Member Info for fleccy

People were looking at alternative ways to mine Bitcoin as far back as 2013.

"SAT solving - An alternative to brute force bitcoin mining"

https://jheusser.github.io/2013/02/03/satcoin.html

"Conclusion
I introduced a novel algorithm to solve the bitcoin mining problem without using (explicit) brute force. Instead, the nonce search is encoded as a decision problem and solved by a SAT solver in such a way that a satisfiable instance contains a valid nonce. The key ingredients in the algorithm are a non-deterministic nonce and the ability to take advantage of the known structure of a valid hash using assume statements.

A couple of benchmarks demonstrated that already with simple parameter tuning dramatic speed ups can be achieved. Additionally, I explored the contentious claim that the algorithm might get more efficient with increasing bitcoin difficulty. Initial tests showed that block 218430 with considerably higher difficulty is solved more efficiently than the genesis block 0 for a given nonce range."

"The board are searching for someone to keep the pillows fluffed, until the money runs out."

Stop being naughty and making stuff up to fit your fictional narrative, you know very well that the money wont run out.

"Who's cares if the management earn a few bonus shares"

They've allocated £446m for bonuses, so in real terms it reduces the share buyback amount to around £1.55 Billion. The amount allocated to dividends is around 1.078 Billion, so the amount allocated for bonuses is around 40% of that. There are a lot more shareholders, than there are members of the bonus scheme.
The share buybacks do have a long term benefit for shareholders, but the way Lloyds construct their buybacks, bonuses and dividend payouts, the benefits are heavily skewed in favour of the vested interest bonus scheme recipients, in my opinion.

"South Africa has allot of power issues with Eskom. Vodacom will be affected."

mehmehmeh, you're scraping the bottom of the barrel with that one; A very speculative and unconvincing conclusion, you'll have to work harder on your negative narratives.

"I hope so - Dec and Jan alone came to a £750 energy bill for me."

Are you mining Bitcoin, growing crops in your loft, or do you live in a mansion?

They're probably not bothering now, just leaving it open until Hans Vestberg steps in.

This chart might interest you.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/e/2PACX-1vS0oSavIsBjHgD7k6NMyk7Z591Cm2IrevvLI-Jq95gOmESrOI0Vi_NhA8LIO9rMz90Y5zCOCoFuEItG/pubchart?oid=1812824850&format=interactive

The 2019 Interim was 1.12p, with the Final dividend cancelled due to Covid, but the progressive dividend policy back then was a Final dividend approximately double the interim. Without Covid the total 2019 dividend would have probably been around 3.36p (1.12 + 2.24).
What's grating me is the fact that no effort has been made to bring the dividend back into line with pre-covid levels. Generally I think the results were good, but they appear to have forgotten that investors were expecting a return to the old progressive dividend policy, not start a new one at a lower level. At this rate it'll take a couple of years to get back to the 2018/19 dividend levels.

"Anyone ''cash strapped'' would not have the money to be purchasing shares.
share repurchase below book are a good investment - Lloyds dividend is already well above ftse100 average"

You have your preference, I have mine.

"returns from 2023 should be greater"

The results are good, but Nunn seems out of touch with retail shareholders. What I don't get is why he's allocated more money toward buybacks, than dividends, when cash strapped retail need money in their pockets now.

Trying to build a narrative where there isn't one:

"An aggressive consolidation push by Liberty Global will present a “material risk” for market leader BT Openreach, said Grindle, whose guidance for Liberty Global shares remains on the buy side."

https://www.proactiveinvestors.co.uk/companies/news/1006813/bt-faces-material-risk-if-liberty-global-targets-trooli-1006813.html

The fact he has a buy recommendation on Liberty is one vested interest, there are probably others behind his view.
In reality it makes no odds who buys Trooli, they'd all face the same issues in building a customer base, and Liberty would probably have to run backhaul via BT/Openreach infrastructure anyway. In my opinion, Grindle is just regurgitating old news in a different way, since it's irrelevant whether the Liberty/Telefonica JV acquires network through building, or acquisition, so whoever buys Trooli is immaterial to BT.

A nice Video, giving a step by step example of creating a hash function using SHA-256.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=orIgy2MjqrA

"Hello fleccy. As is often the case,you are the only one on here, who can see anything positive."

My positivity has its limits, for example my last couple of dividend top ups have been directed at Lloyds and BT, not Vodafone, because I'm unsure if Vodafone will maintain the dividend going forward; On the other hand, I view VOD as a safe investment and I'm more than happy to hold for the long term, so no worries there.
I'm also 50/50 that a big merger may be taking shape in the background, but I'm not sure enough to go from holding to investing more in VOD.

