amount of computing power, (approx. 100,000 times the worlds top 500 super computers) and unless an individual actor or group can get 51% of that power the records cannot be changed.
  1. What is a smart contract In the technical sense, the idea of a smart contract is a database inside a network that can be added to, but not modified or removed from, and can be thought of as programable transactions that automate business processes.
In the academic literature scholars are grappling with the term ‘smart contract’ as there is an overlap in the fields of science an law. Computer scientist Nick Szabo, in the genesis paper introduced smart contracts through the analogy of a vending machine being a device implemented in physical hardware that implements and safe guards the conditions of an agreement. In other words, you put money in and water comes out; if you do not put money in, water does not come out and the vending machine is an encoding of these rules that also comes with some sort of mechanism keeping it secure.
Eliza Mik, points out that actually a vending machine is an offer to the world, not a contract. Riikka Koulu, argues that a smart contract is similar to a traditional contract in that the declaration of intent is given through a transaction to the smart contract itself.
In any case, it is conceded that hundreds of years of case law and the nature of the real world cannot be fully written into code; thus, the phrase ‘smart contract’ is confusing. The more likely scenario will be software wrapped within a legal framework that links the code with the traditional contract, so words such as ‘automated contract tool’, ‘automated transaction tool’ or ‘programable money’ should be used to reduce confusion.
Nevertheless, in theory such an innovation could be an alternative to orders from an ODR within the MCV because it is the smart contract itself that upholds itself, not the court; eliminating the need for parties to seek enforcement orders from the court. Also, considering cases of fraud, the transaction records are irrefutable which allows them to be trusted for evidentiary purposes, something an ODR system could benefit from. Thus, discovery processes and forensic analysis that require substantial resources, expensive technologies or special methods are significantly reduced. This ‘digital’ evidence can non-discriminately be accepted by the MCV under the guiding principles of the UNCITRAL Model Law on Electronic Signatures 2001, the principal referred to as “technology neutrality”.
5 NDIS myplace participant portal and commbank app An interface using smart contracts has been produced by the Australian government and the Commonwealth Bank to automate individualised payments for people on the NDIS to pay for services provided by e.g. power scooter repair people, to stop disabled people from being defrauded. This platform recognises the repair man is accredited and releases the specified digital tokens that are redeemable in AUD once the job is done. It would not take much to take this system and modify it in a way that would support an ODR system within the MCV, if funding were made available If funding is not given to incorporate such an innovation into some sort of online platform within the MCV it may not stop the technology being used in dispute resolution, set out below is what is on the verge of being functional and freely usable in the ‘off the grid’ world of cryptography.
  1. Peer to peer to peer … (Multi signature) smart contracts and the internet of things The popular understanding of the blockchain is that it is a peer to peer mode of transacting with no third-party facilitator. That is no longer the case, as developments have allowed for a centralised, or decentralised third parties by way of a function described as multi signatures. Some blockchain traditionalists are not pleased with the involvement of a centralised third party, because it starts to undermine the original benefits (no single point of failure) of putting smart contracts on the blockchain. Nonetheless applications using decentralised third parties are proving to be innovative, namely using the ‘Internet of things’ (IoT) as third-party signatory’s; as of 2017 there are 12.32 billion connected devices such as fridges, gps, etc.
For example, Alice and Bob have a $100 bet on the weather. Alice believes the average temperature in Melbourne will not reach 30 degrees Celsius on the 21st of January 2020, and Bob thinks it will. The bet is coded into a smart contract in a way that allows the contract to receive input from multiple weather stations in Melbourne. The weather stations are the third parties or more correctly the third signatory in this multi signatory contract.
If the combined weather stations data report an average of over 30 degrees, the contract will recognise it and immediately self-execute by allowing Bob to use his private key transfer to the funds, but not Alice. Such a design could be used to help farmers with crop insurance with records of rainfall where a farmer would instantly access an insurance claim if a drought hit.
  1. Smart contracts as an alternative to the Online Court What if the weather stations were freelance arbiters? Would this fit into the hard to define definition of ODR? Or is it simply a pre cursor to an MCV ODR? Or does it make ODR unnecessary? There are still many questions to answer.
In any case, opt-in blockchain driven online dispute resolution platforms have been conceptualised in the private sector and are currently entering the testing phase using the multi signatory approach, ‘Kleros’ and ‘Jury online’ are two such projects the MCV can draw ideas from.
4.1 The overarching idea Alice from Melbourne engages Bob, a freelance programmer from Ballarat to build her a website. Alice creates a smart contract with the payment embedded, entailing that if she is unsatisfied with Bob’s work the contract can be modified to require the vote of a pre-agreed online court. This way Bob does not need to worry about being paid and Alice does not need to worry about Bob doing a good job.
After the job is done and a pre-agreed amount of time Bob could use his private key to access the money. If Alice is unhappy with Bobs work, she can digitally add to the contract in the online platform which results in a digital complaint which engages the third party. This will block both her and Bob’s access to the funds and prompt Bob to click a button to defend, which he does. They are then both prompted to submit evidence to support their claim. Now a decision is required from arbiters in a pre-agreed online court; from which a third signature is now required to access the funds.
