281–290 of 639 posts
Is it still too early to estimate new application costs and performance improvements? Has anyone seen any statistics or comparisons yet? it will be interesting to see how this affects the efficiency of the platform and what this means for the adoption of other platforms.
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What happens with these loans if the recipient defaults on repayment?
Loans are overcollateralized and collateral is automatically liquidated once the collateral ratio falls below the liquidation threshold. Eg. for eth as collateral the liquidation threshold is 75%, meaning $75 borrowed for $100 in collateral. Compound itself has survived multiple violent price crashes and lenders didn't lose anything.
Why don't I use my $100 directly instead?
There are a few cases outside the blockchain where you get loans although you already have the cash (e.g. for tax reasons), but I don't understand how it makes financial sense in this case, if everything happens on the blockchain with no other incentive.
Maybe another direct question would be: as a lender, for which risk are you getting paid some interest?
I don't understand this. I don't understand any of it. I don't understand cryptocurrencies. I don't understand what problems they really solve. > "Ethereum is open access to digital money and data-friendly services for everyone – no matter your background or location. It's a community-built technology behind the cryptocurrency ether (ETH) and thousands of applications you can use today." I can do all these things alr…
Many of us feel the same about programmable money. It seems pretty interesting, unexplored, and has exciting, scary potential. It seems like a great place to build community groups openly, fairly, freely(in the libre sense). It reminds me of being a kid in the 90s dialing up to the internet and discovering peoples homepages and forums, sharing ideas and playing with new ways of organising and working together, playing and having fun. The ethereum dev community is inspiring to me.
But you dont have to agree that it is world changing, thats ok. I think there is value in it and will work to prove you wrong! We're all on the same side in the end.
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I first used it to pay a contractor in Argentina, since then I stick with the store of value hypothesis. It’s like gold but easier to hold and trade without having the government devalue it by printing more dollars. Or put another way, why does a dollar have value?
We already have solutions for paying people in other countries. Why would I use this one? I read a lot of difficult words I don't understand. It doesn't explain anything to me.
With Bitcoin it just works with 0 issues. Also I don't need to pay taxes which is good thing as I don't like this government and don't want to fund it.
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I've heard of Ethereum "distributed apps". Is that different than currency, what is a use case for a distributed app?
Generally it's about eliminating counterparty risk. Compare Coinbase (centralized) with Uniswap (decentralized). Coinbase users put their trust in a custodian. That custodian has the ability to steal from them or be stolen from. That's how MtGox went down in flames. Uniswap users don't have to custody their funds with anyone to trade. They can use whichever they want. Coinbase's platform can change on the whims of th…
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I can do all these things already. You're absolutely right, but just like you can send a letter in the mail, email does the same thing but is digitally native to the internet. Up until the invention of Bitcoin, there was ZERO scalable way for me @joeblau to send you @louwrentius money the way I send an email. By that, I mean the only thing I need to rely on is a protocol (like SMTP) and you'll receive it. What proble…
Bitcoin wastes an obscene amount of energy for a theoretical maximum of seven transactions per second globally. How is that even remotely scalable?
It also lays the groundwork for scaling tech that will vastly increase the transactions per second.
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> Up until the invention of Bitcoin, there was ZERO scalable way for me @joeblau to send you @louwrentius money the way I send an email. By that, I mean the only thing I need to rely on is a protocol (like SMTP) and you'll receive it. Maybe because it's not a need most people have? > The problem is that money (paper money/currency) is not the only thing that has value which human beings transfer among each other. We…
It's fine to criticize a technology and saying that you don't understand what problem it solves, but responding to every comment, even those that make clearly valid points, with "means nothing to me" and "not a problem for me" without any counterarguments is quite rude. These people are taking the time to answer your questions. For example, intermediaries such as brokerages and banks taking money from your investment…
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I can do all these things already. You're absolutely right, but just like you can send a letter in the mail, email does the same thing but is digitally native to the internet. Up until the invention of Bitcoin, there was ZERO scalable way for me @joeblau to send you @louwrentius money the way I send an email. By that, I mean the only thing I need to rely on is a protocol (like SMTP) and you'll receive it. What proble…
Why am I paying fees if there's no middle-person?
Transaction fees are an important economic inventive for persons or organizations who run the “nodes” that make up the network. The hardware, electricity, and maintenance by humans needed to run those nodes cost money, and running them is not an altruistic endeavor. One of the goals is to make a profit; staking/mining rewards and transaction fees make that possible.
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How might we create a digital commodity that is: 1) Consistent with a specific set of ideals (anyone can issue, what happens on the network is a matter of individual responsibility, establish economic incentives to funnel people into good behavior, finders keepers, etc.) 2) Obfuscated enough that it’s not immediately regulated into oblivion by the existing financial system Many people on this site subscribe to the id…
> what happens on the network is a matter of individual responsibility That sounds like the opposite of solving trust.
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Define 'kill'. ETC has been 51% attacked multiple times and it still exists. It's very possible some people are going to mine btc on their personal hardware even in 2100. The only caveat is the difficulty adjustment algorithm, as it's potentially possible for btc to become stuck at an extremely high difficulty. For 'kill' as in 'stops being big and important' I think it's going to happen relatively soon, mostly agree…
Everything I know about cryptocurrencies makes me think you and parent are completely right, and PoW cannot work without inflation (or even with very low inflation, that does not justify the cost of running hardware in the absence of transactions). Just relying on transaction fees should lead to downward spiral of use, where fees are way too high to maintain use, or network security is too low to protect value. I'd l…