#quadriga

[illustratus]

The Abduction of Proserpine by Ulpiano Checa

[pferdundkunst]

Quadriga

Brandenburger Tor, Berlin

[underthewingsofthblackeagle]

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A post shared by Marcello Zerletti | Berlin (@zerletti)

Good Night from Berlin - the place to be :)

Scroll through the pictures to the end ;)

zerletti3 Wo.

moon collection

[dumbassunicorns]

This is so COOL. Carbondated to the 2nd century BC!

[jimbuchan]

Change It Had To Come. We Knew It All Along

Good ideas have been around since the dawn of civilization, but with that, come the naysayers with bees in their bonnets trying to throw water on progress. These folks, some of who may have been influential, exercised their right to take pleasure in others misfortune by scaring the masses into believing the dangers of new ideas, particularly technological pursuits. During the early days of the telephone for example, opera singers and classical music artists who heard the negative rhetoric were so convinced of the ‘glass half empty’ side of the equation that they believed it threatened their industry as people could hold up a telephone to their live concerts and broadcast it for free to the world. With the benefit of hindsight, this of course was not how things turned out, but the same sort of mentality will forever lurk in the minds of those who wish to thwart progress to satisfy their own desires… a fact that played out decades later with the recording industry’s fight to stop recording of radio onto cassette tapes.  The internet (or more specifically the consumer web) was also at a crossroads in the early days with forces trying to take it down, but it eventually won out. Robert Pittman was confident that the use of the internet would enable the forces of evil (i.e. pornography, drugs, etc.) to proliferate the population. Even those who were heavily entrenched in the technology space scoffed it off, with one of the notable examples being Robert Metcalfe of Ethernet and 3Com fame who in 1995 predicted the internet would collapse in 1996. Later on down the line, Steve Ballmer (yes, that Steve Ballmer) dismissed the idea of the iPhone, proclaiming it would never gain mainstream popularity... a statement in which he later had to recuse himself. What happened in all of these examples? Technology just moved on because of convenience and speed... for the betterment of us all. Or perhaps the believers with keen eyes on the idea were comfortable going against the grain in sheer numbers, revolting against the obvious selfish whims of the few that wanted to live in the past, but not in reality. Return Of The Fear-Monger What’s old is once again new, and this time, the cryptocurrency space is under threat. Just like the many examples before it, it’s just a small contingent of folks who are making it miserable for the rest of us by throwing water on a progressive means of transferring value. But, like other inventions in decades past, there are those who see through the malarkey and call it out for what it is, knowing that this next generation technology (be it Smart Contracts with ETH or laser-fast payments with XRP) will become mainstream.  Where before the fight was with information, this time it’s money, and as such you can expect the stakes to get higher as the major financiers are involved, and they want it all for themselves. While most of us take for granted and don’t pay mind to the fees we pay for convenience, the incumbents are ‘banking’ on us to keep feeding from the trough while espousing only the negatives about cryptocurrency and for the moment they are winning, but the tide is turning. The main stages to anything new that is a threat to the establishment but good for the majority of humankind goes as follows:

The ignorance stage

The laugh / chuckle stage

The fight-us stage

The game is up: we win

With the first two stages behind us, those who are in-control of the world purse-strings are now doing everything they can to fight crypto which is where we find ourselves today, because they were late to the game and you were not. Using hindsight as our measuring stick, where would we be if the telephone did not gain traction, and then the television, the internet, or much less the iPhone. That’s right... we would still be using morse-code or flashlights to transfer our messages and using paper-based encyclopedias.  They Are Not Extinct The institutional spin-doctors are trying to convince the masses that Blockchain is good, but crypto is bad, however the truth is that crypto is the fuel that powers the blockchain and it’s pretty tough to have one without the other. The purpose behind the statement (which they are not oblivious to) is to ensure that for as long as possible, we equate crypto to all things evil, because after all, they know better and likewise so should we.

