The fact that every time a blockchain/crypto thread hits HN and many of the responses are talking about time stamps is in itself a bit of a meme. Seems very reminisce of people in ages gone by talking about what was the point for any advances from trains to telegram to the internet. The answer for what to use it for is to make things trust less and decentralized if you can’t see the advantage or limitless possibilities there I don’t know what to say. Smart contracts will change the world without the world even knowing.
What Bitcoin’s White Paper Got Right, Wrong and What We Still Don’t Know (2018)
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Re: What Bitcoin’s White Paper Got Right, Wrong and What We Still Don’t Know (2018)
#22Has anyone actually found a use for cryptocurrency and/or the blockchain yet that is not "burn a shit-ton of power on arguing over units of cryptocurrency are worth anything"?
https://dailyhodl.com/2020/09/28/big-bitcoin-holder-transfer... Quote from article: "The anonymous whale sent 15,987 Bitcoin worth $166 million, paying a fee of $23.46" Tell me, what bank in the world would charge only $23.46 for transferring $166 M?
Wire transfer fees are not commissions, so they don’t depend on the amount — unless currency exchange is involved.
Large transfers of hundreds of millions USD happen between institutions all the time.
I don’t think this is interesting or unique, or a convincing example of why Bitcoin is worth the enormous environmental impact.
Re: What Bitcoin’s White Paper Got Right, Wrong and What We Still Don’t Know (2018)
#23Has anyone actually found a use for cryptocurrency and/or the blockchain yet that is not "burn a shit-ton of power on arguing over units of cryptocurrency are worth anything"?
Anything you can do with fiat currencies, you can do with crypto. It's going to be huge.
Sure, people have been saying that for a while now and it hasn't materialized. What exactly is going to change that is going to make crypto able to be used like fiat currency? What exactly is in the works thats going to make that happen? Because it very obviously cannot be used to replace fiat currency currently. I mean, a lot of people are only holding cryptocurrencies because they think the value of the coin in US dollars is going to go up. "This currency will suffer from really bad deflation" is a pretty bad selling point for a new currency! So whats going to change?
Re: What Bitcoin’s White Paper Got Right, Wrong and What We Still Don’t Know (2018)
#24It's important to remember that the main thing Bitcoin needs to maintain is it's monetary policy and you can find it at any time right here https://github.com/bitcoin/bitcoin/blob/master/src/validatio...
Anyone can query at any time the total amount of Bitcoin that have been issued without relying on anyone. After downloading the Bitcoin client just run gettxoutsetinfo
You can try to guess how many dollars have been printed or how many bars of gold exist.
If you view Bitcoin as a payment network like VISA then obviously there are many things the network needs to improve but if you view it as a savings technology then it's the best one that's ever been created. I never understood how "But Can I buy Starbucks with Bitcoin" became a meme, I don't expect to be able to buy Starbucks with Apple stock.
Claims that Bitcoin burns useless energy or doesn't have feature X completely miss the point. Avoiding capital controls like in Lebanon, protecting yourself from hyperinflation due to corrupt governments with a printing press like Venezuela are Bitcoin's killer features.
It's common to view hyperinflation as something unique to corrupt countries but that's only because CPI is a dishonest way to aggregate inflation data. Inflation is a vector NOT a real number, any asset that people care about has become generally unaffordable i.e: housing, education, healthcare.
BS crypto vendors are looking for the next big application of blockchain technology when inflation protection and avoiding capital controls are arguably the most impactful innovation since the internet. Bitcoin and Time are the only 2 scarce assets that exist in this world.
Re: What Bitcoin’s White Paper Got Right, Wrong and What We Still Don’t Know (2018)
#25Has anyone actually found a use for cryptocurrency and/or the blockchain yet that is not "burn a shit-ton of power on arguing over units of cryptocurrency are worth anything"?
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Re: What Bitcoin’s White Paper Got Right, Wrong and What We Still Don’t Know (2018)
#26It's important to remember that the main thing Bitcoin needs to maintain is it's monetary policy and you can find it at any time right here https://github.com/bitcoin/bitcoin/blob/master/src/validatio... Anyone can query at any time the total amount of Bitcoin that have been issued without relying on anyone. After downloading the Bitcoin client just run gettxoutsetinfo You can try to guess how many dollars have been…
> “if you view it as a savings technology then it's the best one that's ever been created”
IMO this crown belongs to ETFs.
Putting all your eggs in the Bitcoin basket would be an extremely risky strategy. A portfolio of ETFs is a much better place for most people’s savings.
Re: What Bitcoin’s White Paper Got Right, Wrong and What We Still Don’t Know (2018)
#27Has anyone actually found a use for cryptocurrency and/or the blockchain yet that is not "burn a shit-ton of power on arguing over units of cryptocurrency are worth anything"?
And there is the typical HN unfounded hate for Bitcoin. I hope you never change HN.
Re: What Bitcoin’s White Paper Got Right, Wrong and What We Still Don’t Know (2018)
#28It's important to remember that the main thing Bitcoin needs to maintain is it's monetary policy and you can find it at any time right here https://github.com/bitcoin/bitcoin/blob/master/src/validatio... Anyone can query at any time the total amount of Bitcoin that have been issued without relying on anyone. After downloading the Bitcoin client just run gettxoutsetinfo You can try to guess how many dollars have been…
> “if you view it as a savings technology then it's the best one that's ever been created” IMO this crown belongs to ETFs. Putting all your eggs in the Bitcoin basket would be an extremely risky strategy. A portfolio of ETFs is a much better place for most people’s savings.
ETFs are all managed by the banking system that I'm happy to be outside of at this point. Thanks, but no thanks to GLD and other scams that ,,may send the value of gold in dollars if it doesn't have enough''
Re: What Bitcoin’s White Paper Got Right, Wrong and What We Still Don’t Know (2018)
#29It's important to remember that the main thing Bitcoin needs to maintain is it's monetary policy and you can find it at any time right here https://github.com/bitcoin/bitcoin/blob/master/src/validatio... Anyone can query at any time the total amount of Bitcoin that have been issued without relying on anyone. After downloading the Bitcoin client just run gettxoutsetinfo You can try to guess how many dollars have been…
> if you view it as a savings technology then it's the best one that's ever been created
Bitcoin is a terrible savings vehicle for the same reason cash in checking accounts or collectibles are: there is no basis for its value.
Baseless assets other than gold have been numerously proposed, usually about once every generation in every cultural sphere going back to Republican Roman times, but unvaryingly fall out of favor. This is why savvy portfolios consist of productive assets, not Beanie Babies.
Re: What Bitcoin’s White Paper Got Right, Wrong and What We Still Don’t Know (2018)
#30Has anyone actually found a use for cryptocurrency and/or the blockchain yet that is not "burn a shit-ton of power on arguing over units of cryptocurrency are worth anything"?
One of the most interesting Bitcoin meetups I've ever been to was in Nairobi, Kenya, where I met a bunch of farmers who had modern, large scale, industrial operations in Kenya and other african countries. They were using Bitcoin to buy supplies like fertilizer and farm equipment, as well as sell their crops, evading border controls in the process. It was a lot safer and less prone to confiscation than carrying around…
Bitcoin Cash is what we call Bitcoin now. Lighting is obvious vaporware nonsense that solves only the problem of how to keep Blockstream in control of the GitHub repo they (Adam Back and Greg Maxwell) hijacked years ago.