4 ms·

Thanks for clarifying that blocksize controls only transaction volume. I get that now. I didn't when I made my original post. I think, still though I'm not art

Thanks for clarifying that blocksize controls only transaction volume. I get that now. I didn't when I made my original post. I think, still though I'm not articulating my point well enough. Fiat currency fails 100% of the time because it is controlled by humans. My understanding thus far was that bitcoin was controlled by physical limits in the real world, that of electricity, compute power, ultimately: Math. Now, here, we are not talking about the supply of bitcoins themselves, but rather, the number of transactions with them that can occur. That too is a factor in the value of a currency. It's not just the supply of currency that affects the value, but whether or not the person receiving that currency believes in its value, in this case, they must believe they can themselves use that currency to conduct future transactions. It is this belief, in the case of bitcoin -- transactability for the lack of a better word, that is controlled by human beings -- and this is the same failing that has caused the collapse of every fiat currency in history prior to the US Dollar. Now I'm learning that bitcoin has not solved this problem and I can't understand how bitcoin will survive this failure. For a money to survive, it must be bound by physical laws beyond the reach of humans to change. It is human fallibility that is the culprit behind all fiat failures in history. We must invent a currency immune to the decisions of humans to solve the problem that has plagued fiat throughout history.

hughw 11y ago
Gold is very dense. There are physical constraints making it difficult to transact large amounts of it. Even though humans can constrain the transaction throughput of bitcoin, bitcoins or other crypto currency, will probably, eventually, converge on a solution where the possible tx rate is far larger than we can use. Tx rate limiting won't be a feature of any crypto coin that survives. You're just observing the effects of imperfect initial engineering. I wouldn't draw broad conclusions about the impossibility of successful cryptocurrencies based on this current limitation.
- my5thaccount 11y ago
  I'm not a gold bug, but technology can enable us to use micro or even nano-ounces of gold. We used to use half-pennies too. Canada doesn't even use pennies anymore. Just store both olympic sized swimming pools of gold in the same place and put numbers in accounts that represent the weight owned by the person. We typically think about ounces of gold, but we could go down to the atom if necessary, theoretically anyway.
pmorici 11y ago
The difference between government issued currencies (what you call fiat) and Bitcoin is that. Policies controlling Government currencies are decided by a small group of people generally well connected to banks and other wealthy interests (ie: a central bank with an appointed board of governors) Bitcoin's governing rules on the other hand are enshrined in software and can only be changed through a democratic consensus process. It's a big step forward over fat cats deciding monetary policy in smoke filled back rooms.
- my5thaccount 11y ago
  It's not what I call fiat, it's the definition of fiat. I thought bitcoin was not a fiat currency, but in fact it is, because it's value is controlled by supply and demand based on the decisions of humans. I am now convinced that bitcoin will, like all fiat currencies, inevitably fail. It doesn't matter if its value is controlled by one human or a democratic process controlled by humans, it is controlled by humans and humans are fallible, therefore bitcoin will fail. There is no question of this. The only question is, When?
  - pmorici 11y ago
    Yes, but you created a new account to troll so that conclusion was inevitable.
    - deleted 11y ago
      [deleted]
- Frondo 11y ago
  Democracy doesn't require consensus and it doesn't require coding. Bitcoin is not democratic, and it is definitely not a big step forward over monetary policy being decided by people who have been appointed by democratically elected officials (which is what we have now).

hughw 11y ago

Gold is very dense. There are physical constraints making it difficult to transact large amounts of it. Even though humans can constrain the transaction throughput of bitcoin, bitcoins or other crypto currency, will probably, eventually, converge on a solution where the possible tx rate is far larger than we can use. Tx rate limiting won't be a feature of any crypto coin that survives. You're just observing the effects of imperfect initial engineering. I wouldn't draw broad conclusions about the impossibility of successful cryptocurrencies based on this current limitation.

my5thaccount 11y ago
I'm not a gold bug, but technology can enable us to use micro or even nano-ounces of gold. We used to use half-pennies too. Canada doesn't even use pennies anymore. Just store both olympic sized swimming pools of gold in the same place and put numbers in accounts that represent the weight owned by the person. We typically think about ounces of gold, but we could go down to the atom if necessary, theoretically anyway.

pmorici 11y ago

The difference between government issued currencies (what you call fiat) and Bitcoin is that. Policies controlling Government currencies are decided by a small group of people generally well connected to banks and other wealthy interests (ie: a central bank with an appointed board of governors) Bitcoin's governing rules on the other hand are enshrined in software and can only be changed through a democratic consensus process. It's a big step forward over fat cats deciding monetary policy in smoke filled back rooms.

my5thaccount 11y ago
It's not what I call fiat, it's the definition of fiat. I thought bitcoin was not a fiat currency, but in fact it is, because it's value is controlled by supply and demand based on the decisions of humans. I am now convinced that bitcoin will, like all fiat currencies, inevitably fail. It doesn't matter if its value is controlled by one human or a democratic process controlled by humans, it is controlled by humans and humans are fallible, therefore bitcoin will fail. There is no question of this. The only question is, When?
- pmorici 11y ago
  Yes, but you created a new account to troll so that conclusion was inevitable.
  - deleted 11y ago
    [deleted]
Frondo 11y ago
Democracy doesn't require consensus and it doesn't require coding. Bitcoin is not democratic, and it is definitely not a big step forward over monetary policy being decided by people who have been appointed by democratically elected officials (which is what we have now).