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Bitcoin is failing at becoming the future of money

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Re: Bitcoin is failing at becoming the future of money

#141

Post by tibiahurried »

AstralStorm wrote: post #136
tibiahurried wrote: post #85

Many keep saying that BTC is like gold, an edge against inflation. I disagree. I think that one of fundamental problem with inflation is that banks pay almost zero interest rates, thus USD sitting in your bank account lose value overtime. Now, what if banks were to offer decent interests rates? To at least compensate the inflation rate? Wouldn't that solve the "inflation" problem? This is possible today with DeFi and…

By stable you meant over 100% volatility and bring unable to transact on the whim of the exchange, right?

Last time I checked USDC, USDT etc...are very much stable and you transact them on the Eth network, no exchange required.

Re: Bitcoin is failing at becoming the future of money

#142

Post by alwillis »

mpfundstein wrote: post #109
alwillis wrote: post #81

Bitcoin is a protocol ; it’s not going anywhere. Like nearly all mainstream articles, this one is quite shortsighted. It’s like saying the TCP/IP protocol has failed in the early 90s when there were many competitors that were more popular. I’m old enough to remember when you had to install a TCP/IP as an add-on to Mac OS and Windows. Let’s look back at this article when Fidelity’s bitcoin ETF is approved later this y…

the article actually says that it is a great tool for brave traders. Especially with the crazy up and down waves. the article does not say bitcoin will disappear. the article just claims that bitcoin is not the future of money, and makes some reasonable observations regarding this. especially that it is so easily manipulated by billionaires. so I think your point is m00t.

especially that it is so easily manipulated by billionaires.

Ironically the billionaire in question is Elon Musk, who's company bought $1.5 billion of BTC as a treasury reserve asset. Tesla sold 10% of its BTC after it appreciated in price to make it appear to be profitable, even though Tesla made more money selling BTC than it did from selling cars.

The price corrected because said billionaire tweeted stale energy FUD because he wants to make his company--who's cars plug-in to a grid powered by fossil fuels and who's batteries are made from rare earth minerals from 3rd world countries--appear to care about the environment. And make Tesla look like an appropriate recipient of energy tax credits.

It didn't help that his tweet coincided with the news that China is banning cryptocurrency for like the 10th time and the fed having to admit that with the highly manipulated CPI being something like 4.6% that inflation might actually be a thing.

So you keep on thinking Elon or any other billionaire can manipulate the price of BTC at his or her whim.

Re: Bitcoin is failing at becoming the future of money

#143

Post by alwillis »

bassdropvroom wrote: post #49

I still don't understand this mindset of Bitcoin becoming the future of money. It isn't. It never was meant to be, and it never advertised itself as such. Bitcoin solves the issue of trust. Bitocin itself will never work as a currency that governments can rely. First reason for that is that governments want control over their money. There has to be a central authority for multiple reasons. Banks need bailing out? As…

Bitcoin Obsoletes All Other Money: https://unchained-capital.com/blog/bitcoin-obsoletes-all-oth...

Re: Bitcoin is failing at becoming the future of money

#144

Post by alwillis »

eli wrote: post #139
alwillis wrote: post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Bitcoin is Not Too Slow: https://unchained-capital.com/blog/bitcoin-is-not-too-slow/

Not sure if you meant that as a rebuttal but it concedes the point: “The bitcoin blockchain will never be a layer for mass payments”

The base layer of bitcoin is more of a settlement layer; Lightning Network and other layer 2 features allow for super fast and super cheap bitcoin payments.

http://lightning.network

    Instant Payments. Lightning-fast blockchain payments
    without worrying about block confirmation times. Security
    is enforced by blockchain smart-contracts without creating
    a on-blockchain transaction for individual payments.
    Payment speed measured in milliseconds to seconds.

    Scalability. Capable of millions to billions of
    transactions per second across the network. Capacity blows
    away legacy payment rails by many orders of magnitude.
    Attaching payment per action/click is now possible without
    custodians.

    Low Cost. By transacting and settling off-blockchain, the
    Lightning Network allows for exceptionally low fees, which
    allows for emerging use cases such as instant
    micropayments.