Within the online court, financially incentivised arbiters weigh in to decide on whether Bob held up his end of the bargain or not. If the majority believe Bob did fulfil the conditions of the agreement, Bob’s defence will be successful, and the arbiter’s addition to the contract will allow Bob’s private key to access the money embedded in the contract.
4.2 Who are the arbitrators The arbitrators are members of the public, the example used in Kleros for a type of arbiter in the afore mentioned dispute is: Thousands of miles away, in Nairobi, John is a software developer. In his “dead time” on the bus commuting to his job, he is checking Kleros website to find some arbitration work. He makes a couple thousand dollars a year on the side of his primary job by serving as a juror in software development disputes between freelancers and their clients.
This could be anyone, plumbers, mechanics, architects etc may want to find work as freelance arbiters. They get involved by meeting the skill requirements that the dispute court requires. For example, the contract of building a website would require skills in html, javascript and web design. Problems regarding what substantive and procedural rules will be applied are still to be solved, this is due to lack of legal expertise not technical reasons. The benefits are immense as there is no delay or way of influencing the public arbiters as they are simply random experts sub-contracting their free time.
Depicted below is a limited hypothetical example of different types of courts an arbitrator could find work in. When Alice and Bob create the smart contract, they choose which court their case will be ruled in, which has the option to appeal.
They will also pre-select specific options arbitrators can select e.g. a) Reimburse Alice b) Give Bob and extra week c) Pay Bob
4.3 Discovery Evidence is submitted online through the online interface Kleros provides, this could be oral, video or written and all stored in one online searchable location that both sides can see. This is encrypted for privacy and the process has already been proven in simple civil cases in other e-commerce ODR applications,
4.4 How to keep isolated arbiters honest Nobel prize winning Game theorist Thomas Schelling’s focal point theory is used here as a solution Consider the picture below:
Imagine two people are isolated, know nothing about each other and cannot communicate, they are told that they will win a prize if they select the same square as the other person, despite not being able to communicate, and assuming they want to win the prize people will most likely select the red square.
This theory is then coded into the contract, whereby once the ballot has been finalised the arbiters who voted with the majority will be rewarded financially, and those in the minority will be penalised financially, this is the cornerstone of how arbitrators are incentivised to act reasonably.
4.5 How arbitrators are selected from the specific dispute courts The arbiters self-select by depositing a token into the specific dispute, the more tokens deposited the higher the chance of being selected to stop inactive arbiters from being selected.
4.6 Bribe resistance If Alice is not happy with the outcome, she can appeal to a higher court much like the current system works. At the next level, twice the number of arbitrators plus one is used. By the time it gets to the general court a bribing party would simply have too many people to bribe and it would be too expensive, relative to the claim.
  1. Conclusion In the Australian economy disruptive digital technologies are a pervasive force, these technologies develop innovations and drive growth, which lead to improved living standards, thus accepting they are here, and humbly recognising their potential early, is important as Australia moves into the digital age.
Clearly, in the face of globalisation and disputes arising across borders something like smart contracts may be the only way to get enforcement, because traditional streams will struggle to manage different jurisdictions laws and enforcement.
There is concern around terminology and that decentralised consensus provides absolute certainty by removing ambiguity completely. Eliza Mik argues from a legal perspective that ambiguity is something very useful to contract, and that computer scientists mistakenly believe that it is not. However, there simply may have to be increased lawyer-programmer collaboration and some giving up of ambiguity in traditional contracts to get easier pathways of access to justice and enforcement.
Bibliography
A Articles/Books/Reports
Amy J. Schmitz, 'A blueprint for online dispute resolution system design' (2018) 21(7) Journal of Internet Law 3.
Daniel Royal, Paul Rimba, Mark Staples, Sophie Gilder, An Binh Tran, Ethan Williams, Alex Ponomarev, Ingo Weber, Chris Connor, Nicole Lim Making Money Smart Empowering NDIS participants with Blockchain technologies. (Report, CSIRO Canberra, 2018)
Eliza Mik, 'Smart contracts: terminology, technical limitations and real world complexity' (2017) 9(2) Law, Innovation and Technology 269.
Federico Ast Cl´ement Lesaege, Kleros Short Paper v1.0.6 (November 2018) https://kleros.io/assets/whitepaper.pdf.
Hanson RT, Reeson A, Staples M ‘Distributed Ledgers: Scenarios for the Australian economy over the coming decades’. (Report, CSIRO Canberra, 2017).
Katarina Palmgreen, ‘Explore the use of online dispute resolution to resolve civil disputes: how to best integrate an online court into the Victorian public justice system’ (2018) Winston Churchill Memorial Trust.
Koji Takahashi, "Implications of the Blockchain Technology for the UNCITRAL Works" (Paper presented to the Congress of the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL), Vienna, 4-6 July 2017 [unpublished]. This paper-which the author expressly considers be subjected to a final revision-is online: .
Nick Szabo, ‘Smart Contracts: Formalizing and Securing Relationships on Public Networks’ (1997) First Monday, Volume 2, No. 9 https://ojphi.org/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/548/469
Pietro Ortolani, 'Self-Enforcing Online Dispute Resolution: Lessons from Bitcoin' (2016) 36(3) Oxford Journal of Legal Studies 595, 605
Riikka Koulu, 'Blockchains and Online Dispute Resolution: Smart Contracts as an Alternative to Enforcement' (2016) 13(1) SCRIPTed 40.
Richard E. Susskind, The end of lawyers? : rethinking the nature of legal services (Oxford New York : Oxford University Press, Rev. ed. ed, 2010) 93
Satoshi Nakamoto, ‘Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System’ (2008) < https://bitcoin.org/bitcoin.pdf>.
Vitalik Buterin, ‘Ethereum White Paper: A Next Generation Smart Contract and Decentralized Application Platform’ (2015) http://blockchainlab.com/pdf/Ethereum_white_paper-a_next_generation_smart_contract_and_decentralized_application_platform-vitalik-buterin.pdf’.
submitted by Benjamesvincent to Kleros [link] [comments]

