5 ms·

Better to stay away from Bitcoin

13 points by read_only 9y ago

airbreather 9y ago
Too many inaccuracies in this article to be believable. Yes, POW is a problem but reading this article I doubt the author ever designed mining hardware, description of sha256 is wrong for one, whole thing smells.
- read_only 9y ago
  I'm pretty sure the author understands sha256: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=pd-IjLcAAAAJ https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=pd-IjLcAAAAJ
  - mrunkel 9y ago
    Shh. airbreather has money in bitcoin. Don't confuse him/her with facts. :)
    - airbreather 9y ago
      Actually I am betting against bitcoin as I only hold alts, and I only hold small amounts of POW coins because I believe the concept is not sustainable and the fixed block solve time brings certain kinds of scalability issues. I like the look of Universa currently to try and address a lot of the POW issues and also the hard fork and Kitties type problems from full decentralisation.
  - xiphias 9y ago
    Quite impressive, in this case he should know about key management (how to secure a private key), though probably he didn't want to spend the time to do it. He doesn't understand the problem Bitcoin is solving (inflation/double spending on all levels in the current financial system)
  - airbreather 9y ago
    Fair call, seems he just was a bit abridged in his simplification.
onion-soup 9y ago
2011: Better to stay away from Bitcoin 2012: Better to stay away from Bitcoin 2013: Better to stay away from Bitcoin 2014: Better to stay away from Bitcoin 2015: Better to stay away from Bitcoin 2016: Better to stay away from Bitcoin 2017: Better to stay away from Bitcoin 2018: Better to stay away from Bitcoin 2019: Uhh well..
deleted 9y ago
[deleted]
craftyguy 9y ago
I wish -coin and crypto- articles/posts would stay away from HN.
- grzm 9y ago
  Submit and upvote other, better articles and flag those you think are inappropriate. Help make HN the place you want it to be.
  - craftyguy 9y ago
    I am but one person and, despite me doing everything you suggest (well except submit, because others always beat me to the punch there), it's a massive uphill battle. This place is slowly turning into reddit, where folks upvote buzzwordy article titles and move on to upvote the next.
    - grzm 9y ago
      If you're not willing to help make it better, comments like the one you posted just make it worse by adding unhelpful noise, as is this one. The "place is slowly turning into reddit" trope is old and likewise does nothing to make things better. Yes, it does take effort: most good things do. It's much easier to vandalize than to construct. Please help, not hinder.
      - craftyguy 9y ago
        You clearly read (or retained) only the parts of my comment that you wanted to. Read it again.
        grzm 9y ago
        You're right that I neglected to comment on the fact that you say you do everything but submit articles, and I should have pointed that out. Thank you for doing that! I instead focussed on additional ways to make HN better. It's both how one contributes and how one doesn't. I hope you take this in the spirit it's intended. Your initial comment indicates you want HN to be better. These are strategies to do so.
dna_polymerase 9y ago
"I didn't invest in Bitcoin back in X, so it's shit for reason Y" Yeah, we know it has its weaknesses but that doesn't mean Bitcoin is bad in its entirety and you should stay away.

13 points by read_only 9y ago

Too many inaccuracies in this article to be believable. Yes, POW is a problem but reading this article I doubt the author ever designed mining hardware, description of sha256 is wrong for one, whole thing smells.

read_only 9y ago
I'm pretty sure the author understands sha256: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=pd-IjLcAAAAJ https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=pd-IjLcAAAAJ
- mrunkel 9y ago
  Shh. airbreather has money in bitcoin. Don't confuse him/her with facts. :)
  - airbreather 9y ago
    Actually I am betting against bitcoin as I only hold alts, and I only hold small amounts of POW coins because I believe the concept is not sustainable and the fixed block solve time brings certain kinds of scalability issues. I like the look of Universa currently to try and address a lot of the POW issues and also the hard fork and Kitties type problems from full decentralisation.
- xiphias 9y ago
  Quite impressive, in this case he should know about key management (how to secure a private key), though probably he didn't want to spend the time to do it. He doesn't understand the problem Bitcoin is solving (inflation/double spending on all levels in the current financial system)
- airbreather 9y ago
  Fair call, seems he just was a bit abridged in his simplification.

onion-soup 9y ago

2011: Better to stay away from Bitcoin 2012: Better to stay away from Bitcoin 2013: Better to stay away from Bitcoin 2014: Better to stay away from Bitcoin 2015: Better to stay away from Bitcoin 2016: Better to stay away from Bitcoin 2017: Better to stay away from Bitcoin 2018: Better to stay away from Bitcoin 2019: Uhh well..

deleted 9y ago

[deleted]

craftyguy 9y ago

I wish -coin and crypto- articles/posts would stay away from HN.

grzm 9y ago
Submit and upvote other, better articles and flag those you think are inappropriate. Help make HN the place you want it to be.
- craftyguy 9y ago
  I am but one person and, despite me doing everything you suggest (well except submit, because others always beat me to the punch there), it's a massive uphill battle. This place is slowly turning into reddit, where folks upvote buzzwordy article titles and move on to upvote the next.
  - grzm 9y ago
    If you're not willing to help make it better, comments like the one you posted just make it worse by adding unhelpful noise, as is this one. The "place is slowly turning into reddit" trope is old and likewise does nothing to make things better. Yes, it does take effort: most good things do. It's much easier to vandalize than to construct. Please help, not hinder.
    - craftyguy 9y ago
      You clearly read (or retained) only the parts of my comment that you wanted to. Read it again.
      - grzm 9y ago
        You're right that I neglected to comment on the fact that you say you do everything but submit articles, and I should have pointed that out. Thank you for doing that! I instead focussed on additional ways to make HN better. It's both how one contributes and how one doesn't. I hope you take this in the spirit it's intended. Your initial comment indicates you want HN to be better. These are strategies to do so.

dna_polymerase 9y ago

"I didn't invest in Bitcoin back in X, so it's shit for reason Y" Yeah, we know it has its weaknesses but that doesn't mean Bitcoin is bad in its entirety and you should stay away.