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Bitcoin Failed in El Salvador. The President Says the Answer Is More Bitcoin

foreignpolicy.com

171–180 of 265 posts

Re: Bitcoin Failed in El Salvador. The President Says the Answer Is More Bitcoin

#171

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m looking at this: https://bitcoinfees.co/

Wow. That site is very wrong. Their historical data is wrong too. It’s all the same value!! It’s about 100x off reality. It’s been known since 2020 that it is fiction. Bitcoinfees.net appears to be correct (1-2 sats/vB). https://jochen-hoenicke.de/queue/ Also shows vast majority in last 24 hours paid I notice that earn is also reporting way way too high numbers. The fact is you can send 1sat/vbyte right now and it wi…

Not everyone uses lightning. I suppose that's what you're insinuating?

Re: Bitcoin Failed in El Salvador. The President Says the Answer Is More Bitcoin

#172

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That’s a few ex-spies that get to spend retirement in relative luxury in return for occasionally and sternly looking into a camera and making some completely obvious point, but with a lot of authority. There are more military veterans at McDonald’s, maybe even in relative terms. That doesn’t mean the Marines are infiltrating the McNugget supply. But, yea, top politicians and “the mainstream media” sometimes have simi…

We're well beyond your cognitive capabilities in this discussion if you're suggesting that a comparison between powerful ex-directors of the US intelligence apparatus landing post-gig jobs as political commentators at media organizations and "Marines" at McDonalds is apt (or even relevant).

Now you’re textbook begging-the-question: you were trying to proof that “the media” is somehow corrupt. Your argument was their hiring of some former national security politicos. Now you’re arguing that practice is so obviously evil because of its association with the known-to-be-evil media?

I’ve heard better definitions of porn from the Supreme Court.

Re: Bitcoin Failed in El Salvador. The President Says the Answer Is More Bitcoin

#173
post #107
post #26

I’m exhausted by cryptocurrency. There’s a kernel of neat tech innovation and a reasonable argument about monetary policy obliterated by an avalanche of greed, hype, fraud, and magical thinking.

I’m exhausted by the fiat money scam 2% annual inflation over a 40 year career amounts to 40% less earnings. Inflation is theft. Bitcoin fixes this. No one has ever explained a better solution to inflation than Bitcoin. Fiat money printing is a scam that lets politicians spend more money without directly raising taxes. Bitcoin is honest sound money with a fixed inflation policy forever that cannot be manipulated by a…

Isn't fiat money much more reliable than cryptocurrencies? We frequently cite the failures that led to hyperinflation, but nobody bats an eye when a cryptocoin fluctuates by a double digit amount in a single day.

The central authority that controls the money supply might not be perfect, but I trust it vastly more than a currency with no brakes that's mostly used for speculation.

That, and I can buy a hotdog with money. Peer to peer, without it being logged into a permanent record tied to my pseudonym.

Re: Bitcoin Failed in El Salvador. The President Says the Answer Is More Bitcoin

#174

So the key reason for btc adoption in El Salvador is cheaper remittance payments, I find it odd that an article that sets out to criticize btc in El Salvador doesn't even mention the original intended use case.

This may work for smaller payments What I've seen is that Salvadorans in the U.S., that have bought or sent bitcoin using their U.S. credit/cards with the Chivo Wallet App based in El Salvador, is that have been hit by 1%-3% foreign transaction fees or cash advance fees from their U.S. banks. So for some larger amounts it may end up being more expensive than a normal remittance.

I'm sad to hear that, I have been optimistic about this helping people actually. Good news is that there are other options besides Chivo, so hopefully conditions improve as the market develops.

Re: Bitcoin Failed in El Salvador. The President Says the Answer Is More Bitcoin

#175

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why are retailers forced to support BTC transactions if that is not a key part of the adoption?

Based from what I've seen form the rule of law system in El Salvador for the past months... That the most possible answer is that... Someone from the government tweeted or said that they had to do it on a tv interview, otherwise they would officially face fines or perhaps closures.

Yeah, isn't it a legal requirement subject to penalties, as you say? Then surely it's fair to measure success of the program on those terms as well -- i.e., is it being used as a currency for daily life? The answer is seemingly not (for technical, social, and speculation reasons), meaning it's fair to comment that this part of the project seems to be a failure. OP can't carve off criticisms they don't like or _personally_ care about.

