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Bitcoin Cash Soars to $700, Coinbase Customers Threaten to Sue

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Re: Bitcoin Cash Soars to $700, Coinbase Customers Threaten to Sue

#131

The problem both sides are trying to solve is that the system as a whole cannot handle the volume of transactions. Before the split, bitcoin handled 7 transactions per second, while Visa handles 50,000 transactions per second (I'm worrying these numbers from memory, so they might be wildly inaccurate). Bitcoin Cash solves this with a larger block size. This is admittedly a short-term solution. Bitcoin main, on the ot…

The important distinction with SegWit is that you can always go "on blockchain" to keep a transaction really private if it needs to be. Liquidity + optional complete anonymity + scalability. Plus I think there will be ways of getting SegWit to be more anon over time.

Bitcoin cash's solution will not scale. It's probably going to fail. [90% confidence.]

Re: Bitcoin Cash Soars to $700, Coinbase Customers Threaten to Sue

#132

Can someone please advice me whether its good to invest now or wait for sometime for it to settle?

None of us can see the future. I first got into bitcoin in early 2011. I have no rational evidence to support this, but my intuition tells me that bitcoin cash will not be the winner. Too much hassle to adopt, few exchanges currently supporting it.

Thanks for the response!

Re: Bitcoin Cash Soars to $700, Coinbase Customers Threaten to Sue

#133

The problem both sides are trying to solve is that the system as a whole cannot handle the volume of transactions. Before the split, bitcoin handled 7 transactions per second, while Visa handles 50,000 transactions per second (I'm worrying these numbers from memory, so they might be wildly inaccurate). Bitcoin Cash solves this with a larger block size. This is admittedly a short-term solution. Bitcoin main, on the ot…

The important distinction with SegWit is that you can always go "on blockchain" to keep a transaction really private if it needs to be. Liquidity + optional complete anonymity + scalability. Plus I think there will be ways of getting SegWit to be more anon over time.

Bitcoin cash's solution will not scale. It's probably going to fail. [90% confidence.]

Re: Bitcoin Cash Soars to $700, Coinbase Customers Threaten to Sue

#134
post #42

It's an interesting situation, but assigning liability to coinbase for this seems like it'd be a problem long term. Unlike traditional securities, there's nothing stopping me from going out and making my own fork tomorrow - and then would all exchanges be required to add support for that fork, too? Where do you draw the line?

As I mentioned in another comment, no lines would need to be drawn if they didn't advertise themselves as holding your wallet/coins/private keys. If their website and marketing copy were direct about the truth, which is that you are a holder of an IOU for a particular chain, then there would be no problems.

it's a common refrain that you don't actually own your coins if you are not the sole holder of the private keys, and this is one example as to why.

Re: Bitcoin Cash Soars to $700, Coinbase Customers Threaten to Sue

#135
post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, you could if there was any practical way to sell the bitcoin cash version at the moment. I personally think it likely that once you can, you'll be lucky to get $7 for one.

If there's no practical way to sell bitcoin cash, where does the $700 valuation come from?

In theory, it could be that currently the demand is way higher than the supply, if everyone were able to sell their BCC then the price could crash (assuming everyone would want to sell them as soon as they are able)

Re: Bitcoin Cash Soars to $700, Coinbase Customers Threaten to Sue

#136
post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

With withdrawal limits being what they are, this is easier said than done for a lot of users, I'd guess.

Was their any actual limit to moving Bitcoins held in Coinbase to another wallet/software? If there are why is it a problem now and not always?

Yes, Coinbase limits BTC withdrawals based on current USD value. A lot of traders lost money because they couldn't get their funds out in time. Coinbase will likely get sued and it'll cost them.

Re: Bitcoin Cash Soars to $700, Coinbase Customers Threaten to Sue

#137
post #120
post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What was the very scary part? you just need to copy and paste a Bitcoin address, it literally can not be simpler :) is it maybe the the alphanumeric hash that looks scary?

Handling a potentially large of money and keeping it secure? How to store the key? What happens if I loose my phone/computer? How can I protect myself from fire and theft? Which wallet to choose? How can I be certain I don't have a virus waiting to steal my coins? Did i copy my address correctly? That's a lot of uncertainty for "it literally can not be simpler".

Being able to easily handle a potentially large amount of money is exactly the reason why Bitcoin was created in the first place, so you don't need to depend on entities like banks.

But even then, if you don't want to do that, there are other exchanges and online wallets that can do all that for you.

Re: Bitcoin Cash Soars to $700, Coinbase Customers Threaten to Sue

#138

The problem both sides are trying to solve is that the system as a whole cannot handle the volume of transactions. Before the split, bitcoin handled 7 transactions per second, while Visa handles 50,000 transactions per second (I'm worrying these numbers from memory, so they might be wildly inaccurate). Bitcoin Cash solves this with a larger block size. This is admittedly a short-term solution. Bitcoin main, on the ot…

I'll add to this that Coinbase freezing everyone's Bitcoin Cash is a great example of the problems with giving up decentralization.

Re: Bitcoin Cash Soars to $700, Coinbase Customers Threaten to Sue

#139

The problem both sides are trying to solve is that the system as a whole cannot handle the volume of transactions. Before the split, bitcoin handled 7 transactions per second, while Visa handles 50,000 transactions per second (I'm worrying these numbers from memory, so they might be wildly inaccurate). Bitcoin Cash solves this with a larger block size. This is admittedly a short-term solution. Bitcoin main, on the ot…

And then muddying the waters is the argument that larger blocks are going to centralize it because poorer people won't be able to run a full node in their homes. (Versus paying $10 for a VPS to do so.) Conveniently ignoring that no one wants to run a full node for a settlement layer between big financial companies.

But further screwing it up is ASICBoost, which isn't compatible with other proposals like Segwit. That allows the small block folks to accuse the miners of opposing changes only for financial gain.

Sure, something needs to give. A transaction is about 225 bytes for the common case. So doing even 1000/sec means around 1.8Mbps (plus overhead) just to get the flow of transactions.

Re: Bitcoin Cash Soars to $700, Coinbase Customers Threaten to Sue

#140
post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is not a random fork. This is a fork with almost $400 million 24 hour volume. Coinbase should allow users to withdraw their BCC, since they are sitting on a huge pile of BCC units, which belong to customers.

It took me maybe 15-20 seconds to "claim" my BCH from BTC. I don't think its a technical issue here, so not sure why Coinbase would create such a negative situation. Simply provide an input to paste a withdraw wallet address for BCH and everyone can move on. Even if BCH had only been worth $0.10 people would still want to claim their free money.

I bet it comes down to not wanting to go through the same thing for every fork that gains a little bit of momentum.

If their accounting is competent they can anyway trivially award the correct amount of BCH at any later date (because they'd be able to determine exactly how many BTC each customer had at any given moment).

That's not nice for customers that want to trade now, but people are hardly forever screwed if BCH becomes the new thing.

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