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Why Is Bitcoin Valuable?

taylorpearson.me

41–50 of 79 posts

Re: Why Is Bitcoin Valuable?

#41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think your comment raises some very interesting points, but that you go too far. There are costs (in the wider not just monetary sense) and benefits to various approaches. The reason you had to resort to crypto-currency first of all seems to me to be the problems in the countries you lived in. If they had working institutions, if you had lived in a Western country and had had access to the banking there, would you…

“but it also enables a lot of very questionable businesses and people.“ So basically like cash.

Which banks are desperately trying to get rid of.

Re: Why Is Bitcoin Valuable?

#43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think your comment raises some very interesting points, but that you go too far. There are costs (in the wider not just monetary sense) and benefits to various approaches. The reason you had to resort to crypto-currency first of all seems to me to be the problems in the countries you lived in. If they had working institutions, if you had lived in a Western country and had had access to the banking there, would you…

“but it also enables a lot of very questionable businesses and people.“ So basically like cash.

Not like cash at all. You can't pay with cash unless you are right there. Also, paying with large amounts of cash is hard or suspicious or even impossible.

Re: Why Is Bitcoin Valuable?

#44

Back in 2004, I lived in shithole country called Uzbekistan, I wanted to buy some US stocks but my bank refused to transfer MY money because of strict currency control in Uzbekistan. This was probably the first time in my life I realized that I don't actually own money stored at bank, it's just bank temporarily allows me to use my money and at any whim bank would reject to do so. In 2010, I lived in a little bit bett…

I think your comment raises some very interesting points, but that you go too far. There are costs (in the wider not just monetary sense) and benefits to various approaches. The reason you had to resort to crypto-currency first of all seems to me to be the problems in the countries you lived in. If they had working institutions, if you had lived in a Western country and had had access to the banking there, would you…

> I doubt giving everybody access to anonymity would be a net positive.

I would think that freedom from surveillance is a negative right, but you are framing it as a positive right. Why?

Re: Why Is Bitcoin Valuable?

#45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

“but it also enables a lot of very questionable businesses and people.“ So basically like cash.

Not like cash at all. You can't pay with cash unless you are right there. Also, paying with large amounts of cash is hard or suspicious or even impossible.

So crimes arent possible with cash?

Re: Why Is Bitcoin Valuable?

#46
I don't really understand all the negativity towards bitcoin on HN these days.

Back when it was new nobody would shame or outright insult people who invested in it. But somehow that's totally the norm now. Why does it matter whether the coin is worth 10$ or 10000$?

It was and still is a disruptive concept that solves many issues with our current centralized currency system.

Sure it also has a lot of issues itself. But can't we simply appreciate the technology for what it is: a Proof Of Concept.

Re: Why Is Bitcoin Valuable?

#47
post #3

The most interesting part of the cryptocurrency phenomenon has been the rise of pseudo-academic writing to support individual coins or the concept itself. Every time a new coin emerges, there's a detailed advertisement that's styled like an economics journal article. At the same time, there's low-level sophistry like this article to assert that cryptocurrency is going to solve social problem X. People who believe cry…

You should check out a project like Cardano then, they make their research go through academic peer review before they do anything. They also write their code in a way that you can prove it is an actual implementation of what the paper said (if I'm remembering correctly,but I'm not very familiar on the topic so I won't say much more about that, you can research it if you want).

Re: Why Is Bitcoin Valuable?

#48
post #16

Supply and demand curves are what make things valuable or not. Bitcoin has a finite set of coins in its network. Most people only buy fractions of a bitcoin because one full bitcoin is too pricy for them. People used to earn Bitcoins using GPU mining rigs. ASIC miners made that obsolete. GPU mining is no longer profitable but the average person does not know or understand that. I've seen stores like Microcenter sell…

> I am using Coinbase since the new year. Why put money in a gold rush after the rush? Can you explain the logic behind it? Like, have you never heard about it before 2018? Honestly if Bitcoin stabilizes around $300/coin it's still a huge profit to the people who started it and invested early (I bout around $90/coin). $12k/coin certainly is ridiculous. But I don't understand why people would even put a single dollar…

> But I don't understand why people would even put a single dollar into something at such a point.

because they think it will go higher

Re: Why Is Bitcoin Valuable?

#49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not like cash at all. You can't pay with cash unless you are right there. Also, paying with large amounts of cash is hard or suspicious or even impossible.

So crimes arent possible with cash?

Fewer crimes are possible with cash than with cryptocurrencies. It’s not boolean.
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