Editor Bob

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Großer Riesenkopf (1337m, 15km, 900hm)  Hauptbahnhof Platform 6, at 08.20am on Sunday 22.Apr.2018.   01) CandyQuackenbush 02) Newinmunichberlin 03) Lena 04) EB 05) ... 10) --Max--

Herzogstand (1720m, 12km, 900hm) Hauptbahnhof Platform 28, at 07.40 am on Sunday 15.Apr.2018.   01) CandyQuackenbush 02) Coraly 03) Elena (MIH) 04) Juan 05) Juan +1 06) Lena 07) Newinmunichberlin 08) Jenn 09) EB 10) --Max-

Fuck me, you people are insufferable. All of you.

     

There is no such thing as "avoid".   There is only pay, or not pay.   Your choice on which.   Whatever you decide, you have to live with the consequences.   In my opinion the consequences of paying are worse than not paying.   But people's tolerance levels for risk and rebellion are all different.

I updated the certificate earlier this morning, but forgot to restart the web server for it to take effect. It's fixed now.

I've lived in Germany since 1998 and have never paid GEZ or Rundfunkbeitrag. In 2014 I applied for German citizenship and it was granted a year later. During the application process I was receiving all sorts of Festsetzungsbescheide and Mahnungen, and I still do, but it's never been a problem.   Technically, unpaid Rundfunkbeitrag is not "Schuld". This is because there is no contact. You've never signed anything saying you'll pay and then not paid. It's the same reason you can not get a SCHUFA entry over it. SCHUFA is only for debt, but unpaid TV charges don't count as debt.

  Well you're just a ray of sunshine, aren't you.   The world has always been in crisis. Ask Billy Joel. Yet somehow humanity keeps moving forward and quality of life is currently the best it's ever been.   If the bitcoin price follows a similar pattern to previously then we'll see a blow-off top to ~€30k by year end, shortly followed by a crash to ~€3k. On the other hand, maybe this is not a bubble but the phase during which digital currencies go mainstream. In which case ~€50k bitcoin will soon be the new normal.

Hirschberg (1670m, 13km, 900hm)Hauptbahnhof Platform 33, at 07.50 am on Saturday 18.Nov.2017. 01) CandyQuackenbush02) Jenn Gilbert03) EB04)...10)--Max--

People on forums and news comments pages all over the world are having identical discussions to this one.   I've come to the conclusion it's political. If the fiscal policy that Bitcoin proposes doesn't line up with your own political leanings on economic/monetary policy, then no amount of discussion will convince you otherwise.   It seems like large portions of the population will simply never accept Bitcoin as a viable currency. No matter what price it rises to, or what level of adoption it reaches, they'll always claim it's a hazzard to society or merely a pyramid scheme.   And that's fine, because Bitcoin is opt-in. Unlike government-issued currencies, nobody is forcing you to use it. So those who want to use it will do so, and those who don't won't. There'll always be tension between the two sides, but as with all tension, an equilibrium will eventually be reached and life goes on.

Yes. Plus there are other solutions in place. It's not like a $200 billion dollar industry has accidentally overlooked these gotchas.

Yeah, if my assessment is wrong, then I don't want to be right.

Why? Because Bitcoin and similar digital currencies add tremendous value. It is innovative technology that dramatically improves the efficiency of money transfer.   These currencies enable instantanous sending of money, anywhere in the world, almost for free, and without risk of censorship.   Try sending euros from Germany to China and let me know how long it takes and how much you pay in fees.   Try receiving a million euros from China and let me know what your bank or what PayPal has to say about that.   Bitcoin disintermediates the financial system from banks and governments, just like Uber disintermediates the taxi companies, and BitTorrent disintermediates the record companies.   Sure, it's not perfect. There are problems with it. And no, the banks/governments definitely won't relinquish power easily, of course not.   But they can't ban it. A ban is unenforceable. They'd have to shut down the internet.