Value In-Transigence: Value In Transit

Now you see it; Now you don't

Ring of Bitcoins: Why Your Digital Wallet Belongs On Your Finger
Robert McMillan, Wired, 03.18.13

"physical Bitcoins — metal coins engraved with hidden, tamper-protected private keys that could be exchanged much like money."

-people trade the password used to get the money, not the money itself

"You see, Shrem — like many other Bitcoin traders — doesn’t trust digital copies of this most digital of currencies. “Even if all of your assets are in Bitcoins, you have to diversify them,” he says. “Twenty percent you should keep on your computer. The rest should be kept in cold storage.”

"Cold storage can mean an encrypted USB drive, a computer that is not connected to the internet, a piece of paper, or some other physical medium. Shrem puts his on a ring, but other Bitcoiners are using paper — or even physical coins."

"You can write your own key on piece of paper. Or engrave it on a ring. But you might lose your piece paper. Someone might take your ring. There’s always a security hole. The trick is to make it as small as possible."

---money is turned into information, literally, because the only actual value of the coin is not in its material worth, but in the password that is engraved into it. Just wait until we start using living organisms to hold encrypted data (remember the recent report on using DNA to store data?).


Musicians accused of 'buying virtual fans' on YouTube
Newsbeat reporters Chi Chi Izundu and Declan Harvey, BBC
18 March 2013

Facebook told Newsbeat that gaining "likes" from people who aren't interested in that page is "no good to anyone".

---but I wonder, can we distinctly articulate the difference between a like-seeker paying for likes versus the old-school style of subversive advertising, aggresive advertising, demographic targeting, (aka psychological manipulation)

In a world where attention itself has been shaken and shattered, it's only right that the old-school should have to now pay us for it.