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Cake day: May 10, 2022

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Apple Customers Say It’s Hard to Get Money Out of Goldman Sachs Savings Accounts
Apple’s savings account, a partnership with Goldman Sachs, launched in April to great fanfare. Some customers say it has been hard to get their money out. Customer service representatives at Goldman, which holds the deposits, sometimes gave differing responses about what to do, they said. Sometimes, custumers' money appeared to have simply vanished, not showing up in their Apple account or in the account they were trying to move it to.
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This is weird. I don’t know what happens here (this banner suggests you’re not logged in), but the best thing is to ask an admin at beehaw.org/c/support. Sorry, but that’s beyond my knowledge.


@ericjmorey Not sure whether I understand the question. You can simply do that the same way as you replied to this thread, just go to the post or comment you want to reply to and hit the reply icon 😊


I respectfully disagree. There has been a longer discussion here about that you may be interested in.


I don’t think that BTC is an appropriate solution currently for use as a means of payment given its high volatlity, but as a principle I agree that appropriately designed crypto could be a solution. What the world needed imo is a mix of different currencies for different use cases globally, regionally and locally.


I can’t comment on Lula, but there is no doubt that this currency would take a very long time to gain the necessary trust even among the participants. China has been trying to push its Yuan as a new world reserve currency for some time, but this would be even harder given their economic and political regime.

What they obviously really try to do is to -understandibly- ‘escape’ the USD and in part the EUR systems, though for the currency to be successful it would require political, social and economic reforms within most BRICS+ countries before the introduction of such a new money. Unless these reforms are made, I see little chance for this project. Many articles about it across the web are highly sensationalizing imo.


BRICS nations eye expansion and shared currency, challenging global financial order
The BRICS nations, consisting of Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa, are actively seeking to expand their alliance by inviting additional countries like Saudi Arabia and the UAE to join, forming what is referred to as BRICS+. Furthermore, there have been discussions within the group about the possibility of creating a shared currency called BRICS.
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EU Officially Enacts New Crypto Regulations
New regulations include that crypto exchanges and wallet providers looking to operate across the 27-nation bloc will be able to do so with a license issued under MiCA, which will likely be truly enforced in June after being published in the official EU journal. However, critics argue that excessive regulations could stifle innovation and drive crypto businesses away from the EU.
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Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Says He Doesn’t Want ‘Anti-Crypto’ People on the US Securities and Exchange Commission
"[The] SEC’s function now is not to protect the American people, but it’s to protect the banks – particularly the central banks and those interests," Kennedy said. The presidential candidate also spoke about the impact of inflation [...], saying that digital assets presented an "exit ramp" for those worried about traditional money being misused in the name of foreign wars or bailing out big banks.
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The financial services firm might soon use a software similar to ChatGPT that will use artificial intelligence to offer investment advice. It has filed with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) to trademark IndexGPT. Here is the filing: http://web.archive.org/web/20230526170913/https://tsdr.uspto.gov/documentviewer?caseId=sn97931538&docId=APP20230515101121#docIndex=1&page=1
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Another dormant crypto wallet awakens after 8 years, moving ETH worth almost USD 15 million
This has been happening quite often over the recent few months. Why? In the current case, which has been observed and reported by Lookonchain, a participant in Ethereum's ICO has moved holdings to another wallet address, also with a very short transaction history. Here is the data from the Ethereum explorer: https://web.archive.org/web/20230527172457mp_/https://etherscan.io/address/0x6ccb03acf7f53ce87aadcc21a9932de915f89804
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The firm asserted that regulators in the U.S. are “actively trying to stop companies (banks and fintechs) from supporting crypto assets – even when the companies are trying to do it correctly and by the book”. Unbanked said it recently signed a term sheet for a $5 million investment with a $20 million valuation. Though it did not state which regulations prevented it from receiving the loan, it said it ultimately had not received the funds as of yet and will resume operations.
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CEO of Crypto Hardware Wallet Ledger concedes that governments could subpoena access to user funds, but says it is not a concern
Recent comments by Ledger shareholder and former CEO Éric Larchevêque that governments could subpoena access to user funds held on a Ledger device that has subscribed to its new Recover service sparked consternation among Ledger users. Now Ledger's current CEO Pascal Gauthier has shrugged off concerns, arguing that governments only issue subpoenas in the case of a serious act like terrorism or one involving drugs. "It's not true that the average person gets subpoenaed every day." Aha.
