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Businesses The Almighty Buck Technology

British Company Adds the Word 'Blockchain' to Its Name, Sees Its Shares Surge 394% (bloomberg.com) 52

On-Line PLC, a British provider of stock market data, today saw its shares climb nearly 400% after changing its name to On-Line Blockchain PLC. From a report: "Blockchain technology and cryptocurrencies are a new and exciting area we have been working on for some time," the Essex-based company said in a statement on Thursday. "We feel the time is right to re-name the company to reflect these developments, where we believe the future growth will be in our sector." The shares pared gains after the company published a follow-up release on Friday, cautioning investors that the development of its blockchain product is still at an early stage. Still, the 238 percent rise as of 2:36 p.m. in London leaves the company's market value of 4.4 million pounds ($5.8 million) at its highest since 2005.
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British Company Adds the Word 'Blockchain' to Its Name, Sees Its Shares Surge 394%

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  • Holy Vapor, Batman (Score:5, Insightful)

    by glomph ( 2644 ) on Friday October 27, 2017 @02:43PM (#55446435) Homepage Journal

    Just when you think we've reached Peak Buzzword Hype, somebody takes it up to Twelve.

    • by Anonymous Coward

      At this point in my life I'm seriously considering just starting businesses for the VC capital, it sounds like a better career plan than actually working & producing shit

  • in the butt. The folks in the elite class making stuff like this happen aren't very bright, they're just very rich. We keep letting them run the economy all by themselves they're gonna run us over a cliff. I'm not saying we go full commie, but there's a balance and we sure as hell tipped it if crap like this can happen.
    • First, it's "nip it in the bud", not "butt".

      Second, why would you complain about the wealthy not being so bright? If they are not bright enough to hold on to their wealth then it's a self correcting problem, they'll invest in stupid shit and soon not be wealthy any more. Those that are bright enough to hold on to their wealth should be in charge of running the economy, as they would be good examples to follow for the rest.

      Are you just jealous you didn't think of using this name for your new company?

      Third,

      • by werepants ( 1912634 ) on Friday October 27, 2017 @04:14PM (#55447111)

        Second, why would you complain about the wealthy not being so bright? If they are not bright enough to hold on to their wealth then it's a self correcting problem, they'll invest in stupid shit and soon not be wealthy any more. Those that are bright enough to hold on to their wealth should be in charge of running the economy, as they would be good examples to follow for the rest.

        What happens when the power of tremendous wealth becomes significant enough to outweigh human folly? To the extent that a single, corrupt businessman can get $1M from his daddy, mismanage the shit out of every business he touched, screw over contractors left and right, and still manage to come out fabulously wealthy? There's a point at which the inertia of wealth renders you too big to fail - even Bill Gates is now earning far more due to the sheer size of his wealth than his productive activities. The whole thing just turns into a "who got here first" contest.

        Third, wealth inequality is a necessary side effect of a growing economy. The money cannot spread out instantaneously to everyone.

        True, but not all wealth inequality is the same. A moderate level of inequality is inherent to a functional economy and sometimes a consequence of economic growth - but at extreme levels, it causes unhappiness, social unrest, and poverty. If it is allowed to get to extreme levels, it can cause instability in the system, it can cause a de facto caste system, and in the extreme cases lead to bloody revolutions.

        There are lots of indications that wealth inequality in the U.S. has been at overly high levels for a while, and is rapidly headed towards seriously problematic territory. You don't have to be a guillotine enthusiast to see the value in reigning things in a bit.

        • A moderate level of inequality is inherent to a functional economy and sometimes a consequence of economic growth - but at extreme levels, it causes unhappiness, social unrest, and poverty.

          Jealousy, greed, and envy cause unhappiness and social unrest. The wealth disparity alone does not cause this. Also, how does wealth inequality breed poverty? It might bring a greater awareness of poverty. It might make poverty seem somehow worse by comparison, but that's just an aspect of being jealous of another person fortune.

          You admit that inequality in wealth is inherent in a functioning economy. Good, we agree on something. Is it possible that a moderate inequality means a moderate economic grow

          • Jealousy, greed, and envy cause unhappiness and social unrest.

            Ah, perfect, then we just need to engineer humans so they can no longer feel these emotions! A claim like that is wilfully ignoring causes, and suggests that revolutions happen because a sudden outbreak of greed sweeps a nation - you can believe that if you want, but the rest of us would like to look at the real world and figure out root cause. In international studies, there is a strong correlation between economic inequality and unhappiness, and between equality and stability. Provide evidence to justify

            • Ah, perfect, then we just need to engineer humans so they can no longer feel these emotions!

              No, we don't need to "engineer" anything. We need people educated in how a republic operates, and some basics of economics based on reality and not "feels". I blame the public school systems for failing on that.

