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All You Need to Know About Bitcoin's Rise, from $0.01 to $11,000

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Re: All You Need to Know About Bitcoin's Rise, from $0.01 to $11,000

#61

Post by Mountain_Skies »

nadam wrote: post #12
StavrosK wrote: post #7

I am really sad that Bitcoin is the only cryptocurrency that ever managed to touch "mainstream" (it's on Steam, it has Stripe support, etc) and we fucked it up so hard that you need a $4 fee just to pay for one thing with it . I was really hoping it would catch on as a medium of exchange, because there's value in being able to pay for things quickly, cheaply and without giving people a bunch of info, but nope. Digita…

Other cryptocurrencies, which are meant for payment (like Dash) will eventually make it into the mainstream. It's a matter of 1 or 2 years in my opinion. Bitcoin is digital gold, that is also a valid use case IMHO, and a good first step for cryptocurrencies. (Real gold has a 7 trillion market cap.) (Warning: this will be downvoted because of mentioning Dash. Edit after multiple downvotes: Naive people think that they…

Why mention Dash when you could have made your point without mentioning it? Dash is well known for its aggressive astroturfing. Mentioning it directly plays into that reputation, which you obviously know about since you acknowledge that your direct mention of Dash will be unwelcome.

Re: All You Need to Know About Bitcoin's Rise, from $0.01 to $11,000

#62

Post by tr4cefl0w »

ufo wrote: post #32
tr4cefl0w wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Like many, you’re not aware that the Lightning Network is on its way and will solve most of these issues. Moreover, transactions between Segwit-compatible wallets is pretty fast and cheap. I’m kind of tired to hear people complain about the fees while all they have to do is use a different wallet that supports Segwit. Edit: Ah, the downvotes. I was expecting them.

Lightning network has been "around the corner" for as long as I remember... And even if it reduced people's needs to one bitcoin transaction per month (say, to deposit their paycheck), it would still reach full capacity with just 8 million users.

The alpha has been published in January. You can use it if you want, at your own risk.

The devs are working hard and the beta is likely to come in 2018. People think naively than increasing the block size will change something. It will in the short or mid term, but not in the long term and you can't keep increasing the blocksize. There needs to be a permanent, well implemented solution and that's what's coming and why it's taking so long.

Blocksize increase alone is not sustainable.

Re: All You Need to Know About Bitcoin's Rise, from $0.01 to $11,000

#63

Post by Joeboy »

ojr wrote: post #25
StavrosK wrote: post #7

I am really sad that Bitcoin is the only cryptocurrency that ever managed to touch "mainstream" (it's on Steam, it has Stripe support, etc) and we fucked it up so hard that you need a $4 fee just to pay for one thing with it . I was really hoping it would catch on as a medium of exchange, because there's value in being able to pay for things quickly, cheaply and without giving people a bunch of info, but nope. Digita…

Anyone that says digital tulips at this point sounds hurt that they didn't invest, do some research on Bitcoin Cash, so this time next year you don't look as foolish

> Anyone that says digital tulips at this point sounds hurt that they didn't invest

I did, several years ago when it looked like a genuinely interesting up-and-coming technology.

At this point though, digital tulips.

Re: All You Need to Know About Bitcoin's Rise, from $0.01 to $11,000

#64

Post by NiklasMort »

lawn wrote: post #57
bitxbitxbitcoin wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you know what the estimated annual electricity consumption of VISA as a corporation is? What about the Treasury portion of the US government, let alone all the other parts. I'll just leave that there :).

You could also compare it to how much Google consume. And you should realize the mining electricity usage is in no way related to scaling Bitcoin.

"Google’s many data centers around the world burn through 260 million watts" way less, besides Google's DC are rather modern and often are rather environmental friendly. Bitcoin on the other hand is mostly mined in China where the energy comes largely from fossil fuels

Re: All You Need to Know About Bitcoin's Rise, from $0.01 to $11,000

#65

Post by almost_usual »

Interesting, are individuals factoring in the possible existence of quantum computers in the future? If Bitcoin does become a trillion dollar space I’d feel uncomfortable knowing there are technical limitations already in place.

Also, what does the end of Bitcoin generation look like? If Bitcoin is truly deflationary why would anyone trade it? The interesting thing about inflation is it requires investment to ensure your money doesn’t lose value over time. Would Bitcoin be incentivizing a market where growth is extremely limited due to greed?

Not taking any sides, trying to understand the long term reprucussions of a substantial Bitcoin market.

