It is funny that all the problems with "crypto" have long ago been solved by bitcoin... [sad face]
On anti-crypto toxicity
131–140 of 734 posts
Re: On anti-crypto toxicity
#132Earlier quoted context omitted.
I wasn't specifically giving a btc example, qr code can also be apple pay or anything like that. It's just that in the case of btc, there's no central authority to cancel the transaction. You need a court order to force the bar to manually send the money back to you. The bank cannot freeze the funds. Enforcement is crippled. If this is not a reputable business (unlikely for a bar and very unlikely for a small sum lik…
Yes but all these things are features to me. I like cash for small purchases, and I like, say, Monero for the same reasons. If I lose 50 € to some unscrupulous merchant, that's worth it to not have to ask the bank for permission for and tell them about every transaction.
These are all features as long as you live in a world where there is no bad faith, no misunderstandings, no drama of any sorts.
In this world however, disputed transactions may even be more than half, depending on the industry. You can't approach something that ignores this as a serious financial tool.
Re: On anti-crypto toxicity
#133Earlier quoted context omitted.
Inherently deflationary asset guarantees it's going to be used as a speculation vehicle rather than money.
...which is good because it helps us move away from the throw-away society mentality. Bitcoin is very effective environmental activism.
Unless this is sarcasm, do you wanna talk about the environmental ramifications of so much work being duplicated and dumped in the bitcoin network? Like, the sheer number of machines and waste heat that comes from nodes who weren't quite fast enough to get the payout, and just had to put all those calculations into /dev/null?
Re: On anti-crypto toxicity
#134Waaay back, I thought Bitcoin was a cool technology, and convinced some friends of mine with businesses to accept it. We had a lot of fun with it - it was really cool to pay for your beer by scanning a QR code and seeing the transaction come through this public, distributed, tamper proof ledger, like magic, with no need for money, banks or any of the other financial infrastructure we're used to. Sadly, the "crypto sp…
This doesn't make sense. The vast majority of people aren't interested in the slightest about the technology. Nobody needs or wants to know the intricacies of SEPA payments, I just want to touch the terminal with my watch and boom, payment completed.
Re: On anti-crypto toxicity
#135I hope the next article would touch upon anti-tulip toxicity.
Re: On anti-crypto toxicity
#136Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yes but all these things are features to me. I like cash for small purchases, and I like, say, Monero for the same reasons. If I lose 50 € to some unscrupulous merchant, that's worth it to not have to ask the bank for permission for and tell them about every transaction.
If I lose 50 € to some unscrupulous merchant, that's worth it to not have to ask the bank for permission for and tell them about every transaction. in other words, you aren't poor enough for the loss of 50 € to mean that you are going to have less food this month and won't be late on your rent because of it.
Ah yes, banks, the champions of the poor man.
Re: On anti-crypto toxicity
#137Earlier quoted context omitted.
Depends on the people you hang with. I'm currently at devconnect in Amsterdam and it's full of people who care about tech. Really nice a crowd and even a bit more diverse than the rest of IT.
I had a fantastic experience at DevCon V. Ethereum developer conferences attract all the technical folks and almost none of "money" people. I haven't gone to any Bitcoin conference, but I can't see it being the same. Bitcoin's aversion to change means mostly demagogues are left, and all the talk is money talk.
Bitcoin isn't averse to change, it's averse to changes that impede on its core attributes: decentalized, permissionless, global, censorship-resistance. Increasing the block size as a patch to keep fees down infringes on the core attributes, because you increase the minimum requirements for running a node.
There's a lot of innovation happening in and on Bitcoin. RSK for smart contracts, BetterHash for mining pool decentralization, the Lightning Network or Liquid Network as examples of layered scaling.
Bitcoin's dev meetups are great examples of the helpful, thoughtful, enterprising and conscientious community that exists, without the overly loud, overly shallow speculators.
Re: On anti-crypto toxicity
#138Regarding the list of questions that are presented here EG - "How can we create a more equitable financial system, where everyone has access to banking services?" Can anyone explain to me how crypto is uniquely suited to solve this problem? I'm not in principal against crypto currencies existing, but more and more I just see people trying to apply it to problems that they think exist because "the financial system is…
I'm 100% onboard with the enabling underbanked people argument for crypto. There's countless people all over the world who can't get a bank account, or if they could, can't get one that is reliable or useful enough for their needs. Eg, maybe the currency is too unstable, or maybe there's too many restrictions on international transfers and commerce etc etc. These people are left with cash and predatory "businesses" l…
I agree here, it would be nice if this was the case. Like you I also worry that in it's current form a crypto banking implementation for the underbanked people of the world would be a worse solution for everyone.
- No human being that's able to reverse fraudulent or mistaken transactions
- Currency that's hardly more stable (probably less so) than the world's the least stable currencies
- A digital environment that's rife with fraud and a completely fresh and unknown attack surface due to the nature of smart contracts
- Sky high transaction costs. Meaning the poor (the unbanked) will may more for banking than the rich do. (like they do for furniture https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/storyline/wp/2014/10/16/...)
Re: On anti-crypto toxicity
#139I'm grumpy about Visa/MC taking 3% of every transaction. I want a technofix for that. There are new blockchains that cost less than a penny per transaction use about a millionth of the wattage of bitcoin and I hope they turn out to be non-BS. I just want an efficient low-cost barrierless payment network.
Where are you located that visa and MasterCard are charging 3%? In the EU the fees are limited to 0.3%, and in other areas (e.g. the UK) it's 1%. As a card holder I'm pretty happy to pay a ~0.3% service fee to know that I have recourse with a merchant, for example. > I just want an efficient low-cost barrierless payment network. Whats low cost to you then?
Note that the 0.3% cap is on the interchange, i.e. the fee that goes back to the card issuer, it doesn't affect Visa and Mastercard directly.
PSPs in the EU/EEA charge around 1% overall, a bit more to small businesses (for instance SumUp), and a bit less to the really big retailers that have more bargaining power.
Re: On anti-crypto toxicity
#140Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yes but all these things are features to me. I like cash for small purchases, and I like, say, Monero for the same reasons. If I lose 50 € to some unscrupulous merchant, that's worth it to not have to ask the bank for permission for and tell them about every transaction.
These are all features as long as you live in a world where there is no bad faith, no misunderstandings, no drama of any sorts. In this world however, disputed transactions may even be more than half, depending on the industry. You can't approach something that ignores this as a serious financial tool.
I don't use cryptocurrency as a replacement for a credit card, I use it as a replacement for cash. Banks aren't risk-free either, it's a lower probability of problems for a much more devastating impact.
Compare a frozen bank account to a fraudulent transaction you can't revert. Sure, the latter is more frequent, but the former is devastating.