Re: Bitcoin Failed in El Salvador. The President Says the Answer Is More Bitcoin

#176

These are interesting ideas. I like the idea that coin mining's so-called waste of electricity is creating demand for geothermal energy plants that wasn't there previously. There is an argument to be made that the reason we don't have pervasive green energy is that a) we don't need (demand) enough of power to force investment in renewables, and b) energy prices are too low to drive green tech innovation in the sector…

That's a very interesting variation of the broken window fallacy

Re: Bitcoin Failed in El Salvador. The President Says the Answer Is More Bitcoin

#177
post #107
post #26

I’m exhausted by cryptocurrency. There’s a kernel of neat tech innovation and a reasonable argument about monetary policy obliterated by an avalanche of greed, hype, fraud, and magical thinking.

I’m exhausted by the fiat money scam 2% annual inflation over a 40 year career amounts to 40% less earnings. Inflation is theft. Bitcoin fixes this. No one has ever explained a better solution to inflation than Bitcoin. Fiat money printing is a scam that lets politicians spend more money without directly raising taxes. Bitcoin is honest sound money with a fixed inflation policy forever that cannot be manipulated by a…

Have you heard of asking for a raise?

Also, last I checked, the price of essential good in Bitcoin, assuming the contra-factual that it were possible to buy such things with Bitcoin, hasn’t exactly been constant for 40 years.

Re: Bitcoin Failed in El Salvador. The President Says the Answer Is More Bitcoin

#178
post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m exhausted by the fiat money scam 2% annual inflation over a 40 year career amounts to 40% less earnings. Inflation is theft. Bitcoin fixes this. No one has ever explained a better solution to inflation than Bitcoin. Fiat money printing is a scam that lets politicians spend more money without directly raising taxes. Bitcoin is honest sound money with a fixed inflation policy forever that cannot be manipulated by a…

If you make 2% more money every year than you did the year before, then how does that lead to 40% less earnings over 40 years?

0.98 ^ 40 = 0.445. But that’s income in the last year, not fraction of the total. You’d have to add up 1 + 0.98 + 0.98^2… to get that, but I’m too stupid to figure out a closed formula or anything else I can solve with the Google calculator. It does get pretty close to 0.6, I believe, making this the least insane part of the post.

Re: Bitcoin Failed in El Salvador. The President Says the Answer Is More Bitcoin

#179
post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm sorry, but to me, Bitcoin sounds like a globalist wet dream. Besides, I find if wired when people use globalist like some sort of insult. As if wanting the whole world to be better and more connected is a bad thing.

“Globalist” is also often used as a codeword by antisemitists, which always raises the question of intention when you see someone using it: https://www.haaretz.com/us-news/.premium-how-did-the-term-gl...

Holy mackerel, you're actually going to twist my statement and say it's anti-semitic. What a jerk you are. I am being kind to you; what I'm thinking is quite worse.

Re: Bitcoin Failed in El Salvador. The President Says the Answer Is More Bitcoin

#180
post #142
post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

1) Why do people buy "pro" apps to remove ads but would not do that for content on the web? Also the micro fraud argument is kinda funny since everyone knows the ad business is full or fraud and everyone somehow involved with ads pays a huge junk for this. I think micropayment is far move fraud resistant because all the bots pretending to be humans and clicking ads do not work anymore. 2) That true. but it doesn't ha…

> remove ads but would not do that for content on the web The "pro" app equivalent is existing paywalls, NYT-style. > micropayment is far move fraud resistant because all the bots pretending to be humans and clicking ads do not work anymore But different sorts of fraud are imaginable, especially if you don't confirm every single payment. If you do confirm every single payment that's probably unacceptable user frictio…

Paywalls are walled gardens even if I would want to use them I cant because the internet is global but paywalls are not. Beside that its not feasible as paywalls are usually a subscription, the average user would need to have 10-100 subscriptions to cover their browsing habit. Not only is this way to expensive its also completely impractical. And it would self inflict a incentive to not leave your subscription bubble.

Micropayment make it possible that I can pay without subscription without giving my personal data and without some absurd premium price that is justified by the fact that I could consume other stuff for the rest of the month/year which I likely dont want.

>But different sorts of fraud are imaginable

Sure and we find solutions for these. Unlike with ads everyone should be onboard blocking and fighting the fraud. with ads however thous who dont commit it can still profit from it.

>If you do confirm every single payment that's probably unacceptable

But there are solutions for these problems. Lets say you want to watch a youtube video, it could be free for the first 10% and then ask you to confirm payment. Then it steams payment as you watch so if you stop halfway trough you only paid half the price.

>Or the copyright problem already seen with NFTs

There is no such NFT copyright problem its made up nonsense. People just dont understand what they buy usually a public price of art. So its already released when sold and people can copy or store it however they want. Its worthless just like an MP3 file of a radio hit is worthless the rights on that track however may not be worthless if the owner know how to make money from it.

>copy someone else's pages, charge for access to them.

Already possible now. Micropayments does not change anything here. People steal stuff and "sell" it. There is no technical solution for this problem.

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