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If all you have is a cryptocurrency, then I don't think you have anything that interesting. They've proven useful for buying drugs, but beyond that they've not

by c3534l 9y ago

If all you have is a cryptocurrency, then I don't think you have anything that interesting. They've proven useful for buying drugs, but beyond that they've not created many new business opportunities. I don't have an exhaustive knowledge of cryptos, but Ethereum is extensible which is interesting. GNU came out with a crypto that they say is unsuited for illegal activities. Being even more secure than Bitcoin just makes you more appealing to an even smaller set of Bitcoin users.

mrb 9y ago
«beyond that they've not created many new business opportunities» What an understatement. As of 2 years ago, at least 729 Bitcoin businesses were created¹, received $1 billion in investments², and employed thousands of persons. ¹https://venturescannerinsights.wordpress.com/2015/09/04/the-state-of-bitcoin-in-six-visuals/ https://venturescannerinsights.wordpress.com/2015/09/04/the-... ²http://money.cnn.com/2015/11/02/technology/bitcoin-1-billion-invested/ http://money.cnn.com/2015/11/02/technology/bitcoin-1-billion...
- c3534l 9y ago
  Investments are the opposite of what I'm talking about. Where are the returns? What are the new businesses? If you throw a million dollars into a hole, you can't say the useless hole industry is a million dollar idea. If you build a new railroad line, tell me what cities it connects, not how much people have spent building it. I'm well aware there's interest in bitcoin. But the only industry, besides itself, that it's revolutionized is drugs. And it doesn't offer a way to grow, there's no innovating on bitcoin. There's innovating on crypto, and because of that it's that innovation that has the potential to matter. Fine, it's private. Is that it? That's not enough.
  - mrb 9y ago
    Bitcoin revolutionizes payments. There is major growth happening because there is simply no other system that works as well as Bitcoin for fast international payments, as it works for all ("permissionless"), 24/7 (doesn't close on weekends and bank holidays), and quickly (10min block time). See for example the growth and use of Bitcoin witnessed by payment processor BitPay: https://blog.bitpay.com/bitpay-growth-2017/ https://blog.bitpay.com/bitpay-growth-2017/ It's hard to quantify exactly how much Bitcoin helps the economy on a global scale beyond these BitPay stats, because of the inherent decentralized nature of the tech. But we know it reduces payment friction, so it indirectly increases economic activity of its users.
tambienben 9y ago
https://openbazaar.org https://openbazaar.org
IvyMike 9y ago
> They've proven useful for buying drugs, but beyond that they've not created many new business opportunities. The Ransomware business model has really taken off as well.
jMyles 9y ago
I don't agree with any part of your statement. But even if I did, > They've proven useful for buying drugs, but beyond that they've not created many new business opportunities. that's a pretty huge market. I don't think that you can both acknowledge that something is useful for one of the most fundamental human activities (acquiring psychoactive plants and compounds) and at the same time that it is entirely uninteresting.
abecedarius 9y ago
Intimating that privacy is only for illegal transactions is the "I have nothing to hide" of money. It doesn't hold in that domain either: traditionally money is one of the domains people want to be most private about from their neighbors, not just Uncle Sam. Credit cards as the way to do e-commerce never sat right with me; I only reluctantly started using one in the later 90s. Coincidentally today is "Crypto Is Currency Day" promoting actually buying stuff online with Zcash, Monero, etc., not just holding it: https://cryptoiscurrency.com/ https://cryptoiscurrency.com/

by c3534l 9y ago

mrb 9y ago

«beyond that they've not created many new business opportunities» What an understatement. As of 2 years ago, at least 729 Bitcoin businesses were created¹, received $1 billion in investments², and employed thousands of persons. ¹https://venturescannerinsights.wordpress.com/2015/09/04/the-state-of-bitcoin-in-six-visuals/ https://venturescannerinsights.wordpress.com/2015/09/04/the-... ²http://money.cnn.com/2015/11/02/technology/bitcoin-1-billion-invested/ http://money.cnn.com/2015/11/02/technology/bitcoin-1-billion...

c3534l 9y ago
Investments are the opposite of what I'm talking about. Where are the returns? What are the new businesses? If you throw a million dollars into a hole, you can't say the useless hole industry is a million dollar idea. If you build a new railroad line, tell me what cities it connects, not how much people have spent building it. I'm well aware there's interest in bitcoin. But the only industry, besides itself, that it's revolutionized is drugs. And it doesn't offer a way to grow, there's no innovating on bitcoin. There's innovating on crypto, and because of that it's that innovation that has the potential to matter. Fine, it's private. Is that it? That's not enough.
- mrb 9y ago
  Bitcoin revolutionizes payments. There is major growth happening because there is simply no other system that works as well as Bitcoin for fast international payments, as it works for all ("permissionless"), 24/7 (doesn't close on weekends and bank holidays), and quickly (10min block time). See for example the growth and use of Bitcoin witnessed by payment processor BitPay: https://blog.bitpay.com/bitpay-growth-2017/ https://blog.bitpay.com/bitpay-growth-2017/ It's hard to quantify exactly how much Bitcoin helps the economy on a global scale beyond these BitPay stats, because of the inherent decentralized nature of the tech. But we know it reduces payment friction, so it indirectly increases economic activity of its users.

tambienben 9y ago

https://openbazaar.org https://openbazaar.org

IvyMike 9y ago

> They've proven useful for buying drugs, but beyond that they've not created many new business opportunities. The Ransomware business model has really taken off as well.

jMyles 9y ago

I don't agree with any part of your statement. But even if I did, > They've proven useful for buying drugs, but beyond that they've not created many new business opportunities. that's a pretty huge market. I don't think that you can both acknowledge that something is useful for one of the most fundamental human activities (acquiring psychoactive plants and compounds) and at the same time that it is entirely uninteresting.

abecedarius 9y ago

Intimating that privacy is only for illegal transactions is the "I have nothing to hide" of money. It doesn't hold in that domain either: traditionally money is one of the domains people want to be most private about from their neighbors, not just Uncle Sam. Credit cards as the way to do e-commerce never sat right with me; I only reluctantly started using one in the later 90s. Coincidentally today is "Crypto Is Currency Day" promoting actually buying stuff online with Zcash, Monero, etc., not just holding it: https://cryptoiscurrency.com/ https://cryptoiscurrency.com/