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What I Think of Bitcoin

bridgewater.com

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Re: What I Think of Bitcoin

#151

Post by andrepd »

joubert wrote: post #89
andrepd wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, they don't. In the event of a bank run, a bank cannot cover their liabilities. This is the same thing that you point in tether as a fatal flaw and a "scam".

Timing difference, i.e. majority of assets are not held in cash (it is put to work), so if many people try to withdraw lots of money at the same time, it can trigger a downward spiral (“bank run”). I’d you’re curious to understand more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bank_run

I don't understand, what does that have to do with anything? The issue being discussed is Tether, and how it's totally a pyramid scam since it doesn't hold 100% in reserve.

Re: What I Think of Bitcoin

#152

Post by hjek »

jeffreyrogers wrote: post #137
hjek wrote: post #11

Nathan Robinson did a great piece[0] on Ray Dalio's principles and Bridgewater's culture, which looks extremely toxic: > Make sure, of course, that you always make specific people feel bad about mistakes: “Instead of the passive generalization or the royal ‘we,’ attribute specific actions to specific people: ‘Harry didn’t handle this well.’” And make sure everyone knows it: “Use ‘public hangings’ to deter bad behavio…

I worked at Bridgewater, and while there are things I disliked about it, this piece is not at all fair and does not capture what it is actually like to work there. Nathan Robinson, who is a self described socialist, is not someone I would go to for an objective assessment of a hedge fund's working conditions.

> Nathan Robinson, who is a self described socialist, is not someone I would go to for an objective assessment of a hedge fund's working conditions.

I'm glad you didn't have a bad time working there. Yes, of course you can disagree with NR's conclusions, yet the article is mainly a review of Dalio's book alongside some quotes from employees. This "public hangings" statement is picked straight out of his Principles book. Is any of that source material being misrepresented or unfair in your opinion, having worked there?

I'm curious about the thing with the "overseers", "captains", "dots" and "baseball cards". Is that really a thing or not?

> Each day, employees are tested and graded on their knowledge of the Principles. They walk around with iPads loaded with the rules and an interactive rating system called “dots” to evaluate peers and supervisors. The ratings feed into each employee’s permanent record, called the “baseball card.”

Re: What I Think of Bitcoin

#153

Post by hjek »

ballofrubber wrote: post #121
dandanua wrote: post #42

I think it's time to put Bitcoin on the ignore list. You will never learn anything new about it, only the same stories: 1. It's a disastrous waste of energy resources. 2. HODLers like to compare it with gold and use it as a store of value. Because of this, they will constantly make a noise about it to raise its price. 3. No one will ever use it as an ordinary currency to buy simple things. Oh, you could buy Tesla wit…

1. You don't decide whats a waste of energy or not. 2. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xLYYh4aPXAM 3. Bitcoin Mining will make investments in renewable energy a lot less riskier as you can scale up as much as you want and always have a buyer. This drives out fossil fuel miners 4. Once bitcoins true price has been found, holders will spend to consume as much as they need/want to. Just like every other currency, except…

> 1. You don't decide whats a waste of energy or not.

Whether or not it's a "waste", it's certainly a massive amount. More than all of Argentina or Netherlands[0], as was posted here on HN recently. As of 2020, every single Bitcoin transaction uses the equivalent of 15 full charges of a Tesla car battery[1].

Also: You don't decide whether I (or others) decide what's a waste of energy or not.

[0]: https://cbeci.org/cbeci/comparisons [1]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26090317

Re: What I Think of Bitcoin

#154

Post by gegtik »

coinward wrote: post #139
_han wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I went one step further and searched for "energy", which only appeared in the article's disclaimer in names of institutions. I then proceeded to close the browser tab.

so you will only read content that confirms your belief that Bitcoin wastes energy? I see. Have fun staying poor.

coinward has a nuanced opinion

Re: What I Think of Bitcoin

#155

Post by ballofrubber »

hjek wrote: post #153
ballofrubber wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

1. You don't decide whats a waste of energy or not. 2. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xLYYh4aPXAM 3. Bitcoin Mining will make investments in renewable energy a lot less riskier as you can scale up as much as you want and always have a buyer. This drives out fossil fuel miners 4. Once bitcoins true price has been found, holders will spend to consume as much as they need/want to. Just like every other currency, except…

> 1. You don't decide whats a waste of energy or not. Whether or not it's a "waste", it's certainly a massive amount. More than all of Argentina or Netherlands[0], as was posted here on HN recently. As of 2020, every single Bitcoin transaction uses the equivalent of 15 full charges of a Tesla car battery[1]. Also: You don't decide whether I (or others) decide what's a waste of energy or not. [0]: https://cbeci.org/cb…

Exactly!

Isn’t it awesome how secure the network is!