Re: Bitcoin is failing at becoming the future of money

#145

Post by eli »

alwillis wrote: post #144
eli wrote: post #139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not sure if you meant that as a rebuttal but it concedes the point: “The bitcoin blockchain will never be a layer for mass payments”

The base layer of bitcoin is more of a settlement layer; Lightning Network and other layer 2 features allow for super fast and super cheap bitcoin payments. http://lightning.network Instant Payments. Lightning-fast blockchain payments without worrying about block confirmation times. Security is enforced by blockchain smart-contracts without creating a on-blockchain transaction for individual payments. Payment speed m…

Yeah but those are not Bitcoin and very close to nobody uses them for payments anyway

Re: Bitcoin is failing at becoming the future of money

#146

Post by eli »

Salgat wrote: post #104
yelnatz wrote: post #14

It was getting there. I remember Bitcoin was getting a wider adoption for payment back in 2013ish. I paid for my domain from namecheap in Bitcoin back then. But it then blew up and everyone treated it more as a store of value and it made all the shops stop accepting it as payment due to its volatility.

Unfortunately most "investors" aka gamblers aren't pushing coins with the best tech, but rather the coins that are most deflationary (and using the tech as sexy marketing to hook people in). Unfortunately deflationary coins just encourages everyone to never spend on actual stuff, simply hold onto it till they can sell it off to some other investor.

Gives buyers too much credit for strategy. “Meme potential” matters more than anything in a white paper.

Re: Bitcoin is failing at becoming the future of money

#147

Post by eli »

bingbong70 wrote: post #125
Salgat wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unfortunately most "investors" aka gamblers aren't pushing coins with the best tech, but rather the coins that are most deflationary (and using the tech as sexy marketing to hook people in). Unfortunately deflationary coins just encourages everyone to never spend on actual stuff, simply hold onto it till they can sell it off to some other investor.

People are looking forward to an economy that revolves around a deflationary/limited-supply currency like Bitcoin so, for example, excess housing supply doesn't get wasted for the sake of speculation/inflation-hedging. People looking to protect wealth would liquidate as many assets as possible for Bitcoin to achieve the maximum passive return and not hold underutilized assets on their balance sheet. Have 3 houses and…

Most investors in Bitcoin are looking for a quick buck and nothing more.

Re: Bitcoin is failing at becoming the future of money

#148

Post by DennisP »

AstralStorm wrote: post #132
DennisP wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are stablecoins on top of Ethereum. Some are backed by off-chain bank accounts, others are based on price feeds and on-chain derivatives over ETH.

In which case it's not a casino but a confidence trick. It depends whether you trust the issuer of the stablecoin and its backing to survive a bank run. (Black Friday anyone?) They could just disappear on you with your money, and you would be left with gas on a contract nobody wants anything to do with.

I agree and I'm not a huge fan of that type. I'm a bigger fan of the ones backed by ETH, as long as the price feed is reasonably decentralized.

Re: Bitcoin is failing at becoming the future of money

#149

Post by [deleted] »

bob33212 wrote: post #118
colordrops wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure, you do for some things, as most people do. And many people find a lot of value in no middleman for other things. This is not contradictory.

The only transactions where a middle man are a problem for me is the government and taxes. I would like to be able to give someone money without reporting it to the IRS. I would like to be able to buy weed in the mail, but the government doesn't allow that. Crypto doesn't stop laws from existing. People love to bring up Venezuela, but what happens when that government finds out someone has bought a house with crypto?

[deleted]

Re: Bitcoin is failing at becoming the future of money

#150

Post by alwillis »

eli wrote: post #145
alwillis wrote: post #144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The base layer of bitcoin is more of a settlement layer; Lightning Network and other layer 2 features allow for super fast and super cheap bitcoin payments. http://lightning.network Instant Payments. Lightning-fast blockchain payments without worrying about block confirmation times. Security is enforced by blockchain smart-contracts without creating a on-blockchain transaction for individual payments. Payment speed m…

Yeah but those are not Bitcoin and very close to nobody uses them for payments anyway

1. Nothing could be more wrong; bitcoin is bitcoin whether it’s on the base layer or Lightning Network. Full stop.

2. There are over 10,000 lightning nodes with nearly $70 million in liquidity where payments occur everyday: https://1ml.com/

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