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Broker commission in retail financials services damages household wealth by 375 million euros annually, study finds
Household wealth in countries with commission bans grows significantly more than in countries without commission bans, a research team from the University of Regensburg claims. They measured the difference in returns at 1.7 percent p.a. The researchers call lawmakers in countries like Germany, where the loss amounts to 2,400 euros per household per year, to ban commission-based sales of financial products. In the recent past, Denmark, Finland, the UK, the Netherlands, Norway as well as Australia and New Zealand have introduced such bans and established alternative payment methods, e.g., according to advisory time or assets under management. Here is the study: https://epub.uni-regensburg.de/54281/
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China has created its own subprime infrastructure crisis, and now it is trying to bail itself out
China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) made high-risk, often-unneeded billion-dollar infrastructure loans, with no conditionality, poor risk planning, shrouded in opacity and secrecy. Cash-poor developing countries that lacked the ability to pay were particularly vulnerable, a report says. The seeds of project failure were sown from the outset by a lack of transparency, risk management, and viable controls to check corruption and incompetence.
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UK: Majority of gig economy workers earn below minimum wage, study says
52% of those doing jobs ranging from data entry to food delivery are earning below the minimum wage, a study by University of Bristol finds. Average wages are £8.97 per hour – around 15% below the current UK minimum which rose to £10.42 in May. Three out of four workers say they are experiencing work-related insecurity and anxiety.
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A study focusing on the sources of information within the field of environmental science has shown ChatGPT perpetuates the Matthew Effect in science, where the rich get richer in terms of citations. It tends to cite highly-cited publications and exhibits a preference for older publications, and predominantly refers to well-respected journals in the field, with Nature being the most cited journal by GPT. Interestingly, GPT seems to exclusively rely on citation count data from Google Scholar for the works it cites, rather than utilizing citation information from other scientific databases such as Web of Science or Scopus. The author Eduard Petiska warns that this can lead to a lack of diversity in the field, as certain researchers and institutions become more dominant and others are marginalized. This can limit the range of perspectives and approaches that are considered in environmental science research. It can also an perpetuate existing power imbalances, as those who are already in positions of power and influence continue to accumulate more resources and recognition. This can make it difficult for new voices and perspectives to be heard and taken seriously in the field. The study (12pages) is here: https://arxiv.org/abs/2304.06794
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A financial model investigating the issuance of digital money as central bank digital currency (CBDC) or as stablecoins found that a fully-integrated digital currency would lead to higher and less volatile asset prices, and household welfare gains are potentially large which could lead to an increase in consumption by up to 2%. However, a fully-integrated digital currency would depress bank deposit spreads, particularly during times of crises, which limits the banks’ abilities to recapitalize losses after a bank crises. These investment losses, not specifically bank runs, create instability, the paper argues. Another research paper found that bank runs are not as big as initially feared. This paper can be found here: https://www.financialresearch.gov/working-papers/2022/07/11/central-bank-digital-currency/ Both papers focus on the issuance of CBCD and stablecoins and do not include privately issued money like LETS/Time Dollars and similar privately issued complementary currency systems. (Edited to correct a typo.)
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Federal Reserve notes would become fully redeemable for and exchangeable with gold, with the U.S. Treasury and its gold reserves backstopping Federal Reserve Banks as guarantor. Historians have long been criticizing that the elimination of gold redeemability from the monetary system freed central bankers and federal government officials from accountability when they expand the money supply, fund government deficits though trillion-dollar bond purchases, or otherwise manipulate the economy.
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Prosecutors charged former FTX-founder Bankman-Fried with directing payments in order to unfreeze accounts belonging to his hedge fund, Alameda Research, that Chinese authorities had frozen. In addition, prosecutors last month also unveiled four other counts against Bankman-Fried, accusing him of orchestrating an illegal campaign donation scheme to buy influence in Washington DC.
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I am wondering whether the Streisand effect is already here, but am not sure whether the Chinese government would care. And it’s not only China but also the US which doesn’t fully cooperate with the UN as I have read recently. There appears to be too much politics, too much national interest on all sides.

