11–20 of 249 posts
It worries me to see people describe Bitcoin as the "IP layer of payments." I have serious doubts about Bitcoin's ability to scale to a global audience. Transactions are too slow, the blockchain is too heavy, etc. I see Bitcoin in a very similar light to IPv4 and JavaScript: a good idea that escaped into the wild too quickly. And so we wind up piling hacks upon hacks to make up for the lack of a solid foundation, and…
It worries me to see people describe Bitcoin as the "IP layer of payments." I have serious doubts about Bitcoin's ability to scale to a global audience. Transactions are too slow, the blockchain is too heavy, etc. I see Bitcoin in a very similar light to IPv4 and JavaScript: a good idea that escaped into the wild too quickly. And so we wind up piling hacks upon hacks to make up for the lack of a solid foundation, and…
This is my favourite article about Bitcoin to date, and properly describes one of the main ideas I wish Bitcoin detractors would come around to. Bitcoin has a lot of problems as a unit of account and as a store of value, but that is not primarily what Satoshi was building ( https://bitcoin.org/bitcoin.pdf ). Bitcoin is, and has always been, a medium of exchange first and foremost. It still has some shortcomings in th…
It's an interesting toolbox that can be used on its own, but gains a ton of power once tools are built on top of it.
It worries me to see people describe Bitcoin as the "IP layer of payments." I have serious doubts about Bitcoin's ability to scale to a global audience. Transactions are too slow, the blockchain is too heavy, etc. I see Bitcoin in a very similar light to IPv4 and JavaScript: a good idea that escaped into the wild too quickly. And so we wind up piling hacks upon hacks to make up for the lack of a solid foundation, and…
Are there counter-examples of enormous, open platforms that escaped into the wild at just the right time? Because sure, IPv4 and JS have their problems, but it is impossible for me to conceive of an alternate universe where they were perfect at launch.
I guess what I'd like to see is a breakaway from the notion that there can only be one, universally adopted standard. We should focus on building systems that are heterogeneous, not homogeneous. Ideally, we would have a world where IP packets were routed correctly regardless of version; websites could be programmed in any language; and transactions could be conducted in any cryptocurrency.
One way to achieve that is by adopting a very minimal standard, and then creating new models that targeting that standard (see: IPv6->IPv4 gateways, compile-to-JS, sidechains). The problem is that the standard is often not minimal enough, or is minimal in the wrong ways, or is too minimal to be of practical use. So I don't believe that this is the right approach; it's just too difficult to predict how people will use the standard.
It worries me to see people describe Bitcoin as the "IP layer of payments." I have serious doubts about Bitcoin's ability to scale to a global audience. Transactions are too slow, the blockchain is too heavy, etc. I see Bitcoin in a very similar light to IPv4 and JavaScript: a good idea that escaped into the wild too quickly. And so we wind up piling hacks upon hacks to make up for the lack of a solid foundation, and…
If the blockchain is too heavy, why are miners willing to process transactions for tiny fees? Bitcoin creates a competitive market in transaction processing. If the blockchain becomes too heavy (as measured by the transaction fees miners demand), alternatives will arise or the protocol will be changed to stay competitive.
I am not sure why anyone would want to accept Bitcoin via Stripe Same can be accomplished with Bitpay, who take 0% in fees with a 30$/month package (1% otherwise), they also pay into the bank the next business day unlike Stripe. And they are also alot more open as to the types of businesses they accept. Or hell one could directly accept bitcoin with bitcoind running locally or using the blockchain.info api and then c…
A lot of people aren't going to have the time to do research to find out about the ins and outs of taking online payments with Bitcoins, and at any rate, there's enough negative news about bitcoin that some of their research is going to turn up the various shenanigans of bitcoin banks, or the shenanigans done to them, etc.
In short, Stripe provides some automatic legitimacy.
If I had a need for Bitcoin, I'd probably want to go with someone established in the mainstream of payments, as well. Which means Stripe or Braintree or one of those guys. A large bank would be even better, but that may take a while.
I am not sure why anyone would want to accept Bitcoin via Stripe Same can be accomplished with Bitpay, who take 0% in fees with a 30$/month package (1% otherwise), they also pay into the bank the next business day unlike Stripe. And they are also alot more open as to the types of businesses they accept. Or hell one could directly accept bitcoin with bitcoind running locally or using the blockchain.info api and then c…
It worries me to see people describe Bitcoin as the "IP layer of payments." I have serious doubts about Bitcoin's ability to scale to a global audience. Transactions are too slow, the blockchain is too heavy, etc. I see Bitcoin in a very similar light to IPv4 and JavaScript: a good idea that escaped into the wild too quickly. And so we wind up piling hacks upon hacks to make up for the lack of a solid foundation, and…
I think it's just a consequence of Metcalfe's law; the first implementation of a good idea will never be perfect, but has the greatest chance of succeeding. Sure IPv4, JavaScript, Bitcoin, and countless others have defects, but the world is still better with than without them.
IPv4 is vastly better than JavaScript for what it does.