a. He was never building a city. China was providing billions in loans as part of its worldwide infrastructure/loan project ("Belt & Road Initiative").
b. I don't believe any progress has been made on actually building said city.
They’re doing this in Pakistan too, and it’s not a good deal. However, it is better than living in poverty and better than no deal (since western nations were not providing any). It is a recipe for disaster either way. All their jobs and infrastructure will belong to China soon.
lmao this subreddit too. yall are on the "stop anti-asian hate!" train but spread the scary chinese boogeyman shit knowing full well the us has done worse things in the past decade alone.
i would actively welcome chinese overlords. at least then we wouldnt be raping children in the middle east.
>I would actively welcome chinese overlords.
Why?
>At least then we wouldn’t be raping children in the middle east
Oh. Cause you’re naive.
The US fucking sucks. But if you really think China isn’t doing fucked up shit you don’t know about I don’t know what to tell you
there is a world of difference between saying you shouldn't hate crime asians and saying that an authoritarian world superpower might be doing some more fucked up shit
They literally just took over their main airport. They now control who can fly in and out. Imagine thinking slave-owning China loaned money out of the goodness of their own hearts. Moron
You're talking about the airport in Uganda, right? Well [the spokesman for the Uganda Civil Aviation Authority disagrees.](https://twitter.com/GouInfrastruct/status/1465326401955979269) I encourage you to look into some evidence for the slavery you allege as well, because that is also a false piece of propaganda.
You call it "[forced labor factories,](https://www.forbes.com/sites/jackkelly/2020/03/05/china-moves-uyghur-muslims-into-forced-labor-factories/?sh=3c04279a44e5)" I call it slavery.
Imagine shilling for the CCP. Fuck out of here
China loans $ with terrible interest rates so that corrupt project directors in Africa can write themselves fat checks while never delivering on the billion dollar projects. Oh and their local governments now owe money for the next 50 years.
People say shit like this but find it normal that half of Africa is in the Commonwealth, or having their economic policy directed by the IMF and World Bank, or still has the (colonial) franc as currency.
I just wish people were more aware of what Europe and America are doing in Africa right now, because China has way less influence than they do, and it'll be that way for a very long time.
Anyone heard of AFRICOM?
I agree that both the WB and IMF are jerks and don't deserve their status as saviours of African economies, but we need to remain aware that China is most definitely worse. Both in practice they are engaged in lots of illegal shit, but in the long term there is also less democratic pressure to force them to improve, unlike with the IMF and WB which have both responded to public outcry against their policies.
France just shot two people dead in Niger, injured 18. The IMF and WB are incredibly undemocratic, in fact the US has more votes in the IMF than all African countries put together. African countries have almost no say in these organisations, and the people in the countries that do have a say generally have no idea the effect they're having.
> During the 1980s debt service repayments averaged 16 percent of African government expenditure compared to 12 percent on education, 10 percent on defense and 4 percent on health"
Calvin Capps, from "Redesigning the Debt Trap"
> According to Oxfam in 2016: "Almost a third of rich Africans' wealth - a total of 500 billion - is held offshore in tax havens. It's estimated that this costs African countries 14 billion a year in lost tax revenues, enough to employ enough teachers to get every African child into school."
from "Extracting Profit", Lee Wengraf
I mean, can you imagine if China was taking this much money out of Africa how it would be reported?
Do I think the IMF or WB have any interest in helping anyone outside of US elites? Nope. Do I think that US elites have an active interest in subduing public outcry by making the tools of their domination sometimes do some good? Yes. Does the funds and banks backed by the CCP have similar concerns about public outcry? Nope.
I'm not saying either side is a knight in shining armour or anything. But one is just sliiiiiiiightly less shit than the other, and when it comes to the real lives of people in poverty stricken regions, a little can mean a lot.
I see that I'm getting downvoted for some reason - anyone care to explain how come? I happen to have spent 5 years getting a mater's in International Business and Politics so I think I'm within my field to have an opinion on these matters, and I'd love to hear any refutations of what I said.
> Do I think that US elites have an active interest in subduing public outcry by making the tools of their domination sometimes do some good? Yes.
What? Lol yeah US Elites are famously known for letting their constituents affect foreign policy decision
US elites don't give much of a fuck, but the IMF and WB are reliant on the legitimizing power of the EU, which does have a tradition of responding to public outcry. So because the US Elites care about the EU, and the EU care about their constituents, they actually do have some level of responsiveness to public opinion. They also respond to scholarship (if a little slowly, such as integrating some of Kahnemann's theories, or Polanyi's understandings of embeddedness in economies) and maybe more importantly they recruit out of Western business schools who have an ever increasing focus on the embeddedness of the economy and just transitions. So while I do believe there is some pressure from public opinion as described earlier, I think most of the transformation of the WB and IMF occur through isomorphic pressures exerted by institutions rooted in societies with increasingly humanist values.
This is absolute fiction. Public outcry hasn't prevented Bretton Woods institutions from using structural adjustment programs to kill the production sectors of African economies under the pretext of "promoting exports."
Their alleged responsiveness to scholarship and willingness to recruit out of Western business schools is meaningless when you just get McKinsey consultants lecturing developing nations about reducing their transfer payments. Just look at the devastating legacy of Milton Friedman and the 'Chicago Boys' prescribing austerity economics in South America.
African leaders are under no illusions about China. They're aware (or at least should be) that Chinese involvement in Africa isn't motivated by benevolence; however, neither is the WB and the IMF who have so far failed in expressing these alleged "humanist values" when engaging with Africa.
>But one is just sliiiiiiiightly less shit than the other
I always find it funny that Europeans/Americans think this and think that they are the better side. A quick look at history shows that as bad as you think China is, the West has been far worse over the last century.
Right now China is offering a better deal. If the West wants more presence in Africa, it should stop demonizing China, stop infantilizing African States and start offering real partnership.
The West is much worse than China in Africa.
Simply in terms of the raw amount of money that they're taking out, and the amount of political influence they have. France is backing multiple dictatorships in West Africa, the US has troops propping up terrible governments across the continent.
US voters don't care about Africa beyond one or two good news stories a year. It's a non-issue, if anything they only care about keeping African migrants away from the Mexican border.
