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Bitcoin surges in Zimbabwe after military seize power

timeslive.co.za

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Re: Bitcoin surges in Zimbabwe after military seize power

#161

Post by [deleted] »

johnvonneumann wrote: post #160
Kiro wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you pay online with wire transfer? My vision is a decentralised coin that is as fast as VISA is perceived but a lot cheaper to transact. Obviously that's not the vision of Bitcoin though?

Please don't start on the "Vision" rhetoric, look at the pipeline of core, there is a clear path to VISA scale tx but it is an engineering challenge, unfortunately the majority of people complaining and talking about scaling blocksize (right now, with a terrible straight-up hard-fork) are (bad) Operations people who are more than happy to shitcan half the benefits of a decentralised, privacy focused system for a fran…

[deleted]

Re: Bitcoin surges in Zimbabwe after military seize power

#162

Post by [deleted] »

johnvonneumann wrote: post #160
Kiro wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you pay online with wire transfer? My vision is a decentralised coin that is as fast as VISA is perceived but a lot cheaper to transact. Obviously that's not the vision of Bitcoin though?

Please don't start on the "Vision" rhetoric, look at the pipeline of core, there is a clear path to VISA scale tx but it is an engineering challenge, unfortunately the majority of people complaining and talking about scaling blocksize (right now, with a terrible straight-up hard-fork) are (bad) Operations people who are more than happy to shitcan half the benefits of a decentralised, privacy focused system for a fran…

[deleted]

Re: Bitcoin surges in Zimbabwe after military seize power

#163

Post by ared38 »

kown223 wrote: post #27
ared38 wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

All you have to do is arrest people converting rebel cryptocurrencies into the one you can use at the grocery store. Since every transfer of legitimate money is now in the blockchain, they'll be able to identify them pretty quickly. Not sure if a government in turmoil could do it, but it's easy for a stable repressive regime. I agree the government doesn't get any benefit from decentralization and would just have a M…

how would a government pay to secure their blockchain? how would they find those dealing everything in bitcoin? One of the reason of URSS going down was the huge administrative costs of spying / investigating, keeping up the oppression on its citizens.

> how would a government pay to secure their blockchain?

What do you mean? Aren't they inherently tamperproof?

> how would they find those dealing everything in bitcoin?

A few people might live that way, but unless the entire supply chain is bitcoin someone will have to buy the food/gas/land they need with govcoin and sell it in bitcoin, thus getting caught.

> One of the reason of URSS going down was the huge administrative costs of spying / investigating, keeping up the oppression on its citizens.

Since ever single transaction is tracked, you can automate 90% of the work. Just look for businesses making the same amount of purchases but less sales, or people sending money to or getting money from accounts that aren't registered as employers or stores. With modern anomaly detection techniques you'd hardly have to torture anyone.

The USSR just didn't have modern technology. It would have taken a team of agents to tail a single person; the ARGUS-IS can track everyone in a 36 square mile area with a single drone.

Re: Bitcoin surges in Zimbabwe after military seize power

#164

Post by Kiro »

johnvonneumann wrote: post #160
Kiro wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you pay online with wire transfer? My vision is a decentralised coin that is as fast as VISA is perceived but a lot cheaper to transact. Obviously that's not the vision of Bitcoin though?

Please don't start on the "Vision" rhetoric, look at the pipeline of core, there is a clear path to VISA scale tx but it is an engineering challenge, unfortunately the majority of people complaining and talking about scaling blocksize (right now, with a terrible straight-up hard-fork) are (bad) Operations people who are more than happy to shitcan half the benefits of a decentralised, privacy focused system for a fran…

I've never said that Bitcoin Cash is any better. It may have lower fees right now but it still takes ages to transact. I just doubt that any Bitcoin based coin will ever match my vision and that we need something fundamentally different. Maybe Lightning Networks will solve it but it doesn't seem clear.

Re: Bitcoin surges in Zimbabwe after military seize power

#165

Post by erikpukinskis »

ActsJuvenile wrote: post #45
Pfhreak wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> For Bitcoin to succeed, it needs to conquer the US market adoption Genuinely: Why is that axiomatic? Why is there no path that is, reductively, in parts of the world where electronic payments are already normal, bitcoin becomes the instrument?

Because Zimbabwean consumer doesn't influence USA; but USA consumer influences rest of the world. I can't think of any technology besides micro-finance that has trickled-up to USA.

You’re just pushing your axiom up a level. You’re still presuming US adoption is the measure of success. WeChat isn’t used in the US, but it’s still successful.

Re: Bitcoin surges in Zimbabwe after military seize power

#166

Post by akhatri_aus »

gruez wrote: post #40
akhatri_aus wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you can control the traffic in and out a country, you can control both the internet and block off extra-sovereign chains.

...because censorship (in general) work so well in the past? the bitcoin blockchain generates 6 one MB blocks per hour, that's 1.6 KB/s. i can think of multiple ways to smuggle data in at that bandwidth. blockstream apparently also has satelites broadcasting the blockchain. good luck shutting that down. transactions are even easier. they're less than 0.5KB, something you can easily fit in a few SMS, or in a envelope.

Everyone would need to smuggle data out, 50%+ of the chain within the country is all that's needed to win.

You're not going to get everyone to use satellites to get data in and out. If you've ever been in an African country you'd know SMSs aren't on the cheap side either. You'd also know they have tools that can track and catch your VSAT dishes and fine you heavily.

Re: Bitcoin surges in Zimbabwe after military seize power

#168

Post by Retric »

freeloop3 wrote: post #153
Retric wrote: post #145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Actually yes it is. Physical currency inside a country is hardly the same things as Physical or digital currency outside a country. Having bitcoins (etc) inside a country is arguably less secure and far easier to confiscate.

You'll have to explain digital currency "inside" vs "outside" a country... XD

A bank in North Korea is under the complete control of North Korea, a bank in the Cayman Islands is not. Now if you're trying to hide from the United States government then you don't have a huge number of options. But, no government controls all banking.
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