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Move Over, Bitcoin. Ether Is the Digital Currency of the Moment

nytimes.com

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Re: Move Over, Bitcoin. Ether Is the Digital Currency of the Moment

#31

Post by curiousgal »

roymurdock wrote: post #16
curiousgal wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a third world citizen, Bitocin is godsent to me, never have I been able to purchase stuff online and pay for books and services like a normal 21st century human being. the feeling of being connected in that way to the rest of the world is priceless and I owe it all to Bitcoin.

Does the fluctuating value change how you spend or keep your Bitcoin at all? Do you convert and cash out quickly after every transaction? Haven't come across many on HN who actually use Bitcoin as tokens of exchange.

It does! I tend to use Bitcoin directly when its value is high but I use USD when the value is low, I know it might seem counter-intuitive but that way I get to save on Bitcoin whose value has been increasing. For Bitoin to USD I use online banks like Neteller or AdvCash.

Re: Move Over, Bitcoin. Ether Is the Digital Currency of the Moment

#32

Post by curiousgal »

skybrian wrote: post #13
curiousgal wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a third world citizen, Bitocin is godsent to me, never have I been able to purchase stuff online and pay for books and services like a normal 21st century human being. the feeling of being connected in that way to the rest of the world is priceless and I owe it all to Bitcoin.

What bookstores do you buy from that accept bitcoin?

I haven't come across any so far. I convert BTC to USD and use that.

Re: Move Over, Bitcoin. Ether Is the Digital Currency of the Moment

#33

Post by smokeyj »

flunhat wrote: post #27

What is the advantage in creating an Ethereum smart contract over a regular contract in our legal system (using a lawyer and some pen and paper)? If code has bugs (and sufficiently complex code will always, always, always have bugs) you simply have to suffer the consequences (sorry for your loss) or the entire community can choose to execute a hard fork and rewrite history (see DAO). If a vanilla legal contract has s…

Ethereum is a bet that contracts will be able to become digitized, decentralized and trustless to a greater degree. Forget about the technicalities for a second. If it's theoretically possible - what's the value of that tool?

In theory you could deploy a democracy as a contract. You could deploy a currency with a deterministically democratic central bank. You can create crowdfunded employee-owned work communes that pay dividends to member holders.

From a global perspective, if you ask yourself - is there anywhere that could benefit from such a system - and the answer is "yes" - then I think crypto is a great hedge against legacy systems.

Re: Move Over, Bitcoin. Ether Is the Digital Currency of the Moment

#34

Post by slashrsm »

censoredforlife wrote: post #22
AlwaysBCoding wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Bitcoin also only has one client with one development team whereas Ethereum has multiple clients with multiple development teams. Tell me more about that legendary Bitcoin decentralization.

Having one or more clients doesn't mean much. Eth is organizationally centralized because of the eth foundation. It literally has a dear leader (vitalik), and no different from crypto issued by, say, the fed. The entire point of crypto is that it tries to solve the problem with existing currency (fiat), which is too tightly controlled by a few individuals.

This! Everyone seems to be forgetting about this aspect, which is very important IMO.

Re: Move Over, Bitcoin. Ether Is the Digital Currency of the Moment

#35

Post by skybrian »

curiousgal wrote: post #32
skybrian wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What bookstores do you buy from that accept bitcoin?

I haven't come across any so far. I convert BTC to USD and use that.

Okay. I'm curious about how you use BTC and why it means so much to you?

Re: Move Over, Bitcoin. Ether Is the Digital Currency of the Moment

#36

Post by Angostura »

empath75 wrote: post #28
willitpamp573 wrote: post #3

Ethereum is an obvious ponzi pump and dump scam. I like how they frame the DAO hack as an opportunity for growth rather than a gross display of incompetence followed by a breaking of the original promise of immutability of the platform, which is what it was.

I think it's more accurately described as a platform for Ponzi schemes and pump and dump scams.

PAAS?

Re: Move Over, Bitcoin. Ether Is the Digital Currency of the Moment

#37

Post by davidgerard »

narrator wrote: post #18
willitpamp573 wrote: post #3

Ethereum is an obvious ponzi pump and dump scam. I like how they frame the DAO hack as an opportunity for growth rather than a gross display of incompetence followed by a breaking of the original promise of immutability of the platform, which is what it was.

Immutability is really the key to the whole cryptocurrency system. Unlike every previous currency system that has existed, duress can not be used to have a transaction reversed.

cough The DAO fork.

Re: Move Over, Bitcoin. Ether Is the Digital Currency of the Moment

#38

Post by Jabanga »

flunhat wrote: post #27

What is the advantage in creating an Ethereum smart contract over a regular contract in our legal system (using a lawyer and some pen and paper)? If code has bugs (and sufficiently complex code will always, always, always have bugs) you simply have to suffer the consequences (sorry for your loss) or the entire community can choose to execute a hard fork and rewrite history (see DAO). If a vanilla legal contract has s…

An Ethereum smart contract can be automatically executed, with no party, including no government, being able to stop that execution. The weaknesses you noted are serious and limiting, but that doesn't mean an automatically executable contract has no value.

Re: Move Over, Bitcoin. Ether Is the Digital Currency of the Moment

#39

Post by curiousgal »

skybrian wrote: post #35
curiousgal wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I haven't come across any so far. I convert BTC to USD and use that.

Okay. I'm curious about how you use BTC and why it means so much to you?

It means so much to me because I live in a country with no Paypal or easy access to credit cards that can be used online. Bitcoin is the only way I can pay for servers and books.

Re: Move Over, Bitcoin. Ether Is the Digital Currency of the Moment

#40

Post by vzcx »

censoredforlife wrote: post #22
AlwaysBCoding wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Bitcoin also only has one client with one development team whereas Ethereum has multiple clients with multiple development teams. Tell me more about that legendary Bitcoin decentralization.

Having one or more clients doesn't mean much. Eth is organizationally centralized because of the eth foundation. It literally has a dear leader (vitalik), and no different from crypto issued by, say, the fed. The entire point of crypto is that it tries to solve the problem with existing currency (fiat), which is too tightly controlled by a few individuals.

Is this actually solved by bitcoin? Is this actually solvable? I feel we're butting up against the Iron Law of Oligarchy, here.

What I mean is, Ethereum Foundation or not, only some small set of people will have commit access to the upstream bitcoin repository. Additionally, because of economies of scale, it makes more sense to pool resources under one central roof to solve the proof-of-work.

There might be a convoluted and informal political process involved before merging changes to the protocol. Mining companies might choose to limit their size in order to protect the network and thus their income streams. But ultimately, the number of core developers and miners, i.e., those with real power, is much, much less than the number of merchants and users.

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