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Digital coins may be on the verge of going mainstream

nytimes.com

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Re: Digital coins may be on the verge of going mainstream

#191

Post by DennisP »

Jasper_ wrote: post #27
zippergz wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ask your parents to explain cryptocurrency. It's not about wall clock time. It's about milestones.

My point isn't "it's been eight years, so it must be ready", it's "it's been eight years, so you can stop comparing it to the early internet now". I've been following Bitcoin for five years now, and I've seen this "it's the early Internet, success doesn't happen overnight" attitude that gets more and more false every year. Bitcoin and the ecosystem around has barely changed since it was released.

TCP/IP started going global in the mid-1980s. If you consider Bitcoin to be just the first working example of a digital currency protocol, then a better analogy might even be the first packet switching protocols in the 1960s.

Bitcoin has barely changed, but the cryptocurrency ecosystem as a whole has changed massively, and shows no sign of stopping.

Re: Digital coins may be on the verge of going mainstream

#192

Post by DennisP »

solomatov wrote: post #53
Gigablah wrote: post #45

I feel like it's already mainstream, in Singapore at least. I was getting a haircut at the neighbourhood barbershop and I overhead the shop owner talking about cryptocurrency with a female customer -- stuff like regulatory issues, Satoshi's identity, altcoins, and so on. They probably had more knowledge of Bitcoin than I did.

It sounds like a sign of a bubble to me.

Singapore's government has been very favorable to cryptocurrencies. Startups around the world who want to do ICOs have been basing themselves in Singapore, along with several other friendly countries. It wouldn't be surprising if the five million residents of Singapore have an unusually high level of awareness.

Re: Digital coins may be on the verge of going mainstream

#193

Post by solomatov »

DennisP wrote: post #192
solomatov wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It sounds like a sign of a bubble to me.

Singapore's government has been very favorable to cryptocurrencies. Startups around the world who want to do ICOs have been basing themselves in Singapore, along with several other friendly countries. It wouldn't be surprising if the five million residents of Singapore have an unusually high level of awareness.

I heard similar conversations from laymen in USA recently. During 2000s bubble I heard that you can hear about perspectives of different IT companies form unexpected people as well.

Re: Digital coins may be on the verge of going mainstream

#195

Post by bitreality »

coldtea wrote: post #123
mrb wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

" What is cryptocurrency going to help these people do that they can't do already today? " International payments confirmed and spendable in minutes not days. Escaping inflation in Venezuela/Argentina/whoeverisnext. Sending remittance to family overseas without 10% wasted in fees. Receiving monetary donations for organizations that might be victim of oppressive censorship. Participating in modern e-commerce for the u…

> International payments confirmed and spendable in minutes not days. Escaping inflation Venezuela/Argentina/whoeverisnext. So cryptocurrency is a niche app for crashing economies in the developing world and those needing to do international payments through unofficial channels?

Crypto simply levels the playing field for people in all types of economies. Many countries force you into using the national currency. Often they create artificial exchange rates which do not match up with market rates (Argentina, Venezuela).

Other countries impose capital controls which force their populations to hold devaluing currencies or restrict how they can spend their money. Think India, China. No surprise that China is one of the world leaders in Crypto right now.

Currency is used as a form of control by governments. It is never in control of the people. Look at what happened in Cyprus, and what almost spread across Europe. Banks went bankrupt, people's hard earned money was taken away, simply due to mismanagement at the highest levels.

Properly used cryptocurrency cannot just be taken away. You are in control of your money. Your government does not control its value. Bitcoin as an entity cannot take out loans which its holders are on the hook to repay. Governments can't freeze your wallet with the flick of a switch.

Money is power, and when people are in complete control of their own money, they take back some of the power that has been consistently taken away from them.

Re: Digital coins may be on the verge of going mainstream

#196

Post by alexandersingh »

0x006A wrote: post #145
alexandersingh wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

250 million people isn't mainstream? These are people sending money to their families on a monthly basis, and where current transfer fees can take the equivalent of a half day of work. That strikes me as an appealing use case.

a highly regulated one too, crypto does not address the complexities of international monetary regulations. If the solution is to not abide by the existing regulations, it not going to be mainstream.

As jogjayr pointed out, the Hawala system has existed before and after formal regulations. Crypto alone might not represent a viable mainstream alternative, but it does have potential as one piece of a composite solution.

