3 ms·

Bitcoin behaves rather badly under global scale network partitions, or if your global network has a latency of over an hour. But on the other hand it is complet

by halomru 10y ago

Bitcoin behaves rather badly under global scale network partitions, or if your global network has a latency of over an hour. But on the other hand it is completely immune to collapse of governments

cafebabbe 10y ago
Ha, "completely immune". Good luck accessing your wallet without power plants...
- mywittyname 10y ago
  Or internet access. It seems like you could commit fraud by traveling to regions without a means to communicate with one-another online and selling them BTCs that were already spent on another network. I bet two people pull that off before those communities ban BTC.
  - usrusr 10y ago
    On the other hand, as long as those communication islands don't reconnect, all those double-spent BTC will be just as good/bad as homemade dollar bills. Bitcoin might be postapocalyptically valuable if the apocalypse in question has hyperinflation at its core, but in a scenario without that it will be inferior even to vintage paper money. The true availability of BTC within a given community is just too much of an uncertainty. What could be a sizable fraction of the amount in active circulation one day could be completely devalued due some early adopter backup going live a day later.
- halomru 10y ago
  "collapse of government" doesn't have to mean total collapse of infrastructure. Providing infrastructure is harder without government, but if you charge for the infrastructure anyway, you can just increase prices. It's of course a problem for low income workers, but here we are talking about the super rich.
  - che_shirecat 10y ago
    wouldn't self-interested infrastructure providers be able to intercept/modify bitcoin traffic for their own gain? BGP hijacking on steroids?
    - Atheros 10y ago
      They would be able to block your spends and could keep you from connecting to the network but that's it.
Analemma_ 10y ago
> But on the other hand it is completely immune to collapse of governments This reads like a parody of Bitcoin fanatics. You can't be serious.
- aianus 10y ago
  I think he means "any given government" not "all governments". Like, if the government collapses in Venezuela, Bitcoin holders there will still have their purchasing power preserved.

by halomru 10y ago

Bitcoin behaves rather badly under global scale network partitions, or if your global network has a latency of over an hour. But on the other hand it is completely immune to collapse of governments

cafebabbe 10y ago

Ha, "completely immune". Good luck accessing your wallet without power plants...

mywittyname 10y ago
Or internet access. It seems like you could commit fraud by traveling to regions without a means to communicate with one-another online and selling them BTCs that were already spent on another network. I bet two people pull that off before those communities ban BTC.
- usrusr 10y ago
  On the other hand, as long as those communication islands don't reconnect, all those double-spent BTC will be just as good/bad as homemade dollar bills. Bitcoin might be postapocalyptically valuable if the apocalypse in question has hyperinflation at its core, but in a scenario without that it will be inferior even to vintage paper money. The true availability of BTC within a given community is just too much of an uncertainty. What could be a sizable fraction of the amount in active circulation one day could be completely devalued due some early adopter backup going live a day later.
halomru 10y ago
"collapse of government" doesn't have to mean total collapse of infrastructure. Providing infrastructure is harder without government, but if you charge for the infrastructure anyway, you can just increase prices. It's of course a problem for low income workers, but here we are talking about the super rich.
- che_shirecat 10y ago
  wouldn't self-interested infrastructure providers be able to intercept/modify bitcoin traffic for their own gain? BGP hijacking on steroids?
  - Atheros 10y ago
    They would be able to block your spends and could keep you from connecting to the network but that's it.

Analemma_ 10y ago

> But on the other hand it is completely immune to collapse of governments This reads like a parody of Bitcoin fanatics. You can't be serious.

aianus 10y ago
I think he means "any given government" not "all governments". Like, if the government collapses in Venezuela, Bitcoin holders there will still have their purchasing power preserved.