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Bitcoin is failing at becoming the future of money

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Re: Bitcoin is failing at becoming the future of money

#81
Bitcoin is a protocol; it’s not going anywhere.

Like nearly all mainstream articles, this one is quite shortsighted.

It’s like saying the TCP/IP protocol has failed in the early 90s when there were many competitors that were more popular.

I’m old enough to remember when you had to install a TCP/IP as an add-on to Mac OS and Windows.

Let’s look back at this article when Fidelity’s bitcoin ETF is approved later this year…

Re: Bitcoin is failing at becoming the future of money

#82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The very clear and main thing it brings is getting rid of the middleman, at least for transactions, whether it be governments or businesses. This is a bigger deal than it sounds, as the middle man defines most policy around transactions, whether it be who can trade, when, and how, which creates huge imbalances in fairness and accessibility, and also can be enforced at nation state borders. These may be seen as cons b…

I want a middle man in most of my transactions. Just imagine if a gas station changed their prices to ounces instead of gallons and you filled up your gas tank for $3000 before you realized the scam. With no middle man that money is gone. With a credit card you can refuse the charge and tell the credit card company who will ban that seller from their network and not charge you.

Sure, you do for some things, as most people do. And many people find a lot of value in no middleman for other things. This is not contradictory.

Re: Bitcoin is failing at becoming the future of money

#83
post #25

Bitcoin can't die soon enough. The initial idea and the ideology behind it is really admirable, but it was done as a proof of concept and failed terribly. But instead of "alright, PoC done, does not scale, let's move on to something better", too many people can't or don't want to move on because there's too much money on the line. I find it personally exhausting - I had a coworker until recently (he left) who was a s…

It's funny to me that you think its failed terribly, but it consistently grows year after year in adoption and value. The irony of this crowd especially having hindsight with the development of computers and the internet; being able to see what 90s internet looked like compared to today.

The Bitcoin network does exactly what it functionality sought out to do. The human speculative layer on top of it is what's confusing you, because the nature of monetary goods is confusing. Your dismissal of it shows your unfamiliarity with what money is, and your unwillingness to learn.

Re: Bitcoin is failing at becoming the future of money

#84

I am not a huge Bitcoin fan, and don't really have a strong opinion on it. It has some real problems, such as its energy usage, and slow transactions. All the technical complaints aside, which are legitimate, these news outlets write some of the worst pieces on Bitcoin. They are hopelessly biased in many cases and there are a lot of Bitcoin bears that eagerly celebrate its demise or anything negative around it. Sort…

This is an opinion piece about the volatility of BitCoin based upon its wild fluctuation due to some tweets by Elon Musk. It's biased because it's an opinion piece, but do you have an actual counter to that main concern?

Bitcoin isn’t meant to be money. I think the volatility is mostly related to China banning cryptocurrency. Elon moves the needle only a little IMO.

Re: Bitcoin is failing at becoming the future of money

#85
Many keep saying that BTC is like gold, an edge against inflation. I disagree. I think that one of fundamental problem with inflation is that banks pay almost zero interest rates, thus USD sitting in your bank account lose value overtime.

Now, what if banks were to offer decent interests rates? To at least compensate the inflation rate? Wouldn't that solve the "inflation" problem?

This is possible today with DeFi and stable crypto like USDT, platform like Celsius; where they pay you up to 10% interest rates on your $$$ sitting ducks. Think about that for a second 10% !

If banks were not as greedy as they are and share more profits with their customers, inflation wouldn't be that big of a deal.

Re: Bitcoin is failing at becoming the future of money

#87
post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also anyone who questions the panacea of BTC is labeled as a peddler of 'FUD.' Very much a cult like mentality.

Once "Have fun being poor" started becoming a battle cry, I realized how completely perverted the original concept had become.

You're right. It was originally supposed to be a useful tool. Now it's just a speculative pump and dump scheme.

Re: Bitcoin is failing at becoming the future of money

#88
post #25

Bitcoin can't die soon enough. The initial idea and the ideology behind it is really admirable, but it was done as a proof of concept and failed terribly. But instead of "alright, PoC done, does not scale, let's move on to something better", too many people can't or don't want to move on because there's too much money on the line. I find it personally exhausting - I had a coworker until recently (he left) who was a s…

So much this. I thought it was a joke the first time I read about it and I still can't believe people(plenty of which work in the tech field too) are buying into it. One notable example is a guy who has been retiring "next year" since 2014 with cryptocurrencies.

Re: Bitcoin is failing at becoming the future of money

#89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm finding it to be used a hell of a lot more in countries with precarious economies like where I've been spending most of my adult life. In brazil especially I've seen a lot of facilitation of adoption of crypto. I know because I've developed the systems myself, from everything to paying your phone bill to bus tickets, although bitcoin is hardly the only or best option for these things

Could you give real examples of widespread adoption of Bitcoin in Brazil?

Yeah for sure, without giving away too much PII on myself or advertising -- you don't see it on this page, but the company I had worked for can do cool stuff like load up a prepaid contactless mastercard on a wearable wristband with crypto you can just go and buy at a lottery ticket stand. I don't think that North America has solutions like this, but I worked on the integration myself and while I am not in that country anymore it was still impressive and something I wish I could easily use worldwide

https://atarpay.com/

I think my favorite explanation of latin america is like 'yeah its kind of cyberpunk these days just more horizontal than vertical'

ah ok here's a video of someone doing this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QtAcRonh8dU [ - ATAR BAND, Pagamento rápido e fácil do banco amigo das criptomoedas !!! ]

Re: Bitcoin is failing at becoming the future of money

#90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think anyone seems to remember the slight drama under which satoshi nakamoto had disappeared where he called people out for not really seeming to realize or respect that bitcoin was pretty much just a proof of concept

My conspiracy theory is that cryptocurrency was invented by the CIA to destabilise the Chinese financial system.

That's a fun one. How would they have accounted for its potential effects on the US monetary systems?
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