New York is looking at requiring 100% + holding of any deposits made to a company that holds the crypto currency, like an exchange. The wording they used is amusing : "As capital protection, these companies would have to hold the same amount of virtual currency as they owed to their customers. But unlike banks, which are also subject to capital requirements, these companies would be allowed to hold some of it in virtual currency. "

I like how at first pass it sounds like banks hold 100% also

Unless you hit one of the alt-coins that doesn't have a GPU miner. A variety of those are around.

I feel sorry for poor Blake. When thor brought back all the souls of the Asgardians awhile ago from death Blake was left in some limbo. Does the human host show back up when Thor isn't on Earth? The guy just barely exists because he made the mistake of finding a damn stick. How about a storyline of Thor ending the subjugation of a mere mortal?

xapo has a credit card backed by bitcoin, exchanged to currency at point of sale, coming out. You can buy anything with bitcoin once you have one of those in hand.

I wouldn't assume he would have fled someplace under a new name. There are a number of recent cases where people who should have fled did not. Bernie Madoff surprised me that he didn't run, the Silk Road founder still living in the states was also surprising. I guess it's part of the mentality of 'they'll never catch me'

I kept waiting for the reveal of the Plan the Cylons supposedly had.

I've been happy with Plex and chromecast for home media streams.

Nothing new, Intrade would allow you to bet on anything. I know there are a few places doing similar things.

Food - make a solar cooker. Super easy with some tinfoil and cardboard - or anything shiny you can direct to one spot. Boil water in a pot in minutes and can do crockpot style cooking simply.
If it's a no electricity apocalypse I'd find a local Amish community to fill any gaps in the skill pool. Sure they don't necessarily trust outsiders but they do trade. Although I have 2 nuke plants within 100 miles of me. Depending on why there is no electricity I may not be around to bother. If it's simply a catastrophe then it could be like lucifer's hammer and a nuke plant would be the place to bootstrap civilization - it has power, weapons, tools.

Now zombies...that's another matter. Although a nuke plant may be a good idea there also. They've been made very secure since 911 and electrified fences may help.

• I am part of a power Co-op. There are a number around the country. Profit is given back to the members at the end of the year... in theory. Our co-op seems to keep rolling out into other industries like propane, water heater programs, alternative energy. However normal power companies have to get permission from the state regulators to raise rates. There has been various talk to deregulate electric and natural gas so you can use anyone for the billing company.
• Telcos (copper) USED to be required to share their lines with the '96 telco reform act. This forced deregulation and let competition into the industry. Startup telcos sold lines to ISPs who popped up all over. Under Bush Jr. and Colin Powell's son appointed to head the FCC this was all rolled back. No more independent telco companies, no more independent ISPs.
• Part of the problem are the no competition clauses the cable companies get with each city they serve. This prevents any other cable company from even moving into an area. Even if a startup could have the funds the access isn't there.
• Going forward I hope the solar powered airships / drones get good enough to have circling in a known path far overhead to give us a faster than satellite route to anywhere.

We've already paid for high speed internet using the existing infrastructure. The telcos and cable cos have to get the permission of various entities from state and federal agencies, sometimes they got huge tax breaks to improvements. New Jersey was supposed to have fiber to the home of everyone by 2010 if I recall. currently it's up to 300 billion that taxpayers have paid and hasn't been delivered. We want better internet speed start calling your congress critters and ask them where our money has gone.

for mcxnow they take 25% of all fees earned and use that for the interest payments. The payout is every 6 hours. Not sure how all the rest do it, I assume a similar setup.

there are a number of exchanges that pay interest on your holdings on the exchange. They take a percentage of fees the exchange earns and give it to people with coins held there. The rationale is they want your coins sitting on the exchange as it'll encourage you to trade only on that exchange. One exchange, mcxnow, even posts a current interest rate based on the last 6 hour of fees.

With carriers having overcharged over 300 billion who is then on the hook if there are no more landline companies? Of course telcom giants want people only on wireless, Verizon has been selling off their landline business for years.

I haven't kept up with the laws the last decade but the ILECs - incumbent local exchange carrier - were the equivalent of government mandated monopolies. Telco reform act of '96 forced the ILECs to share the publicly paid for infrastructure with startup phone companies. The Internet exploded with thousands of ISPs popping up. This was rolled back under Bush Jr when Powell's son was running the FCC. I wonder if this means other companies can move into these abandoned areas without the ILEC screaming like crazy?

http://dailycaller.com/2013/08... This is from a "former head of the U.S. Justice Department Asset Forfeitures Office and a federal prosecutor."