Bitcoin Cash is now trading on GDAX/Coinbase, it probably will help alleviate the burden a bit. https://www.gdax.com/trade/BCH-USD
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There are now more than 200k pending Bitcoin transactions
101–110 of 149 posts
Re: There are now more than 200k pending Bitcoin transactions
#102Earlier quoted context omitted.
The utility of bitcoin depends on your perspective. As a means of value exchange, high fees make it less useful. But as a store of value, high fees matter little.
As an example, wasn't there an $80m transaction the other day, where the fee was $20? I wonder what banks would charge to facilitate that?
As far as I know, even for very big payments, most banks charge either no fee or a flat fee for SEPA. My bank charges nothing for normal SEPA transfers or 20 euro for expedited ones (or it did a couple of years ago; I think there’s some new regulation reducing max times for transfers, making expedited less relevant). No upper limit mentioned on the forms. Of course, that’s only relevant within the EU.
Re: There are now more than 200k pending Bitcoin transactions
#103You'll notice the entire Bitcoin community has changed tone. It used to be "this is the currency of the future, down with cash/Visa!" but now you hear "Bitcoin is not a currency, it's a store of value". The wild price swings, slow transactions, high fees, and loq merchant acceptance make it complete garbage as a currency. But as a store of value, none of those arguments apply. It only has to compete with gold bars, w…
I don't see it as a store of value. It's just a very reliable network for sending very big transactions. If you send 1 million dollars in Bitcoin, a $20 fee is negligible - The reliability of the Bitcoin network makes it worth it. For smaller transactions you should just use a different coin.
If you're in good standing with the various governmental authorities, what are the scenarios that make it worthwhile to convert to some cryptocoin, "send a transaction," then convert back on the other end? There are traditional channels for sending money to various places, what do these extra steps get me?
You may feel a $20 fee is negligible, how about a 1% price move? 10%?
It's funny how often one sees these sort of high-dollar scenarios described for this "decentralized"! "currency of the people"!
Like, sending million dollar wires is a fairly niche market, and to my knowledge people regularly engaging in such things seem to be getting along just fine, there not crying out desperately for a better solution. And how exactly is bitcoin better for doing this if your million dollar transactions don't consist of the spoils from an exchange hack, exit scam or the like?
It's just a very reliable network for sending very big transactions.
Do you think the traditional channels for sending million dollar wires are unreliable? This seems like an area where the market is likely to converge on the very most reliable options and any service provider in this area with even a hint of unreliability would rapidly fade away.
Re: There are now more than 200k pending Bitcoin transactions
#104Earlier quoted context omitted.
In fact gold does not compare favorably to US equity markets as far as saving your money goes. An investment in an S&P500 index fund in late 2007 (right before the crash) would be worth more today than an investment in gold. An investment in the Dow Jones index in 1900 would be worth about six times as much as an equivalent investment in gold (assuming you held for 117 years, and not counting dividends). Granted, peo…
The fact that you can buy a similar amount of gold now for the same price as 2007 would indicate that it is currently at a better entry point. That this reasoning must be explained underlines a flaw in current investment sentiment. A 10-year horizon also is too short. A 100- or 500-year horizon is more typical for gold investment.
Like I said, on a 100-year timeline, the Dow Jones index outperformed gold -- with and without the gold standard, through booms and busts, through the great depression, through the oil crisis, etc. Since 1900, an investment tracking the DJIA would have gained 6x the value of a gold investment.
Re: There are now more than 200k pending Bitcoin transactions
#105You'll notice the entire Bitcoin community has changed tone. It used to be "this is the currency of the future, down with cash/Visa!" but now you hear "Bitcoin is not a currency, it's a store of value". The wild price swings, slow transactions, high fees, and loq merchant acceptance make it complete garbage as a currency. But as a store of value, none of those arguments apply. It only has to compete with gold bars, w…
Gold bars don't require the electricity output of a small country to keep running.
Although I suppose digging them up also has serious environmental consequences.
Re: There are now more than 200k pending Bitcoin transactions
#106Chicken and egg: Are the unconfirmed transactions because people are selling? Or are people selling because there are so many unconfirmed transactions?
Looks a bit like a bank run, complete with the lines at the teller.
Re: There are now more than 200k pending Bitcoin transactions
#107You'll notice the entire Bitcoin community has changed tone. It used to be "this is the currency of the future, down with cash/Visa!" but now you hear "Bitcoin is not a currency, it's a store of value". The wild price swings, slow transactions, high fees, and loq merchant acceptance make it complete garbage as a currency. But as a store of value, none of those arguments apply. It only has to compete with gold bars, w…
I don't see it as a store of value. It's just a very reliable network for sending very big transactions. If you send 1 million dollars in Bitcoin, a $20 fee is negligible - The reliability of the Bitcoin network makes it worth it. For smaller transactions you should just use a different coin.
If you send 1 million dollars in bitcoin, the crazy volatility may mean that you only sent $950,000 by the time your transaction was confirmed.
The bitcoin blockchain is a great way to transfer a fixed amount of bitcoin. It is an awful, awful way to transfer a fixed amount of wealth.
Re: There are now more than 200k pending Bitcoin transactions
#108People who actually use bitcoin must be ignorant of all the much more usable and useful alt-coins. Can anyone think of a good reason to actually use bitcoin vs. ripple/stellar/dash/zcash/monero/nem/...? Maybe it's just cause so many platforms have been built around bitcoin?
Because your drug dealer only accepts bitcoin? Does anyone else actually use it? Other than as a get rich quick scheme?
Drug dealers use Monero, not Bitcoin.
Re: There are now more than 200k pending Bitcoin transactions
#109Earlier quoted context omitted.
It has become a store of value, and there is nothing wrong to see it as a new asset class because of the attention it has been getting. IMO, bitcoin will rise till it finds an equivalent place like gold. Because of the limit, the value of bitcoin can technically reach anywhere between 400K to a million dollars. If they really wanted to see this as a currency, you would never design this to have an upper bound. You ca…
Cool. What I'm saying is that it lacks privacy, and therefore is a poor store of value. As for it being a store of value akin to gold? I don't think so. For various reason, even disregarding the historicity, and the physical nature of gold, the primarily reason I think it won't be comparable to gold will be because of the nature of technology. That being the lack of long term, and I'm talking centuries, hell even a f…
a state sanctioned E-Coin system
We have these, they're called debit cards, credit cards, paypal, etc.
For anything "state-sanctioned," centralized and "trustful" systems are always going to be more efficient, and chosen over less efficient and inferior options.
This is why it's hard to see where something like bitcoin would ever find widespread use, it's only good for non-"state-sanctioned" things.
If large numbers of people were to start doing non-"state-sanctioned" things, they wouldn't start using bitcoin, they would change the laws of the state.
Re: There are now more than 200k pending Bitcoin transactions
#110You'll notice the entire Bitcoin community has changed tone. It used to be "this is the currency of the future, down with cash/Visa!" but now you hear "Bitcoin is not a currency, it's a store of value". The wild price swings, slow transactions, high fees, and loq merchant acceptance make it complete garbage as a currency. But as a store of value, none of those arguments apply. It only has to compete with gold bars, w…
I think it's an organic reaction that makes a lot of sense. A distributed deflationary currency not run by any central authority is a dangerous concept. Another volatile store of value that might not be very liquid is a lot less dangerous. (Imagine cashing a 10th of the float, say) The forces of the status quo(or is it the invisible hand?) has responded to the threat, for now, by blowing this up to the stratosphere and making it impractical as a currency; it's even a better move than making it illegal. There will be more chapters to this, especially smart contracts. Interesting developments.