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«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, rec

by 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.

by mrb 9y ago

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.