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Bitcoin's Use in Commerce Keeps Falling

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Re: Bitcoin's Use in Commerce Keeps Falling

#321

Post by lmpostor »

smsm42 wrote: post #238

I am not surprised. I am a programmer with decades of experience under my belt, and I have no idea how to install bitcoin in a way that would allow me convenient use of it. No, I can install the apps, and I can spend a month or two waiting until it downloads the whole 40+G of current blockchain, or I can trust some site that says it'd fix it for me, or I can open an account on any of the exchanges and pray to cryptog…

>programmer with decades of experience

>experienced professional who actually knows what Bitcoin is and can probably explain how it works

>can't download a SPV wallet

Congratulations you are the person who is unable to differentiate between "browser" and "internet" in this case.

Re: Bitcoin's Use in Commerce Keeps Falling

#322

Post by qeternity »

alienplutonic wrote: post #222
qeternity wrote: post #144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Bitcoin advantage: easily and instantly divisible. Gold not so much. Not so important for a store of value. > Bitcoin advantage: weighs nothing, highly transportable. Gold not so much. Yet requires an order of magnitude more skill and overhead to handle.

Hardware wallets are stupid simple to use for BTC.

Stupid simple for you maybe. The average person in the developed world would disagree, ignoring people in a third world country like Venezuela (the example that prompted this comment thread) who likely don't even have a computer.

Re: Bitcoin's Use in Commerce Keeps Falling

#323

Post by qeternity »

keymone wrote: post #272
qeternity wrote: post #144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Bitcoin advantage: easily and instantly divisible. Gold not so much. Not so important for a store of value. > Bitcoin advantage: weighs nothing, highly transportable. Gold not so much. Yet requires an order of magnitude more skill and overhead to handle.

(bangs head on the wall) > what advantage does it have over gold? can you point me to words "store", "of" and "value" in the above question? > order of magnitude more skill and overhead to handle only if you assume handling gold means dropping the gold bar in your basement and never touching it again?

Gold bar? The example that prompted this thread was Venezuela. The average Venezuelan can maybe afford some gold jewelry that has been passed down through the family, much less an entire gold ingot.

Re: Bitcoin's Use in Commerce Keeps Falling

#324

Post by dj43nq »

scotty79 wrote: post #132
dj43nq wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What is backing bitcoin? Gold? Cpu cycles?

Algorithm thay decides how many bitcoins exist. Bitcoin is backed by same thing art and collectibles are backed by. Scarcity.

I don’t buy burgers with art or collectibles. And holding bitcoin doesn’t help me in long or short term.

Right now I’m hoping more people will buy bitcoin so I can dump the remainder of mine.

Re: Bitcoin's Use in Commerce Keeps Falling

#325

Post by tromp »

throwaway123156 wrote: post #317
conanbatt wrote: post #151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I disagree with several of your statements. First, bitcoin has a monetary policy, and the key is that it cant be changed, which is very appealing: more appealing that storing gold vs fiat, since gold has a less predictable monetary policy. Gold had been chosen as currency for most of history, across cultures and languages. In countries where the currency breaks down, things like chocolate, potatoes or corn get into c…

The Fed can easily replicate the benefits of cryptocurrency in seconds. They simply need to come out and say "We will only print X number of dollars, every Y number of months". There you go. All the benefits of Bitcoin replicated in the USD, which is a far more widespread and versatile currency? So why doesn't the Fed do it? Because it really is a terrible idea. It's like pegging your currency to gold, which was a te…

> say "We will only print X number of dollars, every Y number of months"

Easily said. Not so easily verified. Verifiable emission remains a big advantage of cryptocurrencies.

Re: Bitcoin's Use in Commerce Keeps Falling

#327

Post by CyberDildonics »

agorabinary wrote: post #231
CryptoPunk wrote: post #228

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>>Bitcoin progress has always consisted of overcoming allegedly insurmountable problems, Lightning dev is no different. Bitcoin's founder solved one allegedly insurmountable problem: the Byzantine Generals' problem. It's irrational to believe this means Bitcoin Core's development team, who had no part in the original design of Bitcoin, will solve more problems of this class. Bitcoin Core should have fully exploited t…

Ever since LN was first proposed, skeptics have asserted problem after problem as an insurmountable obstacle. And time after time they have been proven wrong. If you really think that big blocks solve anything, then by all means just use Bcash - though of course Bcash itself is melting down into separate forks as we speak..

