61–70 of 168 posts
I don't want to start the usual bitcoin scaling debate, but aren't the fees extremely high now? Using [1] an average transaction costs about 10$, this is particularly bad in a poor country. I wonder if using a cryptocurrency is really the best option in this case. [1]: https://bitcoinfees.earn.com/
Earlier quoted context omitted.
The 137,000 satoshi price quoted isn't an average - it's the price to have your transaction almost guaranteed to be accepted in the next block It also shows 30 satoshi a byte gets you transaction accepted in 3-80 blocks, which based on experience is usually 3-12 blocks - and that works out to be 50c for the average transaction
For POS transactions though don't you want it to be instant? 3-12 blocks is half a hour to two hours wait. The chart shows 30 satoshis/byte to take 40 minutes to a 19 hours total wait.
In Zimbabwe, you could lose a significant percentage of your cash's value if you delay a purchase. Taking a risk that the other side of the transaction might not be as big of a problem if you can look at their account balance before the transaction begins.
Sure, you risk getting caught in a double-spend that is rejected from the blockchain, but if the alternative is to hold onto cash or to lose out on a transaction in a tough economy, you might be willing to take on that risk.
I don't want to start the usual bitcoin scaling debate, but aren't the fees extremely high now? Using [1] an average transaction costs about 10$, this is particularly bad in a poor country. I wonder if using a cryptocurrency is really the best option in this case. [1]: https://bitcoinfees.earn.com/
Average transaction cost has been shown to be a bad metric, context: https://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/7b7jj1/john_newber...
Is this a legitimate news source? I have a difficult time believing this part: > The events unfolded as Zimbabwe is in deep crisis. The economy has halved in size since 2000, an estimated 95% of the workforce is jobless and as many as 3 million Zimbabweans have gone into exile. 95% unemployment?
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyperinflation_in_Zimbabwe
Earlier quoted context omitted.
That would require the government being able to coordinate controlling; 1. Internet access 2. Sales of computers 3. Imports 4. Citizens not revolting against that (including people using and accepting currency, so buy and sell side) All of which are possible but not trivial. I actually think it becomes orders of magnitude more difficult to do this with a decentralised system like BitCoin than it is with fiat currency…
> All of which are possible but not trivial Isn't China doing #1 - #4 to about 25% of the world's population already?
The fundamental problem is that it is incredibly hard to provide only some Internet access, be they a state actor, public school, parent, etc. The design of the protocols impairs censorship efforts.
If you want to censor the Internet, you pretty much have to start with a whitelist approach of allowed IPs and domains, and then stringently audit those to insure they don't act as proxies.
I'm intrigued by the idea that cryptocurrencies can exist and may help alleviate economics crises, but in a dark plot twist can't governments essentially own the majority of computing power, start their own cryptocurrency, and outlaw all others? What does the world look like when a decentralized concept like this is appropriated and brute forced into a more-or-less centralized concept? (Or perhaps I'm way off track..…
That would require the government being able to coordinate controlling; 1. Internet access 2. Sales of computers 3. Imports 4. Citizens not revolting against that (including people using and accepting currency, so buy and sell side) All of which are possible but not trivial. I actually think it becomes orders of magnitude more difficult to do this with a decentralised system like BitCoin than it is with fiat currency…
I' extremely sceptical that people would do this. I most certainly wouldn't want to risk my life over one kind of (obscure) currency vs another.
I feel like there are whales that simply manipulate the price based on news. There's little evidence to suggest bitcoin has any usage in zimbabwe in practical day to day usage. Therelies the problem with bitcoin, why would someone in zimbabwe pay 1 week of their salary to move 3 weeks of pay and still not be sure if the money will still be there tomorrow?
Bitcoin is too big for a few "whales" to have a sizable effect on major price trends -- even if significant groups of them were somehow coordinated. This explanation is commonly used in general cryptocurrency forums and even some trading forums, but it really comes down to not understanding how markets work and trying to assign some meaning (not so different from religion). Whales are not gods.
Bitcoin is tiny as currencies go or as industries go. What is it $100 billion "market cap"?
> Whales are not gods.
Sure. But in such a tiny volume entity like bitcoin, any large player can easily move markets.
It doesn't even have market makers or any real rules yet.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
The 137,000 satoshi price quoted isn't an average - it's the price to have your transaction almost guaranteed to be accepted in the next block It also shows 30 satoshi a byte gets you transaction accepted in 3-80 blocks, which based on experience is usually 3-12 blocks - and that works out to be 50c for the average transaction
For POS transactions though don't you want it to be instant? 3-12 blocks is half a hour to two hours wait. The chart shows 30 satoshis/byte to take 40 minutes to a 19 hours total wait.
Merchant picks a solution based on who they integrate with - something like BitGo Instant[0], GreenAddress[1] or an analytics/fraud API provider that adds a risk score to a tx no different to a credit card transaction
Earlier quoted context omitted.
The 137,000 satoshi price quoted isn't an average - it's the price to have your transaction almost guaranteed to be accepted in the next block It also shows 30 satoshi a byte gets you transaction accepted in 3-80 blocks, which based on experience is usually 3-12 blocks - and that works out to be 50c for the average transaction
For POS transactions though don't you want it to be instant? 3-12 blocks is half a hour to two hours wait. The chart shows 30 satoshis/byte to take 40 minutes to a 19 hours total wait.
That two-hour figure is the amount to get the transaction to the point of irreversibility so it can be re-spent without worry. The equivalent figure for credit cards is ~45 days and checks can take a week to clear.
But you're right, making transactions on chain is not going to be practical in an untrusted environment and it still depends on intermediaries.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
That would require the government being able to coordinate controlling; 1. Internet access 2. Sales of computers 3. Imports 4. Citizens not revolting against that (including people using and accepting currency, so buy and sell side) All of which are possible but not trivial. I actually think it becomes orders of magnitude more difficult to do this with a decentralised system like BitCoin than it is with fiat currency…
>4. Citizens not revolting against that (including people using and accepting currency, so buy and sell side) I' extremely sceptical that people would do this. I most certainly wouldn't want to risk my life over one kind of (obscure) currency vs another.