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Bitcoin is a disaster

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Re: Bitcoin is a disaster

#101

Post by hombre_fatal »

pvg wrote: post #72
hombre_fatal wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't see the irony. The point is that Bitcoin has introduced an actual "digital cash" currency without institutional/governmental middlemen. That institutions can be built on top of that, and that some people want such institutions, doesn't change the novel utility of finally having a currency that functions like digital cash. It's like saying it's ironic that people use physical USD for anonymous p2p transactions…

The intent was 'actual digital cash', the result was 'instrument for speculation, money laundering and other fraud' which is entirely dependent on actual real money (and its institutions). Whether one finds that ironic or not is a matter of taste but it's clearly not exactly what the goal of "digital cash" was supposed to be.

That's just the reality of cash, no less in digital form, so it would be naive to think Bitcoin wouldn't inherit the same uses of USD (speculation, money laundering, fraud). It's just not very damning. Though I'm sure various people in the government/Visa would love to ban USD cash with the same demonization.

Re: Bitcoin is a disaster

#102

Post by m1sta_ »

baby wrote: post #31

That’s nonsense. Bitcoin is as good a store of value as gold due to one unique feature: scarcity. Actually, it’s even less power consuming than the gold industry and is much more transparent. I wouldn’t really advise bitcoin for anything else, like day to day transactions, although I and many of my friends have used bitcoin to transact on dark markets and it works. The only argument I’ve heard about gold being better…

Bitcoin is scarce like beanie babies are scarce, except you can make more bitcoins.

Re: Bitcoin is a disaster

#103

Post by ve55 »

raziel2701 wrote: post #37
jokethrowaway wrote: post #13

Completely agreeable, albeit it misses a point: Governments can't print more of it. That's it really, everything else is noise. I can sympathize with btc (I wish we still had a gold standard, or a standard based on the price of common goods) but I don't see much the other benefits. On top of this, governments could ban btc.

I mean, the 21 million cap is just a line of code no? No reason why if enough people agree to it they could just print more. Or they could fork and print more no? I find it strange that people speak of bitcoin's scarcity as if it were a physical thing.

Getting most people to agree to such a fork is likely impossible

Re: Bitcoin is a disaster

#104

Post by hombre_fatal »

JacksonGariety wrote: post #69
hombre_fatal wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't see the irony. The point is that Bitcoin has introduced an actual "digital cash" currency without institutional/governmental middlemen. That institutions can be built on top of that, and that some people want such institutions, doesn't change the novel utility of finally having a currency that functions like digital cash. It's like saying it's ironic that people use physical USD for anonymous p2p transactions…

Don't all currencies work that way?

How do you send USD to someone digitally?

Re: Bitcoin is a disaster

#105

Post by brokencode »

corty wrote: post #49
raziel2701 wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What kind of things do you buy with it and where? I remember seeing some adoption back when steam started accepting it, but sometime later they stopped because it was too volatile. I thought paying fees for the transaction made bitcoin very unappealing as well. It's not anonymous either, so I just couldn't find a reason to use it as it didn't solve anything that I couldn't do with my credit card. And my credit card o…

> What kind of things do you buy with it and where? Drugs, CP, cryptotrojan ransom, other crime related transactions. Bitcoin value is directly related to relevant criminal activity.

These are all terrible uses of Bitcoin, as mentioned in the OP. All transactions are publicly visible in an immutable database. With a little investigation, law enforcement can find out who owns certain accounts and trace transactions very easily from there. If you are a criminal, you want no paper trail whatsoever, which is why they use paper money.

Re: Bitcoin is a disaster

#106

Post by sunshinerag »

raziel2701 wrote: post #37
jokethrowaway wrote: post #13

Completely agreeable, albeit it misses a point: Governments can't print more of it. That's it really, everything else is noise. I can sympathize with btc (I wish we still had a gold standard, or a standard based on the price of common goods) but I don't see much the other benefits. On top of this, governments could ban btc.

I mean, the 21 million cap is just a line of code no? No reason why if enough people agree to it they could just print more. Or they could fork and print more no? I find it strange that people speak of bitcoin's scarcity as if it were a physical thing.

It isn't as simple as that. Not only have you got to change that line of code, you need to convince all users of bitcoin to run that version of the code including miners. Otherwise you have forked the coin and you might be the only user of it (your version is incompatible with the rest).

Re: Bitcoin is a disaster

#107

Post by rjurney »

hombre_fatal wrote: post #85
oblio wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What's "digital cash" in this context? What does it offer extra compared to regular cash and online payments?

Well, take the upsides of cash (e.g. don't need to open a bank, prove residence, etc.) and now add the ability to exchange it digitally without the pointless gatekeeping of large corporations like Paypal.

Who will be the largest Bitcoin vendor because they are trusted.

Re: Bitcoin is a disaster

#108

Post by julius_set »

I see a lot of biased posts on Hacker news regarding Bitcoin. How it will replace fiat, how it will revolutionize banking, how it will continue to go up in price.

The fact is that the technology powering Bitcoin is not great. There are better alternatives to Bitcoin, transactions still take a long time to finish on Bitcoin. And the alternatives themselves need to be refined too.

There are also still a lot of scam coins in play, I personally know a few founders (no relation and no business doing work with them), where they admitted to me their coin was a scam in them getting rich.

So I’m skeptical, very very skeptical. These “friends” got rich off poor chaps looking to make a quick buck. I am almost envious, then I remember that the feds or IRS or some other institution will come after then at some point.

One of them is paying off their current user base because they got hacked.

Re: Bitcoin is a disaster

#110

Post by hombre_fatal »

Glyptodon wrote: post #84
hombre_fatal wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't see the irony. The point is that Bitcoin has introduced an actual "digital cash" currency without institutional/governmental middlemen. That institutions can be built on top of that, and that some people want such institutions, doesn't change the novel utility of finally having a currency that functions like digital cash. It's like saying it's ironic that people use physical USD for anonymous p2p transactions…

Ah, yes, physical currency doesn't have institutional/governmental middlemen because private regulated banks aren't the government. /s

Try to make a concrete point without encumbering it with sarcasm. I don't want to guess at what you mean and then have a meta discussion over whether I correctly interpreted your point.
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