The Web 4 Manifesto: Awakening the Democratic Web

Hello Earth Humanoids,
If you make it past this intro, you'll get quite the crypto-discussion material.
I have been working on this "Web 4" idea for a while (name reasoning at bottom of paper). I posted it other places and generally got the misconception that this is about e-voting. It isn't. I am not attempting to solve any problems of e-voting.
The idea is to link time with an opinion, to curate content, or make decisions collectively. It's a baseline skeleton for building fair collaborative systems.
Also the biometric part is purely optional!!! I don't plan to use it in my own Web 4 apps. It's like a fun bonus idea, and I may remove it from the final draft.
All Love,
P.S. Going out to eat Tacos now, will reply when I get home!!

The Web 4 Manifesto: Awakening the Democratic Web

Web 4 is a set of four modular paradigms (time tokens, biokeys, information entropy, and geo-social systems) that allow integration of provable democracy in any social system that seeks to be more collaborative (organization, government, community, etc.). Modularity allows any project to adopt one or more of these principles to increase the accuracy, fairness, and transparency of each individual's role in collaboration.
Web 4 is built on top of web 3 (it's blockchain-based) while being fundamentally different and providing enough benefit to society warrant the new title of web 4.
In essence, web 4 is collaboration consensus tool that helps to manifest a shared desire, opinion, or solution by providing a fair system of accounting using time-limited votes, real people, and existing geopolitical stratification.
Web 4 combines real-world components like time and geography with existing blockchain technology.
In this manifesto, I will define each of the components of web 4, provide psudeocode to illustrate the minimum integration into web 2/3, introduce the benefits to society, and offer a roadmap to adopting these concepts.

The Problem

Democracy, society's biggest and most successful consensus and collaboration mechanism, has become too slow to keep up with the modern world. Groups of people organizing, whether to turn a profit as a company, or to live together in a city, are often under-, mis-, or not represented at all in the decision making processes that affect their lives and work. In both governments and companies it is the few that make the decisions for the many, even with the illusion of "having a say" that exists in a representative system.

The Solution

By providing each individual with equal power in a transparent decision making process, the true intent of the majority can not only be known, it can be acted upon in predetermined ways through smart contracts. Though this solution seems simple, there are issues that will need to be addressed according to the needs of each group of collaborating people, such as ensuring one person per account, and limiting the minting of voting tokens with time, as well as protecting the privacy of decision makers where appropriate. This paper will detail these solutions, and recommend that each system decide what components of web 4 to use or not use. For example, systems can (and should) be built using time tokens that do not use biometric data at all, a common concern in our modern world.

Background

Before we detail web 4, we must look briefly at the concepts of web 1, web 2, and web 3.
Today, the top 100 websites/apps by traffic are all web 2-based. The web 2 paradigm fits closely with the wider environment of corporate-owned information.
As more and more individuals and societies are reconsidering the place of government, censorship, centralization and federated power, web 3 has emerged as a powerful, provable option to shape the evolution of information and society on planet Earth.
A growing portion of web 2 websites and applications today have elements of web 3, like cryptoblogs and games. While web 2 and web 3 can operate independently, web 3 enhances the abilities of web 2. Similarly, web 3 and web 4 can operate independently, but it makes the most sense for web 4 to be built on blockchains to gain the benefits of reliability and transparency.

Guiding Philosophy

Web 4 seeks to implement biomimetic systems in harmony with the universe itself by replicating nature: the abundance of the Sun, rising entropy, and the equality of each human being.
Web 4 tests the hypothesis that when we create information systems in harmonic resonance with natural systems, our society will be able to advance more rapidly than ever before, as we will be able to synchronize energetically with the larger systems of bioelectromagnetic information processing around us (the Earth, Sun, and Galactic core).

Defining Web 4

Web 4 introduces four modular components for provably democratic systems, suggested to be built on top of web 3's open-source decentralized networks.

There are four conceptual underpinnings (modules) of web 4

  1. Time Tokens Individuals may claim time-limited tokens at given intervals, which represent that interval. Only one time tokens can represent the one interval and individual, and one individuals can't hold another's time tokens.
  2. Proof of Individuality (One Person, One Account) Biometric Secrets, Social Verification, Proof of Liveness, white lists, etc. are used to guarantee no individual can collect two time tokens for a given interval by holding two accounts.
  3. Information Entropy Information degradation over time, pseudo accounts in sensitive systems
  4. Harmonic Geo-social Systems Fair, transparent collaboration through accounting the opinions and desires of participants, including in existing geopolitical
Each module can be used separately or in tandem. This paper invites you to involve any of these ideas into your current and future projects. We will discuss these concepts one at a time, but first let's examine why we need them in the first place.

