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It is an impressively innovative way of recording value (transferring and securing, not as much, but that's a discussion for another time). Plenty of things ar

by amalcon 10y ago

It is an impressively innovative way of recording value (transferring and securing, not as much, but that's a discussion for another time). Plenty of things are impressive without actually solving the problems they try to solve, though. 1990s speech recognition software was impressive, but not actually suitable for its intended purpose. > However, on a basic level, its capability to reliably store and transfer value has only grown and become stronger in the past 8 years. It's been pretty terrible at storing value over the past 8 years, because of the volatility (though it's been pretty good as a speculative asset). Its capacity to transfer value has grown, but that's just because the ecosystem surrounding bitcoin has grown -- e.g. something like M-Pesa grew much more over the same time frame, just because more people accept it. This has nothing to do with the technology.

dwaltrip 10y ago
People use various technologies for various reasons, many having to do with specific characteristics of the technology itself. Accidental reasons do exist, but the technical deficiencies must be small enough to not overshadow the favorable accidental reasons. In other words, it has to be good enough, given the context, or it won't happen. So I don't think it's fair to dismiss adoption as meaningless. I agree it is difficult to determine how well Bitcoin has "stored value" over the past 8 years. But I don't think speculation should be casually dismissed, as continued speculation rarely happens for many years without reasonable fundamentals supporting the space. Short term bubbles can possibly be more noise/mob-mentality than meaningful signal. However, many bubbles over time, coupled with a strong underlying trend, is definitely a powerful signal that something interesting is happening. Additionally, the volatility is decreasing year over year, which is another point in favor of bitcoin as a value storage mechanism. I think one big problem in discussing bitcoin is people get hung up on different things that are supposedly the "purpose" of bitcoin, and then argue in circles about that. There are definitely some questionable ideologies in the bitcoin space. As no single group is in charge of bitcoin, I'd personally would rather not assume any specific predetermined purpose, and just look at how the system is functioning and what the fundamental characteristics and dynamics seem to be.

by amalcon 10y ago

dwaltrip 10y ago

People use various technologies for various reasons, many having to do with specific characteristics of the technology itself. Accidental reasons do exist, but the technical deficiencies must be small enough to not overshadow the favorable accidental reasons. In other words, it has to be good enough, given the context, or it won't happen. So I don't think it's fair to dismiss adoption as meaningless. I agree it is difficult to determine how well Bitcoin has "stored value" over the past 8 years. But I don't think speculation should be casually dismissed, as continued speculation rarely happens for many years without reasonable fundamentals supporting the space. Short term bubbles can possibly be more noise/mob-mentality than meaningful signal. However, many bubbles over time, coupled with a strong underlying trend, is definitely a powerful signal that something interesting is happening. Additionally, the volatility is decreasing year over year, which is another point in favor of bitcoin as a value storage mechanism. I think one big problem in discussing bitcoin is people get hung up on different things that are supposedly the "purpose" of bitcoin, and then argue in circles about that. There are definitely some questionable ideologies in the bitcoin space. As no single group is in charge of bitcoin, I'd personally would rather not assume any specific predetermined purpose, and just look at how the system is functioning and what the fundamental characteristics and dynamics seem to be.