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If my understanding is correct, cryptocurrency transactions cannot be blocked either. So this advantage may not be exclusive to cash, assuming you have an inter

If my understanding is correct, cryptocurrency transactions cannot be blocked either. So this advantage may not be exclusive to cash, assuming you have an internet connection.

influx 9y ago
This is true in theory, in practice most people will eventually want to convert to a fiat currency, which means going through an exchange, which can be regulated. It is possible to use something like local bitcoins to exchange coins for cash, but it's extremely inconvenient and more expensive.
Florin_Andrei 9y ago
> cryptocurrency transactions cannot be blocked either But could you flood the blockchain with bogus transactions, making it hard for everyone to use it?
- shanusmagnus 9y ago
  Not bogus (those are pretty trivially rejected by distributed nodes), but you could certainly flood it with valid microtransactions, and thus jack up the fees people have to pay to get their tx validated in reasonable time. This activity, way more than actual block size limits, underlies the ridiculous fee escalation on BTC that someone else mentioned.
onion2k 9y ago
Right now the median BTC transaction fee is about $10. I don't think many people would accept that on every transaction they do. Any way around it (pooling transactions for example) would mean losing the 'cannot be blocked' benefit.
- aboodman 9y ago
  The transaction fee for Bitcoin Cash is like ten cents. High transaction fees have nothing to do with crypto currencies fundamentally.
  - MrRadar 9y ago
    Except that they do. Right now each Bitcoin transaction uses the same amount of energy as the average household does in a week (255 kWH according to https://digiconomist.net/bitcoin-energy-consumption https://digiconomist.net/bitcoin-energy-consumption which is more than I personally use in a month). Even assuming you're mining with very low-cost electricity ($0.04/kWH) that's $10.20... or about the cost of a BTC transaction according to the grandparent post. This high energy use is the cost of being decentralized, centralized systems like Visa, Mastercard, and ACH use much less energy per transaction than that.
    - aboodman 9y ago
      There are multiple existence proofs that you are wrong: Bitcoin Cash, Ethereum, etc.
pavel_lishin 9y ago
Cash has other advantages - speed and anonymity.

If my understanding is correct, cryptocurrency transactions cannot be blocked either. So this advantage may not be exclusive to cash, assuming you have an internet connection.

influx 9y ago

This is true in theory, in practice most people will eventually want to convert to a fiat currency, which means going through an exchange, which can be regulated. It is possible to use something like local bitcoins to exchange coins for cash, but it's extremely inconvenient and more expensive.

Florin_Andrei 9y ago

> cryptocurrency transactions cannot be blocked either But could you flood the blockchain with bogus transactions, making it hard for everyone to use it?

shanusmagnus 9y ago
Not bogus (those are pretty trivially rejected by distributed nodes), but you could certainly flood it with valid microtransactions, and thus jack up the fees people have to pay to get their tx validated in reasonable time. This activity, way more than actual block size limits, underlies the ridiculous fee escalation on BTC that someone else mentioned.

onion2k 9y ago

Right now the median BTC transaction fee is about $10. I don't think many people would accept that on every transaction they do. Any way around it (pooling transactions for example) would mean losing the 'cannot be blocked' benefit.

aboodman 9y ago
The transaction fee for Bitcoin Cash is like ten cents. High transaction fees have nothing to do with crypto currencies fundamentally.
- MrRadar 9y ago
  Except that they do. Right now each Bitcoin transaction uses the same amount of energy as the average household does in a week (255 kWH according to https://digiconomist.net/bitcoin-energy-consumption https://digiconomist.net/bitcoin-energy-consumption which is more than I personally use in a month). Even assuming you're mining with very low-cost electricity ($0.04/kWH) that's $10.20... or about the cost of a BTC transaction according to the grandparent post. This high energy use is the cost of being decentralized, centralized systems like Visa, Mastercard, and ACH use much less energy per transaction than that.
  - aboodman 9y ago
    There are multiple existence proofs that you are wrong: Bitcoin Cash, Ethereum, etc.

pavel_lishin 9y ago

Cash has other advantages - speed and anonymity.