Why we must grow from web 3 to evolve democracy

Provable democracy cannot be fully achieved in web 3 as-is because there is no inherit limit over how many accounts a user may control.
Democracy is essentially reaching a consensus with the idea that each person is equal in their influence on that consensus within defined bounds.
Many different consensus models have been developed in web 3, most notably, proof of work (POW), proof of stake (POS), and delegated proof of stake (DPOS). These paradigms of consensus are used primarily to determine which chain of transaction records (blocks) is considered valid, "securing" a blockchain.
POS and DPOS are additionally used in projects like Hive to allow users to "vote" on valuable content, an early example of the democratic web. DPOS is also used for networks to determine who can access network resources, such as in EOSIO blockchains.
However, both of these POS/DPOS use cases (curation and resource allocation) are not democratic in the sense that each account is not equal. In both cases, the root of democracy is in the token, not the individual, and the ownership of tokens determines the voting power or computing power held by an individual.
In the end, the only way to implement true democracy in any system is through giving each individual equal power. The only way to do this while keeping web 3's decentralized nature is to implement the technological and idealogical advancements needed for a one individual, one account system. These advancements are, for simplicity and communication, called web 4.
Let's review the concepts one by one.

1

Time-issued cryptocurrency (Time Tokens)

Time tokens may be offered or directly distributed to users' wallets periodically. They work by hashing a unique personal identifier (address) with a time identifier, linking each token to a person and a span of time.

The Gears of Time Tokens

Time tokens rely on the following concepts: 1. Time Tokens Individuals may claim time-limited tokens at given intervals, which represent that interval. Only one time token can represent the one interval and individual, and one individual can't hold another's time tokens. These tokens provide the user with a function or action. The action burns the token, which may cause some change in the state of a system, such as minting another token, registering a vote, or any other action. Thus, each time token is unique yet semi-fungible. Time tokens can also be checked for freshness when needed, for example a user may have to use a certain time period's token to cast a vote in an election, which SHOULD also exclude that particular time token from all other functions.
  1. Time Unit A time unit is an time interval that is a sub- or superset of a timestamp. This means that a time unit is some amount (or fraction) of seconds. Each time token MUST be the only one in existence stamped with a particular time unit for each user (wallet).
  2. Time Faucet A time faucet is a smart contract that offers any qualified account EXACTLY one time token per unit of time passed since their last faucet. This can be an active faucet; requiring some action by the recipient, or a passive faucet; automatically sending the cryptocurrency to the user.
  3. Qualified Accounts Qualified accounts adhere to the individuality requirements of a given system. Each web 4 system will do this differently according to their needs, perhaps with a whitelist, social verification, biometric verification, proof of liveness, or other means.

How do Time Tokens work?

Time tokens operate like non-fungible tokens in their structure, storing a time unit (integer) with a unique user identifier (string) as the payload data.
The user's identifier may also be a biocryptographic key (biokey) discussed in the next section.
Time tokens are platform independent, and need only the ability to store simple data: a time unit and user identifier.
In practice, a time unit is an integer that counts up the number of pre-defined time spans that have passed since an epoch. The epoch is typically when the system went live, and represents 0 in the first time interval.

Time Tokens in practice

If we were to create a time token for a US citizen to vote in the US presidential election, the time span would be 126144000 seconds (four years), and the epoch would be at a timestamp representing the start of the election day previous to the first election to use time tokens. On election day, an active faucet would send one time token to each registered voter (aka Qualified Account) with a payload of the user's unique identifier and the integer 1 as the time unit (the next election would be 2, and so on.) The user would then send the token to the election's smart contract address with a memo of their vote. The system would check the identity of the voter, validity of the memo, and the time unit against their list to ensure they are voting in the correct election, burn the token (or else reverse the transaction if malformed), and send the user back another token representing a "I Voted" sticker.
This example intentionally doesn't account for anonymity
This example is trivial. It becomes beneficial when we realize that we can just as easily send the person 12 voting tokens so they can vote on their first, second and third choice. It becomes even more interesting when we send tokens every month (or so) and allow the people to vote directly on the bills that are being presented to their respective legislative bodies. It becomes even more expansive when we have the faucet smart contract require educational actions, such as opening a link to information on these bills (summary and the full text) to receive their time tokens.