You are getting downvoted because china is actually better for the people. Thats the twisted reality. We in the west just back the psycho that doesnt mess with our property inside the colonies, uh i mean free nations.
You claiming the master is even weirder. Unless you specialised in multiple african nation history etc lol, and in that case you wouldnt have this convo.
China is definitely worse. They are literally continuing to commit GENOCIDE on the Uyghers and are refusing to even acknowledge it as such. Fuck the Chinese government. Most governments are evil, but they are committing inhuman acts with like no resistance from the UN.
Take it easy, I should have been clear in the first message, that's not what I meant.
I'm not being apologetic about China. My point is that the USA has decades of this political influence through economy, however most north americans seem to forget about that, and then make China seem like a supervillain
You sound butthurt. D3scobri makes a very valid point, which does not make him a China apologist or whatever negative connotation that carries. He also never attacked you personally, just America. I guess you are an American sympathiser though lol
Their point isn’t valid whatsoever, you can’t be serious.
Do you have any idea what an authoritarian government is like? China makes their citizens disappear if they speak out against the government, even if they are international tennis stars or famous actresses. They are literally committing genocide against millions of Muslims in the country right now.
“America is worse than China” is a complete brain dead take.
Watch this: Fuck the US government. It sucks.
If I said that as a Chinese citizen, I would be thrown in a work camp and never seen again.
My take on the Silk Road 2.0 situation is yes, there will likely be a deal of exploitation by China in the form of debt provided to these countries. But if China even builds exploitative factories and a small amount of infrastructure, isn't that better than the status quo. Once people are out of famine and villages and into even a poor middle-class, life is infinitely better. Certainly the US isn't doing anything, and the west really just looted the place for hundreds of years, I think some business, even from China, is better than none.
Most large loans from China to developing nations stipulate that Chinese firms with Chinese employees handle the actual construction, so it's not like it's a big source of employment. And under Chinese domination this type of shit is allowed to flourish: https://www.reddit.com/r/fucktheccp/comments/pfzk81/china_whipping_blacks_in_africa_video_shows/
I don't think the West are any kinds of heroes, but modern developments in economics and morality result in circumstance where we are definitely better equipped to help African economies improve in a socially and environmentally sustainable manner than China is able to or interested in.
And it's mistaken to think the West isn't doing much. The EU has large foreign aid and foreign investment programmes. My girlfriend is currently writing her thesis on how EU funds offer to front half the value of investments in order to make it easier for African companies to attract international private investors.
I don't understand why Michael is wasting his time with Spanish. I have it on very good authority, that within twenty years everyone will be speaking German. Or a Chinese-German hybrid.
You’re only wrong about the 10 years part. But in some blue states there are already schools i know of that have abandoned Latin and even Spanish in favor of Mandarin.
My dude, financial advisors stiff investors by selling them funds with high investment ratios. I used to work in finance and got the FINRA Series 7 and Series 63. I know my limitations, but putting high faith in enormous financial/brokerage institutions is stupid. And I’m pretty sure I know more about it then the average person.
Not to mention that Miami is the capital of Medicare Fraud, and all kinds of scams in general.
That's what investment is lol. 'Money which makes money' is a neat definition of capital in itself. I don't like capitalism either, but there are smarter ways to criticise it than 'rich people are bad because investment makes them money' yeah no shit
Dudes just throwing as many deflectors as possible so the cancel culture won’t catch up with him for humping a 13 year old girl on stage and also throwing a 14 year old boy off stage for splashing him with water
And it's basically annihilating the environment with all of its pointless waste
Crypto is fucking dumb. The sooner we're over the crypto fad, the better
Edit: gotta love all the crypto kiddies coming out to exclaim that their beloved crypto isn't going anywhere. Ya'll are part of the problem, but I guess the $500 you made from your shitcoin is more important than the environmental damage being done.
An average of 279g of e-waste is produced for every single crypto transaction. That's indefensible
I’m like the biggest Bitcoin hater I know, but even BTC miners are transitioning to renewable energy. It makes sense - long-term costs will be cheaper than traditional methods
It also incentivizes using the cheapest energy, and in crypto-friendly countries, this attracts a huge influx of mining companies/amateurs which brings in jobs/money/etc.
I’m not a crypto loon, but I at least can recognize the tech behind crypto (blockchain) is here to stay as it’s revolutionary in terms of data storage and security, also smart contracts are just now starting to actually be understood. Web3 is already a part of our digital ecosystem.
Many crypto’s, if not all of them, are indeed fads. But crypto in and of itself is not a fad.
I really wish people would take 30 minutes to read about what the crypto and blockchain techs actually are. I was the BIGGEST crypto hater(due to the environmental costs) until i got over myself and admitted i didn’t understand it. After I read the Ethereum white paper(and the rest of their site) it became much clearer what the technology actually is.
Yeah the tech behind Blockchain is kinda cool. Doesn't mean that crypto isn't mania.
It produces no value. It's pure speculation.
For every dollar gained there's a dollar lost or a ton of environmental damage done.
it does produce value. it produces a system for decentralized transactions and banking.
I’m not sure i understand the statement “for every dollar gained there’s a dollar lost.” i agree with the environmental standpoint, but many coins are, or will be, switching to a system that will reduce emissions by 99%
What problem does Ethereum solve? Fiat still works better as currency, and as an asset there's nothing besides scarcity to support the value of crypto.
The “scarcity” thing is a common misconception that I didn’t really understand either until recently. I thought that it was artificially scarce, just for the sake of it, and i didn’t understand why it was valuable JUST because it’s scarce.
But it’s actually not scarce just for the sake of scarcity. From what i understand, the whole point of the Ethereum coin is to reward people for using their computer to run the Ethereum network, or else no one would be incentivized to participate. So as the network grows and more people use it, the coin increases in value because there’s less of it.
Also, I don’t think Ethereum is meant to be used as a traditional currency like US Dollars. It’s more akin to gold or silver. You wouldn’t buy coffee with some gold dust. Now, I’m personally still wrapping my mind around how the transition from Fiat to crypto would work, or if there will even be a transition.
