The Ungoverned

Thoughts on man and his universe
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  • David Veksler

Is Bitcoin being used to spread “child abuse imagery”? Not really. Mar 23, 2018

Yesterday, the Guardian wrote that "researchers have discovered unknown persons are using bitcoin’s blockchain to store and link to child abuse imagery, potentially putting the cryptocurrency in jeopardy." Is that true? This is a serious allegation. Unfortunately, both the Guardian story and a Bitcoin.com article which rejects these claims make grossly inaccurate statements. Furthermore, the cited study makes false statements about Bitcoin in its abstract. Aside from the sensational claims in the abstract, and the even more sensational claims in mainstream media articles about it, the paper is fairly thorough and accurate - but contains no new insights or discoveries, and duplicates...

By David Veksler Vote5 0

The Internet Did Not Kill the Music Star Feb 21, 2018

For decades now, we’ve been hearing how file sharing, cheap iTunes singles, online radio, and stream ripping “killed” the music industry. In 2014, Taylor Swift wrote about the future of the industry in a Wall Street Journal article.  Her fantastic economic claims have been debunked elsewhere, but one of her basic criticisms was that Internet streaming is challenging the traditional revenue model of the music industry.  However, Taylor’s own career demonstrates how the Internet and digital technology have lent themselves to a creative renaissance of the music industry, in part due to her own leadership. Rather than the death of...

By David Veksler Vote1 0

Can DAG-based cryptocurrencies like IOTA scale better than the blockchain? Feb 16, 2018

Some people claim that DAG (directed acyclic graph) technologies like the IOTA’s Tangle or Byteball will be able to scale (process large transaction volumes) better than blockchain-based technologies like Bitcoin and Ethereum. Let me start by saying that only a few people in the world are qualified to offer an expert opinion on the question of whether a blockchain or DAG perform better. They make a great deal of money, and their time is generally too valuable to comment on Internet forums. This is why you see a lot of DAG advocates claim that it is superior without informed counterpoints....

By David Veksler Vote2 0

How Easy Money Is Rotting America from the Inside-Out Feb 14, 2018

The Federal Reserve has been the main cause of business cycles in America since 1913. For several decades, it has tried to hide the consequences of its policies by enabling easy credit during each recession. As Jonathan Newman wrote yesterday, pouring trillions of dollars into the financial sector obscures the external signs of the recession such as low asset prices and high unemployment and promotes economic malinvestment. This malinvestment creates the conditions that cause the next recession. Some of the consequences of the Fed’s policies, such as stock market and housing bubbles can be directly attributed to its policies. In other...

By David Veksler Vote9 0

Is the value of Bitcoin based solely on speculation? Feb 14, 2018

It's not true that Bitcoin's value is set solely by speculators. It has a use value which would exist even if all the speculators vanished. I know a company that pays their employees in Bitcoin - not because they think its value will go up, but because it's cheaper than the transaction costs involved in fiat-denominated payments. I know a lady in Zimbabwe who is using Bitcoin because she does not have access to a sound currency. These people are not speculators: they may prefer to trade their Bitcoin for a fiat currency at the first chance. However, their ongoing...

By David Veksler Vote2 0

Bitcoin is still the most innovative crypto asset Feb 14, 2018

I've heard an assumption that because many alt-coins do "more" than Bitcoin and have a higher combined market cap, their technology must be more advanced, and therefore Bitcoin will be left behind in value and market share. I disagree for two reasons: First, the fact that an asset such as Ethereum does "more", does not mean that the market will value its feature set higher. The potential market value of any given cryptoasset depends on the value proposition it offers to individuals times its potential market share. It remains to be seen whether Ethereum will be able to create meaningful...

By David Veksler Vote14 1

11 Essential Security Practices to Keep Your Bitcoin Safe Dec 10, 2017

The recent explosion in the price of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies has inspired me to start a new hobby: helping people recover lost Bitcoin wallets. As might be expected of early adopters in an anonymous Internet cryptocurrency, many of my customers are information security professionals. It seems that many of them set up so many security measures that they locked themselves out of their Bitcoin. On the other hand, I’ve also heard from many more people who lost their Bitcoin or had it stolen because they either did not follow basic security practices or followed them without understanding their implications and also lost...

By David Veksler Vote3 0

How to protect yourself online, no matter your security needs Nov 13, 2017

Almost every week, it seems that there is some kind of major security breach. Whether celebrity nudes, the social security numbers of the majority of Americans, or a Bitcoin heist, it seems that our private data is under constant attack. The Internet and your co-workers are full of advice: put a sticker over your webcam, disable Flash/Java in your browser, encrypt your drives, delete your Facebook account, cover your hand while using the ATM, get a burner phone, pay for everything with cash, start wearing a tinfoil hat to protect against the NSA’s spy rays, etc. The reality is that as more and more of...

By David Veksler Vote2 0

Three lies the government is telling us about why it wants to backdoor our security Nov 12, 2017

In a press conference, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein stated that the  "absolutist position" that strong encryption should be by definition, unbreakable, is "unreasonable." The DOJ is lying about three things:   First, the US government works against the security of businesses. Just this week, I had to tell Apple that my iPhone app did not have certain kinds of encryption that the U.S. government has export control on. Encryption export controls cripple the security and innovation of software products made by American businesses.   Furthermore, the U.S. government hoards software exploits so it can hack into your computer rather than...

