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Bitcoin swings as civil war looms
21–30 of 73 posts
Re: Bitcoin swings as civil war looms
#22Re: Bitcoin swings as civil war looms
#23This article is delusional if it thinks the swings have anything to do with the bitcoin civil war. Bitcoin has always been volatile, and will continue to be volatile. It's a gambler's currency. People always try to assign a reason to things. We don't like accepting that there just aren't any reasons. But as someone who has seen bitcoin go up and down and back again over years, there really isn't a reason for it besid…
I've been watching this closely, and the price seems to be driven by the Segwit2x signaling rate. We're close to the %80 activation and when it looked like we weren't going to make it we saw a decline, and when hash power switched signaling and the price recovered.
The reason the hash power signaling is not so stable right now has a technical reason-- Bip-91 is rushed, the Segwit2x proposal was rather late in the game and this is a system which, by design and prudence, should not be changing with quick untested commits.
Re: Bitcoin swings as civil war looms
#24Has anyone noticed a paradigm shift in the way Bitcoin and Ethereum are treated on HN?
Nope, it still seems as hostile as ever. Every top voted comment on a thread concerning crypto will be people cheering its inevitable demise and mocking its naive supporters. I can only imagine it's a mixture of jealousy and sour grapes from missing out on crypto's rise, but it feels strange that a forum dedicated to tech is so angry and dismissive towards a really interesting new technology.
I've been exclusively working with Bitcoin related startups since 2011. I do not find the HN discussion hostile. Cryptocurrency is barely at beta quality. Skepticism is healthy.
Re: Bitcoin swings as civil war looms
#25Earlier quoted context omitted.
Nope, it still seems as hostile as ever. Every top voted comment on a thread concerning crypto will be people cheering its inevitable demise and mocking its naive supporters. I can only imagine it's a mixture of jealousy and sour grapes from missing out on crypto's rise, but it feels strange that a forum dedicated to tech is so angry and dismissive towards a really interesting new technology.
I think it's incredibly interesting and the the tech / concept is extremely impressive. (We still don't even know who thought this up, do we?) That being said, I'm one of the people who have always mocked bitcoin. There are so many obvious problems with it, and some of the people in the cult built around it lack a hilarious amount of self-awareness. Congrats to those who speculated successfully regardless. I'm not sa…
Consider that those "obvious problems" (which you don't name) may be misunderstandings on your part, of the technology, or how economics works on a global scale.
Bitcoin is a very well designed crypto-economic system. It took smart work from people with backgrounds and understanding in both.
It's easy to mock because it's different from the standard quo and Statists seem to think that Only government can do money properly (which is kinda funny when you think about it) and so the criticism of bitcoin that I've seen has never been very good.
Re: Bitcoin swings as civil war looms
#26Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think it's implying the argumentative state when currencies are brought up. There's a lot of emotions wrapped around all the nonsense of forks, the random thefts, and general new but somewhat difficult to understand technology. For most people it doesn't serve a purpose outside of what they're reading (I own a few bitcoin that I mined back in 09, but I'm never really compelled to use them for anything due to headac…
I've never quite understood the argument that bitcoin are difficult to spend. I have bought things with them and it's so much easier than credit cards! You open a wallet app, point your phone at your computer and tap yes, done. Credit cards you have to (optionally) make sure the site won't steal your number, go get your physical wallet, fill out a rather long form (that sometimes throws an error and makes you fill it…
I guess the payment wouldn't go so smooth if the bitcoins are sitting in 8-year-old files. You'd have to add to your description the steps necessary to install that wallet app and import the private keys. Whatever happens when you "point your phone at your computer" (OCR?, QR code?) might also not be fully reliable, so add the hassle of troubleshooting that. I can see how someone might not bother with it, if they have no real need to.
Personally, I'm relatively sure I will never use bitcoin, because I pay my groceries with cash and my rent per wire transfer, and other than that I buy stuff off the internet maybe twice a year, so entering my credit card details isn't quite that annoying. I realize my spending habits are somewhat unusual, though.
Re: Bitcoin swings as civil war looms
#27I guess "civil war" sounds a lot more interesting than a hard fork, an unlikely split and people trying to capitalize on the drama.
Re: Bitcoin swings as civil war looms
#28Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think it's incredibly interesting and the the tech / concept is extremely impressive. (We still don't even know who thought this up, do we?) That being said, I'm one of the people who have always mocked bitcoin. There are so many obvious problems with it, and some of the people in the cult built around it lack a hilarious amount of self-awareness. Congrats to those who speculated successfully regardless. I'm not sa…
Consider that those "obvious problems" (which you don't name) may be misunderstandings on your part, of the technology, or how economics works on a global scale. Bitcoin is a very well designed crypto-economic system. It took smart work from people with backgrounds and understanding in both. It's easy to mock because it's different from the standard quo and Statists seem to think that Only government can do money pro…
Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are extremely interesting, for sure.
Technologically, they're interesting because they're a clever solution to difficult problems, and there's a lot to learn from how they work.
Sociologically, they're interesting because they seem to attract a lot of "move fast and break things" people to an area where that attitude works poorly, and the result is an ongoing stream of scams, heists, and other failures. There's a lot to learn here in terms of what not to do.
The technological side seems to be fairly well understood at this point, but the sociological side constantly comes up with new ways to be ridiculous, so naturally the discussion now focuses on this.
Re: Bitcoin swings as civil war looms
#29Has anyone noticed a paradigm shift in the way Bitcoin and Ethereum are treated on HN?
Nope, it still seems as hostile as ever. Every top voted comment on a thread concerning crypto will be people cheering its inevitable demise and mocking its naive supporters. I can only imagine it's a mixture of jealousy and sour grapes from missing out on crypto's rise, but it feels strange that a forum dedicated to tech is so angry and dismissive towards a really interesting new technology.
I'm not seeing the same thing you are.
It seems mostly positive to me. Stories about cryptocoins get upvoted. Good discussion is generated, it seems like the audience is much broader than /r/bitcoin (and related subreddits). It's a great opportunity for HN to learn more about cryptocoins.
IMO it's totally appropriate to talk about: worthless altcoins, worthless ICOs/assets/tokens, skepticism about ethereum (especially wrt centralization).
Re: Bitcoin swings as civil war looms
#30Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think it's incredibly interesting and the the tech / concept is extremely impressive. (We still don't even know who thought this up, do we?) That being said, I'm one of the people who have always mocked bitcoin. There are so many obvious problems with it, and some of the people in the cult built around it lack a hilarious amount of self-awareness. Congrats to those who speculated successfully regardless. I'm not sa…
Consider that those "obvious problems" (which you don't name) may be misunderstandings on your part, of the technology, or how economics works on a global scale. Bitcoin is a very well designed crypto-economic system. It took smart work from people with backgrounds and understanding in both. It's easy to mock because it's different from the standard quo and Statists seem to think that Only government can do money pro…
The central problem is non reversible transactions and storage on PC's. Computer security means the value can drop to zero at any time and using a 3rd party to store your value means you A lose any benefit of coinX vs. WoW gold or whatever, and B run the same risks as their security can fail at any time.
Now sure people can and have made (and lost) a lot of money, but in terms of actual usage it's never going to see mass adoption without first solving the computer security problem.
PS: However, what I think bothers people is it promotes people pumping coinX in the same way they would time shares. That's simply a drag on any online community.