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As someone that has been openly critical of bitcoin in the past it's funny to see the bitcoin communities response to other cryptocurrencies while claiming anyo

As someone that has been openly critical of bitcoin in the past it's funny to see the bitcoin communities response to other cryptocurrencies while claiming anyone that doesn't buy into their coin is clearly just unintelligent or unable to comprehend technology and the future. I'm reminded of the joke about the atheist and the christian where the atheist says to the christian "We believe in basically the same thing. I just believe in one less god than you". I'm still yet to see any cases where any of these coins or tokens perform better than a centralized system(and can continue to perform better at similar utilization) or where the value of the distributed system is worth more than the cost of distributing it. But I've been surprised by the communities before so maybe I will be again.

Cakez0r 9y ago
> I'm still yet to see any cases where any of these coins or tokens perform better than a centralized system(and can continue to perform better at similar utilization) or where the value of the distributed system is worth more than the cost of distributing it. Silk road?
- sanswork 9y ago
  Yeah sorry I meant legal. If you're running an online drug market or a cryptolocker extortion scheme it is probably the best solution.
  - discombobulate 9y ago
    Supporting Wikileaks when the US government wanted to defund them.
    - sanswork 9y ago
      I'd say it didn't do that great of a job of that since if my memory serves right(I ran the numbers a few years ago on their early donations) they didn't really receive that much from bitcoin donations. Likely because it was a pain to get bitcoin at the time so it severely limited the number of potential donors. They would have made a lot if they held them all to today but back when the donations peaked 100btc donation was $600.
      - discombobulate 9y ago
        Fair enough. You'd agree it's a valid use case, though?
        sanswork 9y ago
        Yes definitely.
LMYahooTFY 9y ago
Perform better? I think they're demonstrably more efficient even on paper. If everyone accepted a cryptocurrency and you could prove this anytime and anywhere. The issue is people aren't going to switch their store of value, and perhaps they shouldn't. But I'm not sure how the current legacy banking system functions better in any regard except for reversing transactions. And there is an argument to be made that this introduces more vulnerabilities.
- sanswork 9y ago
  >I think they're demonstrably more efficient even on paper. Can you demonstrate this for me now because I'm honestly not sure what you mean.
  - LMYahooTFY 9y ago
    Wait I think I misunderstood you to mean centralized banking system, but did you just mean centralized as opposed to P2P block chain?
    - sanswork 9y ago
      Both work.
      - LMYahooTFY 9y ago
        Well more efficient than legacy banking in the sense that there are a LOT of third parties to get things done, and transfers start at 3-5 business days unless you're transferring to another account at the same bank (no third party), and if it's across a national border than a whole new host of risk assessment starts. Cryptocurrency value transfer involves none of that, and is confirmed in 30-45 minutes at most AFAIK.
        sanswork 9y ago
        I can transfer from my paypal to another immediately. In Canada I can do interac transfers which take minutes between banks and in Europe you can transfer between banks instantly and free. I can do a wire transfer today from my Australian account and have it in my Canadian account tomorrow. Same for US->Canada, US->Australia and Canada->Australia. So it definitely isn't always 3-5 business days. I'm going to assume you're american? America has basically the worst banking system in the first world and a lot of americans don't actually realize how far behind their banking system is. Cryptocurrency value transfer involves none of that if you already own cryptocurrency. But you almost certainly have gone through the traditional system to buy your cryptocurrency so you aren't really removing that inefficiency. Adding to that the inefficiency in interbank transfers is artificial. Should crypto start to take off I'm pretty sure you'd quickly find that the traditional banking system finds a way to do instant international payments. >and is confirmed in 30-45 minutes at most AFAIK. My last bitcoin payment was unfortunately just as someone started to spam the network a month or so ago and actually took just under a week as my fee ended up being too low even though it was an acceptable amount when I initiated the transfer.

Cakez0r 9y ago

> I'm still yet to see any cases where any of these coins or tokens perform better than a centralized system(and can continue to perform better at similar utilization) or where the value of the distributed system is worth more than the cost of distributing it. Silk road?

sanswork 9y ago
Yeah sorry I meant legal. If you're running an online drug market or a cryptolocker extortion scheme it is probably the best solution.
- discombobulate 9y ago
  Supporting Wikileaks when the US government wanted to defund them.
  - sanswork 9y ago
    I'd say it didn't do that great of a job of that since if my memory serves right(I ran the numbers a few years ago on their early donations) they didn't really receive that much from bitcoin donations. Likely because it was a pain to get bitcoin at the time so it severely limited the number of potential donors. They would have made a lot if they held them all to today but back when the donations peaked 100btc donation was $600.
    - discombobulate 9y ago
      Fair enough. You'd agree it's a valid use case, though?
      - sanswork 9y ago
        Yes definitely.

LMYahooTFY 9y ago

Perform better? I think they're demonstrably more efficient even on paper. If everyone accepted a cryptocurrency and you could prove this anytime and anywhere. The issue is people aren't going to switch their store of value, and perhaps they shouldn't. But I'm not sure how the current legacy banking system functions better in any regard except for reversing transactions. And there is an argument to be made that this introduces more vulnerabilities.

sanswork 9y ago
>I think they're demonstrably more efficient even on paper. Can you demonstrate this for me now because I'm honestly not sure what you mean.
- LMYahooTFY 9y ago
  Wait I think I misunderstood you to mean centralized banking system, but did you just mean centralized as opposed to P2P block chain?
  - sanswork 9y ago
    Both work.
    - LMYahooTFY 9y ago
      Well more efficient than legacy banking in the sense that there are a LOT of third parties to get things done, and transfers start at 3-5 business days unless you're transferring to another account at the same bank (no third party), and if it's across a national border than a whole new host of risk assessment starts. Cryptocurrency value transfer involves none of that, and is confirmed in 30-45 minutes at most AFAIK.
      - sanswork 9y ago
        I can transfer from my paypal to another immediately. In Canada I can do interac transfers which take minutes between banks and in Europe you can transfer between banks instantly and free. I can do a wire transfer today from my Australian account and have it in my Canadian account tomorrow. Same for US->Canada, US->Australia and Canada->Australia. So it definitely isn't always 3-5 business days. I'm going to assume you're american? America has basically the worst banking system in the first world and a lot of americans don't actually realize how far behind their banking system is. Cryptocurrency value transfer involves none of that if you already own cryptocurrency. But you almost certainly have gone through the traditional system to buy your cryptocurrency so you aren't really removing that inefficiency. Adding to that the inefficiency in interbank transfers is artificial. Should crypto start to take off I'm pretty sure you'd quickly find that the traditional banking system finds a way to do instant international payments. >and is confirmed in 30-45 minutes at most AFAIK. My last bitcoin payment was unfortunately just as someone started to spam the network a month or so ago and actually took just under a week as my fee ended up being too low even though it was an acceptable amount when I initiated the transfer.