A Simple Example in web 2

Here is the minimum information stored in a time token, using JSON Web Token (JWT) as an example { "header": { "typ": "JWT", "alg": "HS256" }, "payoadData": { "time-unit": 294957, "userid": "7f3e873a2c3d" } } Below is a brief pseudocode example of how one could use a signed time token as a JWT.
See Appendix A for more detailed pseudocode of a time token. ``` const passedBioData = {..} // biodata from user
const header = { "typ": "JWT", "alg": "HS256" }
const payloadData = { "time-unit": "294957", "userid": "7f3e873a2c3d", "appData": { "gold": 479, "honey": 23, "axe": 0 } }
const bioKey = bioKeyGenerator(passedBioData); // Biometric provider's key or one generated direcly by user
// --- Here we have the signature, to be used for any purpose --- \ signature = HMACSHA256( base64UrlEncode(header) + "."+ base64UrlEncode(payloadData), bioKey )
function bioKeyGenerator(bioData){ // Function takes data in the form of user input into their browser or smartphone. // Data is normalized (explained in Appendix A, not shown here) bioKeyChecked = bioData; // Return biokey return sha256(bioKeyChecked) }
`` The notable parts here are thetime-unitanduseridin the payload, and thebioKey` which is generated by a user's biometric data.
We have said we web 4 is based on web 3 (blockchain), but this example intentionally used web 2 technology. Much of the rest of this paper goes over ways to avoid trust by incorporating biometric data in a specific way, but that's not always needed, or helpful. We have to trust a government to run our elections. We have to trust social media platforms with our photos. We have to trust the Sun will rise, and a. giant meteor won't crash into Earth.
The truth is, all systems have some level of trust, even if that's just in the system itself. If we try to get rid of this trust by implementing a system so good we are our own private key, it can backfire, and when it does, if we built it because we were fearful instead of trusting, that's super lame.
While I'm going to lay out a possible solution to use biometrics in a "trustless" way that fits with web 3 ideals, I don't personally think it's a good idea, and I won't be designing my Web 4 apps with it for quite some times, if ever.

2

Proof of Individuality - Biokeys + Biosecrets

Please Note: There are solutions available today (like FaceTec and BrightID) that solve the same issues presented here. This paper seeks to outline a web 3-based system (decentralized + open source) that can run without a centralized actor, while not providing specifics to accomplish these goals. This is more of a thought experiment than a suggestion or requirement.
Biometric secrets (biosecrets) are akin to any cryptographic private key, but they are your actual biological data, or, more specifically, a four dimensional expression of your humanness from which biometric data is collected.
Instead of a private key generated alongside a public key, a hash of quantized biometric data becomes your public key, which is paired with your actual flesh-and-blood-and-sound-and-movement-data, your private/secret key, or as we call it "biosecret" which isn't stored on any server or blockchain.

Keys

  1. Biosecret: A biosecret is a specific biometric expression that is quantized using cartesian grids into data points with a precision that makes it replicable for the individual in the future, but impossible for another person to duplicate, even an identical twin.
  2. Biokey: The biometric information that makes up a biosecret is hashed into a public biokey, making the original biometrics practically impossible to reconstruct for a biokey.

How this can go wrong

In today's biometric space, static images are most commonly used for things like fingerprint and facial recognition, and geometry is the means to compare this data. Biometric secrets generated from static images are not secure, as static images can be faked. [2] Video offers a better solution to this problem, as it is harder to fake, can include audio, and lets developers create a whole new set of algorithms based on a changing stream of data. Facetec is one company using video for biometric verification.

What could be used to generate a biokey?

This stream of data (video + audio biometric expression) could be a user doing a series of hand gestures, singing a part of a song, speaking a phrase, speaking a phrase in different voices, clapping, making a series of facial expressions or movements, or anything else one can imagine.
For security, biometric expressions (used to make a biokey) must be unique (for example, which combination of words to speak) and many types must be available (gestures, movement, singing, clapping, etc) and used in combination. If each person's biokey was generated from the same single biometric expression, it would be a matter of time before specific AI could be developed to deepfake it for anyone. If the user is the only one that knows their biometric expressions it becomes nearly impossible to guess the type and nature of the expression, and even if that is known, difficult to use the same technique on more than one account. The nature of the uniqueness could be chosen by the user, or generated at random from the biokey software which would prompt the user to complete an action in a specific way.

Why do we need this, again?

Democratic systems certainly are being built without biometric verification, and will continue to be even after suitable biometric technology develops along the open source, client-side requirements. For now, decentralized solutions like Civic, and centralized tech like Facetec provide the necessary individuality at the cost of trust and requirement of citizenship. Additionally, biometric data can be avoided entirely by using a social verification platform like BrightID As different projects implement web 4 in their own ways, the ideas presented thus far will develop as flaws are found. And there's always the ability to use a whitelist, the most low-tech, high-trust, and simplest solution.

Trust Issues

The biggest issue with biometrics is the lack of trust the general population has (or should have) with giving up their biometric data, including the growing number of facial recognition softwares and databases. The lack of trust is almost always associated with an individual's lack of clear consent, and lack of understanding the technology itself.

To alleviate the trust issue, biokey generators must be:

1) open-source 2) entirely run on the individual's hardware (client-side), and 3) not expose any biometric data to any other users or to a web 4 system itself (the biosecret is never stored or transmitted in any way).
There will always be security concerns with biometrics. For example, if a user uses their biometric secret to unlock their mobile device, another app could be secretly recording the camera in the background. A person could record them doing their secret, and try to play that video back to the camera to gain access. Also, deepfakes exist. These concerns must be addressed before this module of web 4 reaches mass adoption.
The upside of biosecrets is they cannot be lost, and the account will always be recoverable by the individual. In a web 4 ecosystem, where the tokens are distributed daily and often spent daily, a hack would be much less catastrophic. The attacker will be able to access the user's balance, but not alter the past transactions, nor continue to collect the future deposits, because the real user will (in theory) quickly recover the account and change the biometric secret generation means so that the hacker's biofake is no longer working.

