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Ending Bitcoin Support

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641–650 of 659 posts

Re: Ending Bitcoin Support

#641

Post by hollerith »

Aunche wrote: post #550
zanny wrote: post #520

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If the International perception of gold being valuable disappeared overnight (which... yeah, won't happen unless someone discovers legit alchemy magic) the difference between losing 90% of your value or 100% if it had no use outside of the speculation shouldn't be influencing almost anyones decision in what to invest in. All the other parameters (volatility, profitability, etc) are way more important than if you are…

My point is that gold can never lose 90% of its value because the majority of it is already used in luxury items and electronics. At worst, the total value of gold can only drop by the current amount that is being held in reserve or as investments.

>the current amount that is being held in reserve or as investments

--which is almost all of the gold in the world.

Re: Ending Bitcoin Support

#642

Post by hollerith »

SubiculumCode wrote: post #638
VarFarYonder wrote: post #617

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Hardly anyone uses gold as a storage of value https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gold_reserve#Officially_report...

I meant individuals rarely keep gold as a store of value.

It is not rare in South Asia.

Re: Ending Bitcoin Support

#643

Post by undoware »

fastball wrote: post #621
undoware wrote: post #551

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, that's why I bought it! But it's still proof-of-work-based. The future is proof-of-state. I know folks are trying to retro PoS into Ethereum, but I'll believe it when I see it. Many others are already there. I'd say: Bitcoin is first gen, Ethereum is second gen, and there are a variety of third-gen coins with good UX and proof-of-stake already on the market. I expect one (and probably only one) of these latter t…

Vitalik is enough of a force that if PoS becomes a priority it will happen. Gas prices? A standard transaction that will confirm in ETH isn't accepted in as many places because people are building DApps and ERC20 tokens, which are what you transact with on these services. But in order to get these tokens, you need ETH. That being said, ETH is getting wider and wider transactional attention. Coinmarketcap even lists a…

Good points

Re: Ending Bitcoin Support

#644

Post by milcron »

root_axis wrote: post #573
milcron wrote: post #563

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes and no. Once the blockchain forks, the distinction between all those coins is very technical. Coins from one ledger cannot be spent on another ledger. You're right though, cultural convention decides which blockchain is the "real" Bitcoin. Most people are using BTC at the moment, but Bitmain takes payment exclusively in BCH. This might seem like a semantic quibble, but I think it's important. There will only ever…

There is no intrinsic property that makes it "the real asset", it is a completely arbitrary distinction based on social coordination not on any fundamental property of the ledger.

That's true. But regardless of which ledger is "the real asset", there will only be 21 million of that coin.

You can clone the technology, but you can't clone societal acceptance.

Re: Ending Bitcoin Support

#645

Post by VarFarYonder »

SubiculumCode wrote: post #638
VarFarYonder wrote: post #617

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Hardly anyone uses gold as a storage of value https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gold_reserve#Officially_report...

I meant individuals rarely keep gold as a store of value.

> I meant individuals rarely keep gold as a store of value.

I think individuals with an actual portfolio of investments will hold gold or have some exposure to gold.

Also, you wouldn't expect gold to be widely held when you consider things like Executive Order 6102: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Executive_Order_6102

Basically, the US government forced everyone to sell their gold in 1933. US citizens only regained the right to hold gold in 1974.

Governments are going to find it much harder to enforce such an order when it comes to cryptocurrencies.

Re: Ending Bitcoin Support

#647

Post by sctb »

mrhappyunhappy wrote: post #620
skellera wrote: post #527

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Bitcoin is the multi-level marketing of millennials.

I don't know how you are not ashamed to state something so stupid.

Personal attacks are not OK on Hacker News, no matter what you're replying to.

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

Re: Ending Bitcoin Support

#649

Post by WorldMaker »

milcron wrote: post #644
root_axis wrote: post #573

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is no intrinsic property that makes it "the real asset", it is a completely arbitrary distinction based on social coordination not on any fundamental property of the ledger.

That's true. But regardless of which ledger is "the real asset", there will only be 21 million of that coin. You can clone the technology, but you can't clone societal acceptance.

Only supposing there isn't a soft fork accepted by miners upping the maximum limit of coins.

Re: Ending Bitcoin Support

#650

Post by linuxps2 »

wmf wrote: post #554
nikcub wrote: post #477

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> You have to a) pay to open up a channel with each person you wish to use it This simply isn't true. You open one channel and then payments are routed over channels to your destination. It's no different to TCP/IP in this way and the reason why that analogy is used a lot in describing the network Having a one channel single destination can be done with Bitcoin alone and the new timelock transactions - the purpose of…

Thanks for posting those infographics; they answer some lingering questions that have lain unanswered for years. I still see one problem, though, which is that the few on-chain transactions that are required (such as topping up a channel) will be far more expensive than in those other blockchains. Like $20 vs. 20 cents. So there are plenty of scenarios where LN fees will still be higher overall.

With LN there are less transactions on-chain which reduces fees. Also, finally the temper-tantrum throwing core-supporters are quickly realizing that a block size increase is absolutely necessary going forward
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