> If you really think that big blocks solve anything, then by all means just use Bcash - though of course Bcash itself is melting down into separate forks as we speak..

Try to look beyond all the censored /r/bitcoin propaganda - bitcoin cash and other cryptocurrencies scale fine with increased blocksizes.

Bitcoin cash is not melting down in separate forks at all. The increased blocksize obviously works without problems and has nothing to do with forking in the first place.

There was never a reason to restrict the blocksize of btc except to sell a complicated and unnecessary promise of a solution to a non-problem. Everyone outside of the /r/bitcoin censorship and propaganda bubble can see this.

Re: Bitcoin's Use in Commerce Keeps Falling

#328

Post by CryptoPunk »

agorabinary wrote: post #231
CryptoPunk wrote: post #228

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>>Bitcoin progress has always consisted of overcoming allegedly insurmountable problems, Lightning dev is no different. Bitcoin's founder solved one allegedly insurmountable problem: the Byzantine Generals' problem. It's irrational to believe this means Bitcoin Core's development team, who had no part in the original design of Bitcoin, will solve more problems of this class. Bitcoin Core should have fully exploited t…

Ever since LN was first proposed, skeptics have asserted problem after problem as an insurmountable obstacle. And time after time they have been proven wrong. If you really think that big blocks solve anything, then by all means just use Bcash - though of course Bcash itself is melting down into separate forks as we speak..

That's an over-generalization and concluding from it that LN will fulfil all of its promises is characteristic of the kind of blinders-on thinking within the Bitcoin Core community right now.

Skeptics have thus far been proven right that LN doesn't work as a full substitute for on-chain transactions, and its advocates have continually had to push back the promised date of a usable product.

Big blocks in an age of 30 Mb/s internet connections can and will work. 3,000 tps on-chain was the original scaling plan for Bitcoin. Fortunately, Bitcoin (Cash) carries on that plan.

Re: Bitcoin's Use in Commerce Keeps Falling

#329

Post by coryfklein »

dragontamer wrote: post #293
cc439 wrote: post #191

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you have any first hand experience with buying gold from local dealers? I've never really looked into it but the vast majority of gold dealers in my city are also pawn shops geared toward purchasing gold rather than selling it. While I'm unsure as to their exact pricing model for selling gold, the way in which pawn shops are known to buy precious metals leads me to believe I'd be paying significantly more than wha…

American Eagle Gold coins are US-Government issued, serial-number stamped official Gold coins of the US Government. Created by the US Mint, you have strong assurances that you are recieving in fact, 91.67% gold / 22 karat (an alloy, because pure gold is too soft for the typical consumer). If you do want 99.99% Gold / 24 karat, the US Mint also makes the Buffalo coin. But that's usually harder to store. American Eagle…

1 oz gold spot is $1210 per ounce [1]

1 oz American Eagle coin direct from the mint? $1,490 [2]

That's a 23% "transaction fee". You'll get much much lower buying gold (or bitcoin) from somebody else.

[1] http://www.kitco.com/charts/livegold.html

[2] https://catalog.usmint.gov/american-eagle-2018-one-ounce-gol...

Re: Bitcoin's Use in Commerce Keeps Falling

#330

Post by coryfklein »

rrdharan wrote: post #114
bscphil wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree. It's almost hilariously counterintuitive. I recently needed to send a moderate sum of money (4 figures) to someone who lives across the country. There's no obvious reason why this should cost me anything or not happen in the same day. However, * Checks / ACH takes days to close, plus in many situations you might have to actually mail the person a check * EFT seems reliable, but takes days and requires having…

Last week I needed to make a highly time-sensitive transfer of ~20k that had to clear the same day. Chase charged me a flat fee of $25 for the wire (and Ally Bank would have been happy to do it for $20). Chase temporarily froze my account since the payment was so large it was immediately flagged, but I spoke to someone on the phone within a few minutes, verified it was all legitimate, and the transfer was then proces…

You're fortunate that it was processed without issue. Banks and governments have vested interest in large money transfers and it could just have easily gone the other way; they could have suspected the money and witheld the transfer and the money until you provided paper documentation of its legitimacy.
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