Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

El Salvador to airdrop $30 in Bitcoin to up to 6M citizens

finance.yahoo.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

101–110 of 115 posts

Re: El Salvador to airdrop $30 in Bitcoin to up to 6M citizens

#101

Post by narrator »

rocqua wrote: post #97
varajelle wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can route through your pair. Say A has a channel with B, B has a channel with C and C has a channel with D, you can make payment between A and D provided that B and C are online. In a way that nobody can steal money from one another, and neither B not D know who is paying who. In practice, B and C would probably be like banks or exchanges, with many channels, while normal users only need one channel open.

True, and in fact lightning payments tend to take many hops if routed publically. But every citizen would still need atleast one lightning channel. And opening those is expensive.

The lightning channel would go through a custodial wallet. Yes, people could self host their own wallets, but fees would be higher because they'd have to open a lightning channel.

Re: El Salvador to airdrop $30 in Bitcoin to up to 6M citizens

#102

Post by lowkey »

zenincognito wrote: post #6
chedine wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Average HN is a salty nocoiner.

Thats a gross generalisation. One would think, that average HNer would be a coiner because of their background.

It may be a gross generalization but based on the majority of comments on HN, it is unfortunately an accurate one.

Not only are the comments salty, they are generally ill-informed.

See Dang’s recent call to HN for more insightful comments and less vitriol for example.

It hurts me to say this about HN because on other topics comments are often deeply insightful but when it comes to Bitcoin (and other cryptos) HN comments are often ignorant and dismissive.

Re: El Salvador to airdrop $30 in Bitcoin to up to 6M citizens

#103

Post by mujina93 »

errantmind wrote: post #94
bellyfullofbac wrote: post #37

It seems like many here don't get what I think they're doing: government buys 180 million USD worth of Bitcoin, stores it in their wallet, and creates an SQL database (well, with a bank as a wrapper) with 6 million entries with $30 (or whatever that is in BTC) each. The transactions can just be recorded in this SQL database, and the "reserve" would be untouched. If someone wants to exchange their BTC to USD or Euro,…

As you pointed out, this isn't how Lightning Network works. The fact this is being upvoted is useful information about the state of this site and people's knee-jerk reaction to anything cryptocurrency related (coming from someone who has been here a while)

Can you explain to me how something that is very unsatble in value can be useful as a currency?

Assuming all other aspects are solved.

Re: El Salvador to airdrop $30 in Bitcoin to up to 6M citizens

#104

Post by SideburnsOfDoom »

errantmind wrote: post #96
xiphias2 wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Transaction fees is one thing, but going to the city by bus to pick up the money is extra cost and hours of time. I sometimes wish people from US would travel to these places to understand the life other people were born into.

I have traveled extensively in developing countries (years) and see this cryptocurrency initiative serving a real need with remittances and electronic payments.

How then does it compare to M-Pesa?

Re: El Salvador to airdrop $30 in Bitcoin to up to 6M citizens

#105

Post by errantmind »

SideburnsOfDoom wrote: post #104
errantmind wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have traveled extensively in developing countries (years) and see this cryptocurrency initiative serving a real need with remittances and electronic payments.

How then does it compare to M-Pesa?

I'm not overly familiar with M-Pesa. That said, a primary distinction is centralized vs decentralized. I prefer to have full control and trust in my currency. Crypto is volatile, but there also isn't a central bank to inflate away its value. From my perspective that is the totality of the value from distributed / decentralized consensus in currencies

Re: El Salvador to airdrop $30 in Bitcoin to up to 6M citizens

#106

Post by robjan »

errantmind wrote: post #95
robjan wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They'd still have to open 6M channels which would create the same number of transactions on the Bitcoin Blockchain

This doesn't seem factually accurate. Please support this claim with more information and preferably a citation. This isn't how LN works to my knowledge.

What I said is factually accurate. It's mentioned on the homepage of the lightning network website in the "How it Works" section. Why would you challenge my statement when you haven't even read the basic information?

https://lightning.network/

Re: El Salvador to airdrop $30 in Bitcoin to up to 6M citizens

#107

Post by errantmind »

mujina93 wrote: post #103
errantmind wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As you pointed out, this isn't how Lightning Network works. The fact this is being upvoted is useful information about the state of this site and people's knee-jerk reaction to anything cryptocurrency related (coming from someone who has been here a while)

Can you explain to me how something that is very unsatble in value can be useful as a currency? Assuming all other aspects are solved.

The current volatility will decrease as adoption and everyday use increases.

The primary value of cryptocurrency is there not being a central authority to inflate away its value (through bailouts or economic 'stimulus').

Smart contracts offer the same fundamental value: you know what you are getting into and no one authority can change the terms on you.

Re: El Salvador to airdrop $30 in Bitcoin to up to 6M citizens

#108

Post by errantmind »

robjan wrote: post #106
errantmind wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This doesn't seem factually accurate. Please support this claim with more information and preferably a citation. This isn't how LN works to my knowledge.

What I said is factually accurate. It's mentioned on the homepage of the lightning network website in the "How it Works" section. Why would you challenge my statement when you haven't even read the basic information? https://lightning.network/

Because you left out some information. These channels only have to be opened once, and at current prices this is around 40 cents. It costs a lot more to both open a bank account and send money from a -> b.

Re: El Salvador to airdrop $30 in Bitcoin to up to 6M citizens

#109

Post by NicoJuicy »

rocqua wrote: post #100
NicoJuicy wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You just explained the trickle down fairy he mentioned :)

Trickle down works for immigration. Immigration is not even close to zero sum. For wealth re-distribution within a country it starts of zero sum. And indeed, putting all the wealth concentrated does not help the poor. Making the wealthy wealthier without taking from the poor will help the poor some. Moreover, it will help the government a lot more.

> Trickle down works for immigration.

Proof/evidence for that statement?

Re: El Salvador to airdrop $30 in Bitcoin to up to 6M citizens

#110

Post by varajelle »

thehappypm wrote: post #93
varajelle wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can route through your pair. Say A has a channel with B, B has a channel with C and C has a channel with D, you can make payment between A and D provided that B and C are online. In a way that nobody can steal money from one another, and neither B not D know who is paying who. In practice, B and C would probably be like banks or exchanges, with many channels, while normal users only need one channel open.

So you need something centralized for it to actually work.

No, why? It's all P2P.
Post reply on HN