Re: All You Need to Know About Bitcoin's Rise, from $0.01 to $11,000

#66

Post by joejerryronnie »

influx wrote: post #18
eqmvii wrote: post #10

Something I rarely see discussed is the gender breakdown of bitcoin ownership. I'd be surprised if it wasn't something like 90%+ men mining, trading, and owning bitcoin. If bitcoin really takes over the world, it's going to look like a bunch of dudes printed themselves a fortune and then convinced the rest of the world to buy it from them.

What do you see as the barriers for women to participate in bitcoin?

Women are smarter than men.

Re: All You Need to Know About Bitcoin's Rise, from $0.01 to $11,000

#67

Post by jimmies »

I haven't been understanding bitcoin for the longest time: It has been more than five years since I first heard about it. I tried to look it up, I can never quite get the overall picture, why it works the way it is.

I finally understood the bitcoin mechanism and I can explain the original paper well just two days ago. I feel dumb reading this paper. Intellectually, I think it's a hallmark of many great inventions in the 20th and 21st century: public-key cryptography (to verify transactions), micro economics - game theory (to incentive people to mine), hashing (bounty), macro economics (to combat inflation), distributed computing synchronization (to trust the system while not trusting any single computer), statistics (to combat fake chains). Only when one has all the pieces of the puzzle together then the whole thing is possible to conceive.

But I feel a sense of achievement when I finally figured the whole thing by myself. If you don't understand bitcoin, I think you should understand bitcoin as a hacker, even you don't need to use it or intend to store money in it.

I only own a small fraction of a coin, I'm not a risk taker. I'm not going to be rich from bitcoins, I have no reason to shill it with memes. It's unlike anything you have encountered before, notably that the only reason why bitcoin is worth money, is because we are better off with it. I do believe the world is a better place when everyone agrees that bitcoin has values and can be traded, because that means many people can buy their own "insurance" should wars happen, which they do. Your money might turn into paper, you might get killed if you smuggle cows, gold, and diamond when you're running for life, but no one can know if you have bitcoins.

Re: All You Need to Know About Bitcoin's Rise, from $0.01 to $11,000

#68

Post by tr4cefl0w »

StavrosK wrote: post #53
tr4cefl0w wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Segwit to Segwit? Because it’s less than a buck for me since beginning of november.

Hmm, good point, the recipient may not have been Segwit, I didn't notice. Hopefully Segwit transactions are cheaper, as you say, that would be very good news to me.

They are and they will be even more. The bigger the Segwit adoption rate is, the lower the fees. The adoption still is under 50%, it was around 15-20% in October but it's getting there.

Re: All You Need to Know About Bitcoin's Rise, from $0.01 to $11,000

#69

Post by nadam »

Mountain_Skies wrote: post #61
nadam wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Other cryptocurrencies, which are meant for payment (like Dash) will eventually make it into the mainstream. It's a matter of 1 or 2 years in my opinion. Bitcoin is digital gold, that is also a valid use case IMHO, and a good first step for cryptocurrencies. (Real gold has a 7 trillion market cap.) (Warning: this will be downvoted because of mentioning Dash. Edit after multiple downvotes: Naive people think that they…

Why mention Dash when you could have made your point without mentioning it? Dash is well known for its aggressive astroturfing. Mentioning it directly plays into that reputation, which you obviously know about since you acknowledge that your direct mention of Dash will be unwelcome.

I just noticed that when I mention it on HN or /r/cryptocurrency I am downvoted to hell. First I did not know what it is. We have discussed it on the dash subreddit, and seemingly fans of other coins hate and FUD Dash with passion. I am trying to evaluate cryptocurrencies objectively, and try to give few emotion into it. I have found that no other currency provides the combination Dash does, which are: private send, instasend, low fees, high tx/sec and working on even more, user.friendlyness with the evolution update, DAO with treasury budget for development and markteing.

A question to you: Do you accept the behaviour to downvote a normal on topic comment just for mentioning an on-topic cryptocurrency? I find this downvoting behaviour anti-intellectual.

Re: All You Need to Know About Bitcoin's Rise, from $0.01 to $11,000

#70

Post by paulgb »

MadSudaca wrote: post #16
eqmvii wrote: post #10

Something I rarely see discussed is the gender breakdown of bitcoin ownership. I'd be surprised if it wasn't something like 90%+ men mining, trading, and owning bitcoin. If bitcoin really takes over the world, it's going to look like a bunch of dudes printed themselves a fortune and then convinced the rest of the world to buy it from them.

> it's going to look like a bunch of dudes printed themselves a fortune and then convinced the rest of the world to buy it from them. Just like fiat money.

You can dislike how much fiat the government prints (I do too!), but at least when the government prints money the profit goes towards things that benefit the public (bridges, defense, schools, etc.), some corruption notwithstanding.
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