              The purpose isn't to get rid of the 1%. The point is to tax the people who can afford the tax, and give a break to the people at the bottom so that they can see some wage growth as well. I can afford the tax - I'm not rich, but I do have disposable income.

              I thought the point of taxes were to raise funds for providing services like police, courts, military, roads, bridges, and so on. I believe these powers were spelled out explicitly in the US Constitution. Show me the part where it says the government is supposed to minimize wealth inequity, I loo

              • No, we don't need to "engineer" anything. We need people educated in how a republic operates, and some basics of economics based on reality and not "feels". I blame the public school systems for failing on that.

                You are saying that social unrest and unhappiness is an education problem? What kind of "education" would convince people to be happy with a society they feel is unjust? Sounds very "War is peace, Ignorance is strength, Freedom is slavery" to me. Social unrest happens because of inequality - giving people real equal opportunity is the solution.

                I thought the point of taxes were to raise funds for providing services like police, courts, military, roads, bridges, and so on. I believe these powers were spelled out explicitly in the US Constitution. Show me the part where it says the government is supposed to minimize wealth inequity, I looked and I couldn't find it.

                Providing for the general welfare covers it pretty well, regulation of interstate commerce also certainly applies to tax and monetary policy. But here's the thing - t

  • PT Barnum... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Zorro ( 15797 ) on Friday October 27, 2017 @02:50PM (#55446495)

    Is smiling somewhere.

  • Deja vu (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Spy Handler ( 822350 ) on Friday October 27, 2017 @02:55PM (#55446539) Homepage Journal

    20 years ago I saw companies adding "e" in front of their name (or ".com" at the end of the name) and sit back and watch the hordes of morons shoving cash in their faces.

  • by WrongMonkey ( 1027334 ) on Friday October 27, 2017 @03:07PM (#55446633)
    All the interest in Bitcoin is based on rational market forces.
    • by Anonymous Coward

      Visit /r/bitcoin and have a laugh at what some of the people over there believe. Bitcoin is somehow at the center of some ancap/libertarian wet dream.

    • by Anonymous Coward

      Yep. Just like unfettered, unregulated capitalism is the best way to efficiently allocate resources. We're seeing examples of this all the time. I don't know how I ever doubted it.

      At least in the last guilded age, the robber barons actually owned things that had value.

  • Rename company something like the IoT Blockchain On Demand Deep Learning Virtual Assistant Augmented Reality Cloud Quantum Computing Company.

  • . . . and demand a 394% salary increase from your manager!

    The real gag here, is that I am actually working with Blockchain at the moment.

    But no, if I ask my manager where my 394% salary increase is . . . well, the language he would use in his answer would not make it through the Slashdot posting filters.

    Hey, y'all give it a try: http://hyperledger-fabric.read... [readthedocs.io]

    It could be worth 394% to you!

    . . . and even more!

    Or at least you can learn what Blockchain can't do, which these days is more important, sinc

  • 1. Change name to include Blockchain
    2. ???
    3. Profit !

    So apparently the missing step 2 has been found:

    2. Wait for morons to over-value your stock

  • Anyone selling you on "blockchain technology" or a "blockchain product" is a useless piece of lying shit and should be shot in the teeth.

    A blockchain is a digital ledger. That's literally all it fucking is.

    If you want an encrypted, distributed, decentralized blockchain go copy Bitcoin. It's free and easy to do.
    If you want all of that but want to tweak the speed, algorithm, difficulty, storage, etc. just roll your own coin. It's free and easy to do.
    If you want to do stupid bullshit like have central contr

  • They are just using their full name. I used to just use my first and last names when introducing myself but I found that if I use my full name that the ladies find me more interesting.

    Regards,
    Austin Danger Powers

  • with suckers buying on forward looking statements while the CEO/insiders dump on the same day.

  • by werepants ( 1912634 ) on Friday October 27, 2017 @04:21PM (#55447159)

    The only path forward is for each of us to transact in our own, personal cryptocurrency, issued at the age of majority. Social status will be quantified easily by exchange rate. We can sell the use of our bodies or minds to the highest bidder via ICO. Ooh - we could even create futures markets for promising youth, and the rich could obtain a controlling stake in a massive army of cryptoservants from the day they are born. It's a bold new future.

  • Counting the contradictions...

    "Blockchain technology and cryptocurrencies are a new and exciting area we have been working on for some time. "
    The shares pared gains after the company published a follow-up release on Friday, cautioning investors that the development of its blockchain product is still at an early stage.
    "We feel the time is right to re-name the company to reflect these developments, where we believe the future growth will be in our sector."

    It's new, but they've been at it a long tim

  • Shoeshine boys (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Quinn_Inuit ( 760445 ) <Quinn_Inuit@yahS ... com minus distro> on Friday October 27, 2017 @08:48PM (#55448421)

    So, are the shoeshine boys handing out stock tips yet?

  • Because this is clearly what most of the stock-market is.

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