More data transparency would not only help scientists to better understand the origin of the virus but also help to fight future pandemics. I am not an expert in this field, but I guess more international collaboration would be beneficial for the entire globe (not in the least because, as you suggest, there’s no country to blame for as such an outbreak can happen anywhere, anytime).


"I’m not living the best days of my life right now,” Florence Débarre says. "But being truthful is essential." The day after she published her findings, the relevant data had been made inaccessible, apparently at the request of the Chinese researchers who include the top virologist George Gao, a former director general of the Chinese Centre for Disease Control and Prevention. “We were shocked,” says Débarre. “But not surprised.” The next step will be to investigate the illegal supply chains that brought the animals to the Wuhan market during winter 2019 and see whether they might lead closer to the virus’s original reservoir.
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EU Claims Amazon Tax Structure Out Of A ‘Bond Movie’
"Project Goldcrest — it sounds like the title of a James Bond movie, but it is not,” it’s the name “Amazon gave to a complex tax construction by which it fundamentally reorganized its global business,” European Commission attorney Paul-John Loewenthal told a court hearing.
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Long before the current AI hype, fund managers have been employing machine learning techniques for decades. Nothing could stop the success of the trading bots in markets striving for ever more efficiency. Then came the pandemic - and the humans fought back.
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Women on corporate boards appear to spur more robust analysis and discussions of pertinent but complex information leading up to a buyout, researchers say. “Female directors offer a different perspective. And when you have more perspectives, you tend to get better discussion.”
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The former whistleblower of the Pentagon Papers announced he has been diagnosed with inoperable pancreatic cancer, giving him an estimated three to six months to live. Ellsberg, an economist, is widely considered as a role model for human rights activists and investigative journalists.
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"If you want an extra arm while you’re cooking in the kitchen so you can stir the soup while chopping the vegetables, you might have the option to wear and independently control an extra robotic arm,” says Tamar Makin, a researcher at Cambridge University.
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More than 18,500 Russian migrants have entered Argentina since the war on Ukraine started a year ago. A significant proportion of them are pregnant women looking to deliver their babies in Argentina and to gain access to a non-Russian passport for their kids.
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Tales of extravagantly wasteful spending have circulated in China for years, as cities and provinces accumulated debts to build infrastructure and boost the country’s GDP. These debts have reached extraordinary levels—and the bill is now arriving.
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A report from two cities in Lithuania and Georgia that are now home to sizable Belarusian tech communities. Their members have to navigate living abroad while not antagonizing the Lukashenko regime, which they fear might cause trouble for friends and family or threaten their own ability to visit home.
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The death sentence against Iranian-born German citizen Jamshid Sharmahd aims at silencing criticism of its repressive policies among the diaspora and the broader international community, the Center for Human Rights in Iran says. There are also concerns that the 67-year old Sharmahd, who suffers from Parkinson’s disease and other severe illnesses, is not receiving proper medical care.
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"Putin and his crew understood that time was working against them, because the young generation [in Russia] is not interested in their tv propaganda and does not believe that Russia is a besieged fortress encircled by enemies,” says Grigory Sverdlin, one of the hundreds of thousands of Russians who have fled since the war began.
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Ukrainians are still the main force behind anti-war protests abroad, but Russian organizations along with individuals have called for public action to unite, and to join Ukrainians and their supporters around the date of February 24.
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In the last year, Russian forces have killed, raped, tortured, deported, or forcibly transferred Ukrainian civilians to Russia or Russian-occupied areas. More than 14 million Ukrainians have been forced to flee their homes. Millions have suffered from severely disrupted access to electricity and water due to Russia’s widespread targeting of Ukraine’s energy infrastructure.
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USA: Illinois Supreme Court allows massive damages in biometric privacy cases but says lawmakers sho
The Illinois Supreme Court ruled biometric privacy claims accrue under state law every time a person provides their biometric information without prior informed consent, but also suggested damages should not be so large as to bankrupt businesses. In last week's ruling, damages would have added up to $17 billion.
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Social media users and Russian activists react to Putin's speech. "Navalny, Yashin, Gorinov, Kara-Murza, Chanysheva, Pivovarov and others – these are the real politicians of the Russian Federation, who are really worth listening."
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He Jiankui plans to conduct research at the territory despite criminal record for ‘illegal medical practices’ in China. Hong Kong is trying to lure international professionals in an attempt to recover economically from the pandemic and the loss of academics after the national security law was introduced in 2020. The number of academic staff who left Hong Kong’s public universities in 2021-22 was 30% more than the previous year, and the highest since the handover of the territory to China in 1997.
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The detained human rights activist Ding Jiaxi has expressed concern for protesters who have disappeared since participating in the “blank paper” protests against the zero-Covid policy in China last year. At least 16 of them are still in police detention, according to names gathered by activists, while Ding himself has been detained for more than three years.
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Angry debate about Turkey’s poor housing standards has erupted since last week’s earthquakes. Amid the outrage, critics point to the town of Erzin as an example of how properly implemented building laws can prevent deaths.
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Rather than uniting the country and its people after the tragedy, the ruling government has resorted to division and enmity. One example occurred in Pazarcik, a district in the the epicenter of the earthquake. According to reports, local authorities seized the donated goods at the Crisis Coordination Center. "The governor of Pazarcik showed up here with soldiers and seized the aid collected for distribution", Yurdagül Cabat, one of the volunteers, told a local newspaper.
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"Both sides know that Beijing can make no commitment and get away with it", said Dolkun Isa from the World Uyghur Congress. Instead, any forthcoming bilateral meeting should be used by the EU to commit to follow up the UN report on Xinjiang and set up an independent, international investigative mechanism into crimes against humanity.
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Advocates of Huang Xueqin accuse authorities of ‘trying to exert mental pressure and physical torture’ through repeatedly waking her at night for interrogation and depriving her of sleep. Huang is a journalist and was a prominent voice of the #MeToo movement in China.
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Chinese authorities want to send the same chilling message to Hong Kong that, as on the mainland, critical voices deemed a threat to the regime will be severely dealt with, according to Chinese activists. "The Communist Party believes civil society is a threat to a dictatorial regime", said Dr Teng Biao, a former mainland rights lawyer who called for the abolition of death penalty.
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The Republican governor of Virginia, Glenn Youngkin, appears to have thwarted an attempt to stop law enforcement obtaining menstrual histories of women in the state.
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On Matrix (as suggested already) there is a room called “Redecentralize” with some competent people imho.




Yes, Briar is aiming at special use cases, e.g., investigative journalists and activists. It offers features such as communicating with peers even if the internet is down. This can be essential in high-risk and war-torn areas or in case of a natural desaster, but it’s certainly not aiming at the average user.

Cwtch is a great project, too, imho, but still in early development. They’ll need time (and funds), but I do hope they continue their good work.

Have been using Jami for some time, and it works great.