6 ms·
Are cryptocurrencies about to go mainstream?
- thehardsphere 9y agoIf a headline is a question, the answer is always no. Otherwise, the headline would not be stated as a question, but as an assertion of fact.
- atemerev 9y agoIf The Guardian is writing about it — no. The hype is over.
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- polotics 9y agoThe Guardian is a very small corner of the internet, the hype is over when it's all over Facebook walls.
- twothamendment 9y agoYes, and 2017 is the year of the Linux Desktop. We can barely get stores to use EMV/chip card readers, so I'd have to say no.
- celticninja 9y agoIn the UK and Europe Chip and NFC are prevalent.
- bitxbitxbitcoin 9y agoIn the US... Not so much.
- chalupa-man 9y agoI'd say that's a bad example, because the US is a bit of an outlier in struggling with adoption. Most developed countries switched without a hassle a long time ago (25 years ago in some cases). I actually wasn't aware there was something _other than_ EMV until I came to the US.
- g00gler 9y agoSome background on the history of chips in credit cards http://www.npr.org/sections/money/2016/04/13/474135422/episode-695-put-a-chip-on-it http://www.npr.org/sections/money/2016/04/13/474135422/episo...
- daxorid 9y agoA little aside, I've been using Linux as primary workstation for seven years now. It works great, so I've never understood this "year of the desktop" meme. Now, OpenBSD is another matter entirely...
- Woofles 9y agoIt's not that it can't be used as a desktop OS (it obviously can), but that it will be see widespread adoption (like macOS or Windows) outside of the general Linux userbase.
- hackermailman 9y agoThis article can be summed up by the bottom page quote “Prices right now aren’t being driven by network usage, they’re being driven by speculation that tokens are going to appreciate. It’s a gold-rush mentality.” Also everytime I see yet another Ethereum story I think of http://www.paulgraham.com/submarine.html http://www.paulgraham.com/submarine.html
- toufka 9y agoApparently GPU prices are being distorted by this gold rush. Gamer forums are learning what Etherium is these days.
- bitxbitxbitcoin 9y agoAnd then Ethereum is going to go POS and there won't be mining anymore. They'll move on to other GPU-mineable coins and the ecosystem will continue to grow :). BTW: Asus is making mining specific graphic cards to try and relieve the pressure on gaming cards - 10k minimum order.
- hossbeast 9y agoBelieve it when I see it. PoW is the only consensus mechanism with a track record right now.
- CM30 9y agoNot until they can really explain to the average Joe why cryptocurrencies are such a good thing. Because at the end of the day, privacy is nowhere near as important to many people are it arguably should be, and trying to market cryptocurrencies as 'independent from government control' is likely a losing proposition. Same with most of the reasons involved I've seen invoked for why to use Bitcoin or the likes online. They're logical, but they're also likely to fly straight over the heads of most of the population. Add the deliberate way that governments and the media try and portray cryptocurrencies as being used for 'criminal' purposes (which has given these currencies a bit of an image problem), and you've got something that seems very unlikely to ever truly go mainstream.
- emodendroket 9y agoAre they logical? What are they?
- NicoJuicy 9y agotriple entry accounting, so i heard ;)
- frgtpsswrdlame 9y agoThey don't really need to explain it in any real sense. A bank creates Wells-coin, then a bunch of their sales people go out and start talking to clients about how this is the new thing, show a nice returns chart for ETH and BTC, talk about "decentralization" and "blockchain" and how this is the future, do you wanna hop on? Traditional investments already fly over the heads of most people and yet they still have 401ks and IRAs. My problem is that these cryptocoins are so incredibly volatile that there's no way laymen should be invested in them.
- smokeyj 9y ago> and trying to market cryptocurrencies as 'independent from government control' is likely a losing proposition Seems to be winning in China. I'm sure other countries with strict capital controls will experience similar things. Joe will probably be the last one to join the crypto takeover - but he'll still have exposure via pension funds and ETFs. I think governments portraying crypto as being for "criminals" is the equivalent of marketing a truck as "military strength".