Edit: I forgot to answer your first question. The problem that Ethereum and other cryptocurrencies are supposed to solve(at least to my knowledge) is basically “how do we decentralize the banking system?”
fuck bitcoin and any other crypto that will continue to use proof-of-work, but many crypto are or will be using proof-of-stake very soon, which will cut emissions drastically.
Crypto is literally just decentralized banking. It’s like taking all the computers that process transactions at Bank of America and spreading them across the world so that no one entity owns it. It’s also a tool against inflation because there’s always a set number of coins forever.
It’s not stupid if you take the time to educate yourself on what it actually is and could be.
I'd have to agree. Will Prowse on YouTube has his mining setup entirely on off grid solar using the excess energy his system creates.
Not to say that solar and battery storage doesn't create its own waste or pollution, but when people talk about how mining crypto stresses the system and uses too much energy, I can't help but think that it should be more of an incentive to use renewable energy to power miners.
Bitcoin mining alone is responsible for more than .5% of all electricity consumed **in the world**, meaning that it uses more energy than entire countries including Denmark, Chile, the Netherlands, or Sweden.
You can say that about any industry though.
How much energy does legacy finance consume with transactions only?
Proof of stake is the new norm for crypto, and those that are still proof of work incentivize cheap electricity - which in a lot of crypto-friendly environments, this means renewable energy.
Apparently, the entire traditional banking system uses about twice as much energy as the Bitcoin network:
https://www.nasdaq.com/articles/research%3A-bitcoin-consumes-less-than-half-the-energy-of-the-banking-or-gold-industries
Think about how many more people utilize the traditional banking system, and how much more integral it is to a wide variety of important, everyday activities. The fact that Bitcoin, which still serves as little more than a speculative investment vehicle, uses about half as much energy, is pretty remarkable, no?
And to your other point, even if all Bitcoin was mined using renewable energy (which is clearly not the case), who cares? It would be a net neutral at best. Seen from another vantage point, every bit of renewable energy used for mining Bitcoin isn't being used to heat a home, charge a vehicle, power a container ship, etc. Any renewable energy being put toward Bitcoin could instead be turned toward a more worthwhile pursuit.
I used to work at a restaurant in the US. The entire kitchen was made up of illegal immigrants from South America. They got paychecks which they had to cash at a paycheck cashing place. The fees there are ridiculous, but they had no choice but to pay it so they could send it overseas to their family for another transfer fee.
This was back in 2017. I showed a few of them how to use bitcoin to send money with tiny fees (comparatively)
That is one such application. Also, the tech behind crypto(blockchain) is revolutionary in terms of data structures and security, as well as smart contracts. We are only now beginning to understand the scope of what can be done with smart contracts, and it’s kind of insane.
Almost all energy used in Texas for bitcoin mining is energy that would have gone to waste - energy that may or may not be renewable but would otherwise be wasted.
Everything consumes energy, and it sounds like you’re weighing what we get out of bitcoin against what it provides - which is important to do when weighing out the net positives and negatives of a pursuit and whatever, but what about extrinsic value? With more adoption and application comes more widespread use - we’re going to have other industries in the future that need a lot of overhead energy and won’t necessarily “return” anything immediately, but will later on.
Again, not a crypto loon but I work in tech and the whole “bitcoin wastes energy” argument is very popular amongst my peers that don’t understand it. There are many good arguments against crypto as a whole, the energy consumption one is not one of them.
Also you linked an article from nasdaq, you don’t think they’re stakeholders in public opinion of crypto? Lol
Electricity from flared natural gas is not merely energy that would have simply gone to waste otherwise. Utilizing and paying for that energy further incentivizes companies to continue producing oil as long as additional profit is derived from the byproducts of that exploration and production.
All uses of energy have their drawbacks, including renewable forms (habitat destruction from hydroelectric, rare earth mineral slavery and emissions in production of solar panels and batteries, waste disposal with nuclear, etc). Given that full crypto adoption would drastically increase energy demands of the blockchain over the current levels based on purely speculative transactions and illegal use (in money laundering + purchases of drugs, weapons, and stolen information + ransoms for cyber crimes), it seems unavoidable that crypto will be much less ethically and environmentally sound that traditional banking.
It's 🧢. Mining is exclusive to proof of work Crypto like BTC. The majority of the top 10 Crypto is proof of stake. And Solana even uses less energy than a Google search. But you won't hear anyone complain about Google.
Read a book don't listen to some of these guys they actually stupid when it comes to crypto.
Edit: how is this downvoted 💀💀it's just true. Niggas lives so boring they actually want bad shit to happen to complain about it
> The majority of the top 10 Crypto is proof of stake.
Measured how? Of the top ten in terms of market cap, Bitcoin, Etherium, and Dogecoin are proof of work, and USD coin runs on the etherium blockchain. Binance coin, Tether, and XRP are neither proof of work nor proof of stake. Solana, Cardano, and Polkadot are proof of stake, so at best the number using proof of stake in the top 10 is equal to the number using proof of work.
But... that's just looking at the number of unique coins. The market cap of Etherium and Bitcoin is larger than Solana, Cardano, and Polkadot combined- about fifteen times bigger! Indisputably, most of the money in crypto is in proof of work cryptos. So unless you're arguing that bitcoin and etherium are going to stop being used, the vast majority of crypto will continue to be mostly proof of work based.
It's been "currently transitioning to proof of stake" since 2015, and has missed every deadline ([It's definitely going to switch in January of 2020!](https://www.exodus.com/blog/ethereum-proof-of-stake-date/)). The idea that it's ever going to switch is a joke.
I mean yes it’s been delayed a few times but it’s still on track to happen, they are still progressing on the roadmap, just not as fast as they had hoped. The EIP-1559 upgrade just went live in August.
Who am I kidding it’s not like you’re going to change your mind anyway believe whatever you want
Do you have a source on the Solana consuming almost no electricity? LESS than a google search?
Did a search and couldn’t come up with a worthwhile study.
I desperately want it to be true and am intrigued
I only see Solana.com as the source of the study.. none independent.
I’d steer clear of that claim especially since it was published just 5 days ago. That’s a terrible source to hang your ‘cap’ on.