3

Information Entropy

Web 3 focuses on storing information forever in a provable way. Web 4 introduces a counter-model which may be optionally adopted by any time-token-based system. In this model, who did what becomes harder and harder to know the more time that passes.
This idea hinges upon incremental time units, the number of which is used to decide how difficult information about a particular individual is to access. This can be implemented by increasing the difficulty required to verify a transaction chain, or economically by increasing the fees associated with accessing or interacting with old transactions or smart contracts.
With information entropy, it is difficult, but not impossible, to piece together a story about an individual user by knowing they are responsible for a set of transactions over time. The further back in time a transaction is, the harder it is to link it to another transaction with any certainty.

Information Entropy and Biosecrets

Information fidelity requirements can also be degraded over time. For example, when generating a user's biokey, it can be assumed that the more time that passes, the more the biometrics of the individual will change.

Degradation of Biokeys

Biokeys are generated from a range of biometric values. This range of values can be expanded over time based on specific, well researched paths. The effect is, instead of having one hashed biokey for eternity, the generation process will create a set of biokeys from an increasingly wide range of data. This concept may be needed to keep people in control of their accounts as they age. There is considerable work to be done to develop this concept, as each data type has its own considerations and complications.
In this case, as time goes on, someone attempting to prove their individuality would have to spend a lot more effort to run the algorithms against their collected biodata, and the data precision needed to match the person's identity is actually lower. This is one example of fidelity change; others can make it more expensive to change a record from the past, make it harder to find out the ID of a voter, or even limit a past state's effect on the future of a blockchain.

Proceed with Caution

While the inclusion of this concept into web 4 may seem unnecessary at the moment, it is another guarantee of the privacy that is needed for many social applications. Philosophically, degradation of information also fits in with the general web 4 desire to reflect systems in nature.
Before moving on, I do wish to stress the modularity of web 4, and that this (perhaps the most radical idea presented) is not going to fit into every web 4 system, nor should it. This idea will find its usefulness when it is time, and should NOT be adopted without clear reasoning.

4

Geo-Social Systems: Geotribes + Geodomains

The geo-social systems apt to be improved by web 4 are those which involve people collaborating, like government/legislation, food and water management, community projects, education, events, charities, environmental protection and more. Web 4 can also be used by organizations so employees can have a direct say in the actions and direction of their companies and non-profits.
Collaborative geo-social systems are always happening everywhere humans live. Currently, we are collectively deciding what direction we should be moving as a society, from representative governments, to social media. However, human growth in the past few centuries has been focused on technological improvements rather than social improvements. [3] To harness the power of the information age for the collaboration of humans, web 4 should be used to enhance, introduce, and replace current structures that organize our societies.
Web 4 proposes that systems based in time token are the most apt to create and improve existing social layers.

What is a Geo-Social System?

A geo-social system is something that affects people (social) at a given bounded area (geo). To refer to a group of people associated with a certain area, we'll call them a geotribe, and to refer to that area we'll call it a geodomain.

Concepts

  1. Geodomain: A bounded area that has an associated group of people who are running a democratic (web 4) system.
  2. Geotribe: The group of people associated with a geodomain that are participants in a web 4 system.
Geodomains can be nested, with a finite set of smaller areas making up the larger area, common in geopolitics, but this is not required. Geodomains can also be overlapping or non-overlapping.

Creating Geo-social Systems

To create a geo-social system, we first must define the requirements of the geodomain, and then the requirements for an individual to be a part of the geotribe within that geodomain.

Geodomain Stratification

Across the globe, one geopolitical pattern seems to emerge, though names vary. Cities are within Counties, are within States, are within Nations, are within the World.
  1. Cities (aka Towns, Commonwealths, etc.)
  2. Counties (aka Divisions
  3. States (aka Districts, Provinces)
  4. Nations (aka Countries, States, Republics, etc)
  5. Global
Additionally, a community level may be added within cities to further add accuracy and usefulness.
Using this existing geopolitical stratification is recommended for those wishing to build a web 4 system because it makes varying global systems easily storable in a one relational database model or similar data structure, and is understood by local people, governments, etc.
Once we have our geodomains, we must define what makes a geotribe.

Geotribal Bonds

Traditionally, it's the existence within a certain area, such as a place of residence or business, that is of importance for things like taxes, voting, and citizenship. When building a geo-social system, it's only necessary that an association is declared that is relevant for that system, which may or may not involve proving residency.
It is important for every system that each individual only exist within one geotribe (excluding those extrapolated) so that their vote isn't counted twice.
When using stratified geodomains, such as geopolitically-based ones, only the deepest level of association is needed (city/community), from which the rest can be extrapolated.
If a geopolitically-based geodomain system allows geotribe members to declare their own associated location without proof, the member is incentivized to be honest, as they will receive the most benefit from having their opinion heard where it matters to them.
All "non-proof" systems should place restrictions on switching voluntarily-given geodomain association too often (such as once per 6 months) to prevent influencing foreign affairs.

