Miners Aren’t Friends

> a state level actor cannot just stop the contract from being executed simply by putting pressure on a third party.

They've forked before they could be forced to again.

This seems to imply that everyone else's stake in the network would become worthless too, though. What stops a particularly motivated billionaire from buying 51% compute for a month or so to destroy a cryptocurrency for good? They waste that money but any competitor of theirs (in business, etc) who had wealth tied up in that currency can kiss it goodbye. If a business was built around that currency it's dead now.

The 'diminish trust in the network' threat really only discourages an existing good actor (invested in the network) from turning into a bad actor.

If I've been mining a cryptocurrency for years and I decide I want to move on to mining something else, what stops me from using 51% to destroy the currency before I move on to mining something else? If I moved my currency holdings out (or have been liquidating them regularly, as any sensible miner might), what's to lose?

> I mentioned several reasons.

"Of course it wasn't supposed to be instant. That's why its a shit system to use as currency"

no you didn't.

> Why are Bitcoin transactions still slow?

that blanket statement is false and again illustrates how little you know about bitcoin. bitcoin transactions confirm within 10 minutes provided adequate fees. the lower fee you choose to pay the more you will have to wait until confirmation. speed is function of fees.

if you intended to ask "why aren't all transactions on lightning and therefore instant?" then it's because lightning is still in very early stages and is only starting to get adoption.

> Of course it is related to Bitcoin

it was related to one visa card issuer (wavecrest) that decided to discontinue support without any explanation. debit card providers that didn't rely on wavecrest are doing fine (and those that did - are moving to new issuers).

quick google shows a whole bunch: cryptopay.me, bitpay, spectrocoin, xapo, www.shiftpayments.com. there's 5 for you.

> Yeah, life is temporary as well rolleyes. This is a non-argument. You cannot tell when the problem is solved, and its a severe issue for adoption of Bitcoin.

this is possibly a non argument for you as a person who knows very little about the space.

everybody is aware that issue exists and makes a lot of low value transactions on chain economically not viable, that is exactly why lightning was developed.

> I can't be bothered to spend time to reply to the rest of your ad hominem.

you sure can't be bothered to educate yourself on the topic. as it seems you're from netherlands, your country's total energy consumption in 2012 was 82 Mtoe, total world energy consumption was 9000 Mtoe and world energy production was 13300 Mtoe. as i said - not even a blip, just find some courage to admit you were wrong. alternatively you could of course start arguing that 0.9% is totally a blip, in which case i'm at least happy to leave you better informed.

> If I have 100 buckets of sustainable water, and I piss in 90 of them, then the rest of the world only got 10 buckets of sustainable water left for general consumption

it's called a free market. if it is economically viable for mining companies to spend energy at their location for the price at that location - not much you can do about it.

> So using unnecessarily vast amounts of energy is a loss for the environment

it's only unnecessary by your definition and understanding of bitcoin.

> Dear reader, please don't fall for the Bitcoin scam. Read the above link instead, and notice the parallels with the Bitcoin/cryptocurrency mania. Specifically, the parallel with ICO and early adopters of cryptocurrencies.

yeah, i totally agree about most altcoins and ICOs. the rest is just you being angry and extrapolating more than you should.

> I haven't seen any place in Amsterdam Area

You haven't looked very hard, than. This is a "black swan" thing, by the way. So here's why you are entirely wrong:

* thuisbezorgd.nl accepts Bitcoin. Has done that for years. You can order from any snackbar, febo, pizza-joint, sushi-bar and pay with Bitcoin. Literally thousands of places in Amsterdam.

* mollie.com has offered a bitcoin-payment option for all their merchants to enable for years. Many webshops in the netherlands have enabled this (I use at least three on a monthly basis) who will then accept bitcoin.

* At least two lodging/guesthouses in Amsterdam accept BTC to sleep there.

* At least 8 coffee-shops (the ones selling actual coffee) and restaurants accept it.

* A cinema (Filmhuis Cavia), a barber, a grocery-shop, a vegan restaurant, a lawyer (Plasman) and probaly many more.

So, there you are: you were wrong: You can spend your BTC just fine in the fysical world. Even in the city you live in.

Oh I did look very hard. Thuisbezorgd.nl supports Bitcoin, that's not specific to Amsterdam Area though since it is nation-wide, and its a middleman not a local shop. So it isn't an argument for Amsterdam Area being a techhub for Bitcoin. Thuisbezorgd supporting Bitcoin payment is probably the flagship of Bitcoin support in The Netherlands and a solid example because it is basically the Dutch version of Uber Eats, and has a very strong market penetration in that field. Kudos for bringing it up.

Mollie, OTOH, is just a niche.

Now, let us discuss the amount of Thuisbezorgd transactions paid by means of Bitcoin. Paraphrasing their own words: "far less than 1%, and it hasn't increased over time" [1] (Nov 2017). They also convert the Bitcoin to EUR right away. That tells us something about the adoption of Bitcoin in the general public when your best example is this one. The elephant in the room is that paying with Bitcoin isn't feasible in this example due to the high transaction costs, and slow transaction speed.

Apart from Thuisbezorgd all of these examples are just that, exceptions and niches. They don't paint a Bitcoin paradise where one can spend their Bitcoins. If I take public transport, I gotta pay with EUR. If I pay for my OV Chipkaart (NFC) then I gotta put the money on the card via... EUR. There's no alternative to that. If I then go to IKEA and buy a bank, I gotta pay with EUR. If I then ask PostNL to deliver it, I gotta pay with, you guessed it, EUR. And if we'd go for a quickie at my fav fast food restaurant, Maoz, well they don't accept Bitcoins either.

Thuisbezorgd supports it (though I have no idea on the effect on delivery time, and transaction costs must be very high relative to the food. For one pizza that wouldn't be feasible) the rest is practically irrelevant.

Take this for example:

> At least two lodging/guesthouses in Amsterdam accept BTC to sleep there.

Two, woah! Blimey the free market provides us two options! Which ones? Wake me up when its market penetration is above 50%. Same can be said about your 8 (!!!) coffee-shops/restaurants. Look, it is a given that with so many stores (thousands) in such a small area, a few shops are going to adopt it. There were also shops who committed to the tulip mania back in the days, there are people in Amsterdam who work in MLM scheme, there are criminals as well, there's illegal prostitution, and there's Scientologists as well. That doesn't mean its a tech hub who adopted Bitcoin, doesn't mean the entire city is criminal, doesn't mean the entire city is full with illegal prostitution, nor that the entire city believes in Xenu.

A Bitcoin techhub or paradise would be a place where you can live your daily life by means of merely Bitcoins. We're not even remotely close to that in Amsterdam. I don't think it will ever happen. Although its in the interest of the Bitcoin facade to believe that, yes, Bitcoin can be easily used in the real world right now because you want to be able to cash out when the bubble busts (or right before that) your options are in practice severely limited. You cannot even remotely compare it to a strong currency like USD or EUR. Fuck me man, 8 cafetaria/restaurants to pick from in Amsterdam is seen as a techhub? A Pyrrhic victory, that's what that is.

> You can spend your BTC just fine in the fysical world.

Only at a very miniscule amount of stores. I wouldn't call this Amsterdam place "a techhub who adopted Bitcoin."

[1] https://www.ad.nl/economie/thuisbezorgd-nl-is-voorzichtig-me...