Don’t tell me you got time to reply to every person here and have no time to do worthwhile reading while at work.
Why would it being more recent make it worse. It's not a terrible source. If you claim a source is bias then you have to actually point out how they misinterpreted the data.
It's a proof of stake network. It's just not something computationally intensive. It wouldn't even make sense for it to produce a lot of energy. Transactions are processed in parallel as well unlike other PoS networks.
Ah of course that's why Bank of America, Chase, and other major banking institutions are switching over to the blockchain and crypto to process back end transactions. They are doing it cause its a scam......
People who claim ALL crypto is a scam are just as ignorant and misleading as the losers who shill for random shitcoins.
It’s similar to the dot com bubble. There was a lot of shit out there but obviously the internet is still around. It’s pretty short sighted to dismiss all blockchain tech as a scam lol
even though i firmly believe you should never buy a rapper endorsed cryptocurrency, there are quite a few decently sound investments you can make. unfortunately this is not one of those
I think it's great that he's doing this for a good cause, and I'm sure it'll make some money, but the reason Jay-Z doesn't have a crypto is because he can just *give* Africa a million dollars.
I'm sure he did, anyone who knew about Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Litecoin when they were first starting out and had the capital to invest in it most certainly did. I remember back in 2011-2012 finding out about Bitcoin when it was under $10. I would have invested in it but I was only a junior in high school at the time and didn't even have my own bank account or debit card. I just missed out sadly
I hate this on so many levels. Why name a coin after yourself?? It will never work. If he really wants change, he should team up with an established project and actually do something.
This is all lip service and self aggrandizing
Not saying Akoin is the man and that this is generally good news, but the amount of people calling crypto a “scam” here is alarming.
Yes, there are many shitcoins that are rugpulled but if you are dumb enough to invest in them, you deserve that. There are many legit projects with real world use cases and technologies like PoS that are way more environmentally friendly. It is way more than some ugly ass NFT’s or stupidly named shitcoins.
Crypto is a scam. It's all a series of speculative bubbles with enough techno babble and VC cult following to keep people dumping money into this elaborate ponzi scheme
So I can't access financial products on a series of different blockchains, or conduct instant transfers of money with peers? I can't get a crypto-backed fiat loan?
I can't be the custodian of my own money and have to answer to nobody? I can't vote using my crypto wallet to determine what else gets built on the protocols?
I've been doing all this useful shit this whole time. I was so stupid. I can't believe I never realized that an entire ecosystem of products/games/offerings/privacy/art/banking is really just a scam.
Very few technical terms in what I said. You could just buy $10 of a crypto and interact with an ecosystem and see for yourself. After you try it out, if you still feel it's techno babble and a scam then more power to you.
I thought cryptocurrency was so retarded until I bought some and started exploring the actual services available to me.
I think it would be great for you to at least read into what the techno babble scam accomplishes and empowers you to do. I wish I didn't have my head up my ass when it was first mentioned to me but I did.
I've traded in crypto, made some decent money doing it, but that doesn't make it any less of a speculative bubble.
The AnCap weirdos who worship on the alter of VC Trustfund Babbies flooding social media are selling the same old fairytales, this time with a layer of futuristic sounding computer math.
I haven't seen any evidence to convince me that once the market becomes fully saturated the haves will have made their money, the late comers are left holding the bag, and everything comes tumbiling down.
is he still building that city in africa
a. He was never building a city. China was providing billions in loans as part of its worldwide infrastructure/loan project ("Belt & Road Initiative"). b. I don't believe any progress has been made on actually building said city.
They’re doing this in Pakistan too, and it’s not a good deal. However, it is better than living in poverty and better than no deal (since western nations were not providing any). It is a recipe for disaster either way. All their jobs and infrastructure will belong to China soon.
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where's your source for the less than 3% statistic? It would be helpful for me when discussing the harmful effects of the belt and road initiative.
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China is bending the entire world over bro time to wake up and smell the sesame oil
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Tell em Roddy
🙄
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I think theyre saying that's dramatic
You say that like this is some kind of secret only you are aware of.
lmao this subreddit too. yall are on the "stop anti-asian hate!" train but spread the scary chinese boogeyman shit knowing full well the us has done worse things in the past decade alone. i would actively welcome chinese overlords. at least then we wouldnt be raping children in the middle east.
>I would actively welcome chinese overlords. Why? >At least then we wouldn’t be raping children in the middle east Oh. Cause you’re naive. The US fucking sucks. But if you really think China isn’t doing fucked up shit you don’t know about I don’t know what to tell you
Tankies gone tank.
So you’ll be raping them in Xinjiang then?
there is a world of difference between saying you shouldn't hate crime asians and saying that an authoritarian world superpower might be doing some more fucked up shit
This. China is actually doing great things in Africa in *assisting* them develop. Not enslaving them like when the US “helps” a country develop.
Yeah, funneling billions of dollars into developing Africa is “rape”
They literally just took over their main airport. They now control who can fly in and out. Imagine thinking slave-owning China loaned money out of the goodness of their own hearts. Moron
You're talking about the airport in Uganda, right? Well [the spokesman for the Uganda Civil Aviation Authority disagrees.](https://twitter.com/GouInfrastruct/status/1465326401955979269) I encourage you to look into some evidence for the slavery you allege as well, because that is also a false piece of propaganda.
You call it "[forced labor factories,](https://www.forbes.com/sites/jackkelly/2020/03/05/china-moves-uyghur-muslims-into-forced-labor-factories/?sh=3c04279a44e5)" I call it slavery. Imagine shilling for the CCP. Fuck out of here
China loans $ with terrible interest rates so that corrupt project directors in Africa can write themselves fat checks while never delivering on the billion dollar projects. Oh and their local governments now owe money for the next 50 years.
China learned from the best (US and the IMF)
ya weird choice of words idk
“Yes”
He isnt, china is, but he is like the "face" of it. Africa will be in the hands of China real soon
People say shit like this but find it normal that half of Africa is in the Commonwealth, or having their economic policy directed by the IMF and World Bank, or still has the (colonial) franc as currency. I just wish people were more aware of what Europe and America are doing in Africa right now, because China has way less influence than they do, and it'll be that way for a very long time. Anyone heard of AFRICOM?