Re: Digital coins may be on the verge of going mainstream

#197

Post by geiseric »

CPLX wrote: post #22
dcw303 wrote: post #7

We're a long way off mainstream. Take the Web as an example: When my university lab computer got trumpet winsock and Netscape installed, it wasn't mainstream. When Hotbot was launched and could actually search with some degree of efficiency it wasn't mainstream. When I learned html and javascript from reading Webmonkey posts it wasn't mainstream. When I switched to this new upstart called Google it wasn't mainstream.…

But with Google your Mom can find out when the store is open and where it is. Facebook lets grandparents see photos of grandchildren. Reading a blog replaces reading the gossip column in the daily paper. You could finally buy plane tickets without driving somewhere. And so on. The early web was really fucking useful as it started to mature. It solved a lot of real problems. What is cryptocurrency going to help these…

I think you hit it on the head. Usability. I'm an IT guy and run a headless linux distro with GPU's, mining one of the currencies. I have Accounts on on Kraken and Coinbase along with my Jaxx wallet and local wallet, that I have to use CLI to send with. I have difficulty using Kraken and if my Jaxx wallet doesn't have the currencies I want as part of the ShapeShift application I have to shift to the web app ShapeShift. Bottom line, it can be a pain in the ass to use all of the different platforms to buy/sell and transfer.

I do like the Jaxx interface and if they can adapt more currency wallets and integrate them with ShapeShift, that would go along way to more widespread adoption.

Re: Digital coins may be on the verge of going mainstream

#198

Post by planteen »

Kluny wrote: post #147
legulere wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> International payments When was the last time you made an international payment? I never made a payment outside of the EU and inside the EU I already have free wire transfers. For most people this is not interesting. > unbanked/underbanked You have the right to a bank account in the EU. > Allowing merchants to save 2% in credit card fees Currently Bitcoin is more expensive for typical transactions. And there's dire…

Last week. I'm Canadian and currently working remotely for an American company. I am in Denmark at the moment and need Danish money because they don't do euros. The American company pays me by wire transfer and my Canadian bank skims $15 off the top. Then I transfer day-to-day spending money via the cheapest, best, most reliable service I have yet found - and it still costs $10 per $1000. I do that every month or so.…

In the current situation with a few popular cryptos, you still have the exact same problem. Using ShapeShift to change BTC to ETC is going to charge a miner fee.

Re: Digital coins may be on the verge of going mainstream

#199

Post by marcosdumay »

Eridrus wrote: post #170
mrb wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

" What is cryptocurrency going to help these people do that they can't do already today? " International payments confirmed and spendable in minutes not days. Escaping inflation in Venezuela/Argentina/whoeverisnext. Sending remittance to family overseas without 10% wasted in fees. Receiving monetary donations for organizations that might be victim of oppressive censorship. Participating in modern e-commerce for the u…

> Sending remittance to family overseas without 10% wasted in fees. I just looked at TransferWise, and it seems like the rate is about 0.7-2.5% depending on the pair of currencies. I found this post of transferring 1000 USD -> EUR via BTC which claimed to have done so for $14: https://bitcoin.stackexchange.com/questions/25583/does-it-ma... TransferWise asks $10 for this. So in the same ballpark, but not necessarily a…

> WRT fraud, merchants certainly want transactions to be irreversible, but since we're all terrible at security, being able to reverse transactions is quite useful for dealing with criminals who would try and steal your money.

It's more a point about how the horrible service from the current transfer processors is opening a niche for different kinds of transfers to prosper. Somehow, that niche hasn't attracted good quality processors (I blame it on widespread corruption), so it's left open for unofficial money.

That's an opportunity, yes. But I am nor sure it can be fully taken before official processors close it.

Re: Digital coins may be on the verge of going mainstream

#200

Post by csomar »

dcw303 wrote: post #7

We're a long way off mainstream. Take the Web as an example: When my university lab computer got trumpet winsock and Netscape installed, it wasn't mainstream. When Hotbot was launched and could actually search with some degree of efficiency it wasn't mainstream. When I learned html and javascript from reading Webmonkey posts it wasn't mainstream. When I switched to this new upstart called Google it wasn't mainstream.…

It is actually quite arguable: Is the web starting to go mainstream from all directions? (personal/professional/state-wide)

In fact, there are still many countries who are not using the Internet for "everything". The point being made: If you can do it through the Internet, why have the brick and mortar office in the first place?

The web revolution is just "getting started". I watched Bloomberg the other day where they were trying to make a point on the Nasdaq: This time it is different. The 2000 bubble was an exponential period of exponential growth (in stock prices, and not the underlying)

This time it is not the same. The growth is linear, and most of the companies have infrastructure or even profit to back it up. (Apple eps is not bubbly)

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