High-Fidelity Democracy

By offering time tokens to the individual that correspond to each stratum we can create high-fidelity democratic systems that better represent each and every person's desires. We can know exactly what the people want, with no guesswork and 0 middlemen, in a very short period of time.
For example, a person may be given 12 time tokens per month at each stratum to vote on the initiatives that they would like to see passed. They may vote all 12 tokens for an initiative they are most passionate about, or 1 token to 12 different initiatives (or 2 to 6 initiatives, etc). By collecting and counting these tokens, the governing body can know exactly what their constituents want, without the direct need to elect a representative who only estimates these desires.
The democratic system described in this paper does not solve all problems, as there are still issues of voter informedness, unseen actors, and more, but it is a skeleton to build a collaborative social system that are an improvement to the representative governments which were once as revolutionary as these ideas are.

Roadmap to Web 4 Reality

Phase One

Implementing time tokens
Time Tokens are implemented on any and all blockchains where developers see the value. These developers provide open-source instructions and tools to helps other developers incorporate time tokens into their applications.
Provable individuality for Time Tokens is up to each application and blockchain, and these application can choose to ignore this requirement, risking their systems' integrity. Federated (Facetec) and decentralized (Civic) options may be used, and so can social verification (BrightID).
Information entropy and geo-social systems are starting to be theorized, but not showing up.
Phase 1 Action Points: - Time Token ERC proposal on Ethereum (and similar for other blockchains) - Developers exploring use cases for Time Tokens

Phase Two

dApps and discovering issues
Applications using Time Tokens are widespread, and issues in implementations are becoming known and solved. Developers who open time token faucets are seeing their token be used in third-party apps in ways they didn't foresee.
Provable identity issues are becoming apparent, as certain applications with lax rules are being manipulated, showing the need for true provable identity. The best solutions are becoming known alongside the problems.
Information entropy principles are starting to be implemented, when required.
Geo-social systems are starting to be built, but not used for "real applications" like running a government because of lack of true provable individuality, and social inertia.
Phase 2 Action Points: - Proposing the best uses for geo-social systems using time tokens - Incorporating different provable identity methods - Developers implementing Time Token in unexpected ways

Phase Three

Implementing Provable Identity
Provable Identity is now possible as suggested in this manifesto through the maturity of the biometric secrets. Standards are being created openly, or, it is decided that the way presented here is not needed as a better way is found.
Geo-social systems are being used to run and govern communities which are not dependent on traditional representative government. Existing governments are adopting time tokens to get a better read on what legislation the people want.
Organizations of all sizes are using time tokens to shift power to employees.
Phase 3 Action Points: - Picking provable identity solutions that satisfy all requirements - Possibly abandoning biometric system presented here - Communities running on web 4 - Governments benefiting from web 4 - Organizations using web 4

Phase Four

Geo-social systems
Information entropy is added to the systems where it can be of use. For example, this could make a person's (anonymous) voting record less knowable over time by increasing the amount of CPU time needed to associate one vote with another.
Geo-social systems are being used as a replacement for representative government where it is the will of the people. Voter informedness is measured and known, as are the exact desires of the people. This creates collaboration and a renewed faith in democracy, and a feeling of belongingness and appreciation for each individual.
Phase 4 Action Points: - Building and operating geo-social systems for the benefit of society and any collaborating group - Exploring use cases and integrating information entropy where appropriate

Author notes

Change Without Conflict

No one can stop us from building collaborative systems with web 4 and even self-governing. We don't need to "tear down the system" or separate from society to do so. Web 4 can exist fully embedded in the geopolitical systems around us, while implementing and improving the four concepts, the underpinnings of collaborative democracy.
If and when the "old system" meets its demise, as all things do, we can transition rapidly to a web 4 system like Effective Collective or any other, as this solution will already be in place.

Why use the term "Web 4"

It is my belief that each version of the web must 1) be built on top of the previous version, 2) be fundamentally different than the previous version by introducing new technology, and 3) have meaningful impact on society.
This proposal for the next iteration of the web is an effort to both expand and shift the path of information science in a direction where the meaningful impact of society involves: 1) empowerment of each individual, which serve as the basis for collective (social), economic, and novel applications; 2) provable identity verification while maintaining complete separation from any federated system, including government, with the side-benefit of lifelong recoverability of biokeys with biosecrets; and 3) resonance with our contained and containing systems, like our human organs and the Solar system, which provide us with life and free energy daily, akin to free time tokens.
While an argument could easily be made that DeFi is Web 4, or another emerging tech, like "layer 2" blockchains (rollups) are web 4, both of these are not new. DeFi mimics and improves the systems of the past. Rollups are merely making web 3 more efficient.
It is my hope and desire that the information presented here will be expanded on and implemented by many developers and systems in the coming years, not for the benefit of the few, but for the empowerment of each individual and the harmony of the human collective, and every layer of Gaia.

