Howdy Stackers
Welcome to the 13th edition of The Daily Zap — A Daily Newspaper (Kind of 🙏). Here, you'll get links to all of the latest news and updates mostly from the last 24 hours, divided in Sections (much similar to pages on a newspaper).
Let's unfold!

~Bitcoin News of the Day

  • Chinese Bitcoin miners continue to dominate despite a cryptocurrency ban in China. The dominance of China miners is noteworthy considering the complete ban of mining and Bitcoin trading in this country in 2021.

Global Trade & ~Econ

  • Some 45,000 dockworkers at every major eastern and Gulf coast port are threatening to strike Oct. 1. With talks at a stalemate since June, industry officials now believe a strike is inevitable, and ocean carriers and port operators have started sending out customer advisories and making contingency plans. @Undisciplined comment required.

~Politics_and_Law

  • A source close to Zelenskyy told ABC News the plan consists of five points and that its core includes specific figures and amounts of military assistance for Ukraine, as well as certain diplomatic and political steps. The plan does not include any proposed concessions to Russia, the source said, but is aimed at forcing the Kremlin to end the war.

~Stacker_Sports News

  • There were nine past NBA MVP winners active during the 2023-24 season, but now eight of them still have a job. Derrick Rose, who became the youngest MVP in NBA history during the 2010-11 season with the Chicago Bulls, has been waived by the Memphis Grizzlies. Once he clears waivers, Rose will be an unrestricted free agent and free to sign with any team. cc: @grayruby @Undisciplined @siggy47

~Tech & ~Science

  • While there is minimal Chinese and Russian software deployed in the U.S, the issue is more complicated for hardware. There are more Chinese parts on U.S. vehicles than software, and software can be changed much faster than physical parts.

~History with Mystery

  • The history of U.S. presidential elections is filled with conventions that were anything but predictable. Before the mid-20th century, it often took multiple rounds of hotly contested voting for a party to pick its nominee. Those were known as “brokered” conventions, because the winner was ultimately determined by backroom deals struck by political power brokers.

~Entertainment World

  • Under his many musical monikers — including Diddy, Puff Daddy and P. Diddy — the industry data and analytics company Luminate said the mogul’s music saw an average 18.3% increase in on-demand streams during the week of his arrest compared to the prior week.
Thanks for reading 🙏
I am skeptical of this stat that China has 55% of the hashrate. Article states 55% for China and 40% for US. So the rest of the entire world has only 5%. No way.
reply
Can be true! Where else do you see mining happening at a large scale?
reply
Canada, Kazakhstan, Russia
reply
I don't know much about Canada but kazahakstan and Russia aren't even mining 1% now. Kazhakstan have cracked down on mining firms in 2022 and I don't think that underground miners can mine Bitcoin efficiently in Russia.
Yes, but I agree that China 50% is little exaggerated but 20% would be underestimation.
reply
You seem to be correct in regards to Kazhakstan. They did do a major crackdown. Likely all that hashrate went to China so it is plausible. It just seems hard to believe the entire rest of the world is only 5% though. We know nation states are mining. There are rumours of massive mining operations in the middle east where they are harnessing solar and building the mining farms underground and using immersion cooling. They were certainly working on that, whether it has come on line or not is debatable. Hash rate has been climbing while price has been flat so someone somewhere is mining with very cheap energy or really wants to accumulate Bitcoin quietly and isn't concerned if a mining operation is highly profitable or not.
reply
I'm not anti-union (they're just free association), but I am anti special legal privileges for unions. Most of these enormous costly strikes couldn't happen if employers were allowed to fire people for skipping work and replacing them with people who will show up ("strikers" and "scabs" in labor propaganda terms).
This has been such a crazy year that people forget one of the largest ports in the country was severely damaged just a few months ago. Losing the Baltimore port must have shifted a lot of work onto the workers at other Atlantic ports. I'm not surprised they'd be seeking a raise (not to mention wanting to keep up with inflation).
reply
Thanks. I didn't know about the damage of Baltimore port.
If their demands are right, the authorities should raise their pay instantly. Supply chain is the biggest thing for economy imo. If it gets defunct even for much lesser times, it's gonna have a lasting impact.
reply
They aren't state employee's, so they have to negotiate with the various port operators. I'm not actually sure how all that works.
reply
Then the state should put pressure on the port operators to take this matter as priority and make menda with the workers.
reply
I'm sure they are (although I disagree that they should). A massive supply chain disruption would be disastrous for Kamala's campaign.
reply
Yes, I agree. It would be disastrous for Kamala's campaign which is running on high as per MSM. Either way, to whom these labour Unions are gonna vote according to you?
reply
For the first time I can remember, the Teamsters Union (one of the biggest labor unions) didn't endorse the Democrat candidate. My understanding is that their members overwhelmingly support Trump.
My guess would be that most union members will support Trump, but most union leadership will either endorse Kamala or abstain from making endorsements.
reply
Seems like Trump is ahead in the race right now? Although US elections are much more complicated. The popular votes and the others, there's too much to explore. I'm enjoying learning a lot about US these days. The post under history is an example of new learning for me. "Brokered conventions". But they aren't popular now.