- jondubois 9y agoI was very sceptical when I first heard about Bitcoin but now I do believe that cryptocurrencies have some intrinsic value as a payment system. The Bitcoin brand itself has intrinsic value which is related to its popularity. Consumers have always been willing to pay a premium to deal with specific brands which they know and trust. When people buy Coca-Cola, they're not paying for brown sugar-water. I do think that a lot of Bitcoin's current value is driven by the black market for money laundering but its distributed nature puts the government in a difficult position when it comes to regulation. If the government tried to delegitimize Bitcoin and shut down all big miners and exchanges, it would just fragment the Bitcoin network further and shift its control into the hands of smaller, shadier players who would be much harder to regulate. There has always been a market for virtual currencies but because they used to be centralized, the government was always able to step in and shut them down (e.g. Flooz, e-gold...) Cryptocurrencies might actually solve that problem.
- Taylor_OD 9y agoIf 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.
- linsomniac 9y agoThis 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.
- Taylor_OD 9y agoDo you mind sending that guide my way? I'd love to check it out. dorsetttaylor@gmail.com
- linsomniac 9y agoSent. Sorry, I hadn't checked back on comments until now.
- joshaidan 9y agoTo me, obtaining bitcoin (or whatever crypto-currency) has been one of the most challenging aspects of using the currency. It's too hard to obtain. Mining these days isn't that feasible, but even if I could mine bitcoin, I probably wouldn't be able to do it at a rate to fund whatever venture I wanted to pursue. The only alternative is to purchase a crypto-currency with another real world currency, which to me seems to defeat the purpose of not having to depend on central banks or real world currency. If there was a way for crypto-currencies to handle credit, I think that would greatly increase it's likelihood of replacing real world currencies and central banks--going mainstream. The money we use nowadays is transferable credit and central banks can produce enough to meet the demands of the economy. Crypto-currencies on the other hand are more like gold: there's a limited supply that doesn't meet the needs or demands of the economy.
- michalu 9y agoWe will see some major drama in this space. Take EOS for example... it's a company that's basically a Bitshares fork and it's raising possibly a half to one billion dollars on the promise to deliver something different in one year. Their purchase agreement promises nothing and is highly concerning: https://eos.io/purchaseagreement/EOS%20Token%20Purchase%20Agreement%20-%20June%2022,%202017.pdf https://eos.io/purchaseagreement/EOS%20Token%20Purchase%20Ag... What investor would give a startup half billion dollars in seed money without even an MVP? In the end it all comes down to: will the team deliver or not? The startups fail at 95% + money corrupt teams. If the team members done 0% work so far and are rich already, what's their motivation like? Why push through the hard times and drama that will inevitably happen if you can just bail out right now and take the money
- quantdev 9y agoAs someone who believes in cryptocurrencies, let me just say, wow, this ICO is just absurd. From that purchase agreement, “EOS TOKENS HAVE NO RIGHTS, USES OR ATTRIBUTES. The EOS Tokens do not have any rights, uses, purpose, attributes, functionalities or features, express or implied, including, without limitation, any uses, purpose, attributes, functionalities or features on the EOS Platform. The company does not guarantee and is not representing in any way to Buyer that the EOS Tokens have any rights, uses, purpose, attributes, functionalities or features."
- andy_ppp 9y agoThis is the exact article that starts appearing about 6 to 12 months before a huge bust within a particular market. I’d be hugely surprised if there isn’t a huge rise over the next 4 months followed by a collapse. You should be looking for where you think the bottom of the market is because it’s too useful not to go up again (it’ll be around $800, I’m a time traveller). The top could be as high at $6000 though before everyone realises how absurd and manipulative this all is...
- remotehack 9y ago> I’d be hugely surprised if there isn’t a huge rise over the next 4 months followed by a collapse. It's because bitcoin is a pyramid scheme.
- jdormit 9y ago> Bitcoin is a pyramid scheme Why do you say this? I am certainly not a cryptocurrency expert, but it seems to me that BTC provides real value, in that it is an accepted currency and also in that it distributes the means of control over a far greater area than traditional government-backed currency. Pyramid scheme reward members for recruiting new members without providing any value. Like all commodities and currencies, BTC increases in value the more people think it is valuable, but if that is how you define a pyramid scheme then gold futures, stocks, and the US dollar are pyramid scheme as well.
- Eerie 9y agoCall me back when Bitcoin can process as many transactions per second as Visa. Or, heck, even 10% as many transactions.
