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Is Bitcoin Down or Just Me?

isbitcoindownorjustme.com

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Re: Is Bitcoin Down or Just Me?

#101

Post by barkingcat »

camjohnson26 wrote: post #43

For all the hate Bitcoin gets because it’s obviously in a bubble market, can we at least agree that it is an astounding engineering achievement that an anonymous individual and a small group of researchers were able to build a network capable of transacting billions of dollars of value with only 2 service incidents in 14 years? All without any meaningful service costs and no hacking of the network, despite huge incen…

What are you talking about - the bitcoin and ethereum network "service costs" are through the roof and are one of the biggest failures of the network as it was designed.

The service costs are so extremely high for each transaction, and if you don't pay the gas/service fees there's a very high potential that no one will process your transaction.

It's basically highway robbery.

I'm thinking you've never really transacted anything on the bitcoin blockchain?

Re: Is Bitcoin Down or Just Me?

#102

Post by spinny »

beaconstudios wrote: post #54
camjohnson26 wrote: post #43

For all the hate Bitcoin gets because it’s obviously in a bubble market, can we at least agree that it is an astounding engineering achievement that an anonymous individual and a small group of researchers were able to build a network capable of transacting billions of dollars of value with only 2 service incidents in 14 years? All without any meaningful service costs and no hacking of the network, despite huge incen…

There is a meaningful service cost, it's just paid for by mining. Environmentally there's also a massive cost, one that is not offset by the benefits bitcoin brings - which is primarily financial speculation and scams. Cryptocurrency is probably one of the worst inventions in recent memory.

correct. the cost of the Bitcoin network, at least in terms of energy is the sum of all the energy spent mining so far. this is also what values the network and makes it secure. it's a very efficient method to convert raw energy into a digital token

Re: Is Bitcoin Down or Just Me?

#103

Post by theturtletalks »

matheusmoreira wrote: post #91
beaconstudios wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is a meaningful service cost, it's just paid for by mining. Environmentally there's also a massive cost, one that is not offset by the benefits bitcoin brings - which is primarily financial speculation and scams. Cryptocurrency is probably one of the worst inventions in recent memory.

There's no benefits to mining bitcoin specifically. You're right about that, it buys us nothing. Wouldn't mind even more energy being spent to secure the Monero blockchain though. Also, scams are only common in the smart contract networks. People create useless shitcoins and spam telegram groups in order to generate some quick hype and exit with as much money as possible. I'd certainly like to believe nobody would be…

The cost users are paying is the cost of decentralization. One single entity will always be cheaper than blockchain decentralization, but the cost can be spread across millions or billions of users.

Now if the cost is worth it remains to be seen.

Re: Is Bitcoin Down or Just Me?

#104

Post by Guvante »

notch656a wrote: post #82
root_axis wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Bitcoin subsists on the massive electrical and internet infrastructure that is only possible through government.

Because no private enterprise could provide power or internet. Sure, some of the internet technology was invented with government grants, but lets not pretend these inventions were only inevitable due to US government. If US government were gone today the internet, electricity, and bitcoin will still be here but the usefulness of the dollar will massively decrease.

Are we pretending that the US government is gone without a worldwide depression? (To be clear the US isn't alone, any of the major countries disappearing overnight would shock the economic system too hard to make these style what ifs meaningful)

If so it wouldn't stop being valuable for quite a while still, in this hypothetical you would still have years of contracts in terms of USD, not all of which would be renegotiated for tons of reasons. Additionally most foreign trade that historically ran of the USD would want to change to a new world currency but would need to figure out what currency to use.

So lets flip it on its head. What if the mining reward disappeared? Would Bitcoin survive?

Re: Is Bitcoin Down or Just Me?

#105

Post by grey-area »

nas wrote: post #68
ogogmad wrote: post #26

What happened to Lightning? Did it solve Bitcoin's problems yet?

It's functional but not ready for prime time yet, IMHO. Buying things on Bitrefill using Lightning works well. It is better than a credit card, I think. Really fast and low fees. Imagine a gift card that works for any merchant that opts into the open protocol. Also, if you want to refund the money on the card, you can do that without the cooperation of any merchant. There are a number of improvements in the pipeline.…

What do you mean exactly about refunds, do you mean a merchant can refund without involving a card network?

Re: Is Bitcoin Down or Just Me?