Notes + References

[1] - Solutions like Civic and Facetec have proved to be effective in verifying individuality. KYC services rely on government-issued identification, physical signature, and minimal, often human-checked bioverification. Until the technology is developed for a biometric system resembling the ideas here, these options (as well as social verification) are viable, though not fully embodying the idea of web 4.
[2] - Hao, K. & O'Neill P. (2020, August 06). The hack that could make face recognition think someone else is you. Originally Published at https://www.technologyreview.com/2020/08/05/1006008/ai-face-recognition-hack-misidentifies-person/
[3] - Nishimura H., Kanoshima E., Kono K. (2019) Advancement in Science and Technology and Human Societies. In: Abe S., Ozawa M., Kawata Y. (eds) Science of Societal Safety. Trust (Interdisciplinary Perspectives), vol 2. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-2775-9_2 (Specifically section 2.1.3) web link

Appendices

Appendix A: Pseudocode Example of Biometric Function

function bioKeyGenerator(bioData){ // Function takes data in the form of user input into their browser or smartphone. let recievedData = bioData; // With data, quantifyable points are taken algorithmically let processedBioData = { point1:recievedData.point1, point2:recievedData.point2, point3:recievedData.point3 ... } // These points expanded to a pre-defined margin of error geometrically for each input type const expander = 20; // Set amount to expand dataset based on data type let rangedBioData = { point1: { upperRight: { x : processedBioData.point1.x + expander, y : processedBioData.point1.y + expander }, lowerLeft: { x : processedBioData.point1.x - expander, y : processedBioData.point1.y - expander }, point2: { ... }, ... } let snappedBioData = snapBioDataToGranularPath(rangedBioData); // For this to work, a matrix-like object containing every single possible hashed value for every point of data // ..must be stored on an authentication server for each data input. // Data must also exhibit granularity (snap to an integer path). // Without granularity, the hashes will never match a new input's hash. // This matrix of values is used to compare the biokey with in the future // This must be made more efficient to use with today's computers let x; let y; let bioMatrix = {}; for (x = snappedBioData.point1.lowerLeft.x; x <= (expander*2) ; x++) { let curXRow = "x"+x; let bioMatrix[curXRow] = []; for (y = snappedBioData.point1.lowerLeft.y; y < (expander*2) ; y++) { curYRow = "y"+y; bioMatrix[curYRow].push(sha256(y)); } } // Finally, the real biokey is returned as an object of hashed biometric data, which will be checked by comparing each granular piece of data's hash to the incoming granular hashes return bioMatrix; // Biokey } function snapBioDataToGranularPath(rangedBioDataParam){ //returns data snapped to grid (recursively scans object passed) }
submitted by currentXchange to CryptoTechnology [link] [comments]

can you deposit a two party check with one signature video

How to Write a Check Step-by-Step Instructions – Writing ... 6 Things You Can Get Free On A Cruise - If You Ask ! - YouTube How do Bank Deposits Work? When are Funds Available? - YouTube Brandi Carlile - Party Of One feat. Sam Smith (Official ... YouTube - Video 1 - How to Create a G702 Application for ... We Are Number One but you might need to check the ... Can You Hear the Difference Between One Million Dollar ... How to Fill Out a Deposit Slip - Carousel Checks - YouTube Common YouTube Analytics questions - YouTube

Is the check is payable to the same two people that are listed as owners of the joint account? If that is the case, then yes, you can deposit the check with only one signature. Actually, you could even deposit it with no signatures and just write "For deposit only" on the back. In the rare instance that you ever receive check that is written out to you and another person, it can be a major headache to deposit the check if you don’t share an account with this other person. The check that you will deposit in your account is called a third-party check. It was made out to your friend, but he endorsed it to your name, so you can deposit it to your bank. Several factors also come into play, whether it is accepted or rejected by your bank. A two party check has to be endorsed by both parties before it can be cashed. So the only way for you to cash the whole thing would be to have your attorney endorse the check and send it back to... You can write the words ‘Not negotiable’ within two parallel lines across the face of the cheque. This means the cheque must be paid into a bank account. A cheque marked ‘not negotiable’ can be transferred to someone other than the person it is made out to, but it still has to be paid into a bank account. A signs the check, puts it into prepaid and pre-addressed envelope and sticks it in mail box (if you are worried about it getting lost you may want to spring for a tracking/certified mailing) to person B. B repeats and sends to C, C sends to D, and D signs and puts in the bank and distributes the funds as appropriate. 5 minutes of time per month and two weeks of calendar waiting (if you don't ... If it's made out to Lucy McGillicuddy or Ricky Ricardo, either Lucy or Ricky can endorse the check and deposit it. If the person who wrote the two-party check made it out to Lucy and/or Ricky, it can be deposited by either payee. It's treated the same as if it were made out to Lucy or Ricky. Quick answer: If a check with two names says “and,” on the “pay to the order of line” then everyone has to endorse the check. Otherwise, any party named on the check can deposit it into ... If a two-party check is written to “[Person 1] and [Person 2],” both parties must be present to cash the check. However, “[Person 1] or [Person 2]” means that either person can cash the check on their own. Can You Cash a Two-Party Check With Only One Signature? Answer: Yes, but only if the payee names are connected by “or” Two Party Check Deposited into Account Without My Signature ... the bank can clear the check based on one signature. Quoting Tennessee Code, Sec. 47-3-110. ... The issuing bank said that there is no way he could deposit it without my signature since the check was written to both of us with the word AND.

can you deposit a two party check with one signature top

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How to Write a Check Step-by-Step Instructions – Writing ...

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