Goddamned cryptocurrency ruined the computer upgrade industry

The first version: sought to transpose Article 17 by entirely rewriting its provisions. This was meant to rectify conceptual ambiguities and to mitigate fundamental right risks to the users of these [online content sharing service providers]. This version was an honest effort to deal with the contradictions at the heart of the Article 17 — which demands that online platforms should block infringing material but not legal material, and without specifying how that might be done at scale.

This attempt to produce a balanced law seems to have been met with howls of anger from the copyright industry, which apparently got to work lobbying the Finnish government: the responsible minister led two round table meetings with stakeholders concerning the feedback on the first draft. Apparently, participants mostly comprised of representatives of the rightholder side. Having your charity financially dependent on puppy killers or say weapons manufacturers undermines your ability to act ethically in various situations, which you may or may not see as important Now if we remember that Mozilla, the company, is financially dependent on Google money for the deal of making it the default search engine, we see the much bigger ethical issue here.

Refusing money without strings attached from someone doesn't mean you morally agree with that person. I would say it's even unethical to refuse the money if you are a charity. You essentially say that your charity is less important then the morality of someone who is external to you. And in that case why are you even running your charity.

You should be fighting the person whose morals you disagree with since you have placed that higher then the charity. Notably, I didn't actually argue above that "taking someones money means you must morally agree with that person", but instead provided concrete examples of how taking money from morally dubious sources compromises peoples ability to act ethically, and further, compromises that charities appeal to people who would otherwise consider donating.

If you're not dependent on those donations to exist, you're free to ignore what the giver wants you to do. You're also free to ignore what they want if you are dependent, and either seek other funding, reduce your efforts, or dissolve the charity. So let me elaborate a little bit more concretely.

You are arguing from a point if view that where it's a given that a charity compromises it's ability to act ethically if it accepts money from an unethical source. That is the entire question. Assange for example could accept the money and simply not let it affect the content he releases.

A charity by definition represents an ethical action. You are internalizing the ethics of donors into the ethics of the charity. If you do this no large charity is safe since most likely hundreds of thousands of people have donated to them. Most likely many of them having ethics you do not agree with. I'm not sure what your point with Assange is.

It's an entirely different discussion separate from whether charities should accept money from unethical donors.

Interesting question olympic betting lines apologise

What exactly is Cryptocurrency? Generally speaking, cryptocurrency is a form of electronic currency that uses cryptography to secure transactions, verify the transfer of assets, and control the creation of new units of currency according to Wikipedia.

Bitcoin is likely the most recognizable cryptocurrency, more for its meteoric rise than anything else. But besides insane price gains over the last year, there is plenty else of note about this particular currency. What is Cryptocurrency Mining? I mentioned before that Bitcoin is an unregulated currency a tag that extends to all other cryptocurrencies available at the moment. Instead, this means that the initial price point for the currency is set upon its release, and that the supply of the currency is produced by the community supporting it.

This is where mining comes in. Without diving too far down the rabbit hole, individuals create new cryptocurrency and verify transactions of specific currencies by way of mining. So What? But as a baseline, this information serves as a sufficient preamble to understanding one of the far-reaching effects of cryptocurrency mining over the past year. The Mid Mining Boom In May of , an increase in the price of Ethereum was accompanied by a significant uptick in mining.

None of the major GPU suppliers were prepared for such a massive increase in sales, so by July of , many of the most desirable cards from both Nvidia and AMD were scarce. And those that were available could be purchase well over their MSRP. Further, the unavailability of some cards had the side effect of driving the prices of lower-end cards well above their intended price point.

A perfect example of this would be the GTX both the 3gb and 6gb versions of the card. During this particular boom, only the most expensive Nvidia cards — the and Ti — managed to weather the storm of price surges. Despite meager availability of other Nvidia and AMD cards, these two were easy to get a hold of at their intended price point.

By early fall, pricing and availability started to return to normal. The mining surge was over. But this push has been far more detrimental to the GPU market. The availability and pricing of nearly every available GPU has been impacted. While there were price hikes in the middle of , they were nothing compared to the uptick of GPU prices that are still gripping the market even today. How does this affect me?

But for those who regularly undertake the task of building computers, the current state of things is prohibitive. While the cost of every other component has remained flat, the skyrocketing costs of the single most important part of a computer has made it nearly impossible to build a gaming computer without breaking the bank.

The current shortage is so bad, in fact, that an extremely reputable PG gaming site has for the first time ever suggested that individuals looking to build a new computer, instead, consider buying a pre-built rig. For building enthusiasts, this is nothing short of heresy! Is this the new normal? Yes and no. Despite widespread availability, cryptocurrency is still in its infancy. With confidence low from a traditional investing standpoint and volatility high, many are still nervous about the viability and future efficacy of the multitude of currencies popping up on the markets.

For the few true believers, however, now is the best time to join the fray. And with every surge in the markets, more converts will throw in for their piece of the pie. We saw it once last year and again at the beginning of this year. So…what is cryptocurrency anyway? What has it been doing to the GPU market over the past year? And, most importantly, is it ruining the GPU market for everyone else? What exactly is Cryptocurrency?

Generally speaking, cryptocurrency is a form of electronic currency that uses cryptography to secure transactions, verify the transfer of assets, and control the creation of new units of currency according to Wikipedia.

Bitcoin is likely the most recognizable cryptocurrency, more for its meteoric rise than anything else. But besides insane price gains over the last year, there is plenty else of note about this particular currency. What is Cryptocurrency Mining? I mentioned before that Bitcoin is an unregulated currency a tag that extends to all other cryptocurrencies available at the moment.

Instead, this means that the initial price point for the currency is set upon its release, and that the supply of the currency is produced by the community supporting it. This is where mining comes in. Without diving too far down the rabbit hole, individuals create new cryptocurrency and verify transactions of specific currencies by way of mining. So What? But as a baseline, this information serves as a sufficient preamble to understanding one of the far-reaching effects of cryptocurrency mining over the past year.

The Mid Mining Boom In May of , an increase in the price of Ethereum was accompanied by a significant uptick in mining. None of the major GPU suppliers were prepared for such a massive increase in sales, so by July of , many of the most desirable cards from both Nvidia and AMD were scarce. And those that were available could be purchase well over their MSRP. Further, the unavailability of some cards had the side effect of driving the prices of lower-end cards well above their intended price point.

A perfect example of this would be the GTX both the 3gb and 6gb versions of the card. During this particular boom, only the most expensive Nvidia cards — the and Ti — managed to weather the storm of price surges. Despite meager availability of other Nvidia and AMD cards, these two were easy to get a hold of at their intended price point.

By early fall, pricing and availability started to return to normal. The mining surge was over. But this push has been far more detrimental to the GPU market. The availability and pricing of nearly every available GPU has been impacted. While there were price hikes in the middle of , they were nothing compared to the uptick of GPU prices that are still gripping the market even today.

How does this affect me? But for those who regularly undertake the task of building computers, the current state of things is prohibitive. While the cost of every other component has remained flat, the skyrocketing costs of the single most important part of a computer has made it nearly impossible to build a gaming computer without breaking the bank.

The current shortage is so bad, in fact, that an extremely reputable PG gaming site has for the first time ever suggested that individuals looking to build a new computer, instead, consider buying a pre-built rig. For building enthusiasts, this is nothing short of heresy!

Is this the new normal? Yes and no. Despite widespread availability, cryptocurrency is still in its infancy. With confidence low from a traditional investing standpoint and volatility high, many are still nervous about the viability and future efficacy of the multitude of currencies popping up on the markets.