#106

Post by notch656a »

brokencode wrote: post #97
notch656a wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Quantify the environment cost that has been borne by bitcoin and now compare it to the cost by overheating or cooling houses (except perhaps a few elderly or infants, no one needs a house to stay within 60-80 degree band, you can survive with much less heating/cooling energy usage). Then explain to us how anyone living in a comfortable room temperature heated home that complains about bitcoin isn't a hypocrite, using…

Of course we could live at 60 degrees in the winter, but most people would agree that their lives are meaningfully improved by increasing the temperature to closer to 70-72. On the other hand, Bitcoin provides no meaningful benefit to society compared to other currency. The only real benefits of Bitcoin are that it makes ransomware easier to accomplish (which is bad for most people) and that it has made some people a…

Crypto provides extraordinary meaning to many people in society compared to other currency. Argentinian freelancers use it to get paid, for instance due to systemic issues with financial transaction in their country.

One big one to me is buying precious metals online with >lives are meaningfully improved by increasing the temperature to closer to 70-72.

Well I could say "nuh uh" and then you could say about bitcoin "nuh uh" but then we'd both merely be saying the other's use of energy consumption is bad. If you have an issue with making sure every bit of electricity is only used for necessities, why don't you go out and say that or explain how you want to make sure externalities are paid for by power consumers. Singling out bitcoin by people living near room temperature with aid of heating/cooling is just hypocrisy.

Re: Is Bitcoin Down or Just Me?

#107

Post by politician »

notch656a wrote: post #82
root_axis wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Bitcoin subsists on the massive electrical and internet infrastructure that is only possible through government.

Because no private enterprise could provide power or internet. Sure, some of the internet technology was invented with government grants, but lets not pretend these inventions were only inevitable due to US government. If US government were gone today the internet, electricity, and bitcoin will still be here but the usefulness of the dollar will massively decrease.

I'd argue the opposite, if the US government ceased to exist, the electrical grids in North America would collapse shortly thereafter, followed by the Internet and Bitcoin. Without the rule of law and threat of prosecution, a massive surge in usage due to theft would overwhelm systems. Without the nuclear status quo and the threat of retaliation, NA would either be glassed or invaded.

Re: Is Bitcoin Down or Just Me?

#108

Post by krzyk »

matheusmoreira wrote: post #65
camjohnson26 wrote: post #43

For all the hate Bitcoin gets because it’s obviously in a bubble market, can we at least agree that it is an astounding engineering achievement that an anonymous individual and a small group of researchers were able to build a network capable of transacting billions of dollars of value with only 2 service incidents in 14 years? All without any meaningful service costs and no hacking of the network, despite huge incen…

> can we at least agree that it is an astounding engineering achievement As the first cryptocurrency, it's certainly an incredible innovation and idea. However, it's already outdated technology. Bitcoin failed to become everything it was idealized to be. It's not anonymous. It's not private. It's not fungible. It's not decentralized. It's not unregulated. It's not even a currency since transactions are not cheap and…

> not unregulated

What do you mean?

> transactions are not cheap and fast

What do you mean by that? Becauee my transactions were cheap and quick

Re: Is Bitcoin Down or Just Me?

#109

Post by root_axis »

notch656a wrote: post #82
root_axis wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Bitcoin subsists on the massive electrical and internet infrastructure that is only possible through government.

Because no private enterprise could provide power or internet. Sure, some of the internet technology was invented with government grants, but lets not pretend these inventions were only inevitable due to US government. If US government were gone today the internet, electricity, and bitcoin will still be here but the usefulness of the dollar will massively decrease.

Private enterprise providing power and internet would be a massive disaster, this is the reason we have utilities; a cadre of competitors dredging up the shared public space to each erect their own private lines would create a hideous patchwork of incompatible and inefficient infrastructure that would have completely destroyed any possibility for the internet as we know it today.

Re: Is Bitcoin Down or Just Me?

#110

Post by anderber »

beaconstudios wrote: post #54
camjohnson26 wrote: post #43

For all the hate Bitcoin gets because it’s obviously in a bubble market, can we at least agree that it is an astounding engineering achievement that an anonymous individual and a small group of researchers were able to build a network capable of transacting billions of dollars of value with only 2 service incidents in 14 years? All without any meaningful service costs and no hacking of the network, despite huge incen…

There is a meaningful service cost, it's just paid for by mining. Environmentally there's also a massive cost, one that is not offset by the benefits bitcoin brings - which is primarily financial speculation and scams. Cryptocurrency is probably one of the worst inventions in recent memory.

> Cryptocurrency is probably one of the worst inventions in recent memory

Keep in mind that not all Cryptocurrency use mining. Nano, for example, is zero fee, environmentally friendly coin that is incredibly fast. Bitcoin gets all the talk but there are some great and interesting tech out there. Get yourself a wallet (https://natrium.io/) and I'll send you some so you can try it out.

https://nano.org/

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