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Bitcoin Gets Close to $5,000

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Re: Bitcoin Gets Close to $5,000

#151

Post by vilmosi »

drizzzler wrote: post #76

It's funny how thick HNers are about Bitcoin. I believe it's evidence of the sort of passive conservatism of the tech community. Bitcoin is some utopian shit, the decentralized technology dream that has a ton of traction, yet many of you just can't seem to get behind it. Is it because YC is an ultra capitalistic investment fund and Bitcoin is just too anarchist for its fanboys? For all the people out there saying, "I…

>>> If you have, did you notice that there wasn't a middleman taking a cut when you sent the money?

Not an issue for me I'm afraid (UK).

Re: Bitcoin Gets Close to $5,000

#152

Post by anonu »

The real story is ETH. It's appreciating at a faster pace over the last two months than BTC has.

There's a lot of reasons why prices move. There's obviously speculation. But there's also utility. And the way ETH is designed is far more useful to me than BTC.

My prediction is that both currencies will reach 10k USD in the next few years. But ETH will get there faster

Re: Bitcoin Gets Close to $5,000

#153

Post by rampage101 »

fooker wrote: post #148
solotronics wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

why is it useful? you can store and instantly send any arbitrary amount of money anywhere on the planet and it is the hardest (impossible?) for a government to steal it from you

>instantly This makes me think you haven't ever transferred bitcoins.

It shows up as unconfirmed usually in a few seconds, meaning it's in the mempool and ready to be added to the blockchain. If you trust the sender it's enough... but on average you are right that it's about 10 minutes to get the transaction included in the block. With Ethereum they are mining blocks about every 10 or 20 seconds.

Re: Bitcoin Gets Close to $5,000

#154

Post by rampage101 »

MBCook wrote: post #82
drizzzler wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>I just have a very hard time seeing how it's actually useful Why is it so hard to see? Whenever you send money somewhere electronically, a middleman takes a cut. With Bitcoin there is no middleman. It's that easy.

How many money transfers do Visa or Amex handle per day? The Federal Reserve? What about Western Union? Is bitcoin capable of doing 50% of that? 10%? 1%? I know people have just decided to expand the block size but what's a realistic limit on how many transactions can be done per hour? Is that enough for real widespread use? I can certainly see uses but I worry that he can never get big enough to truly matter. Or if…

The reason it's gone up so much recently is that they just scaled it to handle more transactions. As other pointed out you can send an arbitrary amount whether it's 40 cents or 40 million dollars and it transfers quickly.

There's no holidays for the blockchain like banks have so you can send 24 hours a day, every day.

Re: Bitcoin Gets Close to $5,000

#155

Post by MBCook »

brownbat wrote: post #143
MBCook wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Proof of steak is basically the kind of system I was thinking of. Proof of work seems like a very good solution as long as people are relatively equal, but you could use proof of steak to ensure that. Of course that means that you need some way to set up the initial steaks and decide who gets them. And that means it isn't as democratic like bitcoin is, which I know is a big plus for many people.

Proof of steak sounds delicious and I would absolutely buy that coin. (Sorry, couldn't help it.)

I knew that looked off. I dictated that using Siri and it's not surprising it used that homonym.

Re: Bitcoin Gets Close to $5,000

#156

Post by srge »

MBCook wrote: post #37
rampage101 wrote: post #21

People have been saying since it was valued at $1 that it was overvalued, or nobody should pay $1 for a virtual coin. Same people are still arguing the same thing 5 years later...

Doesn't make them wrong. I find the idea of crypto currency, especially bitcoin, very interesting. I just have a very hard time seeing how it's actually useful. It can't handle very many transactions per minute. And the thing that supposed to make it so great is that no one controls it. But if bitcoin becomes really important then people will want to control a lot of the mining power. Pretty soon you end up with a gr…

Being right or wrong is not time independent. Someone saying it's crazy to buy virtual coins for $1 in 2009 was clearly wrong.

Re: Bitcoin Gets Close to $5,000

#157

Post by srge »

MicroBerto wrote: post #123
drizzzler wrote: post #76

It's funny how thick HNers are about Bitcoin. I believe it's evidence of the sort of passive conservatism of the tech community. Bitcoin is some utopian shit, the decentralized technology dream that has a ton of traction, yet many of you just can't seem to get behind it. Is it because YC is an ultra capitalistic investment fund and Bitcoin is just too anarchist for its fanboys? For all the people out there saying, "I…

It's because I can't use it to do business with anyone in my market, I can't buy anything I want with it, it's volatile, and it's an absurd waste of energy. Enjoy the run, but sell at the right times because ultimately it will end in some form of tragedy.

