You are perhaps using a narrow definition of ISP. Fixed wireless operators, for example, may service multiple customers on a single wireless link. Each individual customer has the possibility of reaching the full link speed, but only if all other customers on that link are idle. Thus, service can be sold with an "up to X mbps" specification, but if all customers on that link wanted to reach that speed simultaneously then it would certainly cost the ISP more to implement.

It seems that many ISP customers are forgetting that they are using shared infrastructure.

From whois:

Registrant Organization: Leonardo S.p.A.
Registrant Street: Piazza Monte Grappa, 4
Registrant City: Roma
Registrant State/Province: RM
Registrant Postal Code: 00195
Registrant Country: IT
Registrant Phone: +39.0632473314
Registrant Email: info@akran.it

I, for one, welcome the advancements that begin to make obsolete the lawyer and lawsuits. You can't sue for breach of contract when the contract cannot physically be broken. Lawyers are free to transition to the new blockchain rule codification techniques and earn their keep auditing and explaining the smart contract itself.

Supply chains are an excellent example. But your assertion fails to consider that publicly readable information does not necessarily mean it is publicly understood. There are any number of ways of encrypting the data stored on chain so that only the intended recipients can make sense of it. The ability to easily audit and enforce an entity's specific supply chain requirements, programmatically and with a high degree of trust, is a huge benefit to any business.

In the interest of full disclosure I do own some Ether and other cryptocurrencies. I am invested in the technology and actively exploring its uses. I am sorry for saying "buy some Ether" because that is not really necessary, as you can get free Ether on the testnets to play around with. Unfortunately, some of the deployed decentralized applications force the user onto the mainnet. My intention was merely that the reader get a chance to interact with the technology as an end-user, not a speculator, and my suggestion was made in that interest similar to how I might recommend somebody try a new restaurant before knocking it.

There is absolutely a lot of hype and overvalued products in this new space, and we are currently witnessing some welcome relief from only the most recent bubble. Bubbles will continue to pop up but know that this is an entirely new technological and trading philosophy taking shape that over the long run will continue to expand.

Actually, regulation in this case will only serve to hasten mainstream adoption. Only outright banning would force it to the dark markets only.

What's the point of legal cryptocurrency transactions? Good question. Here's one example: Let's say I have bad credit and traditional banks don't want to deal with me. Instead, I can safely secure and transact with bitcoins without relying on approval from some third party.

Think about the individuals and businesses that find PayPal useful. But as we know, PayPal has been known to close down access to accounts at their own discretion, so we can imagine that a design where this is not possible has potential for even greater utility.

You may be right that I focused my argument around the other use cases. Gold is less a currency and more an asset. Bitcoin, IMHO, is more a currency and less an asset, that's why I said I can agree it's not the "store of value" that some people want. That does not remove its utility as a currency, a medium for exchange with the added feature of built-in publicly-auditable accounting. I have personally used it as a currency numerous times this past year, paying invoices for various computer-related and travel services. Ethereum is another currency where the "banks", if you will (the distributed platform) provides additional code-enforced value-added services.

That sentiment usually comes from those who have little experience in this new technology arena. Understandable, but wrong. Slashdot has devolved so far that it really doesn't surprise me to see such a lack of technical information on new blockchain developments.

It's smart contract development and the more advanced use cases of blockchain technology that really bring utility to their corresponding tokens. Solidity is a very straightforward language for developing on the Ethereum platform and it has been a very interesting experience learning the nuances of interfacing with blockchains. Neo is another with some promise, using a Java-based smart contract system. The Ether token, combined with front-end widgets like MetaMask make the process of integrating token usage into web sites a straightforward exercise for the developer and an easy interface for the user.

Bitcoin has paved the way for many much more exciting uses of blockchain. A large number of business are popping up all over embracing the technology in various forms and this will only increase. I can understand the nay-sayers who believe that Bitcoin may have little intrinsic value, because though it has some small utility I can agree it is not the "store of value" that some want it to be. But look beyond Bitcoin and it's easy to find far greater applications in other cryptocurrency offerings.

Slashdot has devolved so far from its glory days that it really doesn't surprise me to see such a lack of technical articles here and an overall negative, ignorant perspective on the new advances in distributed ledger technologies. I challenge other developers here to spend the time to buy a small amount of Ether and explore some of the applications popping up before writing off any value in cryptocurrency. Check out sites like https://www.stateofthedapps.co... to see what people are doing.

This means only that you have not connected to enough of the signals that drive Bitcoin's price.

Is that you, Mr. Reiser?

I too find the friend/foe system very useful and continue to add people to the list when I find users with great comment histories that I want to pop out above the noise. Haven't reached any caps yet, thankfully.

I seem to recall that reversibility is a requirement for quantum computing. Tell your user he gets his universal Undo button just as soon as he gets his universal quantum computer.

In fact Musk is a great entrepreneur, that's what he's good at. Tesla could have used him as a business partner.