MrPurple

It might be worth pointing out (or maybe it isn't) that the reason the Stormy Daniels thing is a big deal isn't because it happened, but because the way the payment was handled probably constitutes a campaign finance violation. I mean, obviously people are obsessed with the fact that it happened. People love this kind of shit. It feels especially validating to the left because of the way evangelicals are happy to give him a pass on this. But that's not why this situation is legally perilous for 45. There's nothing legally wrong with raw-dogging a pornstar and paying her to be quiet about it. And it may not be morally wrong to many people. But you're not allowed to pay someone to be quiet to help a candidate's campaign. It matters that Cohen told the story about taking out a loan on his house to make this payment himself without telling his client. That was him shifting the liability completely to himself. Of course later on he changed his story and indicated that he was directed to do so and we have yet to see what comes of his alleged 70 hours of testimony to 1 or more grand juries.

Net Neutrality has existed for much longer than 2 years. 2 years ago the FCC made clear that ISPs are common carriers, but that doesn't mean that it wasn't how the Internet was operated prior to 2015. The debate goes back to the 1990's and the FCC has been involved since the early 2000's. The 2015 FCC decision was forced by the ISP's who were working to find ways around the rules that caused them to act essentially as common carriers.

How? Through what mechanism could any entity shut down or seize a cryptocurrency? They're decentralized with all nodes having equal importance. There is no server that can be turned off. There is no authority that can be coerced into transferring assets. Distributed ledger technology, on which cryptocurrencies are built, gains legitimacy every day. The IRS has given us rules on how to tax them. Delaware now allows businesses to place their records on them. Several countries are looking at moving their national currencies to them. They're not going away. It's just a question of which ledgers the free market will embrace and which will be left behind. I think it's a bit more involved than that, and the right links depend on what it is you want to learn about. What is it you'd like to learn? How cryptocurrency works? How to use a specific currency (if so, which)?

What do you mean by "get Bitcoins?" Do you mean accept them as payment? Or do you mean buy some Bitcoins to either use or hold as an investment? Because those are two different questions. Cryptocurrency is absolutely a great tool for providers and more should look into it. There are many great cryptocurrencies, all with different features. Bitcoin is just one of over a thousand. Bitcoin, specifically, sucks. You should avoid it. It's extremely volatile, has high transaction fees, and it takes a long time to confirm transactions. It's also important to realize that Bitcoin is anonymous, but it's not private. Someone who knows your Bitcoin address can see every transaction that's ever been made, into or out of that account. So if someone ties your identity to an address, they basically have a perfect copy of your books to peruse at their leisure. There are many alternatives to Bitcoin, and almost all of them are better in almost every way. Litecoin is very much like Bitcoin, but has faster transactions, lower fees, and has historically been very stable, price-wise. Ethereum is also better in the same ways. Neither Litecoin nor Ethereum solve the privacy issue, though (although Ethereum is getting new privacy features very soon). Monero is the cryptocurrency that's best for this business. Hands down. It's relatively stable and it's private by default. Even if someone manages to tie your Monero address to your personal identity (VERY difficult), it's impossible for them to see your transactions or your balance. The only issue is Monero is fairly new, so the tools to use it aren't as mature as they are for Bitcoin. But if you can get Monero working, it's better than cash (I think, anyway). If people are interested in learning more about cryptocurrencies and how they could/should be used in this industry, it might be possible to compel me to write a guide or give a class.

Here is a new messaging system from the Bittorrent folks that uses no server and requires no personal information at all to sign up. This seems like an obviously useful tool for our purposes. It does voice, too. http://www.bleep.pm/ http://www.fastcompany.com/3046188/bittorrent-rolls-out-bleep-its-super-private-cloud-free-messaging-app http://www.theverge.com/2015/5/12/8590361/bittorrent-bleep-secure-chat-app-ios-launch

This is of interest to me as well