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Bitcoin Is Time

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Re: Bitcoin Is Time

#111

Post by gillesjacobs »

bearerofgarbage wrote: post #96
gillesjacobs wrote: post #95

Proof-of-history using verifiable delay functions (VDF) is a valid consensus mechanism that scales of PoS and PoW networks [1]. Solana is build on top of it and it looks very promising as a fast consensus mechanism. OP pretty much explains the intuition behind why history as a sequence of events in a blockchain works, but Bitcoin PoW is different from PoH as maintaining order is the main work done and not a side-effe…

what problem of value does it solve? every post including cryptocoin here gets a generic comment like yours about some other cryptocoin that is 'very promising'

I wanted to share a cool algorithm related to the time as consensus. My intention was not to shill a specific project.

I follow alternative consensus algorithms and trustless decentralized app tech in the blockchain space because I think it is interesting and democratizing tech. I do not own half of the coins I follow and couldn't care less for speculation. Technologically, cryptocurrency is still an exiting domain and scepticism is in place, but the blind hate for anything blockchain on HN is a bit OTT.

Re: Bitcoin Is Time

#112

Post by joshsyn »

randomsearch wrote: post #60
arbawk wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ponzi schemes will always have people at the pinnacle of the period looking to sell. Bitcoin supporters will never sell, thus there is no bottoming out. It's actually just money, you're likely missing something.

Why won’t Bitcoin supporters ever sell? How can you say that with certainty? People sold GameStop, for instance.

One reason I think is because of the global phenonmenon and easy to exchange native currency to crypto. And the immutable and fixed capped supply. Huge prizes to be won for someone cracking the network.

Re: Bitcoin Is Time

#114

Post by fanf2 »

howmayiannoyyou wrote: post #63
joosters wrote: post #8

Time is money. Bitcoin is wasted time. And wasted money. And wasted energy.

It takes 1/10th the time to initiate a funds transfer via crypto (eg. Bitcoin) as it does to effect the same wire transfer or ACH using most banks's treasury management systems. This, and the fees can be less depending on the token used; but are considerably less if the transfer is cross-currency. The transit time is about the same if BTC is used, less if one were to use XLM (Stellar) for example.

Where I am from, money transfers are free and instant

Re: Bitcoin Is Time

#115

Post by shawnz »

jsheard wrote: post #33
Dirlewanger wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Everything on the planet uses energy. Why are people so obsessed with Bitcoin's energy usage in particular?

It uses orders of magnitude more energy than the "legacy" financial institutions it competes with, to process a fraction of the transactions, and has tenuous practical benefits unless you're a ransomware gang or an early mover getting rich from the hype.

In an absolute sense it uses much less energy. If you divide that by the current rate limit of transactions, it looks bad comparatively in that sense, on a per-transaction basis. But the energy usage of Bitcoin isn't related to the transaction rate, and the rate could be increased without affecting the energy consumption at all. There just hasn't been enough demand for that increase.

Re: Bitcoin Is Time

#116

Post by doomroot »

ttul wrote: post #31
bdamm wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If Bitcoin is a Ponzi scheme, then gold must be as well.

Not really. Half of the value of gold, or thereabouts, relates to its utility as a metal. Bitcoin is purely valued because people believe others will buy it from them in future at a good price - hopefully a higher price.

So half the people that use gold are involved in a ponzi scheme?

Re: Bitcoin Is Time

#117

Post by arbawk »

SkipperCat wrote: post #68

Bitcoin is only popular because tech workers get paid a lot and have the ability to speculate, we live in a world of massive asset bubbles created by government fiscal policies and Bitcoin is excellent for buying drugs on-line. Most people want security in their assets, which is why a majority of folks read articles about bitcoin but never touch one. All of these articles are great examples of creative writing. I do…

Actually it's pretty important for many: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xLYYh4aPXAM

It's being widely adopted in countries with inflating currencies: Nigeria, Vietnma, and Argentina made it to #3 today (this link is slightly old). https://www.statista.com/chart/18345/crypto-currency-adoptio...

Re: Bitcoin Is Time

#119

Post by ben_w »

doomroot wrote: post #108
user-the-name wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is nothing baseless in saying that using 0.1% of the entire world's energy in order to do 3 transactions per second is beyond ludicrous, and an environmental disaster of massive proportions.

Here me out. What if it was the only way to defund the US military? Would you be interested then? Why do we waste so much energy building killing machines? Why is there not a daily hackernews thread complaining about the energy consumption of the US military? Because it’s a necessary to ensure you can buy and sell things when you want to.

If that was the argument, I would ask in response: if it could do that, why would the combined vested interests of the US military-industrial lot allow Bitcoin to succeed? It’s not beyond the reach of governments to ban unwanted trade, and even though bans are not magic, even a half-arsed enforcement of such a ban is enough to prevent a currency becoming endemic.

Re: Bitcoin Is Time

#120

Post by agumonkey »

Talking about that I see a few projects throwing the idea generalized of time limited currency. I find the idea a bit interesting and weird at the same time.
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