By David Veksler Vote6 0

What is an ICO? Case study of eSports.com Nov 8, 2017

Wondering what ICO's (Initial Coin Offerings) are all about? Check out my case study of the eSports.com ICO below:  

By David Veksler Vote5 0

Apple’s environmentalist bragging misleads the public Oct 11, 2017

Apple has published a Paper and Packaging Strategy whitepaper in which it brags about eliminating a few grams of paper and plastic from iPhone product packaging and announces technological innovations in eliminating plastic and replacing it with robust wood-derived packaging.  While Apple should be commended for their leadership in this space, Apple's environmentalist messaging is nevertheless dishonest both in regard to Apple's overall priorities and many of their specific claims. Missing the forest for the trees While Apple brags about eliminating a few grams of paper from its product packaging, it often forces consumers to throw devices in the dumpster prematurely by making...

By David Veksler Vote7 0

Rabbits Won’t Save Venezuela from Going Hungry Sep 20, 2017

President Nicolas Maduro wants Venezuelans to breed rabbits to solve the economic disaster he and his predecessor Hugo Chavez created, which has led to millions of formerly middle-class Venezuelans starving, begging on the streets, and giving up their children. "The rabbit isn't a pet, it's only two and a half kilos of meat,” Maduro said, “the first part of Plan Rabbit moves forward!" Unfortunately, his plan had an early setback: people began keeping the rabbits as pets instead of eating them. It might seem strange that people who are starving would rather feed rabbits than themselves, but I know what that’s like: my family also...

By David Veksler Vote5 0

Six People Who Were Rescued by Crowd-Sourced Legal Advice Sep 19, 2017

The legal system is a mysterious and forbidding institution to most of us. This leaves us vulnerable to both private and public abuse when we either have no choice but to plead guilty to a criminal charge, or have no idea how to use the law to right wrongs against us. Fortunately, the sub-reddit /r/legaladvice has been a life-saver (sometimes literally) to thousands of people who either cannot afford a lawyer, or are even being victimized by their own lawyer. Exhibits A-F Here are just a few-example of people the /r/legaladvice community helped: A woman was told to document her sexual assault by...

By David Veksler Vote4 0

The Real Scandal Is the EPA’s Diesel Policy, Not Volkswagen Aug 25, 2017

You’ve probably heard about the Volkswagen emissions scandal. The official story is that engineers at VW faked emissions test results to meet EPA requirements. VW made it appear as though its diesel engines produced fewer pollutants while being tested than they actually produce on the road. When independent testers identified the issue, VW was forced to fix 11 million vehicles, and pay over $7 billion in fines, refits, and buy-backs. This much is true. However, that’s not the full story. VW cheated because the EPA introduced an ultra-stringent emissions standard with the expectation that automakers would invent compatible technology. VW...

By David Veksler Vote6 0

Five common errors made by abortion critics Aug 20, 2017

Opponents of abortion (those who oppose a woman's right to abortion and those think it is merely immoral) typically make five kinds of logical errors: 1: The seen and the unseen: Abortion opponents see the fetus which was aborted but ignore the good things that the abortion made possible. These include the mother who is free to pursue her life goals and the lives of the children who are born into families that want and are ready for them. The decision to have an abortion is not arbitrary: it's a choice the mother makes because she believes that she and...

By David Veksler Vote13 40

This is the real reason your iPhone cables break Aug 16, 2017

Apple products look great. Whatever else you think of the company, there’s little doubt that Apple uses high-end materials to create gorgeous and durable products. That’s true for just about everything Apple makes, with one glaring exception: the cables. It’s common knowledge that Apple cables begin to disintegrate after about six months of regular use. This has been a constant across many different devices - MacBook, iPhones, and adapters, and over the course of many generations of product. My first generation iPhone had a cable that fell apart in 2009, and my iPhone 6 cable disintegrated less than a year later too....

By David Veksler Vote4 0

How to prepare for the coming economic meltdown Aug 15, 2017

Predicting economic recession is like predicting earthquakes.  It’s impossible to predict when the next Big One will hit.  However, unless the fundamentals of local geology have changed, we should expect the past to follow the same pattern as the future.  And the last time I checked, Southern California hasn’t turned into an island, and the Fed is still wreaking havoc with interest rates.  The smart thing to do is to earthquake-proof your house -- and your finances while you can.

By David Veksler Vote16 3

Feminists ought to welcome the rise of the sex robots Aug 13, 2017

Johanna Legatt writes: "There is little coincidence that these sophisticated sex robots have emerged at a time when women's rights are under threat across the globe, when there is a president in the White House who has bragged about sexually assaulting women" 1: Is it really true that "women's rights are under threat across the globe?" One can reasonably conclude that in the Islamic world, which has rolled back Western norms introduced during colonialism. Everywhere else, women have more rights (and face fewer sexual violence) than any other time in history. In many Western countries, it is taboo to even suggest that...

By David Veksler Vote3 0

How to invest your money – from $25K to $5 million Aug 13, 2017

Your first $25,000 should be invested in an all-market (VTI) or S&P 500 index fund (VOO) in your 401K or IRA. Your first $500,000 should be invested in a broad market, low-cost, diversified portfolio of large/small cap and some international index funds. After you reach $500k, you need to invest the majority of your portfolio into individual stocks.  At this scale, tax efficiency becomes increasingly important, and you need an actively managed portfolio which optimizes the tax allocation of investments (growth stocks into taxable, REITs & bonds into 401K, etc), minimizes trading frequency, and practices tax loss harvesting (sell losses...

By David Veksler Vote4 0

Where do prices come from? Aug 10, 2017

Very few of us have the opportunity to experience the heart of what makes our civilization work. Crypto-asset markets are one of the few places where you can participate in a real asset exchange without spending a decade getting training and certifications. If you want to try your hand at playing Wall Street trader for a day, this is the place to be.

By David Veksler Vote11 0

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