The Red Flag Act of 1865 which halted innovation in road transport for 25 years

The dinosaurs in government and in business who care only for themselves continue to convince us of the perils of the world, but at the same time say nothing about the elicit activities that are bankrolled via cash. They don’t like crypto because they cannot control it the same way for decades they have been able to tax and place fees on any transference of value within the traditional banking rails via the dollar. FTX, Quadriga, 3AC, TerraLuna and others are subjects in regular rotation to keep us all fearful of this new technology, but this comes with the territory as with anything new (especially without proper regulation) bad actors will always try to take us for a ride. The good news is that there are a small minority of people who are seeing through the fallacy and recognizing it for what it is, and whom will be in an enviable position when the ‘game is up’ stage finally is upon us.  The High Cost Of Failure The most interesting thing about the push-back we currently find ourselves in, is that the ones pushing back actually have a lot to gain, but they are too busy trying to keep in step with the old guard that any means of progress just can’t blast on through. From taxation to order-of-magnitude savings is bank / transfer fees to speed of execution of value, the positives far outweigh the immaculate perceptions of negative... a fact that some in positions of influence are now beginning to discover.  if the ones pushing so hard to control this new industry considered how it can also help their space (which should have been done years ago), the entire industry would be flourishing the same way early regulation provided clarity of the early internet of 1995. What is the price of remaining in the ‘fight us’ phase? Only history will tell, but consider a world without the internet as we know it today, and the answer should appear. If lawmakers were still fussing over regulation we would still find ourselves in a ‘Geocities’-like existence where you could use the internet to look up information on a book, but would still have to call a number or go to the store to purchase it. Ask yourself this question... would you rather live in a world of coal-powered steamship travel over the airplane or morse-code communication over sending an email from your phone? If the regulators of the day had their wish, none of us would move forward, and just like society as a whole moved on, cryptocurrency will also become an accepted standard for sending money. It’s just a matter of time. Henry Ford summed it up best when he said "If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said Faster Horses". Good thing he persevered with his technological advances otherwise we may have had bionic-powered horses. The crypto space is playing out just like all of the other disruptive technologies which came before it, and while it has taken years to get to this point, it won’t be long until proper regulation and actual utility will become a reality. When this occurs, (like the telephone, computer and internet), the crypto & blockchain space will be common, accepted mediums which will be part of our daily lives, and a welcome change... for the good.

Title image by Visualeyes Archive/Redferns via Getty Images Quote by Pete Townshend / The Who  |  The Locomotive Act of 1865

[zentralex]

#Baerbock wurde "ausgezeichnet" von einem Blättchen, das viermal im Jahr ganze 8.000 Exemplare druckt.

"Chefredakteur" 😂 Konrad #Göke kommt von Bild, BZ und Springer-Akademie.

Die "Auszeichnung" wurde Baerbock angeblich von dem Blatt und einer Quadriga Hochschule verliehen.

Beide Institutionen werden aber von den gleichen Leuten geführt. 😂 Zitat Wikipedia "Das NDR-Medienmagazin Zapp sieht die Hochschule als Beispiel für eine fragwürdige Nähe zwischen Public Relations und Journalismus."

[ferdinandne1]

Mein Büro 😎 #berlin #brandenburgertor #büro #quadriga #geschichte (at Brandenburger Tor) https://www.instagram.com/p/CefnMzVjFem/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[artthatgivesmefeelings]

Architect: Josep Fontseré i Mestres (Spanish, 1829-1897) La Cascada, ca.1874-82 Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain

[keldermans]

Is mir egal was er gemacht hat ich liebe den Historiker

[allthecanadianpolitics]

It might be a relatively harmless and money-losing affectation for a former talk radio show host turned business group lobbyist to have a mid-life conversion to the church of cryptocurrency. It becomes a lot less harmless when that person becomes the premier, can tell Alberta’s pension fund manager what to do and wants to take Alberta out of the Canada Pension Plan.

And Danielle Smith really is cuckoo for cryptocurrency. [...]

Quadriga was a cryptoexchange that was found to be a fraud and a Ponzi scheme by the Ontario Securities Commission. Smith lost her money because Quadriga’s founder died in December 2018 while on his honeymoon in India and no one else had the passwords necessary to access and run the site. Quadriga users reported roughly $190 million in missing cryptocurrency. Smith talked on her Western Standard show about how the loss was closer to $250 million. 

Smith has also said that she has investments in Ethereum, the second largest cryptocurrency after Bitcoin. Smith’s public disclosure that details her investments and is published by the office of the ethics commissioner is not yet available. 

But it’s not just crypto that Smith is obsessed with, it’s also your pension. In December, Smith floated the idea of having a referendum on separating Alberta from the Canada Pension that would line up with the upcoming provincial election, before quickly backtracking the next day on having a referendum in May.  [...]

Continue Reading.

Tagging: @politicsofcanada

[illustratus]

Pompa Circensis by Julio Borrell Pla

[pilferingapples]

I should have said Enjolras has at least  two hands, come to think of it 

Hugo amazingly failed to specify his exact number of limbs 

[theodoreangelos]

Austrian Parliament Building, Dr. Karl Renner-Ring 3, 1017 Wien Österreichisches Parlamentsgebäude Здание австрийского парламента Bâtiment du Parlement autrichien ────────────────────── Quadrigas and caryatids on the Vienna houses of parliament, created by the sculptor Vincenz Pilz (1816–1896)

[underthewingsofthblackeagle]

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A post shared by Denis (@denis.b.photos)

Good Evening from Berlin :)

[jimbuchan]

