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It could also go back to $100. Bitcoin has no mainstream use right now. It's too expensive to transact in terms of money and time, it's too volatile to be a s
by mutteraloo 9y ago
It could also go back to $100.
Bitcoin has no mainstream use right now. It's too expensive to transact in terms of money and time, it's too volatile to be a store of value, it's too technical to be used casually, it's too fragile since it gets hacked every which way, and it's too easily copied to be rare.
- tomcooks 9y agoBitcoin never got hacked, unsecure middlemen did (or pretended to have been)
- dumbfounder 9y agoTo most people there is no difference. The consequence is that Bitcoin seems unsafe because there has been lots of money stolen. It's like the Oracle bug I am tackling today, my customers don't care if it's Oracle's fault, they just know my product doesn't work.
- ransom1538 9y agoMy entire wallet was stolen [i] -- all that hard work. But that is great news Bitcoin never got hacked -- I got nervous there. /sarcasm http://www.cryptsysettlement.com/ http://www.cryptsysettlement.com/ [i]
- slphil 9y agoYes, this is not a Bitcoin vulnerability. Getting access to your wallet is not the same as cracking it.
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- slphil 9y agoDon't understand why I'm being downvoted. Don't put your coins on an exchange, ever, unless you want to risk them being lost. This is cryptocurrency 101.
- bfuller 9y agoCryptsy was a middleman, he specifically covered this case. Bitcoin never got hacked.
- snissn 9y agoI'm sorry you lost funds but there is a finer point separating the bitcoin network and the bitcoin protocol and an exchange losing their funds.
- Snackchez 9y ago>Being hacked every which way Do you want to clarify this? If you meant what I think you meant, you're incorrect.
- philipwhiuk 9y agoNot the ledger, the exchanges. And then it's impossible to recover the money because the account it's gone to is anonymous.
- s0rce 9y agoI assume he meant people have had their coins stolen, usually from exchanges, really not much different than your bank getting robbed, although in this cause your money is gone and the exchange doesn't cover the theft.
- ryguytilidie 9y agoI'd say that goes beyond "really not that much different".
- jandrese 9y agoThere is no FDIC for Bitcoin exchanges. Also a distressingly large percentage of the exchanges to date have been either fraudulently or incompetently run and lost the user's bitcoibs and/or fiat money. Nobody would use banks if 4 out of 5 were completely cleaned out by crooks and went out of business.
- solotronics 9y agoyes there is. Gemini is FDIC insured for dollar deposits https://gemini24.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/205823016-Are-my-funds-FDIC-insured- https://gemini24.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/205823016-Are...
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- 0wing 9y ago
- iwcmarkxviii 9y agoyou lost me at "hacked." do you understand proof-of-work? and if you think Bitcoin can simply be duplicated through a hard fork, you are even more misinformed than I had imagined.
- coralreef 9y agoPeople always forget to include future innovations in their projections. It's as if they don't believe (or know) that software can rapidly improve. The lightning network looks very promising in its ability to scale and reduce fees. It would make transactions nearly instantaneous, have reasonable fees, and help scale the network.
- TheDong 9y agoHelp scale "the" network? No, it would help scale "the lightning network" which would not be the same as "the bitcoin network".
- coralreef 9y agoPushing transactions into sidechains helps free the main network from congestion. So while it may not be technically true that the main network's capabilities have changed, users should see massive improvements.
- daveguy 9y agoWhen no one uses bitcoin anymore there will no longer be any congestion. Solid.
- o_____________o 9y agoWhat is it about bitcoin conversations that turn HN into a Reddit-esque sarcasm pit? We can debate difficult topics with civility.
- geezerjay 9y ago> People always forget to include future innovations in their projections. It's as if they don't believe (or know) that software can rapidly improve. And you posted that comment while driving your flying car on your way to alpha centauri, right? Foolosh cargo cult beliefs such as the ones you've illustrated do not serve as any basis to make investment decisions.
- hyprCoin 9y agoBitcoin's value prop is a store of wealth and it's an entryway (through exchanges) to far more interesting coins. Crypto is also a stock market 2.0, where bitcoin is an index fund.
- vasilipupkin 9y agoNoooooooooo. Bitcoin is not the stock market. It's more like a commodity
- hyprCoin 9y agoBeing able to exchange btc for other coins makes it like a stock market. BTC is also a commodity. It is also a speculative investment into the lightning network. It is also a hedge against fiat currency. BTC is many things and it causes confusion amongst people trying to determine where the value comes from. It took me many years to figure this out, unfortunately.
- tom_mellior 9y ago> it's too technical to be used casually In casual use with your mobile phone, you are shown a QR code, scan it, tap "OK", and it's done. Not that technical. Billions of people with smartphones could handle that perfectly. You're right about transactions being slow and expensive, and that is certainly a much bigger problem. That and the fact that there are still very few places accepting it.
- lucaspiller 9y ago> That and the fact that there are still very few places accepting it. This is one thing I don’t get. In countries like China and India (to name the two countries I know about) mobile payment apps are ubiquitous. You go in to a shop, scan a QR code, and boom your payment is done. This is what crytocurrencies promised, but instead more closed apps came to fill the market. What happened?
- eastendguy 9y agoAll these apps give the government more control, that is why their use is encouraged. Bitcoin "as app" (once or if it works) will be more like cash payments, privacy wise. That is were I see the main advantage. I find it spooky what Visa and Mastercard now about all of us... at least about me.
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- bootlooped 9y ago> Bitcoin "as app" (once or if it works) will be more like cash payments, privacy wise. One massive caveat is that all Bitcoin transactions are public, traceable, and permanently stored in the Bitcoin network. In most ways it's worse than cash, in some ways it's probably even worse than credit cards.
- cryptodogemoon 9y agozk proofs supposedly resolve that issue. monereo, zcash, and eventually ethereum the concept seems to make sense but I'd be curious how to audit such an obfuscated system
- josu 9y agoAnd yet it moves
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- andrepd 9y ago>it's too easily copied to be rare What do you mean by this?
- mrb 9y ago«too expensive to transact» Proved wrong by 300k transactions per day willing to pay a median fee of $30+. «too volatile to be a store of value» Proved wrong on the long term; has shown to be a fantastic store of value over 7 years: http://bitcoin.zorinaq.com/price/ http://bitcoin.zorinaq.com/price/ «too technical» Only gets easier over time. «too fragile since it gets hacked » Hardware wallets have pretty much solved hacking (plus can be backed up on paper in case they are lost, etc)
- naveen99 9y ago> it could also go back to $100 Do some napkin math, this is impossible. The people who hold bitcoin now probably have a combined net worth of over a trillion dollars. They will pump and dump it forever rather than let it go to zero. It's way too much fun to trade alone. > bitcoin has no mainstream use right now Maybe not in india yet. Even there, it's only a matter of time. Someone will introduce gbtc to the NSE and BSE, and watch it get bought widely even in india. There is a reason it sells at a 20% premium in india.
- kbwt 9y ago> this is impossible. I wouldn't be so sure. > pump and dump it forever That doesn't work.