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Bitcoin Is an Escapist Safe Haven

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Re: Bitcoin Is an Escapist Safe Haven

#41

Post by pmorici »

stale2002 wrote: post #29
bduerst wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm referring to the famed blocksize debate [1] that's happened with Bitcoin, in which several miners have gained control of the blockchain through economies of scale and are preventing forks for block size increase [2]. This size increase would allow for more than 7 tx/s but it would also increase costs for miners, so the miners are ignoring it, effectively making it tragedy of the commons. Note: This isn't a blockc…

Look, I am a pro big blocker myself (I think that the network would be perfectly fine with a 4-8x capacity increase). But Peter Todd has a point. (I would hope so. He is literally one of the experts) Imagine if blocks were x Gigabytes. Thats X GigaBytes that have to be sent to every single miner in the world every 10 minutes! There is a fundamental N squared problem in blockchains that you can't get around without us…

The creator of Bitcoin very much disagreed with Peter Todd's view. In 1999 people thought sending video let alone HD video over the Internet was totally nuts and impossible. Then YouTube happened and now we have HD video streaming to the extent that cable companies are worried it is going to put them out of business.

Re: Bitcoin Is an Escapist Safe Haven

#42

Post by bduerst »

gre wrote: post #24
bduerst wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They're referring to any unique characteristics that give Bitcoin value in competing with other cryptocurrencies, which is mostly true. There are already a number of newer cryptocurrencies that are better than bitcoin (e.g. no block size issue, computational waste, etc.) but with bitcoin it will take more than that to dethrone Bitcoin's brand as "Internet Drug Money".

Which cryptocurrencies in particular are worth watching and why?

I don't keep tabs on them all, but in terms of technical aspects I think Monero stands the most likely to be a good substitute for the Bitcoin users.

ZCash seems popular, but it's privately-run with a U.S. based company and can pull some strings to assist in de-anonymizing users. They basically claim no liability for it's users which means it may be too comfortable with authorities for Bitcoin users.

Other than that I think Ethereum has the best chance in terms of market traction to take off as a true international currency.

Re: Bitcoin Is an Escapist Safe Haven

#43

Post by kristianp »

MarcusBrutus wrote: post #9

Bitcoin fails to satisfactorily answer von Mises' regression theorem. It also has no scarcity since it can face competition by an infinite number of similar conceivable algorithms / block-chains / virtual currencies that offer much the same features, regardless of how hard its own mining gets. Not to mention that once it is perceived as more than just a nuisance by some major government it will be shut down in a hear…

"Bitcoin fails to satisfactorily answer von Mises' regression theorem."

Can you explain this for the non-economists here please?

Re: Bitcoin Is an Escapist Safe Haven

#44

Post by kristianp »

onewaystreet wrote: post #23
MarcusBrutus wrote: post #9

Bitcoin fails to satisfactorily answer von Mises' regression theorem. It also has no scarcity since it can face competition by an infinite number of similar conceivable algorithms / block-chains / virtual currencies that offer much the same features, regardless of how hard its own mining gets. Not to mention that once it is perceived as more than just a nuisance by some major government it will be shut down in a hear…

I've seen comments like this posted on HN for the past 3 years. Bitcoin's "bubble" has already popped many times but it has rebounded each time. Maybe the next time will be the last, but a lot of people have been wrong about that so far.

Bitcoin has to end some day, but what Black Swan will bring about its end? The end should be factored in to investors calculations, but how? It has proven to be quite reliable so far, but the block size issue and I think fee increases are a negative.

Re: Bitcoin Is an Escapist Safe Haven

#45

Post by TGilmour »

bduerst wrote: post #39
stale2002 wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Litecoin's capacity is still nothing compared to VISA or Mastercard. The question is not whether a crytocurrency can do 4X. The question is whether it can do 1,000X or more.

Right, but Litecoin hasn't repeatedly hit it's transaction cap yet. Litecoin is still unproven as to whether or not it will fail to scale, which Bitcoin has already proven to fail at. You're splitting hairs and ignoring ZCash. The point is that other cryptocurrencies are better implementations of a blockchain than Bitcoin, even with regards to the block size.

The market will, and has decided that what you're claiming is wrong. The point that other cryptocurrencies are better implementations is moot, bitcoin is 8 years old and still working very well.

I'm not saying Bitcoin is perfect and complete, it does need to scale, but to claim it has failed is ridiculous. Bitcoin development (or developers) will not implement something that isn't vigorously tested and could jeopardize the network. It isn't as simple as change 1mb to 8mb. If you can provide a technical case for why its so simple or that its safe to do so please post below! I'd be happy to review.

Re: Bitcoin Is an Escapist Safe Haven

#46

Post by pmorici »

gre wrote: post #24
bduerst wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They're referring to any unique characteristics that give Bitcoin value in competing with other cryptocurrencies, which is mostly true. There are already a number of newer cryptocurrencies that are better than bitcoin (e.g. no block size issue, computational waste, etc.) but with bitcoin it will take more than that to dethrone Bitcoin's brand as "Internet Drug Money".

Which cryptocurrencies in particular are worth watching and why?

This site is good for getting an idea about what coins are actually being used. Bitcoin is extremely dominate.

https://coinmarketcap.com/

Re: Bitcoin Is an Escapist Safe Haven

#47

Post by [deleted] »

kristianp wrote: post #43
MarcusBrutus wrote: post #9

Bitcoin fails to satisfactorily answer von Mises' regression theorem. It also has no scarcity since it can face competition by an infinite number of similar conceivable algorithms / block-chains / virtual currencies that offer much the same features, regardless of how hard its own mining gets. Not to mention that once it is perceived as more than just a nuisance by some major government it will be shut down in a hear…

"Bitcoin fails to satisfactorily answer von Mises' regression theorem." Can you explain this for the non-economists here please?

[deleted]

Re: Bitcoin Is an Escapist Safe Haven

#48

Post by [deleted] »

kristianp wrote: post #43
MarcusBrutus wrote: post #9

Bitcoin fails to satisfactorily answer von Mises' regression theorem. It also has no scarcity since it can face competition by an infinite number of similar conceivable algorithms / block-chains / virtual currencies that offer much the same features, regardless of how hard its own mining gets. Not to mention that once it is perceived as more than just a nuisance by some major government it will be shut down in a hear…

"Bitcoin fails to satisfactorily answer von Mises' regression theorem." Can you explain this for the non-economists here please?

[deleted]

Re: Bitcoin Is an Escapist Safe Haven

#50

Post by ubernostrum »

stale2002 wrote: post #34
elif wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is resistant to confiscation, but the IRS can still make you a fugitive in most of the developed world.

Not if they don't know that you own an account.

The IRS got Switzerland to open up previously-confidential banking records.

You think they're not going to find a way to identify Bitcoin users? "It's on the internet, that makes it untraceable" is magical thinking that does not survive contact with sufficiently dedicated real-world agencies.

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