31–40 of 108 posts
Well, bitcoin makes people who think that they are smart, realize that they are way less smart than they thought they were. The author understands that he could impossibly understand the underlying mechanics of bitcoin. Hence, he came to realize that there must be other people, who are substantially smarter than he is.
The more you learn, the more you realize just how much there is to learn.
Author is projecting. Replaced "me" with "people" in writing this. Considered himself smart; tried to wrap head around Bitcoin, but lacks math/cs/finance background, and or curiosity to dig below surface level hype or read blockchain-y things beyond what's written by other lazy journalists ...? (now I'm projecting). Doesn't 'get it'. Plenty of people understand Bitcoin. Go read the whitepaper.
Which is what makes Bitcoin's democratic credentials so ridiculous. "It will free us from fiat money!" No it won't. It's just a transfer of wealth from educated elite to other educated elite. 99% of the world's population can't understand it. 99.5% can't mine it. It's so damn elitist that it's not even funny.
Hyperbole - it's not really that hard. But it uses maths, so maybe not everybody has the stomach to try to understand it.
The cryptosystem part is hard, but the rest is not all that complicated. The economics, though, are very strange. Valuing a cryptocoin is really hard. It's like valuing a penny stock with no business activity.
But isn't valuing a penny stock with no business activity really easy?
Author is projecting. Replaced "me" with "people" in writing this. Considered himself smart; tried to wrap head around Bitcoin, but lacks math/cs/finance background, and or curiosity to dig below surface level hype or read blockchain-y things beyond what's written by other lazy journalists ...? (now I'm projecting). Doesn't 'get it'. Plenty of people understand Bitcoin. Go read the whitepaper.
Which is what makes Bitcoin's democratic credentials so ridiculous. "It will free us from fiat money!" No it won't. It's just a transfer of wealth from educated elite to other educated elite. 99% of the world's population can't understand it. 99.5% can't mine it. It's so damn elitist that it's not even funny.
Author is projecting. Replaced "me" with "people" in writing this. Considered himself smart; tried to wrap head around Bitcoin, but lacks math/cs/finance background, and or curiosity to dig below surface level hype or read blockchain-y things beyond what's written by other lazy journalists ...? (now I'm projecting). Doesn't 'get it'. Plenty of people understand Bitcoin. Go read the whitepaper.
Author is projecting. Replaced "me" with "people" in writing this. Considered himself smart; tried to wrap head around Bitcoin, but lacks math/cs/finance background, and or curiosity to dig below surface level hype or read blockchain-y things beyond what's written by other lazy journalists ...? (now I'm projecting). Doesn't 'get it'. Plenty of people understand Bitcoin. Go read the whitepaper.
Which is what makes Bitcoin's democratic credentials so ridiculous. "It will free us from fiat money!" No it won't. It's just a transfer of wealth from educated elite to other educated elite. 99% of the world's population can't understand it. 99.5% can't mine it. It's so damn elitist that it's not even funny.
http://bitcoinist.com/starving-venezuelans-turn-to-bitcoin-m...
Author is projecting. Replaced "me" with "people" in writing this. Considered himself smart; tried to wrap head around Bitcoin, but lacks math/cs/finance background, and or curiosity to dig below surface level hype or read blockchain-y things beyond what's written by other lazy journalists ...? (now I'm projecting). Doesn't 'get it'. Plenty of people understand Bitcoin. Go read the whitepaper.
Which is what makes Bitcoin's democratic credentials so ridiculous. "It will free us from fiat money!" No it won't. It's just a transfer of wealth from educated elite to other educated elite. 99% of the world's population can't understand it. 99.5% can't mine it. It's so damn elitist that it's not even funny.
When we say we "understand money" we mean we know how to spend it, aquire it and store it. When someone says they "understand bitcoin" it means grappling with cryptography, mining, ledgers, economics, game theory, fiat currencies, deflation, dapps, etc. etc. Very few people need to really understand all of that to "get" bitcoin, mainly because most of the use cases aren't figured out. Most people are overthinking at…
When we say we "understand money" we mean we know how to spend it, aquire it and store it. When someone says they "understand bitcoin" it means grappling with cryptography, mining, ledgers, economics, game theory, fiat currencies, deflation, dapps, etc. etc. Very few people need to really understand all of that to "get" bitcoin, mainly because most of the use cases aren't figured out. Most people are overthinking at…
> Very few people need to really understand all of that to "get" bitcoin Except when a fork comes, or why control of 51% of the hashing power is bad.
But equally messy was the origination of the Euro. Equally messy (maybe even more so) was the introduction of "legal tender" in the US in the 1860s-1890s. Equally messy was the abolition of "National Bank Notes" and the brief period where we had bank notes, Federal Reserve notes, United States notes, and Silver Certificates all existing and only mostly compatible. Or the Indian demonetization of the 500 Rs note. Or the Cypriot bank seizures. Less messy, but still complicated for those affected by it, was the seizure of gold bullion or the closing of the redemption window in the US.
Money is complicated, and Bitcoin has less history than any of these currencies.