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Bitcoin is none of the things it was supposed to be

theoutline.com

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Re: Bitcoin is none of the things it was supposed to be

#11

Post by jhiska »

It's not Wall Street's fault or whatever boogie man's fault that the Bitcoin tech doesn't actually work as some idealistic libertarian creator imagined it would; the fault is in Bitcoin's design itself. Even if the price wasn't fluctuating like crazy it simply doesn't work well as a currency due to technical limitations (eg, the time and cost it takes to process a transaction in the real world has always been impractical), but it shows promise as something that holds value (like gold).

The Outline creates articles with pureed facts written in a carefully standardized "no-nonsense", language-as-spoken-today linguistic style for mass consumption that are often deceptive, political or just technically wrong. Don't trust it.

Re: Bitcoin is none of the things it was supposed to be

#12

Post by eberkund »

curuinor wrote: post #10
coryl wrote: post #3

The author seems to expect that the changes created by cryptocurrency should be visible immediately. It is a lack of patience, and lack of understanding that changing deeply rooted systems and behaviors takes time. People have never managed software where if you lost your "password", your money was gone forever. They never had to keep a 12-24 word recovery phrase. They've never sent money to addresses that look like…

What, then, exactly is the difference between your scenario and Coinbase being the bank?

That is a good analogy, if you choose to you can use a bank (or Coinbase) but you also have the option of doing everything in cash or managing your own Bitcoin wallet. Prior to cryptocurrency if you wanted to quickly send money around the world without going through a bank or other financial institutions you were out of luck.

Re: Bitcoin is none of the things it was supposed to be

#13

Post by _red »

curuinor wrote: post #10
coryl wrote: post #3

The author seems to expect that the changes created by cryptocurrency should be visible immediately. It is a lack of patience, and lack of understanding that changing deeply rooted systems and behaviors takes time. People have never managed software where if you lost your "password", your money was gone forever. They never had to keep a 12-24 word recovery phrase. They've never sent money to addresses that look like…

What, then, exactly is the difference between your scenario and Coinbase being the bank?

Coinbase can't print money.

Re: Bitcoin is none of the things it was supposed to be

#14

Post by pc2g4d »

The high transaction fees are forcing Bitcoin in this direction. If buying a hamburger cost you $30 in fees on top of the $6 burger, you'd stop using dollars for everyday purchases, too.

Seems we're stuck in this situation so long as the block size remains where it is. That artificially reduces the supply of transactions, forcing the price up. No matter how many miners there are competing for those transaction fees, there can never be more transactions. The transaction market is really one half of a market, or a market with a "supply ceiling".

It's ironic that Bitcoin's transaction count is essentially limited _by fiat_---by fiat of the Bitcoin code that implements the block limit.

But given the relative failure of forks that increase that block limit, it seems Bitcoin is what it is and other coins will have to pick up that slack.

Re: Bitcoin is none of the things it was supposed to be

#15

Post by coryl »

_red wrote: post #13
curuinor wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What, then, exactly is the difference between your scenario and Coinbase being the bank?

Coinbase can't print money.

Technically they can try, by selling users coin in a fractional reserve model. This is probably already being done by some exchanges.

But that's a problem regarding legal regulation.

Re: Bitcoin is none of the things it was supposed to be

#18

Post by pkulak »

pc2g4d wrote: post #14

The high transaction fees are forcing Bitcoin in this direction. If buying a hamburger cost you $30 in fees on top of the $6 burger, you'd stop using dollars for everyday purchases, too. Seems we're stuck in this situation so long as the block size remains where it is. That artificially reduces the supply of transactions, forcing the price up. No matter how many miners there are competing for those transaction fees,…

No one who owns BTC wants it used for transactions. They want it to be an investment and go up forever, so they'll never go with a fork that allows it. It's like home owners in a neighborhood locking out new construction so their own homes raise in value.

Re: Bitcoin is none of the things it was supposed to be

#19

Post by vintageseltzer »

pc2g4d wrote: post #14

The high transaction fees are forcing Bitcoin in this direction. If buying a hamburger cost you $30 in fees on top of the $6 burger, you'd stop using dollars for everyday purchases, too. Seems we're stuck in this situation so long as the block size remains where it is. That artificially reduces the supply of transactions, forcing the price up. No matter how many miners there are competing for those transaction fees,…

The Lightning Network is meant to address this: https://lightning.network/

Re: Bitcoin is none of the things it was supposed to be

#20

Post by rossdavidh »

Allow me to make a farfetched analogy: Bitcoin is like Obamacare. Obamacare wasn't made perfect the first time; this is normal. The way you fix issues with complex legislation, is you have it passed by significant members of both parties, so that you can revisit it the next year and fix things. But, with no trust between parties, the Dems had to get everything right in one go, when they had both houses and the White House, and guess what, there were problems. Which we can't fix.

Bitcoin wasn't made perfect the first time. No problem, all software that becomes popular does, and all new financial arrangements (money, credit, credit cards, etc.) had unforeseen problems that had to get worked out. But, with no government involved, there is no mechanism for working things out. It's not surprising that everything wasn't perfect, or that things need fixing later; the issue is that no one has the mandate to do it.

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