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Bitcoin is fiat money, too

economist.com

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Re: Bitcoin is fiat money, too

#21

Post by mehrdada »

jshaqaw wrote: post #15
SolarNet wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You must live in: Alaska, Delaware, Montana, New Hampshire or Oregon. (Or be oblivious) States where the sale of a cup of coffee doesn't involve a tax.

When you grow up and have kids (ie you aren’t 11 anymore) you may appreciate things like schools, safe roads, etc... that come with those sales tax dollars instead of viewing it as totalitarian expropriation.

Interestingly not all places with high tax rates actually have good schools, safe roads, etc.

Rather, there are countries to invade, bankers to bail out, old-school industries to sustain.

Re: Bitcoin is fiat money, too

#23

Post by snitko »

kobeya wrote: post #11
oleganza wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Bitcoin never escaped the "trough of disillusionment" since its birth. 2008: Satoshi posts a paper to mailing list, nearly everyone declares the idea non-workable. 2009-2010: Satoshi releases software, no one cares. People throw away wallets with mined coins. 2011: A 8-month decline after the first speculative bubble. 2012: "Nothing" really happens price-/news-wise, only minor bubble from $5 to $15 to $10. 2013-2014:…

The price doesn’t define the success of bitcoin.

Well what does? More people using it and interested in it? Doesn't define success. More merchants accepting it? Doesn't define success. More governments paying attention to it? Doesn't define success.

What on earth would define success? It's like nothing is ever enough for you people.

Re: Bitcoin is fiat money, too

#25

Post by jraines »

imustbeevil wrote: post #4
api wrote: post #2

I think we're approaching a trough of disillusionment with cryptocurrency. There's been a flurry of critical articles, crackdowns, and widespread disillusionment with crummy ICOs.

I don't know if it's a trough or if it's a conclusion. It's been 8 years now and the use cases for Bitcoin / CC haven't changed. You can buy illegal things and an incredibly small number of real things you can also buy with real money. There is nothing you can do with Bitcoin / CC that you can't do with real money. Nothing you can do that you couldn't do 5 years ago. Nothing new on the horizon. The only reason Bitcoi…

So you have no interest in it yet confidently state there's "nothing new on the horizon". Look, I don't know if you're wrong in the large -- maybe it does all come crashing down or die with a whimper -- but you're definitely wrong about that. Innovation is coming quickly, and I don't mean some dumb ICO(s)

Re: Bitcoin is fiat money, too

#26

Post by XR0CSWV3h3kZWg »

imustbeevil wrote: post #4
api wrote: post #2

I think we're approaching a trough of disillusionment with cryptocurrency. There's been a flurry of critical articles, crackdowns, and widespread disillusionment with crummy ICOs.

I don't know if it's a trough or if it's a conclusion. It's been 8 years now and the use cases for Bitcoin / CC haven't changed. You can buy illegal things and an incredibly small number of real things you can also buy with real money. There is nothing you can do with Bitcoin / CC that you can't do with real money. Nothing you can do that you couldn't do 5 years ago. Nothing new on the horizon. The only reason Bitcoi…

I agree. I feel like the biggest thing that ethereum has made so far is an even easier way to make an ICO scam.

I personally think that there will be innovation soon. In the next couple years there'll be a CC that establishes a storage market, once there is a robust storage market we could start to see serious attempts at selling compute time for something useful.

It's possible normal tx could be disrupted by CCs at some point, but that day is very far away. Even in legal cash only markets we haven't seen businesses adopt CCs.

Re: Bitcoin is fiat money, too

#27

Post by stanleydrew »

jraines wrote: post #19

Nowhere in the article does it really support the title. I guess they're referring mainly to the Ethereum fork? Even if you accept the proposition, it's still an improvement in that if you don't like the governance (feels too "fiat" for you, or whatever), you can instantly convert to any number of other cryptocurrencies, including many that define themselves essentially in opposition to the reasoning behind the Ether…

> you can instantly convert to any number of other cryptocurrencies

Assuming someone has built an "instant" method of exchange, and that it is always available, then I guess this is true.

Re: Bitcoin is fiat money, too

#29

Post by XR0CSWV3h3kZWg »

jraines wrote: post #25
imustbeevil wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know if it's a trough or if it's a conclusion. It's been 8 years now and the use cases for Bitcoin / CC haven't changed. You can buy illegal things and an incredibly small number of real things you can also buy with real money. There is nothing you can do with Bitcoin / CC that you can't do with real money. Nothing you can do that you couldn't do 5 years ago. Nothing new on the horizon. The only reason Bitcoi…

So you have no interest in it yet confidently state there's "nothing new on the horizon". Look, I don't know if you're wrong in the large -- maybe it does all come crashing down or die with a whimper -- but you're definitely wrong about that. Innovation is coming quickly, and I don't mean some dumb ICO(s)

What do you mean?

I think in terms of new technical details there are lots of cool stuff. Atomic cross chain transfers are starting in earnest, LN is looking more and more real, zcash style tx might land in ETH. In technical terms that's all awesome, but new use cases do those allow?

They typically just allow the same use cases, but slightly better and cheaper. Those aren't the things that are holding back new use cases.

Re: Bitcoin is fiat money, too

#30

Post by XR0CSWV3h3kZWg »

lostmsu wrote: post #6
imustbeevil wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know if it's a trough or if it's a conclusion. It's been 8 years now and the use cases for Bitcoin / CC haven't changed. You can buy illegal things and an incredibly small number of real things you can also buy with real money. There is nothing you can do with Bitcoin / CC that you can't do with real money. Nothing you can do that you couldn't do 5 years ago. Nothing new on the horizon. The only reason Bitcoi…

Sure it doesn't. Except you can use it to transfer value without first consulting your potentially totalitarian government without much effort for the first time in the entire history.

Performing economic actions that your govt doesn't approve of is illegal. Bitcoin is great for people that want to use it for illegal purposes. If that's the only use case for CC they will always have a place in human history, but I'm not sure they're really worth ~100B USD at this point, if there's no other major use case.
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