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Aren't there better ways to broadcast the data? Say using SMS services which seem already quite used by farmers in remote places [1]. Also it's unclear how peo

Aren't there better ways to broadcast the data? Say using SMS services which seem already quite used by farmers in remote places [1]. Also it's unclear how people in these remote places will acquire their first bitcoins. What I like about Bitcoin is the way that the tokens are distributed (via PoW currently). If there was a way to distribute a new cryptocurrency, somewhat fairly, within these remote places that have no internet, and let them bootstrap their own economy, now that would be cool. For these places what is needed is a sort of an "offline cryptocurrency". They don't care about sending 5 btc to the person across town instantly... they care about sending 5 btc to the person in front of them at the market. 1. https://www.theguardian.com/global-development-professionals-network/2012/nov/27/farmers-mobile-phones-sms-agriculture https://www.theguardian.com/global-development-professionals...

zanny 9y ago
Bitcoin is only so valuable because its a pyramid scheme. All the participation and engagement by miners and anyone looking to get rich off it is predicated on how most bitcoins were already made so any market growth translates into increased prices and scarcity for the bitcoin that exists. This is the fundamental problem with making a cryptocurrency that can actually serve its users well. To get popular, you need to be a get rich quick scheme, but to actually be useful, you need to not deflate out of control forever. But bitcoin is doing what it was meant to do. It wasn't meant to promote a healthy monetary policy or be a pervasive useful currency to replace the fiats we have now - it would have had a much different coin issuance algorithm / monetary growth policy otherwise. It demonstrated the capabilities of proof of work distributed consensus and made its early adopters ludicrously rich.
kobeya 9y ago
Bitcoin is a up to 4MB/10min protocol. That's a thing much for SMS...

zanny 9y ago

Bitcoin is only so valuable because its a pyramid scheme. All the participation and engagement by miners and anyone looking to get rich off it is predicated on how most bitcoins were already made so any market growth translates into increased prices and scarcity for the bitcoin that exists. This is the fundamental problem with making a cryptocurrency that can actually serve its users well. To get popular, you need to be a get rich quick scheme, but to actually be useful, you need to not deflate out of control forever. But bitcoin is doing what it was meant to do. It wasn't meant to promote a healthy monetary policy or be a pervasive useful currency to replace the fiats we have now - it would have had a much different coin issuance algorithm / monetary growth policy otherwise. It demonstrated the capabilities of proof of work distributed consensus and made its early adopters ludicrously rich.

kobeya 9y ago

Bitcoin is a up to 4MB/10min protocol. That's a thing much for SMS...