The Pinto Has An Italian Name, But It Isn’t An Italian Car

It matters little how long you have been in the crypto space so long as you know for certainty that your chosen coin or token is the ‘Real McCoy’. This particular criteria, while important, seldom makes the news and takes a back door to the daily price action or volume but if you’re not careful, you could be playing into the hands of the 'financiers’ who have been building a campaign to entice you to buy into their ‘version’ of crypto, but is not the real thing. A good example of this are Futures Contracts which while indeed a part of the asset class, are not settled in cold, hard crypto, but in fiat currency. This means that while 'on paper’ you, and many others hold a 'share’ in the pool, if there’s a windfall, your reward is based on the dollar (or currency of your country). There are other forms of crypto market instruments, but unless you actually custody the asset yourself, it is not really yours, hence the passage “not your keys, not your coins”. The Song Remains Insane While Futures, Investment Trusts and even ETF’s have been around for a long time, the cryptocurrency market likewise is being marketed by major Wall Street players, and hats off to them… they are putting their game face on to convince you their ‘product’ is the best. As Frank Zappa once said, “Art is about making something out of nothing and selling it”, and while the underlying asset (i.e. Bitcoin) is far from nothing, what you are getting at the end is not Bitcoin, but a derivative of their ‘version’ of Bitcoin. The perception being played by those in mainstream media, and in the financial halls of the mighty is that crypto is (i) hard to wrap your head around, (ii) full of pranksters, criminals and ‘ladies of the night’ or more overtly perhaps, simply ‘not for you’. After all, you are a little person and you need guidance and white glove service in order to handle these dangerous goods properly, and as such... ‘we are here to help you’. Sound familiar? The plain truth of the matter for those who are willing to think outside the matrix is that it’s not complicated at all to be your own bank. It’s kind of like weight loss. You can choose to make it complicated through pills, fads or philosophy, or just simply eat less and move more. Custodying your digital assets is likewise as easy by (i) buying your crypto from an exchange and (ii) transferring it to an off-line, cold-storage wallet, like a Ledger Nano. Yours, Or ‘On Your Behalf’ For the newcomers to the crypto space, it’s very easy to trust big-name players in money-markets profess that crypto is scary and is Passé in contrast to traditional investments, which is entirely by design. Of course they are going to say that, because while they are professing the negatives of Bitcoin and other crypto assets, they are in reality stock-piling it for themselves. If you do but a shred of research, it won’t take you long to determine that there is more than enough evidence to support this from JP Morgan to CNBC to others because they want you to stay in the matrix, while they accumulate all the crypto.

It can be a confusing prospect to tell heads from tails when traditionally we’ve been told to do what the big players are doing, but when they tell you one thing but do the opposite, you must make the right choice and put logic first. Like a field that’s been unattended for a long period of time, the only thing that will bear fruit are weeds, which produce nothing of value and if your mind is likewise contaminated with false thoughts of crypto (in their words), you may be kicking yourself when the game’s up. When the dust settles, and the price is out of reach in comparison to when you could have accumulated at the bottom, the next phase in their plan will be to tell us all that the water is safe and, like any major financial institution, we should be trusting them with our crypto assets. This goes back to the importance of storing your own crypto yourself because you are in control, and by being in control, you will pay more heed to your investment and not be at the whim of an entity that instead controls you, monetarily speaking. Left in the hands of others, the best case is that your funds will be available when you choose to withdraw or transfer them. The worst is that you could lose some or all of your investment (i.e. Quadriga) through bad dealings, or through over-leveraged positions (FTX / Alameda Research). It is at these times when folks will be crying foul, so instead, why take the risk, when you can simply store it yourself without remorse of loss. Your Only Friend. The End. Crypto is unlike any other asset class, with the exception that there is a finite amount... a point that is sadly missing from what is being served to us by the financial incumbents and media. Pair this with the importance of self-custody and you have all you need to be both confident and safe in the knowledge of what you really hold. While the underlying ‘promise’ has varied over the years, the ‘look here, don’t look there’ game has been played many times over the decades, with the only difference this time around being the catalyst: Cryptocurrency. And by not owning the physical thing just be aware that if the backers of a crypto fund pull the plug (or are regulated out of existence) the creditors are the ones that get any hope of capital resurrection, leaving you holding the bag Choose to ignore (or dismiss) these basic ideals, and instead believe what they are telling you (or wait until the tier-one institutions say it’s OK), and the opportunity will have passed you by as while the talking heads continue their campaign of False Evidence Appearing Real (Fear), there will no doubt come a time when they will change their tune. What happens then? Your ability to buy crypto will still be there, but at a much, much higher price and if you decide to buy from them and not hold it yourself, your earnings could be nothing more than a fraction of the real deal (via derivatives, futures or other old-world scheme). It’s not that complicated folks... just ensure that if you are going to venture into the crypto space that you hold the tangible asset, and not a fugazi.

Title image by AMT via The Sprue Lagoon  |  Quote by Dread Zeppelin  |  Lyric by Jim Morrison / The Doors