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Ending Bitcoin Support

stripe.com

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Re: Ending Bitcoin Support

#101

Post by [deleted] »

0xcafecafe wrote: post #60
nulagrithom wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> What future does an asset have if people don't actually buy stuff with it? I look at it (maybe naively) like a solid gold bar. You're not going to walk in to a convenience store and pay with a bar of solid gold; you might flee the country with one though. Beyond that, I totally agree with your read on the post. Linking the pull request[0] was especially backhanded. It feels like there's some underlying frustration…

Gold as a metal has an inherent value though. If not only for jewelry, it also has important uses in electronics. The value associated with bitcoin seems purely sentimental.

[deleted]

Re: Ending Bitcoin Support

#102

Post by andybak »

0xcafecafe wrote: post #60
nulagrithom wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> What future does an asset have if people don't actually buy stuff with it? I look at it (maybe naively) like a solid gold bar. You're not going to walk in to a convenience store and pay with a bar of solid gold; you might flee the country with one though. Beyond that, I totally agree with your read on the post. Linking the pull request[0] was especially backhanded. It feels like there's some underlying frustration…

Gold as a metal has an inherent value though. If not only for jewelry, it also has important uses in electronics. The value associated with bitcoin seems purely sentimental.

> Gold as a metal has an inherent value though.

The price of gold isn't really related to it's use in electronics however.

> The value associated with bitcoin seems purely sentimental.

Scarcity is a factor. Admittedly not all things that are scarce are valuable but it's a necessary precondition.

There are other examples of items that lack inherent utility but have value and they too are often used to store wealth: art, antiques etc. spring to mind.

If everyone decided tomorrow that Ming Vases were rubbish they would cease to be valuable. That's surely as "sentimental" as Bitcoin - value based on scarcity and consensus.

Re: Ending Bitcoin Support

#103

Post by losteric »

prostoalex wrote: post #63
moduspol wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> What future does an asset have if people don't actually buy stuff with it? Lots of assets have value without people buying things with them. Gold, houses, stocks, etc. The more interesting question is how long Bitcoin will remain top dog merely as a store of value if other cryptocurrencies solve this on-chain / off-chain scaling problem better / faster. There's definitely some amount of value in the name alone, and…

> Gold, houses, stocks, etc. With a caveat that houses and stocks can provide cashflow in terms of rent payments and dividends / option income.

Incidentally, houses are also useful for shelter and storing other assets

Re: Ending Bitcoin Support

#104

Post by avenoir »

koheripbal wrote: post #49
vec wrote: post #18

For what it's worth, we just spent two weeks trying and failing to get Stripe's Bitcoin integration working on our site. The short version is that Stripe guaranteed a USD BTC exchange rate for an hour, after which they would automatically cancel the transaction. Given that most transactions now take well over an hour to be verified on the blockchain, that means basically every transaction fails.

I honestly don't know what use-case remains for Bitcoin. If you have large value transactions you'd probably choose something with privacy like Monero, and if you want something cheap and fast, maybe Bitcoin Cash. In both use-cases, you have a few competing alternatives. In no circumstance is Bitcoin preferable to one of the mature alternatives. ...and if no one is using it as a transaction medium, then acting as a s…

With South Korea trying to regulate anonymous trading on Korean exchanges, makes me wonder how long we have before regulations become more widespread. And if this happens do you think privacy coins even stand a chance?

Re: Ending Bitcoin Support

#105

Post by ActsJuvenile »

nvk wrote: post #8

They should have replaced it with Lightning Network, is amazingly fast and cheap and works on top of Bitcoin. I'm running a test node, this stuff really works! > Lightning is a decentralized network using smart contract functionality in the blockchain to enable instant payments across a network of participants. In case you are curious https://lightning.network and another good resource here https://www.reddit.com/r/B…

Lightning needs two additional transactions to load and unload payment channels, maximum transaction amount is 0.04 BTC, and it is at least 1 year away from maturity for large scale deployment.

Current price bubble will bust long before that, and no one will care about LN anymore.

Re: Ending Bitcoin Support

#106

Post by thrillgore »

I can't blame them for doing this. I think the writing is on the wall about how people really use Bitcoin, and with the glut of ICOs (and many turning into pump-and-dump scams) reality is catching up with potential.

I still have hopes for Ether.

Re: Ending Bitcoin Support

#107

Post by mamon »

gizmo385 wrote: post #75
fastball wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Bitcoin is currently the crypto equivalent of gold. It's not reasonable to use it to buy a coffee. However, Bitcoin is trying (but many would argue, failing) to upgrade the network with something that will allow cheaper/faster transactions and make it a reasonable currency again. However, (imo) in-fighting has seriously hampered this. That being the reality, many people hope that Bitcoin will remain a store of value…

> Bitcoin is currently the crypto equivalent of gold. Why is this a good thing? Nobody uses gold as a store of value anymore because it just wasn't viable going forward. Why would Bitcoin be any different?

Most of the central banks have gold reserves as a store of value, some of them expanding them (most notably China and Russia). For individuals it is less popular, but still I wouldn't say "nobody uses gold".

Re: Ending Bitcoin Support

#108

Post by oculusthrift »

montrose wrote: post #15

This reads a bit like the sort of things people say when breaking up so as not to upset the other person too much. You're a great person, but you're just more of an asset than a medium of exchange, and what I need in my life right now is a medium of exchange. What future does an asset have if people don't actually buy stuff with it? That is not a purely rhetorical question; cryptocurrencies change things a lot. But t…

do you buy stuff with gold??

Re: Ending Bitcoin Support

#109

Post by LeonM »

0xcafecafe wrote: post #60
nulagrithom wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> What future does an asset have if people don't actually buy stuff with it? I look at it (maybe naively) like a solid gold bar. You're not going to walk in to a convenience store and pay with a bar of solid gold; you might flee the country with one though. Beyond that, I totally agree with your read on the post. Linking the pull request[0] was especially backhanded. It feels like there's some underlying frustration…

Gold as a metal has an inherent value though. If not only for jewelry, it also has important uses in electronics. The value associated with bitcoin seems purely sentimental.

So is gold. Most gold ends up in vaults (see [0]), where absolutely nothing is done with it. If we would price it for practical stuff (for it's thermal and electric properties), it would be worth much, much less.

Also, gold is not scarce by any means, just expensive to mine.

[0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CTtf5s2HFkA

Re: Ending Bitcoin Support

#110

Post by nickporter »

nvk wrote: post #8

They should have replaced it with Lightning Network, is amazingly fast and cheap and works on top of Bitcoin. I'm running a test node, this stuff really works! > Lightning is a decentralized network using smart contract functionality in the blockchain to enable instant payments across a network of participants. In case you are curious https://lightning.network and another good resource here https://www.reddit.com/r/B…

If you want to use it on your website:

https://github.com/ElementsProject/lightning-charge

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