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Bitcoin Surpasses $4,000, Reaches Another Milestone

forbes.com

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Re: Bitcoin Surpasses $4,000, Reaches Another Milestone

#3

Post by solotronics »

do5 wrote: post #2

This is just speculative but the Bitcoin fork was probably the best thing to happen to the price of bitcoin. http://amp.timeinc.net/fortune/2017/08/07/bitcoin-cash-bch-h...

weird question but why not fork more and people will trade it for BTC. at what point would it not work anymore?

Re: Bitcoin Surpasses $4,000, Reaches Another Milestone

#4

Post by erikpukinskis »

solotronics wrote: post #3
do5 wrote: post #2

This is just speculative but the Bitcoin fork was probably the best thing to happen to the price of bitcoin. http://amp.timeinc.net/fortune/2017/08/07/bitcoin-cash-bch-h...

weird question but why not fork more and people will trade it for BTC. at what point would it not work anymore?

A fork has to be an idea about what Bitcoin is. This fork worked because some people saw Bitcoin as a settlement layer for a wider system of credits. Other people saw Bitcoin as a monolithic currency. The distance between those ideas caused the split.

Similarly ETH saw Ethereum as a beta prototype, and ETC saw it as a final contract. Those two ideas were each strong enough to support a community.

But this doesn't work arbitrarily. If I see Bitcoin as a currency primarily for selling ice cream cones and I fork IceCreamCoin, which responds to the seasonality of ice cream sales, there's no guarantee other people will see value in that idea, and mine blocks on my chain, or pay for coins transacted in those blocks on exchanges.

This is key to understanding cryptocurrency: there is no central reality. There are as many realities as you want. There are incentives to participate in some of them, but it's voluntary. You can walk away from whoever you want, and decide their money doesn't even exist for you, for any reason.

Re: Bitcoin Surpasses $4,000, Reaches Another Milestone

#5

Post by mikejarema »

erikpukinskis wrote: post #4
solotronics wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

weird question but why not fork more and people will trade it for BTC. at what point would it not work anymore?

A fork has to be an idea about what Bitcoin is. This fork worked because some people saw Bitcoin as a settlement layer for a wider system of credits. Other people saw Bitcoin as a monolithic currency. The distance between those ideas caused the split. Similarly ETH saw Ethereum as a beta prototype, and ETC saw it as a final contract. Those two ideas were each strong enough to support a community. But this doesn't wor…

This is a fantastic philosophical summary of what a cryptocurrency fork represents. Thank you for sharing.
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