Are cryptocurrencies about to go mainstream? • Hacker News Board

Re: Are cryptocurrencies about to go mainstream?

#81

Post by Jabanga » Tue, Jul 04, 2017, 3:12 AM UTC

RayVR wrote: post #49

The extremely simple answer is: No. Cryptocurrencies require significantly more power to verify a single transaction[1]. The ability to scale to a meaningful size does not exist now. They need to improve efficiency by 3-4 orders of magnitude to be competitive. [1] http://digiconomist.net/bitcoin-energy-consumption

If you break down the necessary costs (storage, bandwidth, CPU cycles for verification), it's actually very low, at about $0.001 (a tenth of a cent) a transaction:

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=3332.0

The only reason Bitcoin transactions cost so much is artificial scarcity of block space, which increases the proof of work generated per transaction. The absence of a static limit in Ethereum is one of its major advantages over Bitcoin.

Re: Are cryptocurrencies about to go mainstream?

#82

Post by wickawic » Tue, Jul 04, 2017, 11:34 AM UTC

xiphias wrote: post #78

wickawic wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> people like you People with common sense? Governments (the institutions that get to use guns and jails and make laws) will not let their control of currency slide out from under them. Blockchains are cool and fun and applicable, but I can't see crypto-currency-as-money becoming mainstream. Even if it does the governments of the world will not adopt Bitcoin, they would make their own. Much more likely it will be out…

Bitcoin is already outlawed in some countries, like Venezuela. How do you think law can stop something so important that the governments don't provide?

We'll talk when access to Bitcoin is considered a basic human right

Re: Are cryptocurrencies about to go mainstream?

#83

Post by AlwaysRock » Thu, Jul 06, 2017, 7:24 PM UTC

linsomniac wrote: post #21

AlwaysRock wrote: post #12

If it was easier to buy and sell them they might. I know people who are interested but due to the difficulty and complexity of buying/storing/selling they havnt yet.

This is very true. I just recently got back into cryptocurrencies after ~5 years away from them, and it was a pain getting all the pieces put together, finding the right places to put money in and trade. I wrote up a guide because basically all of my friends have expressed interest over the last 6 weeks, so I've been sending it around to them. Because it's hard.

Do you mind sending that guide my way? I'd love to check it out. dorsetttaylor@gmail.com

Re: Are cryptocurrencies about to go mainstream?

#84

Post by linsomniac » Fri, Jul 14, 2017, 2:11 AM UTC

AlwaysRock wrote: post #83

linsomniac wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is very true. I just recently got back into cryptocurrencies after ~5 years away from them, and it was a pain getting all the pieces put together, finding the right places to put money in and trade. I wrote up a guide because basically all of my friends have expressed interest over the last 6 weeks, so I've been sending it around to them. Because it's hard.

Do you mind sending that guide my way? I'd love to check it out. dorsetttaylor@gmail.com

Sent. Sorry, I hadn't checked back on comments until now.