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Bitcoin Is Time

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Re: Bitcoin Is Time

#471

Post by fredfoobar »

newsbinator wrote: post #431
fredfoobar wrote: post #373

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've been saying the same damn thing about automobiles man, horses already have self driving even! and they don't pollute like cars. Look at the mess we're in now! who's laughing?? Cars pollute and need roads, we had to build so many roads and gas stations. We even had to go to war to make sure we have enough oil.

I agree that cars are a horrible solution to the problem of transporting people and goods. It's only by virtue of history and our willingness to accept massive loss of life and limb every year that cars, driven at 100 kph by sleepy, angry, elderly or distracted people, are still a thing. Not to mention the massive loss of life and limb from climate change spurred by cars. You're making a solid point.

Finally, I'm being recognized for my wisdom. Thank you for your kind words.

Re: Bitcoin Is Time

#472

Post by gamblor956 »

tony101 wrote: post #430
ForHackernews wrote: post #379

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I guess the difference is cars are useful. What can I do with a bitcoin except hope to sell it for more USD later?

Transfer funds across borders without dealing with multi-business-day bank delays or capital controls in countries like China. Accept donations or other online transactions without relying on Visa/Mastercard.

Violating Chinese currency controls generally results in spending one's life in a tiny prison cell.

As for bank transfers, at my previous company we had to send hundreds of international payments each year and all of the transfers were finished within minutes of initiation.

And Paypal and other companies have made it possible to donate to charities without a credit card for almost 2 decades.

Re: Bitcoin Is Time

#473

Post by fredfoobar »

claudiulodro wrote: post #405
fredfoobar wrote: post #373

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've been saying the same damn thing about automobiles man, horses already have self driving even! and they don't pollute like cars. Look at the mess we're in now! who's laughing?? Cars pollute and need roads, we had to build so many roads and gas stations. We even had to go to war to make sure we have enough oil.

You're being sarcastic, but honestly you've converted me. :)

Finally, I'm being recognized for my wisdom. Welcome to the horse club.

Re: Bitcoin Is Time

#474

Post by AJ007 »

PragmaticPulp wrote: post #352
WanderPanda wrote: post #282

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But a 51% attack (with e.g. a double spend) will be easily spotted by the community, right? What would be the incentive for an actor with such a vast amount of specialised hardware just for Bitcoin mining, to undermine its security? Its not that I'm saying it is not possible but its your usage of "likely" that I would argue against

> But a 51% attack (with e.g. a double spend) will be easily spotted by the community, right? The real problem is that if it happens once, it's proven to be both possible and practical. And once it's proven to be possible and practical, how do you know it won't happen again and again? > What would be the incentive for an actor with such a vast amount of specialised hardware just for Bitcoin mining, to undermine its s…

A hacker that was able to hijack the mining pool just for malicious reasons could do it. Maybe they are motivated by not liking Bitcoin energy use.

The better argument here is that 98% of cryptocurrencies are very cheap to 51% attack, and they are attacked successfully. One would expect these to be exploited aggressively before a successful Bitcoin attack. Hints of unmanageable abuse would be exchanges de-listing alternative cryptocurrencies due to mounting losses.

The bottom line is if Bitcoin can't survive a 51% attack, then everything else below it is non-viable.

Personally I think the gaping vulnerabilities of altcoins and the scalability of Ethereum is a bigger issue than what may happen to Bitcoin over the next decade+. Major catastrophes with any of the other stuff could go a long way toward causing loss of trust, interest, and value in Bitcoin.

Re: Bitcoin Is Time

#477

Post by noxer »

solosoyokaze wrote: post #248
cloakandswagger wrote: post #209

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>People clearly see the flaw in PoW if they are not emotionally attached to it because they have no money at stake. You should not misinterpret that as hate because they missed the train to richness. The vitriol that Bitcoin evokes from HN commenters can really only be explained by jealousy, the environmental concern is just a cover for covetousness.

This is true, because the vitriol was there prior to anyone complaining about Bitcoin's power usage (i.e. when it was too small to matter). I remember when I first heard of Bitcoin. I quite frankly found it technically intimidating. It was a totally new concept. I didn't get it. I took my own discomfort as a sort of signal that it was really important; something totally new. So I studied it. I had to put time and eff…

If you do the same kinda research about FBA you will "get it" too and you will know that PoW is useless. You probably wont make money form that but still I hope you dig into it. I myself saw "the beauty" in bitcoin once and later saw it in FBA again. After all it solves the same problem just in a very different way.

Re: Bitcoin Is Time

#478

Post by hoka-one-one »

boredpandas777 wrote: post #348

Let me fix that title. Happy to be downvoted into negative territory. I only have 11 points. Go ahead. "Bitcoin Is A Waste of Time (and Resources)" What Bitcoin has done is that it taught people they can come together in a sustained flash mob (like an on-the-fly hedge fund operation) and manipulate the price of speculative assets by creating artificial short-term pump-n-dump type demand. Bitcoin has trained our colle…

Thank you, HN top-comment Bitcoin pessimist blogposter #378

Re: Bitcoin Is Time

#479

Post by samatman »

anthropodie wrote: post #370
boredpandas777 wrote: post #348

Let me fix that title. Happy to be downvoted into negative territory. I only have 11 points. Go ahead. "Bitcoin Is A Waste of Time (and Resources)" What Bitcoin has done is that it taught people they can come together in a sustained flash mob (like an on-the-fly hedge fund operation) and manipulate the price of speculative assets by creating artificial short-term pump-n-dump type demand. Bitcoin has trained our colle…

> Happy to be downvoted into negative territory. I see another comment on top doing the same. Why do people start with this? If you don't bother you should not even brought that up. Seems like an underhanded way of getting more points. Do people even fall for this?

I have a personal policy, which, if treated as a Kantian imperative, would eliminate this.

Any invitation to downvotes, I take. Any comment about downvotes, means at the least that I won't upvote that comment. Meta-comments about downvotes are exempt, I would probably upvote this comment if I saw it from someone else.

Every person who adopts this policy improves the discourse by discouraging this behavior, please consider it!

Re: Bitcoin Is Time

#480

Post by fredfoobar »

ForHackernews wrote: post #379
fredfoobar wrote: post #373

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've been saying the same damn thing about automobiles man, horses already have self driving even! and they don't pollute like cars. Look at the mess we're in now! who's laughing?? Cars pollute and need roads, we had to build so many roads and gas stations. We even had to go to war to make sure we have enough oil.

I guess the difference is cars are useful. What can I do with a bitcoin except hope to sell it for more USD later?

Sir! Are you sure of that argument?

Bitcoin is a decentralized protocol for moving value on the internet, that is not useful enough for you sir? Is this hacker news? or lumberjack news?

Besides, Horses >>>> Cars. Horses are more useful than Cars. Cars need roads to work, Horses don't.

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