Cryptocurrency is something people tell lies about in hopes of getting richer

Post by wpietri » Sat, Sep 25, 2021, 3:51 PM UTC

impulser_ wrote: post #349

wpietri wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mean, if you look at transaction cost, settle time, user friendliness, and currency risk, it doesn't even work as a medium of exchange, which is the definition of money. More than a decade on, approximately nobody uses Bitcoin for normal transactions. Compare with Venmo or MPesa, both of which launched around the same time, to se what actual digital money looks like. Both of those do way more transactions than Bitc…

Have you ever did a wire transfer through a bank?

Post by boh » Sat, Sep 25, 2021, 4:15 PM UTC

roenxi wrote: post #364

boh wrote: post #265

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not really a revolution when most people just trade it (mostly via fiat money). The original idea was for Bitcoin to be a currency, unfortunately the "hodlers" won, now its only reason to exist is to be more expensive. Boosters are still milking the original premise as some revolution they're supporting, when of course, if you ask how much of their crypto assets they've actually used/spent, the typical answer is 0%.…

I can use Bitcoin to safely, reliably and conveniently send money to people/organisations the US government doesn't like - eg, Wikileaks. It is hard to understate how radical that is. Such an act of quiet resistance against the powers that be was somewhere between extremely difficult and impossible in 2005.

Post by DangitBobby » Sat, Sep 25, 2021, 5:43 PM UTC

megameter wrote: post #339

secondaryacct wrote: post #309

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can rephrase it: why do you think it impossible for vastly resourceful entities to acquire so much power they can control the decentralized system - in a softer way, probably but still. Imagine a world tmr where bitcoin is everywhere. You ll have mining conglomerates in the cheapest electricity providers working as cartels to help each other and protect their interests (so can envision centralizing a blacklist of a…

It's easy. Copy-paste the blockchain and start over with a fork. When the system delegitimizes itself, a debt jubilee lies around the corner. This stuff is just glue now - a cheap way of making a financial system.

Post by tradertef » Sat, Sep 25, 2021, 8:54 PM UTC

digianarchist wrote: post #347

tradertef wrote: post #341

I was thinking like the headline until I witnessed that a government seized assets of thousands and left them pennyless in a very short time. After coup attempt in Turkey, 1.5 million people are investigated with accusation of being a member of armed terrorist organization (population of Turkey is ~80 million). Lots of people who could run away found their assets were frozen, and eventually legally or illegally seize…

The fact that Bitcoin is a complete failure as a currency is why it's not practical to keep all of your assets in it even as a targeted person.

Post by yellowapple » Sat, Sep 25, 2021, 9:20 PM UTC

UncleMeat wrote: post #363

yellowapple wrote: post #354

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> How is doing this as an NFT (or other blockchain thing) any better than having a government database they look up? If it's an out-of-state (or worse: international) ID, then the traffic cop (or, speaking from experience, some clerical worker back at the station) would need to deal with some bespoke interface for some external government database - and thus be at the mercy of that external agency. Such interfaces do…

You think that a cop is going to download some custom app (that somebody would build… for some reason) so they can have a preferred interface for their id lookup and police departments are going to approve of this and state governments are going to prefer this so much that they’d choose to implement licensing records using a more complex system that they have less control over?