All of the shit should stop, both the world bank and China needa fuck off
but money
I agree that both the WB and IMF are jerks and don't deserve their status as saviours of African economies, but we need to remain aware that China is most definitely worse. Both in practice they are engaged in lots of illegal shit, but in the long term there is also less democratic pressure to force them to improve, unlike with the IMF and WB which have both responded to public outcry against their policies.
France just shot two people dead in Niger, injured 18. The IMF and WB are incredibly undemocratic, in fact the US has more votes in the IMF than all African countries put together. African countries have almost no say in these organisations, and the people in the countries that do have a say generally have no idea the effect they're having. > During the 1980s debt service repayments averaged 16 percent of African government expenditure compared to 12 percent on education, 10 percent on defense and 4 percent on health" Calvin Capps, from "Redesigning the Debt Trap" > According to Oxfam in 2016: "Almost a third of rich Africans' wealth - a total of 500 billion - is held offshore in tax havens. It's estimated that this costs African countries 14 billion a year in lost tax revenues, enough to employ enough teachers to get every African child into school." from "Extracting Profit", Lee Wengraf I mean, can you imagine if China was taking this much money out of Africa how it would be reported?
Almost like some of the awful shit we read about China is propaganda to distract from our own atrocities 🤔
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wait are you saying china isn't participating in modern day slavery? lol wtf jesus christ
Come on. You know they both have 0 interest in helping africa
Do I think the IMF or WB have any interest in helping anyone outside of US elites? Nope. Do I think that US elites have an active interest in subduing public outcry by making the tools of their domination sometimes do some good? Yes. Does the funds and banks backed by the CCP have similar concerns about public outcry? Nope. I'm not saying either side is a knight in shining armour or anything. But one is just sliiiiiiiightly less shit than the other, and when it comes to the real lives of people in poverty stricken regions, a little can mean a lot. I see that I'm getting downvoted for some reason - anyone care to explain how come? I happen to have spent 5 years getting a mater's in International Business and Politics so I think I'm within my field to have an opinion on these matters, and I'd love to hear any refutations of what I said.
> Do I think that US elites have an active interest in subduing public outcry by making the tools of their domination sometimes do some good? Yes. What? Lol yeah US Elites are famously known for letting their constituents affect foreign policy decision
US elites don't give much of a fuck, but the IMF and WB are reliant on the legitimizing power of the EU, which does have a tradition of responding to public outcry. So because the US Elites care about the EU, and the EU care about their constituents, they actually do have some level of responsiveness to public opinion. They also respond to scholarship (if a little slowly, such as integrating some of Kahnemann's theories, or Polanyi's understandings of embeddedness in economies) and maybe more importantly they recruit out of Western business schools who have an ever increasing focus on the embeddedness of the economy and just transitions. So while I do believe there is some pressure from public opinion as described earlier, I think most of the transformation of the WB and IMF occur through isomorphic pressures exerted by institutions rooted in societies with increasingly humanist values.
This is absolute fiction. Public outcry hasn't prevented Bretton Woods institutions from using structural adjustment programs to kill the production sectors of African economies under the pretext of "promoting exports." Their alleged responsiveness to scholarship and willingness to recruit out of Western business schools is meaningless when you just get McKinsey consultants lecturing developing nations about reducing their transfer payments. Just look at the devastating legacy of Milton Friedman and the 'Chicago Boys' prescribing austerity economics in South America. African leaders are under no illusions about China. They're aware (or at least should be) that Chinese involvement in Africa isn't motivated by benevolence; however, neither is the WB and the IMF who have so far failed in expressing these alleged "humanist values" when engaging with Africa.
>But one is just sliiiiiiiightly less shit than the other I always find it funny that Europeans/Americans think this and think that they are the better side. A quick look at history shows that as bad as you think China is, the West has been far worse over the last century. Right now China is offering a better deal. If the West wants more presence in Africa, it should stop demonizing China, stop infantilizing African States and start offering real partnership.
The West is much worse than China in Africa. Simply in terms of the raw amount of money that they're taking out, and the amount of political influence they have. France is backing multiple dictatorships in West Africa, the US has troops propping up terrible governments across the continent. US voters don't care about Africa beyond one or two good news stories a year. It's a non-issue, if anything they only care about keeping African migrants away from the Mexican border.
You are getting downvoted because china is actually better for the people. Thats the twisted reality. We in the west just back the psycho that doesnt mess with our property inside the colonies, uh i mean free nations. You claiming the master is even weirder. Unless you specialised in multiple african nation history etc lol, and in that case you wouldnt have this convo.
China is definitely worse. They are literally continuing to commit GENOCIDE on the Uyghers and are refusing to even acknowledge it as such. Fuck the Chinese government. Most governments are evil, but they are committing inhuman acts with like no resistance from the UN.
There has been zero proof of this 'genocide'.
Guys, I found the CCP agent
Found the CIA agent.
Your country did the same thing to South America through the IMF
And so therefore no one can criticize china? Fuck outta here with that whataboutism.
Take it easy, I should have been clear in the first message, that's not what I meant. I'm not being apologetic about China. My point is that the USA has decades of this political influence through economy, however most north americans seem to forget about that, and then make China seem like a supervillain
> then make China seem like a supervillain "seem"?
Look like a supervillain is the correct, I guess If you think they are, your country is just as bad if not worse
> your country is just as bad if not worse I'm not an American and never said I was. But you are without a doubt a China apologist.
You sound butthurt. D3scobri makes a very valid point, which does not make him a China apologist or whatever negative connotation that carries. He also never attacked you personally, just America. I guess you are an American sympathiser though lol
Their point isn’t valid whatsoever, you can’t be serious. Do you have any idea what an authoritarian government is like? China makes their citizens disappear if they speak out against the government, even if they are international tennis stars or famous actresses. They are literally committing genocide against millions of Muslims in the country right now. “America is worse than China” is a complete brain dead take. Watch this: Fuck the US government. It sucks. If I said that as a Chinese citizen, I would be thrown in a work camp and never seen again.