- bitxbitxbitcoin 9y agoIt could be soon!
- Eerie 9y agoIt couldn't, because it's theoretically impossible. That's the joke.
- shp0ngle 9y agoThe bitcoin community is now arguing to the point of death threats whether it's better to scale by adding data outside of the blocks and then making slightly larger blocks, or by adding data outside of the blocks and then adding more data outside of the blocks. And both sides are accusing the other side of being authoritarian, for centralization, and basically being even a worst enemy than The State, which is like the worst thing ever. In the meantime, no scaling solution is being implemented, because they are too busy blocking the other side from implementing their solutions.
- bhaak 9y agoIf you only look at Bitcoin now then you are missing out on a lot of what is going on with cryptocurrencies. But I agree, Bitcoin had a standstill for 3 years because of nitpicking over a simple factor two scaling solution. This could end badly for Bitcoin if they don't get their act together.
- tuxidomasx 9y agoNo. My dad still calls them "bitcorns." He heard about them on NPR. It's anecdotal, but cryptocurrencies practically don't exist in my non tech-related social circles.
- romanovcode 9y agoCan confirm. Regular people who are not interested in technology has no idea what they are, or even that they exist.
- eternalban 9y agoEmail. 1990. Conversation in some college.
- hudon 9y agoEmail is a drastic improvement on the way people communicate. It is orders of magnitude faster, for example, cheaper for the user and more convenient. Bitcoin is slower, more expensive and harder to use than the existing financial instruments. It is censorship resistant though so you can use it to pay people online when the government does not want you to pay these people.
- eternalban 9y ago> It is censorship resistant though so you can use it to pay people online when the government does not want you to pay these people. Only cash is "censorship resistant". As a technologist, this is either an embarassing statement, or, a hopeful data point on the durability of 'hits-it-on-the-nail' technology, such as cash, or paper and ink. (Yes, I'm getting bullish on paper pamphlets ..)
- hudon 9y ago> Only cash is "censorship resistant" Still not perfect, though. Look at how India swiftly and broadly decommissioned some of the bank notes. It is not too crazy to imagine some nations going a step further and decommissioning all bank notes. Similarly, the blockchain is not perfectly censorship resistant. You need: 1- decentralized transaction validators 2- privacy For #1, the jury is still out on if mining will remain decentralized. I tend to believe that there are guardians of this property in Bitcoin-land, and if it ever gets too bad, the blockchain can fork to retain this property. For #2, Bitcoin does poorly here, and hopefully advances in the tech like ring signatures, confidential transactions, MimbleWimble, TumbleBit, zk-SNARKs, etc. will prove to be practical enough for use.
- krrrh 9y agoIs 2017 the year of widespread PGP adoption?
- romanovcode 9y agoNo, you dummy - it's the year of Linux Desktop!
- swsieber 9y agoYes - just like California gold mining went mainstream. I overheard one of my non-tech friends recommended investing in Etherium to another non-tech friend - it made me worry. At least the recommender actually called it a crypto currency and the other, the recommendee, asked what made it useful.
- RayVR 9y agoThe 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 http://digiconomist.net/bitcoin-energy-consumption
- clarkmoody 9y agoThe article is misleading, as it compares Bitcoin power consumption to VISA, which is a payment processor. Bitcoin is a sound money system, so the proper comparison is all the people, buildings, vehicles, weapons, etc used in the creation and protection of the global fiat currency system. I don't know for sure, but I bet fiat costs dwarf the $640M or so that Bitcoin costs.
- deepvibrations 9y agoAlso worth mentioning that other crypto-currencies do not require mining (proof-of-work). They instead use "proof of stake" or "Proof of burn" systems which would use less power. Things are still evolving very fast in this space, so you never know what's around the corner!
- root_axis 9y agoThis is wrong. Those people aren't employed to mint coins and facilitate payments, the vast majority of the traditional banking industry provides consumer services that would still exist even in a far-fetched future where cryptocurrencies are more than a blip on the radar.
- Jabanga 9y agoIf 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 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.
- bitxbitxbitcoin 9y agoI'd say that cryptocurrencies are going mainstream... Bit by bit. /s
- bitxbitxbitcoin 9y agoI'd say that cryptocurrencies are going mainstream... Bit by bit. /s