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> The currency survived a crisis of credibility after a bug was discovered in 2016 This is my primary worry with cryptocurrency, what if there is a bug in the

by sumedh 9y ago

> The currency survived a crisis of credibility after a bug was discovered in 2016 This is my primary worry with cryptocurrency, what if there is a bug in the code which do unexpected things and destroy the value completely.

brndnmtthws 9y ago
Same can be said of every technology. Besides, what's interesting is that it has survived major bugs, again and again. Doesn't that say something? Seems quite resilient to me.
- sumedh 9y ago
  > Same can be said of every technology. Can that technology double number of dollars in the world right now?
  - brndnmtthws 9y ago
    No, but the Federal Reserve can.
    - sumedh 9y ago
      The probability of Federal Reserve doubling US dollars in one day is lower than the probability of bitcoins doubling because of a software bug.
snappyTertle 9y ago
This actually happened to Ethereum. They ended up forking the blockchain to Ethereum and Ethereum Classic.
- lojack 9y ago
  its worth noting that the fork wasn't actually because of a bug in Ethereum, but because of a bug in a smart contract (the DAO). Ethereum itself worked perfectly. Bugs do exist in Ethereum and Bitcoin all the time, but they can almost always be fixed without changing the underlying protocol, so the clients just need updated. The fork happened because the community decided the smart contract in question was important enough to the survival of Ethereum that it'd be worth essentially backing out the contract (in a roundabout way)
  - nebabyte 9y ago
    Correct, with the exception of a few diehards who decided beating the 'blind adherence to contracts' drum was worth trying to stay on the initial fork and buy up the useless 'original' fork. It's* also worth noting that currencies like Ethereum actually fork all the time. The only worthwhile ones are the forks with mass support, which in Eth's case is usually the latest one supported by the foundation/Vitalik and in Bitcoin's case are Core and Cash (the forks supported by Blockstream and the community fork centered around scaling the block limit, respectively) Agree with the article title, but the 'fiat' in question is community fiat.
erikb 9y ago
Your worry is not unfounded, but it also implies trust in the current system. Just because it's done by humans not by software doesn't mean there are no bugs or mistakes made.

by sumedh 9y ago

brndnmtthws 9y ago

Same can be said of every technology. Besides, what's interesting is that it has survived major bugs, again and again. Doesn't that say something? Seems quite resilient to me.

sumedh 9y ago
> Same can be said of every technology. Can that technology double number of dollars in the world right now?
- brndnmtthws 9y ago
  No, but the Federal Reserve can.
  - sumedh 9y ago
    The probability of Federal Reserve doubling US dollars in one day is lower than the probability of bitcoins doubling because of a software bug.

snappyTertle 9y ago

This actually happened to Ethereum. They ended up forking the blockchain to Ethereum and Ethereum Classic.

lojack 9y ago
its worth noting that the fork wasn't actually because of a bug in Ethereum, but because of a bug in a smart contract (the DAO). Ethereum itself worked perfectly. Bugs do exist in Ethereum and Bitcoin all the time, but they can almost always be fixed without changing the underlying protocol, so the clients just need updated. The fork happened because the community decided the smart contract in question was important enough to the survival of Ethereum that it'd be worth essentially backing out the contract (in a roundabout way)
- nebabyte 9y ago
  Correct, with the exception of a few diehards who decided beating the 'blind adherence to contracts' drum was worth trying to stay on the initial fork and buy up the useless 'original' fork. It's* also worth noting that currencies like Ethereum actually fork all the time. The only worthwhile ones are the forks with mass support, which in Eth's case is usually the latest one supported by the foundation/Vitalik and in Bitcoin's case are Core and Cash (the forks supported by Blockstream and the community fork centered around scaling the block limit, respectively) Agree with the article title, but the 'fiat' in question is community fiat.

erikb 9y ago

Your worry is not unfounded, but it also implies trust in the current system. Just because it's done by humans not by software doesn't mean there are no bugs or mistakes made.