You can buy everything you want with the US dollar but given the abyssal debt of the US government, one could think it will also end in tragedy.

Re: Bitcoin Gets Close to $5,000

#158

Post by Shorel »

GhostVII wrote: post #122
drizzzler wrote: post #76

It's funny how thick HNers are about Bitcoin. I believe it's evidence of the sort of passive conservatism of the tech community. Bitcoin is some utopian shit, the decentralized technology dream that has a ton of traction, yet many of you just can't seem to get behind it. Is it because YC is an ultra capitalistic investment fund and Bitcoin is just too anarchist for its fanboys? For all the people out there saying, "I…

I just don't see what benefits Bitcoin gives to me over a regular bank. First of all because it is decentralised, it is much less scalable than the current system, so I don't think it is going to be able to replace regular banking anytime soon (although I don't know a tonne about the scalability issues). Also I like to have a centralised system, because if my bitcoin gets stolen/I screw up and lose it, it is gone for…

Current system works well for most people in a handful of well developed countries. Bitcoin is a global phenomenon.

Re: Bitcoin Gets Close to $5,000

#159

Post by tunetine »

prostoalex wrote: post #140
tradersam wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> You already have banks doing the exact same thing for free, while insuring your money, you don't get hit 3% for transferring it into the bank, and there's interest accrued So much wrong with this statement. First, not many banks in the U.S. do "the exact same thing for free", actually almost none do. Most ACH transfers take 1-5 days, instead of ~10 minutes with Bitcoin or ~15 seconds with Ethereum. Yes, I know abou…

Is 10-minute ACH a kind of problem a lot of people face? Seems like instant liquidity confirmation has been solved with credit cards or Paypal for trivial amounts (third party willing to act as an intermediary) or wire transfers for larger amounts (banks engaging their backchannel comfirmation protocols for a measly $25 fee). There are also debit card payments, admittedly not as widespread, but impressively fast when…

There's no need for anyone to switch at this point. Also, an ACH from Coinbase is 4-5 days not 1 day. Japan is an edge case with a very small population. They have -0.1 interest rate. That is nothing compared to what you might lose based on the wild fluctuations Bitcoin incurs.

Re: Bitcoin Gets Close to $5,000

#160

Post by nosuchthing »

omarchowdhury wrote: post #110
MBCook wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That seems more like the kind of system I was thinking of, but you're right the initial set up and dolling out of the supply brings you back to the kind of problems bitcoin was trying to avoid.

Unless the supply was initially distributed through PoW, and then the system switched to PoS. That is the plan for Ethereum.

Ethereum launch in review:

- Investment Prospectus: https://www.ethereum.org/pdfs/TermsAndConditionsOfTheEthereu...

- Premine Part I: Anyone can buy ETH in exchange for BTC for the next 42 days

- Premine Part II: On top of Premine Part I, +10% of the total ETH allocated during Premine Part I will be distributed to "early contributors"

- Premine Part III: On top of Premine Part I and Premine Part II, +10% of the total ETH allocated during Premine Part I will be distributed to the Ethereum Foundation

- The supply of ETH is uncapped and inflationary at a rate of +25% per year

- The premine is being conducted by "EthSuisse", a Swiss entity which will be prompty dissolved after the premining period ends. The Ethereum team makes no guarantee that development of Ethereum will continue after the dissolution of "EthSuisse"

- Regardless of how many BTCs are raised during the premine period, ~4000 BTC is explicitly reserved to pay for "Expenses incurred prior to and related to Genesis Sale". Translation: they are pocketing the first 4000-5000 BTC

> The Ethereum Platform is being developed primarily by a volunteer contributor team - many of whom will be receiving gifts of ETH in acknowledgement of their dedication - and will continue to be developed on a volunteer basis by some developers as well as under a more formalized contracting or employment relationship for other developers. The group of developers and other personnel that is now, or will be, employed by, or contracted with, Ethereum Switzerland GmbH ("EthSuisse") is termed the "Ethereum Team." EthSuisse will be liquidated shortly after creation of genesis block, and EthSuisse anticipates (but does not guarantee) that after it is dissolved the Ethereum Platform will continue to be developed by persons and entities who support Ethereum, including both volunteers and developers who are paid by nonprofit entities interested in supporting the Ethereum Platform.

via Cyther606 ( https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8072947 )

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