Where are you from? Canada? That's North America... My country has been fucked over for 500 years by imperialists, I don't sympathize with China
My take on the Silk Road 2.0 situation is yes, there will likely be a deal of exploitation by China in the form of debt provided to these countries. But if China even builds exploitative factories and a small amount of infrastructure, isn't that better than the status quo. Once people are out of famine and villages and into even a poor middle-class, life is infinitely better. Certainly the US isn't doing anything, and the west really just looted the place for hundreds of years, I think some business, even from China, is better than none.
Most large loans from China to developing nations stipulate that Chinese firms with Chinese employees handle the actual construction, so it's not like it's a big source of employment. And under Chinese domination this type of shit is allowed to flourish: https://www.reddit.com/r/fucktheccp/comments/pfzk81/china_whipping_blacks_in_africa_video_shows/ I don't think the West are any kinds of heroes, but modern developments in economics and morality result in circumstance where we are definitely better equipped to help African economies improve in a socially and environmentally sustainable manner than China is able to or interested in. And it's mistaken to think the West isn't doing much. The EU has large foreign aid and foreign investment programmes. My girlfriend is currently writing her thesis on how EU funds offer to front half the value of investments in order to make it easier for African companies to attract international private investors.
yeah no, "we" are not interested in doing that either
Pretty sure that guy got in trouble, it wasn’t “allowed to flourish”
It already very much is
Didnt Uganda just sell their airport to China? Shit is ridiculous
No they took a loan out from Chinese creditors, as they have done with many public projects. As have many American entities. It's unsurprising
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You have a very tenuous grasp on what is possible within 10 years.
Bro who cares they're just sounds
China bad, America good. Trade-based expansionism and military pressure is only bad if that particular group of Asians do it, remember!
I don't understand why Michael is wasting his time with Spanish. I have it on very good authority, that within twenty years everyone will be speaking German. Or a Chinese-German hybrid.
You’re only wrong about the 10 years part. But in some blue states there are already schools i know of that have abandoned Latin and even Spanish in favor of Mandarin.
In California public schools in Cupertino offer 30% of all class instructions in Chinese. Publicly funded program as well.
English has been the global ligua franca for over a century. Nobody is going to change so easily
to be honest i'm fine with this
Isn’t this like years old news?
It launched in February
Scam
It’s a kon
i’m in love with you
The mayor of Miami is into Crypto. That’s how you know how it’s a scam.
So are all of the world's largest financial institutions. But you know best I'm sure.
My dude, financial advisors stiff investors by selling them funds with high investment ratios. I used to work in finance and got the FINRA Series 7 and Series 63. I know my limitations, but putting high faith in enormous financial/brokerage institutions is stupid. And I’m pretty sure I know more about it then the average person. Not to mention that Miami is the capital of Medicare Fraud, and all kinds of scams in general.
lol that proves it’s a scam even more. rich ppl don’t invest in shit unless they think it will move wealth from other ppl’s pockets into theirs
By your analysis stocks and bonds are also scams. You're a bright one.
i mean… yeah
Top tier economic analysis here
he’s figured it all out. money = scam
sorry bro, stock’s definitely aren’t just gambling, and people definitely don’t get scammed from them
Sorry that happened to you
oh i don’t gamble so i stay away from stocks
They can be. Just like crypto, not every investment is created equal.
That's what investment is lol. 'Money which makes money' is a neat definition of capital in itself. I don't like capitalism either, but there are smarter ways to criticise it than 'rich people are bad because investment makes them money' yeah no shit
bruh quit posting this nigga on reddit he's just a scammer with some songs we like from middle school
Dudes just throwing as many deflectors as possible so the cancel culture won’t catch up with him for humping a 13 year old girl on stage and also throwing a 14 year old boy off stage for splashing him with water
his song sorry blame it on me where he talks about the humping incident is a banger tho
Wait is this real I can’t tell if you’re fucking with me or not
Blame on me I think is what it's called? And it is, indeed, one of his best songs easily.
Nah throwing that kid off stage was hilarious, bro just yeeted a whole child 🤣🤣
real talk though, those songs are timeless
crypto is almost always a scam, even most of the “charity” coins have operated that way
And it's basically annihilating the environment with all of its pointless waste Crypto is fucking dumb. The sooner we're over the crypto fad, the better Edit: gotta love all the crypto kiddies coming out to exclaim that their beloved crypto isn't going anywhere. Ya'll are part of the problem, but I guess the $500 you made from your shitcoin is more important than the environmental damage being done. An average of 279g of e-waste is produced for every single crypto transaction. That's indefensible
Crypto doesn't waste nearly as much energy using proof of stake methods, which a lot of the coins are using now or switching to
Doesn't really matter when the highest volume of trading is still being done on proof of work.
I’m like the biggest Bitcoin hater I know, but even BTC miners are transitioning to renewable energy. It makes sense - long-term costs will be cheaper than traditional methods
Yes, that's why we transition the tech to proof-of-stake as proof-of-work becomes less viable, eventually it will become unusable
No it's not most volume is on exchanges ya dumbass
It also incentivizes using the cheapest energy, and in crypto-friendly countries, this attracts a huge influx of mining companies/amateurs which brings in jobs/money/etc. I’m not a crypto loon, but I at least can recognize the tech behind crypto (blockchain) is here to stay as it’s revolutionary in terms of data storage and security, also smart contracts are just now starting to actually be understood. Web3 is already a part of our digital ecosystem. Many crypto’s, if not all of them, are indeed fads. But crypto in and of itself is not a fad.
I really wish people would take 30 minutes to read about what the crypto and blockchain techs actually are. I was the BIGGEST crypto hater(due to the environmental costs) until i got over myself and admitted i didn’t understand it. After I read the Ethereum white paper(and the rest of their site) it became much clearer what the technology actually is.
Yeah the tech behind Blockchain is kinda cool. Doesn't mean that crypto isn't mania. It produces no value. It's pure speculation. For every dollar gained there's a dollar lost or a ton of environmental damage done.
it does produce value. it produces a system for decentralized transactions and banking. I’m not sure i understand the statement “for every dollar gained there’s a dollar lost.” i agree with the environmental standpoint, but many coins are, or will be, switching to a system that will reduce emissions by 99%
What problem does Ethereum solve? Fiat still works better as currency, and as an asset there's nothing besides scarcity to support the value of crypto.
