A from-scratch tour of Bitcoin in Python

Post by Shosty123 » Wed, Jun 23, 2021, 8:00 AM UTC

codebolt wrote: post #241

Shosty123 wrote: post #145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why does every discussion about Bitcoin's environmental impact reduce to "it uses a lot of electricity therefore it should be stopped". We're not going to shut down entire sectors of the economy because of their environmental impact. People are going to innovate and invest in alternative sources of energy because it is becoming profitable to do so. The solution is hardly ever "just stop doing it", it's "how can we do…

Crypto is hardly a "sector of the economy". It's main utility right now is lining the pockets of a few speculators. Traditional centralized ledgering systems do everything crypto does better and with a fraction of the energy use. It also gives governments tools to combat inflation/deflation and manage counterparty risks within the system. Crypto is a neat idea, but in the end it doesn't really solve anything, and ins…

Post by NextHendrix » Wed, Jun 23, 2021, 8:15 AM UTC

msgilligan wrote: post #57

This is reminds me of Ken Shirriff's 2014 "Bitcoins the Hard Way" blog post that also used Python to build a Bitcoin transaction from scratch: http://www.righto.com/2014/02/bitcoins-hard-way-using-raw-bi... (The subtitle of the blog is "Computer history, restoring vintage computers, IC reverse engineering, and whatever" and it is full of fascinating articles, several of which have been featured here on HN)

Post by itsdsmurrell » Wed, Jun 23, 2021, 8:21 AM UTC

lawn wrote: post #99

wyager wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> There is exactly zero progress to make it scale in the last 10+ years. Lol, literally this week: https://taproot.watch/

Segwit was also supposed to scale Bitcoin, and it turns out it was a massively inefficient solution, which took years to even reach it's lackluster potential. Taproot will in practice have an even smaller impact, as it only affects special transactions that normal people won't use. So yeah, it's not zero progress, but it's certainly not much.

Post by [deleted] » Wed, Jun 23, 2021, 8:54 AM UTC

krick wrote: post #232

counternotions wrote: post #140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

From Strike CEO Jack Maller [1]: Let’s walk through a user story. I want to send $1,000 to a friend of mine in El Salvador: * When I initiate the $1,000 payment, Strike debits my existing USD balance. * Strike then automatically converts my $1,000 to bitcoins ready for use in its infrastructure using its real-time automated risk management and trading infrastructure. * Strike then moves the bitcoins across the Gulf o…

It seemed like an answer at first, but actually this answers absolutely nothing and I'm not even sure how it's related to the topic being discussed: * This guy starts talking about sending USD, but ends up talking about receiving USDT. USD != USDT. And while there are problems with sending USD across the border, there're absolutely no problem with sending USDT. And there's absolutely no problem buying USDT wherever y…

Post by prox » Wed, Jun 23, 2021, 9:39 AM UTC

codebolt wrote: post #240

prox wrote: post #142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

cough dotcom bubble. Seriously, investing money in a bubble is nothing to celebrate. That’s why it is called a bubble. It pops and many people loose their money.

Except this bubble is a bit more insidious because you have actors like Tether that are most likely creating a lot of artificial liquidity/demand. If there is a sudden loss of faith and enough actors start rushing for the exits, it will look something more like a musical game of chairs of who is left holding the bag of worthless Mickey Mouse dollars, by my estimation.