El Salvador makes Bitcoin legal tender

Post by X6S1x6Okd1st » Thu, Jun 10, 2021, 4:51 AM UTC

shp0ngle wrote: post #667

X6S1x6Okd1st wrote: post #488

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's a very good question. IMO it seems pretty unlikely that bitcoin will undergo another fork any time soon, the people that were fine with forking went to BCH and then had many subsequent forks meanwhile the people that stayed on BTC either believed in small blocks or believed in the virtue of not forking.

I have heard some people are planning another UASF with respect to Taproot. Because miners are not agreeing with it.

Post by booi » Thu, Jun 10, 2021, 5:27 AM UTC

neither_color wrote: post #194

BurnGpuBurn wrote: post #86

"Bitcoin is positioned to disrupt the remittances industry in El Salvador, estimated at about $5 billion annually. Most families in towns like El Zonte do not have bank accounts, and rely on services such as Western Union WU +0.5%, which take 5-10% in fees. The closest Western Union is approximately one hour by bus, requiring the recipient of the cash transfer to take the bus back with cash on hand, creating a safety…

It's important to note that El Salvador's currency is the US dollar. WU doesn't even need to convert currency. They are simply taking up to 10% from a low-earning demographic group in the US just because they can. Even if bitcoinization itself "fails", if it forces WU to lower its fees it'll do net good. Among U.S. Hispanics and Salvadorans, the median annual personal earnings for those ages 16 and older was $25,000.…

Post by kaetemi » Thu, Jun 10, 2021, 5:33 AM UTC

StavrosK wrote: post #60

kwhitefoot wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Where I live ordinary bank transactions are free for ordinary consumers. I never pay a transaction fee or any annual fees. My bank used to charge an annual fee for a credit card but they have stopped charging now. In fact in my whole life (I'm 65 so about 50 years of having bank accounts) I have never paid transaction fees for ordinary transactions (in the UK and Norway).

Greece here, transactions cost 3 EUR. I think they're possibly free if you use the same bank, but the apps are cumbersome to use and the potential for fees is a deterrent, so nobody uses them for transactions of less than hundreds of EUR.

Post by KingOfCoders » Thu, Jun 10, 2021, 5:40 AM UTC

reedjosh wrote: post #671

KingOfCoders wrote: post #670

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"It's akin to hiding money in your mattress" So people with money in their mattress and no access to a bank should do an elaborate scheme that ends with "akin to hiding money in your mattress"? With a treasure map and a cross where the treasure is so your children will find it in need? Then make a movie out of it and become rich?

You're sure making a big deal out of remembering a seed phrase. The original point was > They do not realize that with that wallet if the wallet is gone so is the money. Wheras if the phone is gone, nothing happens to their money. Which is just false as a seed phrase is all that's needed if the hardware wallet is lost.

Post by zapdrive » Thu, Jun 10, 2021, 6:44 AM UTC

marcinjachymiak wrote: post #545

zapdrive wrote: post #247

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Lightning is not decentralised. You have up keep your node online 24/7 to prevent theft. Most people can't do that. So they will end up keeping their coins in the custody of nodes that run 24/7. Leading to centralisation. Lightning is just like a MySQL database extra steps.

You don't have to be on exactly 24/7. The default delay for spending coins from a commitment txn is 144 blocks in some clients and is usually scaled with channel size. Most clients let you configure it manually too. That means you'd have to be online once within 24 hours of your counterparty trying to steal your channel balance to stop them. IMO this is pretty reasonable for a cellphone user. It doesn't follow that t…