141–150 of 232 posts
The argument crypto currency supporters have is always Venezuela or the European banking crisis (hilarious because citizens didn't actually lose any money). If our banking system DOES collapse your crypto wallet won't save you.
There is, without a doubt, a Bitcoin cult. Or more generally, crypto-currency cults. The headline reads like it's only a cult, which isn't the case. Even the most critical observer must concede that these distributed networks are novel and interesting. The farther you move from social media, the less cult-like things get. The best discussion remains on listservs, and there is a lot of interesting and substantive disc…
They were interesting when the bitcoin paper was released.
Then people (outside of the cult) realized that you Do Not Need A Trustless System. Society is built on trust. Wasting ENORMOUS amounts of power just to replace a few trusted entities with 51% of the network is a horrible idea.
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Any data to back that up ? I know anecdotal, but I can buy beers, taxi & coffee with crypto which I could not 9 years ago and I see quite a lot of ATMs appearing; NL/UK/JP/HK. I think the main point is that I can get a coffee with crypto, which is an important milestone.
Maybe it’s because I’m European, but 8 years ago I could buy coffee with crypto in both Copenhagen and Berlin and today I can’t.
I simply don't know what problem BTC was supposed to solve.
Bitcoin is for the paranoid and conspiracy theorists. The argument crypto currency supporters have is always Venezuela or the European banking crisis (hilarious because citizens didn't actually lose any money). If our banking system DOES collapse your crypto wallet won't save you.
I would wager a small fraction of technically-literate paranoids and conspiracy theorists own Bitcoin. More plausible: people with some other tendency buy and then, when asked for an explanation, rationalise with conspiracy theory-like reasoning. (My guess for the tendency: gambling affinity.)
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Right. I agree. I am also going one step further and arguing that crypto is more of a fan club then a cult. There are cults way stronger that illicit a far greater emotion reaction that crypto. Even now, when the price is in the toilet, a lot of really smart people are having sane discussions across sub-reddits. And those very smart people are still checkin in code and making improvements. This has happened before. D…
> BBS era and ARPA Net era These services were launched to solve a practical problem. Bitcoin was launched as the manifestation of an ideology.
Bitcoin solved some practical problem in someone's mind too, even if that problem was "how do we get private money into the 21st century?".
There is, without a doubt, a Bitcoin cult. Or more generally, crypto-currency cults. The headline reads like it's only a cult, which isn't the case. Even the most critical observer must concede that these distributed networks are novel and interesting. The farther you move from social media, the less cult-like things get. The best discussion remains on listservs, and there is a lot of interesting and substantive disc…
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> Have you ever actually laundered dirty money? No. My knowledge comes from anti-money laundering training. Depending on how fast one needs to move, money laundering fees go from 5% to 30%. Bitcoin is cheaper than that per se . But include the costs of anonymising and cleanly cash out, and you're just adding cost and risk over a wire transfer between fronts.
No man, there's so much more exposure that way. And remember, this is a criminal enterprise. Those people who run your fronts could just as easily rob/kill you and take it for themselves, and given the chance they will . With bitcoins you can 1) do it yourself, no middlemen other than the bitcoin processor who doesn't give a flying right-hand fuck where the money comes from, and 2) do it far, far, far quicker than tr…