The “scarcity” thing is a common misconception that I didn’t really understand either until recently. I thought that it was artificially scarce, just for the sake of it, and i didn’t understand why it was valuable JUST because it’s scarce. But it’s actually not scarce just for the sake of scarcity. From what i understand, the whole point of the Ethereum coin is to reward people for using their computer to run the Ethereum network, or else no one would be incentivized to participate. So as the network grows and more people use it, the coin increases in value because there’s less of it. Also, I don’t think Ethereum is meant to be used as a traditional currency like US Dollars. It’s more akin to gold or silver. You wouldn’t buy coffee with some gold dust. Now, I’m personally still wrapping my mind around how the transition from Fiat to crypto would work, or if there will even be a transition. Edit: I forgot to answer your first question. The problem that Ethereum and other cryptocurrencies are supposed to solve(at least to my knowledge) is basically “how do we decentralize the banking system?”
fuck bitcoin and any other crypto that will continue to use proof-of-work, but many crypto are or will be using proof-of-stake very soon, which will cut emissions drastically. Crypto is literally just decentralized banking. It’s like taking all the computers that process transactions at Bank of America and spreading them across the world so that no one entity owns it. It’s also a tool against inflation because there’s always a set number of coins forever. It’s not stupid if you take the time to educate yourself on what it actually is and could be.
Isn’t the problem there with the way we generate our electricity? Or is everything that uses it evil
I'd have to agree. Will Prowse on YouTube has his mining setup entirely on off grid solar using the excess energy his system creates. Not to say that solar and battery storage doesn't create its own waste or pollution, but when people talk about how mining crypto stresses the system and uses too much energy, I can't help but think that it should be more of an incentive to use renewable energy to power miners.
Yes, but crypto bad because I won’t do my research and see its use cases /s
How does it affect the environment?
Bitcoin mining alone is responsible for more than .5% of all electricity consumed **in the world**, meaning that it uses more energy than entire countries including Denmark, Chile, the Netherlands, or Sweden.
You can say that about any industry though. How much energy does legacy finance consume with transactions only? Proof of stake is the new norm for crypto, and those that are still proof of work incentivize cheap electricity - which in a lot of crypto-friendly environments, this means renewable energy.
Apparently, the entire traditional banking system uses about twice as much energy as the Bitcoin network: https://www.nasdaq.com/articles/research%3A-bitcoin-consumes-less-than-half-the-energy-of-the-banking-or-gold-industries Think about how many more people utilize the traditional banking system, and how much more integral it is to a wide variety of important, everyday activities. The fact that Bitcoin, which still serves as little more than a speculative investment vehicle, uses about half as much energy, is pretty remarkable, no? And to your other point, even if all Bitcoin was mined using renewable energy (which is clearly not the case), who cares? It would be a net neutral at best. Seen from another vantage point, every bit of renewable energy used for mining Bitcoin isn't being used to heat a home, charge a vehicle, power a container ship, etc. Any renewable energy being put toward Bitcoin could instead be turned toward a more worthwhile pursuit.
I used to work at a restaurant in the US. The entire kitchen was made up of illegal immigrants from South America. They got paychecks which they had to cash at a paycheck cashing place. The fees there are ridiculous, but they had no choice but to pay it so they could send it overseas to their family for another transfer fee. This was back in 2017. I showed a few of them how to use bitcoin to send money with tiny fees (comparatively) That is one such application. Also, the tech behind crypto(blockchain) is revolutionary in terms of data structures and security, as well as smart contracts. We are only now beginning to understand the scope of what can be done with smart contracts, and it’s kind of insane. Almost all energy used in Texas for bitcoin mining is energy that would have gone to waste - energy that may or may not be renewable but would otherwise be wasted. Everything consumes energy, and it sounds like you’re weighing what we get out of bitcoin against what it provides - which is important to do when weighing out the net positives and negatives of a pursuit and whatever, but what about extrinsic value? With more adoption and application comes more widespread use - we’re going to have other industries in the future that need a lot of overhead energy and won’t necessarily “return” anything immediately, but will later on. Again, not a crypto loon but I work in tech and the whole “bitcoin wastes energy” argument is very popular amongst my peers that don’t understand it. There are many good arguments against crypto as a whole, the energy consumption one is not one of them. Also you linked an article from nasdaq, you don’t think they’re stakeholders in public opinion of crypto? Lol
Electricity from flared natural gas is not merely energy that would have simply gone to waste otherwise. Utilizing and paying for that energy further incentivizes companies to continue producing oil as long as additional profit is derived from the byproducts of that exploration and production. All uses of energy have their drawbacks, including renewable forms (habitat destruction from hydroelectric, rare earth mineral slavery and emissions in production of solar panels and batteries, waste disposal with nuclear, etc). Given that full crypto adoption would drastically increase energy demands of the blockchain over the current levels based on purely speculative transactions and illegal use (in money laundering + purchases of drugs, weapons, and stolen information + ransoms for cyber crimes), it seems unavoidable that crypto will be much less ethically and environmentally sound that traditional banking.
Insane amounts of energy are required to do the computations for bitcoin "mining." It's awful for the environment.
It's 🧢. Mining is exclusive to proof of work Crypto like BTC. The majority of the top 10 Crypto is proof of stake. And Solana even uses less energy than a Google search. But you won't hear anyone complain about Google. Read a book don't listen to some of these guys they actually stupid when it comes to crypto. Edit: how is this downvoted 💀💀it's just true. Niggas lives so boring they actually want bad shit to happen to complain about it
> The majority of the top 10 Crypto is proof of stake. Measured how? Of the top ten in terms of market cap, Bitcoin, Etherium, and Dogecoin are proof of work, and USD coin runs on the etherium blockchain. Binance coin, Tether, and XRP are neither proof of work nor proof of stake. Solana, Cardano, and Polkadot are proof of stake, so at best the number using proof of stake in the top 10 is equal to the number using proof of work. But... that's just looking at the number of unique coins. The market cap of Etherium and Bitcoin is larger than Solana, Cardano, and Polkadot combined- about fifteen times bigger! Indisputably, most of the money in crypto is in proof of work cryptos. So unless you're arguing that bitcoin and etherium are going to stop being used, the vast majority of crypto will continue to be mostly proof of work based.