I saw that article but I dismissed it, as it doesn't make sense, since Vodafone apparently purchased its stake in 2008, not 2017.

"On 3 July 2008 it was announced that Vodafone had agreed to acquire 70% of Ghana Telecom from the Ghanaian government at a cost of US$900 million and a total enterprise value of approximately US$1.3 billion."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vodafone_Ghana

"And at the end of it the economies of France and Germany will be stronger than that of the UK whose resource are exhausted and can only exist by printing more worthless confetti."

The only natural resource France has is Agricultural land, which is dwarfed by the developing world's available land for growing the same crops. Germany is also lacking resources, but have a strong industrial base that's worked well for them. I agree that successive UK governments have done a useless job, by allowing high skilled jobs to be exported out of the country, but we could still take advantage of new opportunities in new industries. What your short paragraph doesn't mention is the new world we're moving toward, as time goes on industry will migrate toward automation, things like 3d printing of components, using composites, replacing much of the traditional materials used in manufacturing. With the right policies, it could be argued that the UK is a good position to take advantage of the imminent transformation toward the new upcoming industries and technologies.

Maybe I'm missing something, but I'm struggling to find a sale price for this deal. When the Sale and Purchase agreement was signed last year, this is what Telecel reported:

"Telecel Group confirms that it has signed a Sale and Purchase Agreement (SPA) with Vodafone to acquire a 70% percent stake in Vodafone Ghana. The agreement is currently pending regulatory approval.

Telecel Group and Vodafone have been in touch with Ghana’s Ministry for Communications, Bank of Ghana, and the National Communications Authority, to finalize all the regulatory requirements related to this transaction. We have received their responses which have not granted the approvals yet and Telecel is willing to re-engage soon after putting together the necessary clarifications.

The acquisition is fully financed by Telecel Group and its partners. Telecel confirms that the potential sale of Vodafone Ghana Towers is not part of the acquisition funding.

Telecel hopes to successfully conclude this transaction and looks forward to engaging with staff and customers, who are important to the business.

Telecel’s business model is unique, which focuses its strengths on overcoming challenges through disruptive innovation. Ghana’s business climate suits the business models of Telecel Group and was the key enabling factor based on which the Group was able to reach an agreement with Vodafone. Telecel Group has already made investments in Ghana as part of the Africa Startup Initiative Program “ASIP”, and it intends to spend around 500 million USD in the first three years to expand and refinance Vodafone’s network across the country."

https://telecelgroup.com/telecel-group-on-acquiring-vodafone-shares-in-ghana/

There was no mention of the sale price and I suspect the $500 million, people are referring to, might be confusion based on Telecel saying: "it intends to spend around 500 million USD in the first three years to expand and refinance Vodafone’s network across the country."
The article also says, "Telecel confirms that the potential sale of Vodafone Ghana Towers is not part of the acquisition funding", so Vodafone may retain some assets after this sale.

"I’ve read they’ve got around 200000 connections"

I think you're confusing premises passed with connections. The issue for Altnets is building a customer base big enough to cover their daily cost of operations. Fibre in the ground, without customer "connections", is dead money without generating income; So the Altnets desperately need to grow customer connections asap, otherwise they bleed money through Capex and operating costs.

"They purchased the 70% stake for $900m. Probably sold at a loss as they don't want to say."

As you say the price isn't mentioned, so it isn't definitive whether they've made a capital loss, although on paper they may well have done. Also you'd have to look at how much Vodafone Ghana has contributed to the Vodafone's Africa earnings since 2008, to asses an actual loss. I would suggest that Vodafone have decided to exit Ghana for good reason, only known to themselves, otherwise it's likely they'd have engineered a takeover by Vodacom. Whatever the sale price for this deal, I suspect other unreported side deals have been agreed in the background. For some reason Ghana has become unattractive for Vodafone, and Vodacom aren't interested either.

"Fleecy - surely you have better things to do with your life than post continuously on this board . At least take Sunday off . Your obsession must stop. I recommend counselling"

I've had a cold this weekend, so I've had time on my hands while taking it easy and thought I'd take a deeper look into Bitcoin.
How I spend my free time and what I post on here is non of your business. I would suggest you're the one who needs counselling as you obviously have some sort of personality disorder, finding issue with anything and everything I post no matter how innocuous. I'll post whenever and whatever I want, sticking to facts not speculation. You don't see me stepping in and trying to shut you down whenever you post, take a look in the mirror before you give recommendations to others.

Here's another article explaining the Extra Nonce, detailing how the number of Nonce possibilities have increased from 2^32 to 2^96, with an option for future expansion of the extra nonce space if required.

https://iq.opengenus.org/bitcoins-hashing-race-and-extra-nonce-solution/