Re: What I Think of Bitcoin

#156

Post by kaycebasques »

coinward wrote: post #136
kaycebasques wrote: post #53

MacroVoices #255 with Mike Green discussed another regulatory threat not mentioned in the Bridgewater post. Governments don't have to ban BTC outright. They have other tools for making it wildly unattractive to hold. I can't remember the details but they discussed a scenario where the US government classifies BTC as a commodity and requires K-1 style taxation. That would mean that you would have to pay taxes on any g…

How will they confiscate those BTC gains? They are literally relying on an honor system to report holdings today. Maybe this will change and they will come after those who are suspected to be holding BTC due to purchase records from KYC compliant services that IRS could get their hands on. Then what? Show up with their guns to coerce you or throw you in a cage until you fess up? The tax code mess becomes totally impo…

It's just an example and I'm not invested enough to defend it. The main idea is that governments have a lot of levers to add friction (as Consultant32452 said) and if you think that governments are just going to peacefully concede their ability to control something as fundamental as money to the crypto illuminati, you might be in for a surprise.

Another possible lever is government control over regulated financial institutions.

Re: What I Think of Bitcoin

#157

Post by coinward »

kaycebasques wrote: post #156
coinward wrote: post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How will they confiscate those BTC gains? They are literally relying on an honor system to report holdings today. Maybe this will change and they will come after those who are suspected to be holding BTC due to purchase records from KYC compliant services that IRS could get their hands on. Then what? Show up with their guns to coerce you or throw you in a cage until you fess up? The tax code mess becomes totally impo…

It's just an example and I'm not invested enough to defend it. The main idea is that governments have a lot of levers to add friction (as Consultant32452 said) and if you think that governments are just going to peacefully concede their ability to control something as fundamental as money to the crypto illuminati, you might be in for a surprise. Another possible lever is government control over regulated financial in…

How much power do you think governments have over central banks? Bitcoin is definancializing money, so those levers lose efficacy with Bitcoin's adoption.

Re: What I Think of Bitcoin

#158

Post by leereeves »

Sargos wrote: post #150
samvher wrote: post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is one part that I feel doesn't get talked about enough. A future where people move to bitcoin does extremely weird things to wealth distribution, where wealth is basically a function of the point in time of a person's switching to bitcoin more than anything else. I don't see how such a dissociation between wealth and effort/value/productivity could ever do good things for a society. I'm also confused about how…

>wealth is basically a function of the point in time of a person's switching to bitcoin more than anything else This isn't any different from other periods of great change in the past. A good chunk of the wealthy in the world are made up of those early to the industrial revolution, computer revolution, and internet revolution. This is just another step. Eventually people will stop being early to Bitcoin and things wi…

The industrial revolution, computer revolution, and internet revolution brought real value to everyone's lives. Even people who didn't own Netscape or Google stock benefit from the Internet.

Who would benefit from a Bitcoin revolution, other than early adopters?

Ransomware authors, perhaps.

Re: What I Think of Bitcoin

#159

Post by Sargos »

leereeves wrote: post #158
Sargos wrote: post #150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>wealth is basically a function of the point in time of a person's switching to bitcoin more than anything else This isn't any different from other periods of great change in the past. A good chunk of the wealthy in the world are made up of those early to the industrial revolution, computer revolution, and internet revolution. This is just another step. Eventually people will stop being early to Bitcoin and things wi…

The industrial revolution, computer revolution, and internet revolution brought real value to everyone's lives. Even people who didn't own Netscape or Google stock benefit from the Internet. Who would benefit from a Bitcoin revolution, other than early adopters? Ransomware authors, perhaps.

This comment feels eerily like what people said at the beginning of the internet. It's useless and hard and doesn't do anything we can't already do. "I already have a radio". https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gipL_CEw-fk

If you can't understand the value of cryptocurrencies that doesn't mean they are valueless. It'll be easier and more obvious to notice as these systems mature.

Re: What I Think of Bitcoin

#160

Post by ballofrubber »

hjek wrote: post #153
ballofrubber wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

1. You don't decide whats a waste of energy or not. 2. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xLYYh4aPXAM 3. Bitcoin Mining will make investments in renewable energy a lot less riskier as you can scale up as much as you want and always have a buyer. This drives out fossil fuel miners 4. Once bitcoins true price has been found, holders will spend to consume as much as they need/want to. Just like every other currency, except…

> 1. You don't decide whats a waste of energy or not. Whether or not it's a "waste", it's certainly a massive amount. More than all of Argentina or Netherlands[0], as was posted here on HN recently. As of 2020, every single Bitcoin transaction uses the equivalent of 15 full charges of a Tesla car battery[1]. Also: You don't decide whether I (or others) decide what's a waste of energy or not. [0]: https://cbeci.org/cb…

The energy costs of a block are not in relation with the amount of transactions in it. Just because you have two numbers, doesn‘t mean you should divide them.

Short rant:

The current settlement system is layers up on layers of legacy systems. How do international settlements exactly work? How long do they take? Where does money come from? Why should flawed metrics and corruptable humans decide when to issue currency?

Bitcoin follows a simple set of rules that everyone can understand in days of intense learning. An average developer can audit the code and can verify these rules. It‘s a simple and beautiful system that HN just loves to hate, for whatever reason.

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