I was relieved to see I hadn't even joined HN at that time.
The first Bitcoin post on HN
51–60 of 302 posts
Re: The first Bitcoin post on HN
#52[deleted]
Re: The first Bitcoin post on HN
#53It's really not fair to dig these things up and call people haters for doubting it. I bet the list of failed companies and "haters" who called it accurately is much much bigger. Although I do like the nostalgic value of these posts.
It's really easy to be right >90% of the time, if 100% of the time you predict a new technology will fail.
There's hedge funds that systematically short biotech companies, since they estimate most of them will fail. Reasoning with them about the merits of the company doesn't work, they just admit it's a matter of statistics.
Re: The first Bitcoin post on HN
#54>Well this is an exceptionally cute idea, but there is absolutely no way that anyone is going to have any faith in this currency. Hah!
People should be required to place a monetary bet whenever they make a bold claim in public. I think we would see less comments like this one.
In a sense, knowing about Bitcoin in those early days and not buying any at all was a monetary bet. A very costly one.
Re: The first Bitcoin post on HN
#55Re: The first Bitcoin post on HN
#56Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's really easy to be right >90% of the time, if 100% of the time you predict a new technology will fail.
There's hedge funds that systematically short biotech companies, since they estimate most of them will fail. Reasoning with them about the merits of the company doesn't work, they just admit it's a matter of statistics.
No, it's just a question of selling them these shorts and greatfully profiting from it when the merits of the company pan out on the market.
Re: The first Bitcoin post on HN
#57Earlier quoted context omitted.
For all we know, the comment might be proven right next week/month/year. It's just right now that it's plainly wrong. How much is your monetary bet then?
Which brings us to an interesting question... how long does something have to go before we consider it a success even if it fails later? When something comes along to defeat Facebook, are we going to call Facebook a failure? Was Myspace a failure?[1] The fact that Bitcoin has ran this long, given some huge payouts and legit(albeit small) businesses accept it as payment, I'm almost ready to call bitcoin a success even…
Telegraph... colossal fail. But note that the first wire transfers in 1871 were done on western union's telegraph system. Yours is an interesting question. The tulip mania bubble people like to reference was less than a year long, so BTC is already beating that.
Re: The first Bitcoin post on HN
#58Earlier quoted context omitted.
For all we know, the comment might be proven right next week/month/year. It's just right now that it's plainly wrong. How much is your monetary bet then?
Which brings us to an interesting question... how long does something have to go before we consider it a success even if it fails later? When something comes along to defeat Facebook, are we going to call Facebook a failure? Was Myspace a failure?[1] The fact that Bitcoin has ran this long, given some huge payouts and legit(albeit small) businesses accept it as payment, I'm almost ready to call bitcoin a success even…
And if/when it fails, Bitcoin can reasonably claim to have shown that distributed computer-based currencies are feasible and people will use them. Even if a successor comes along and solves Bitcoin's problems, you could justifiably say that it only succeeded because of Bitcoin.
Re: The first Bitcoin post on HN
#59[deleted]
>Over the last two weeks especially, many in the upper echelons of international finance are moving into the bitcoin space in a mich bigger way than they had before.
Do you have a source for this? I haven't heard of any major hedge funds buying bitcoin. It's still considered quaint in the internet circles I frequent.
Re: The first Bitcoin post on HN
#60[deleted]
>Over the last two weeks especially, many in the upper echelons of international finance are moving into the bitcoin space in a mich bigger way than they had before. Do you have a source for this? I haven't heard of any major hedge funds buying bitcoin. It's still considered quaint in the internet circles I frequent.
[deleted]