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Users don't have to run a full node to use it though. I'd bet that most users just use a 3rd party web wallet (such as Coinbase), and thus are contributing noth

by ve55 9y ago

Users don't have to run a full node to use it though. I'd bet that most users just use a 3rd party web wallet (such as Coinbase), and thus are contributing nothing to the network in terms of decentralization.

jstanley 9y ago
In fact there's a happy middle ground: you can run Electrum or similar. These are "SPV" (simplified payment verification) clients. They sync only a small amount of blockchain data, relying on proof-of-work to confirm the data's validity, instead of validating the entire chain from the genesis block. That way you still get to keep control of your keys, and you get a little control over the consensus rules you think are valid, but you don't have to sync the entire chain. This is what most users are likely doing.
- mhluongo 9y ago
  Highly doubt that's "most" users, considering Coinbase's numbers
  - jstanley 9y ago
    Most Coinbase users will be exchanging on Coinbase and then transferring to their SPV wallet. If that's not the case, then, well... that's what they should be doing. Just because Coinbase has X amount of customers doesn't mean that many people are using Coinbase as a wallet. I'm a Coinbase customer but I don't use Coinbase as a wallet.
    - MichaelGG 9y ago
      It's definitely not what people are doing. Even as Mt Gox showed, people will just leave it where it's convenient. And for a lot of common users, they probably ARE a lot better off with their coins existing as a row in Coinbase's MongoDB database than as a file on their PC. And I say this as someone that dislikes Coinbase and was burned by them (one day they seized all my coins until I verified ID on login, then erased my bank account connections and refused to delete my PII that I only provided to withdraw my coins in the first place.)
      - compuguy 9y ago
        Welcome to the world of financial regulations.
        MichaelGG 9y ago
        Seems suspicious that, despite having validated my bank account and despite me making no more transactions with it, they demanded more ID Just to get the product I'd already purchased.
CyberDildonics 9y ago
That's not true. Someone who buys and uses bitcoin is giving it value as a currency. As the network effect rises, the prices rises, which increases the reward that miners get. The CPU and bandwidth resources are trivial. Torrent traffic from a decade ago is many orders of magnitude more bandwidth than what bitcoin or even all currencies combined are. It is literally a non-issue.

by ve55 9y ago

jstanley 9y ago

In fact there's a happy middle ground: you can run Electrum or similar. These are "SPV" (simplified payment verification) clients. They sync only a small amount of blockchain data, relying on proof-of-work to confirm the data's validity, instead of validating the entire chain from the genesis block. That way you still get to keep control of your keys, and you get a little control over the consensus rules you think are valid, but you don't have to sync the entire chain. This is what most users are likely doing.

mhluongo 9y ago
Highly doubt that's "most" users, considering Coinbase's numbers
- jstanley 9y ago
  Most Coinbase users will be exchanging on Coinbase and then transferring to their SPV wallet. If that's not the case, then, well... that's what they should be doing. Just because Coinbase has X amount of customers doesn't mean that many people are using Coinbase as a wallet. I'm a Coinbase customer but I don't use Coinbase as a wallet.
  - MichaelGG 9y ago
    It's definitely not what people are doing. Even as Mt Gox showed, people will just leave it where it's convenient. And for a lot of common users, they probably ARE a lot better off with their coins existing as a row in Coinbase's MongoDB database than as a file on their PC. And I say this as someone that dislikes Coinbase and was burned by them (one day they seized all my coins until I verified ID on login, then erased my bank account connections and refused to delete my PII that I only provided to withdraw my coins in the first place.)
    - compuguy 9y ago
      Welcome to the world of financial regulations.
      - MichaelGG 9y ago
        Seems suspicious that, despite having validated my bank account and despite me making no more transactions with it, they demanded more ID Just to get the product I'd already purchased.

CyberDildonics 9y ago

That's not true. Someone who buys and uses bitcoin is giving it value as a currency. As the network effect rises, the prices rises, which increases the reward that miners get. The CPU and bandwidth resources are trivial. Torrent traffic from a decade ago is many orders of magnitude more bandwidth than what bitcoin or even all currencies combined are. It is literally a non-issue.