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Coinbase from YC to DPO

blog.ycombinator.com

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Re: Coinbase from YC to DPO

#811

Post by jcpham2 »

matmatmatmat wrote: post #758
anonporridge wrote: post #692

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It doesn't need to be usable through the crisis to still have value. Holding the private keys will still help preserve some of your wealth through to the other side so you don't have to start over with nothing. You can flee with some gold, but I'd expect that to all be taken from you by the border guards or smugglers you have to pay off to get out. They can't take your bitcoin if they don't know you have it.

Genuinely curious if you think the Bitcoin network (or any other crypto network) would be restarted after such a crisis and if anyone holding non-crypto assets would be interested in trading them for crypto post-crisis?

Blockstream has satellites in orbit for this eventuality.

[1] https://blockstream.com/satellite/

Re: Coinbase from YC to DPO

#812

Post by 650REDHAIR »

olalonde wrote: post #606

Fun trivia: Brian Armstrong was looking for a co-founder on HN back in 2012: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3754664

Threads like that are a big reason I'm not very active here on HN anymore. So much negativity masquerading as "constructive feedback".

Re: Coinbase from YC to DPO

#813

Post by cryptica »

swensel wrote: post #778
xvilka wrote: post #747

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> crypto is nowhere near replacing credit cards, now or in the future. Bitcoin - not. On the other hand, modern altcoins who are faster, PoS-based, low fees, etc are on the path to exactly this.

Proof of Stake has yet to demonstrate as much resistence to adversarial attacks as Proof of Work. An expert in the space, Andreas Antonopoulos, speaks to this topic here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U0T49duRt74&t=2720s

There is a very strong incentive for Bitcoin proponents to push this narrative but it doesn't stand up to scrutiny.

Proof of Stake is more secure than Proof of Work because it's not possible to use external resources to take control of the system. The cost of hijacking PoS is exponential, not linear.

With PoW, someone who has no stake in the network could buy or rent mining hardware using fiat and take control of the network for a linear cost - This is because, unlike cryptocurrency tokens, hardware is not a scarce resource; it's always possible to produce more of it.

With PoS, the only way to take control of the network is to buy more than 50% of all tokens. The cost of acquiring 50% of all tokens is non-linear since tokens become more expensive as the attacker purchases more. This is because the attacker will generate continuous demand against fixed supply of tokens; in accordance with the law of supply and demand, the price will keep increasing as they buy more tokens. Also, the incentive to follow through on the attack decreases as the attacker accumulates more tokens.

Re: Coinbase from YC to DPO

#814

Post by spiralx »

delaaxe wrote: post #254
spiralx wrote: post #205

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Currencies don't have market caps, assets have market caps. The fact that people talk about crypto's "market cap" is as clear an indication that it's not and never will be a currency.

Currencies definitely have total supplies which can be measured in USD. Let's not be finicky with definitions. https://fiatmarketcap.com/

Calling a country's M2 money stock "market cap" is exactly the kind of category error I expect in the crypto space.

Re: Coinbase from YC to DPO

#815

Post by cryptica »

humaniania wrote: post #756
xvilka wrote: post #747

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> crypto is nowhere near replacing credit cards, now or in the future. Bitcoin - not. On the other hand, modern altcoins who are faster, PoS-based, low fees, etc are on the path to exactly this.

Which coin has a functional, non-exploitable PoS algorithm implemented?

Lisk. Though it's Delegated PoS.

Re: Coinbase from YC to DPO

#816

Post by s8s8discourse »

s8s8discourse wrote: post #468
rednerrus wrote: post #443

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Worth $1B tops.

How do you justify your $100m valuation of a company that generated $700m of PROFIT in a single quarter?

Nice edit.

How do you justify your $1000m valuation of a company that generated $700m of PROFIT in a single quarter?

Re: Coinbase from YC to DPO

#817

Post by morpheos137 »

aazaa wrote: post #735
olalonde wrote: post #606

Fun trivia: Brian Armstrong was looking for a co-founder on HN back in 2012: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3754664

Some observations: 1. Armstrong was so concerned about privacy that he used a throwaway, but ended up giving his identity away anyway. 2. Those responses! The negativity on Bitcoin has been there from the start on HN especially for some reason. 3. That whole payment angle has not worked out the way most people thought. Most enthusiasts in 2012 saw Bitcoin as a PayPal replacement. Instead, Bitcoin has taking its own p…

1. See 2.

2. Bitcoin was always a dumb idea from the perspective of building a business or an economy on it.

3. Anyone who really looked at Bitcoin in 2012 could see it was not a realistic replacement for PayPal unless you were thinking about paying on a place like SilkRoad.

Re: Coinbase from YC to DPO

#818

Post by FabHK »

solveit wrote: post #672
FabHK wrote: post #570

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agreed. As I've pointed out elsewhere, Coinbase trading fees are about 60x those of NYSE, Nasdaq, etc.; and Coinbase siphons off about 0.4% of the entire crypto market cap per annum. I don't see how that is sustainable at all.

It's not. But it doesn't have to be sustainable to justify the current valuation. Indeed if it were sustainable, Coinbase would be worth many many times what it is now.

What P/E ratio do you calculate with? IIRC, a normal valuation (not predicated on growth) would value it at a quarter of what it is now.

Re: Coinbase from YC to DPO

#819

Post by gitrog »

mtnGoat wrote: post #660
Johnny555 wrote: post #642

Earlier quoted context omitted.

just your country to go offline, how you gonna pay someone to get you out(keep you safe, etc).... A few ounces of gold on the other hand will take you anywhere you want to go People keep using that argument about gold, but is it really realistic? If the SHTF and the USA goes dark for whatever reason, how good is gold really going to be? First, how does someone know you're really giving them pure gold and not some wor…

gold was just an example used, because the BTC fans like to compare the two. but you are right, gold isnt overly tradable either, since it has very little day to day use. my point was just that BTC would still be useless as it cant be traded without an internet, miners, etc.

I don't particularly believe BTC is the messiah, but if the internet in your country goes down, how do you imagine you're going to get the money in your bank account? You might rush to an ATM before they get swarmed, but you're definitely not withdrawing all your money and transferring won't be an option.
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