Bitcoin's Use in Commerce Keeps Falling

Post by TACIXAT » Mon, Aug 27, 2018, 2:01 AM UTC

DennisP wrote: post #47

TACIXAT wrote: post #21

A currency with no mechanism for monetary policy is not going to be adopted. Bitcoin is purely deflationary for more reasons than just people losing their keys. For example, a fixed reward split between a growing group of miners will also cause a rising price floor. The miners will not sell for less than their electricity costs, which makes the smaller piece of the block reward they receive have a higher price. So yo…

Bitcoin automatically adjusts the difficulty of mining, targeting ten minutes per block. If the price drops, then some miners will find themselves unprofitable and shut down, blocks will take longer to produce, and the difficulty will drop. Mining effort follows price, not the other way around.

Post by DINKDINK » Mon, Aug 27, 2018, 3:12 AM UTC

acdha wrote: post #214

DINKDINK wrote: post #201

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>nobody uses it for the kind of decentralized transactions for which it was originally pitched You're misinterpreting absence of evidence as evidence of absence which is a logical fallacy. clearly there's enough of a market for trustless wealth storage enough to support a $100 Billion dollar market cap. Maybe you think that the world will need less and less trustless wealth storage in the future and you're short bitc…

1. Before accusing other people of logical errors, check to make sure you’re not making one of your own, such as assuming that the current market cap of something is completely backed by real value. Pets.com and Webvan had plenty of market cap right until they didn’t - and a pure fiat currency like Bitcoin has a floor of zero because the only value is the network of people who continue paying to operate it. 2. If a s…

Post by chrismorgan » Mon, Aug 27, 2018, 3:40 AM UTC

blattimwind wrote: post #130

chrismorgan wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One of your points is of dubious validity: fees may not be higher. Fees went very high when the network became congested; but when it’s not congested, they’re much lower than credit card systems are for normal businesses. https://bitcoinfees.earn.com/ suggests that right now, what equates to about nine US cents is sufficient for a basic transaction. And if you’re happy to wait an hour, then two cents ought to do you…

> but when it’s not congested, they’re much lower than credit card systems are for normal businesses. It's extremely americanocentric to assume All Of The World either uses credit cards or x-gen Kriegerands.

Post by bestnameever » Mon, Aug 27, 2018, 3:58 AM UTC

conanbatt wrote: post #151

TACIXAT wrote: post #21

A currency with no mechanism for monetary policy is not going to be adopted. Bitcoin is purely deflationary for more reasons than just people losing their keys. For example, a fixed reward split between a growing group of miners will also cause a rising price floor. The miners will not sell for less than their electricity costs, which makes the smaller piece of the block reward they receive have a higher price. So yo…

I disagree with several of your statements. First, bitcoin has a monetary policy, and the key is that it cant be changed, which is very appealing: more appealing that storing gold vs fiat, since gold has a less predictable monetary policy. Gold had been chosen as currency for most of history, across cultures and languages. In countries where the currency breaks down, things like chocolate, potatoes or corn get into c…

Post by conanbatt » Mon, Aug 27, 2018, 4:25 AM UTC

cirgue wrote: post #243

conanbatt wrote: post #151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I disagree with several of your statements. First, bitcoin has a monetary policy, and the key is that it cant be changed, which is very appealing: more appealing that storing gold vs fiat, since gold has a less predictable monetary policy. Gold had been chosen as currency for most of history, across cultures and languages. In countries where the currency breaks down, things like chocolate, potatoes or corn get into c…

> being deflationary predictably is better than unpredictably inflationary. Unpredictable deflation is what bitcoin does, and with a fixed policy it can never do anything else. The amount of wealth generated by an economy grows in an unpredictable manner, and fixed monetary policy translates that fluctuation directly into the value of the currency. We learned this with metal currency. It didn’t go well.