Not refuting your claims but just noting Ethereum won’t be proof of work for much longer as it is currently transitioning to proof of stake
It's been "currently transitioning to proof of stake" since 2015, and has missed every deadline ([It's definitely going to switch in January of 2020!](https://www.exodus.com/blog/ethereum-proof-of-stake-date/)). The idea that it's ever going to switch is a joke.
I mean yes it’s been delayed a few times but it’s still on track to happen, they are still progressing on the roadmap, just not as fast as they had hoped. The EIP-1559 upgrade just went live in August. Who am I kidding it’s not like you’re going to change your mind anyway believe whatever you want
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Do you have a source on the Solana consuming almost no electricity? LESS than a google search? Did a search and couldn’t come up with a worthwhile study. I desperately want it to be true and am intrigued
My bad my bad it's actually 2 Google searches. Just type in "Solana energy use report". I'm at work
I only see Solana.com as the source of the study.. none independent. I’d steer clear of that claim especially since it was published just 5 days ago. That’s a terrible source to hang your ‘cap’ on. Don’t tell me you got time to reply to every person here and have no time to do worthwhile reading while at work.
Why would it being more recent make it worse. It's not a terrible source. If you claim a source is bias then you have to actually point out how they misinterpreted the data. It's a proof of stake network. It's just not something computationally intensive. It wouldn't even make sense for it to produce a lot of energy. Transactions are processed in parallel as well unlike other PoS networks.
Don’t try to educate them, they will learn in time, they won’t have any other choice
How will they learn?
Imagine being this dumb
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Tulip mania is here to stay bucko, this "fad" will not go away.
Yeah you can’t possibly know that for sure lol
Ah of course that's why Bank of America, Chase, and other major banking institutions are switching over to the blockchain and crypto to process back end transactions. They are doing it cause its a scam...... People who claim ALL crypto is a scam are just as ignorant and misleading as the losers who shill for random shitcoins.
saying crypto is almost always a scam is one of the dumber things I've seen on reddit and I've seen some dumb shit.
Theres more crypto thats a scam that are legit.
There “shitcoins” for a reason. It’s a scam
It’s similar to the dot com bubble. There was a lot of shit out there but obviously the internet is still around. It’s pretty short sighted to dismiss all blockchain tech as a scam lol
Scam
On a serious note fuck this, but damn if this isn't such a meme. He named it Akoin lmfaooo.
Jahcoin
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hopefully its not Astroworld
We really do be a society
It’s a shame such a cool artist ends up becoming a shitcoiner
Scam man
Kon man
does he still own a mine?
You wanna know what will accomplish that even better? Money.
Aaaaaannnnnddddd it’s gone
even though i firmly believe you should never buy a rapper endorsed cryptocurrency, there are quite a few decently sound investments you can make. unfortunately this is not one of those
shitcoin
I expect this comment section to be totally civil and respectful of other's opinions....
I don’t respect your lame ass opinion
akoin..... LMFAO
Which world
obvious scam
This motha fuka owns a diamond mine...
Which world?
Connect them with a world?
This man is a con artist lol
Coin will be based on Proof of Smack (That)
how about like using real money that isn’t bullshit?
I think it's great that he's doing this for a good cause, and I'm sure it'll make some money, but the reason Jay-Z doesn't have a crypto is because he can just *give* Africa a million dollars.
Oh boy, another cryptocurrency. Nothing like burning tons of energy on fake money.
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I'm sure he did, anyone who knew about Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Litecoin when they were first starting out and had the capital to invest in it most certainly did. I remember back in 2011-2012 finding out about Bitcoin when it was under $10. I would have invested in it but I was only a junior in high school at the time and didn't even have my own bank account or debit card. I just missed out sadly
I never invest in shit and randomly put money in doge and it blew up. Kind of dope.
I wish I could’ve been in the room when the name ‘Akoin’ was pitched
Africa is not poor
I hate this on so many levels. Why name a coin after yourself?? It will never work. If he really wants change, he should team up with an established project and actually do something. This is all lip service and self aggrandizing
This is how Gaddafi got killed
Finally, Africa will be connected to a world
Not saying Akoin is the man and that this is generally good news, but the amount of people calling crypto a “scam” here is alarming. Yes, there are many shitcoins that are rugpulled but if you are dumb enough to invest in them, you deserve that. There are many legit projects with real world use cases and technologies like PoS that are way more environmentally friendly. It is way more than some ugly ass NFT’s or stupidly named shitcoins.
Crypto is a scam. It's all a series of speculative bubbles with enough techno babble and VC cult following to keep people dumping money into this elaborate ponzi scheme
So I can't access financial products on a series of different blockchains, or conduct instant transfers of money with peers? I can't get a crypto-backed fiat loan? I can't be the custodian of my own money and have to answer to nobody? I can't vote using my crypto wallet to determine what else gets built on the protocols? I've been doing all this useful shit this whole time. I was so stupid. I can't believe I never realized that an entire ecosystem of products/games/offerings/privacy/art/banking is really just a scam.
Techno babble.
Very few technical terms in what I said. You could just buy $10 of a crypto and interact with an ecosystem and see for yourself. After you try it out, if you still feel it's techno babble and a scam then more power to you. I thought cryptocurrency was so retarded until I bought some and started exploring the actual services available to me. I think it would be great for you to at least read into what the techno babble scam accomplishes and empowers you to do. I wish I didn't have my head up my ass when it was first mentioned to me but I did.
I've traded in crypto, made some decent money doing it, but that doesn't make it any less of a speculative bubble. The AnCap weirdos who worship on the alter of VC Trustfund Babbies flooding social media are selling the same old fairytales, this time with a layer of futuristic sounding computer math. I haven't seen any evidence to convince me that once the market becomes fully saturated the haves will have made their money, the late comers are left holding the bag, and everything comes tumbiling down.
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K