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I'm amazed at how BTC supporters don't even know who invented BTC and the blockchain (Satoshi), yet champion it to no end. If I was to tell you to invest in a

I'm amazed at how BTC supporters don't even know who invented BTC and the blockchain (Satoshi), yet champion it to no end. If I was to tell you to invest in a company whose founder is 'invisible', yet controls a large chunk of the company's stock, would you do it?

olalonde 9y ago
First, I am not asking anyone to invest in Bitcoin, I'm just stating facts. Second, it would depend on whether I believed the stock was currently under valued. Third, Satoshi is likely dead, lost access to his early coins or has little interest in spending them (given he disappeared and hasn't touched them in years).
miscreanity 9y ago
Who invented the internal combustion engine? Does it matter?
- puranjay 9y ago
  Did the inventor of the internal combustion engine limit the number of engines that could be produced, then locked away 20% of those for himself?
  - miscreanity 9y ago
    While valid, that argument focuses on a different issue. It is not the identity that matters for success of a technology. Satoshi specified 1MB block size temporarily, and advocated increasing that limit to accommodate higher volumes of transactions on the network. The current Bitcoin Core developers, for whatever reason, have refused to compromise on any scaling issue - the blame lies with them. As for locking away funds, there are a few things to consider: 1. If any of Satoshi's keys were to be used, intense attention would be attracted. 2. The identity and location of such use would likely be discovered by government intelligence agencies. 3. Even if all of that were to be dumped on the open market, the effect would be temporary with the eventual result bring increased availability of unit supply. It will be effectively impossible to transition away from Bitcoin without an overwhelmingly improved alternative once it is embedded in global systems, even if there's a serious shock. I posit that the actual use of Bitcoin will not be as a transactional currency; it will be a reserve similar to the IMF's SDR. Therefore, only big money will be able to access it - institutions, governments, billionaires... normal people will have to make use of a transactional currency, perhaps Litecoin. In conclusion: we cannot look for what we intend the usage to be; we have to observe that the the market may decide on a different purpose.

olalonde 9y ago

First, I am not asking anyone to invest in Bitcoin, I'm just stating facts. Second, it would depend on whether I believed the stock was currently under valued. Third, Satoshi is likely dead, lost access to his early coins or has little interest in spending them (given he disappeared and hasn't touched them in years).

miscreanity 9y ago

Who invented the internal combustion engine? Does it matter?

puranjay 9y ago
Did the inventor of the internal combustion engine limit the number of engines that could be produced, then locked away 20% of those for himself?
- miscreanity 9y ago
  While valid, that argument focuses on a different issue. It is not the identity that matters for success of a technology. Satoshi specified 1MB block size temporarily, and advocated increasing that limit to accommodate higher volumes of transactions on the network. The current Bitcoin Core developers, for whatever reason, have refused to compromise on any scaling issue - the blame lies with them. As for locking away funds, there are a few things to consider: 1. If any of Satoshi's keys were to be used, intense attention would be attracted. 2. The identity and location of such use would likely be discovered by government intelligence agencies. 3. Even if all of that were to be dumped on the open market, the effect would be temporary with the eventual result bring increased availability of unit supply. It will be effectively impossible to transition away from Bitcoin without an overwhelmingly improved alternative once it is embedded in global systems, even if there's a serious shock. I posit that the actual use of Bitcoin will not be as a transactional currency; it will be a reserve similar to the IMF's SDR. Therefore, only big money will be able to access it - institutions, governments, billionaires... normal people will have to make use of a transactional currency, perhaps Litecoin. In conclusion: we cannot look for what we intend the usage to be; we have to observe that the the market may decide on a different purpose.