4 ms·

> The reserve cryptocurrency of the internet needs to be fast and offer cheap transactions The most important things about any cryptocurrency are decentralizat

> The reserve cryptocurrency of the internet needs to be fast and offer cheap transactions The most important things about any cryptocurrency are decentralization and censorship-resistance. Without those two, you might as well be running a PayPal clone in a datacenter. That way, you get the fastest and cheapest transactions possible. > so that it can easily and cheaply be moved between exchanges. Exchanges can set up big payment channels between one another and do instant Bitcoin transfers. However, since they operate in a regulatory environment, this may never happen. If you don't subscribe to the bitcoin-dev mailing list, then you're missing out on the latest developments toward scalability and privacy, which are really exciting.

clarkmoody 9y ago
Note: Right now the Bitcoin mempool is nearly empty. It looks like 5 sat/b will make it to the next block.
koonsolo 9y ago
> That way, you get the fastest and cheapest transactions possible. Not currently. Have a look at the Nano cryptocurrency (renamed from RaiBlocks): it has instant and free transactions, and should be scalable (but this last part is not proven in practice yet). The instant and free is definitely true in practice already. Recently a redditor calculated a single wind turbine could power 7000 transactions per second (https://www.reddit.com/r/nanocurrency/comments/7ucw1a/the_entire_nano_network_is_so_efficient_that/ https://www.reddit.com/r/nanocurrency/comments/7ucw1a/the_en...) The new generation of cryptocurrencies is here to compete with the previous ones, and with the established financial services. Exciting times. Disclosure: I own a few of those coins
- clarkmoody 9y ago
  No cryptocurrency can beat a centralized database for speed and cost.
  - koonsolo 9y ago
    You mean a single point of failure central database? How much uptime do you expect for such a database? 99.9%? Where is this database located? In US while I do payments in Australia? I think you are seriously underestimating the complexity of a decent payment system.
abricot 9y ago
0.111Wh per transaction still seems like a huge waste.

clarkmoody 9y ago

Note: Right now the Bitcoin mempool is nearly empty. It looks like 5 sat/b will make it to the next block.

koonsolo 9y ago

> That way, you get the fastest and cheapest transactions possible. Not currently. Have a look at the Nano cryptocurrency (renamed from RaiBlocks): it has instant and free transactions, and should be scalable (but this last part is not proven in practice yet). The instant and free is definitely true in practice already. Recently a redditor calculated a single wind turbine could power 7000 transactions per second (https://www.reddit.com/r/nanocurrency/comments/7ucw1a/the_entire_nano_network_is_so_efficient_that/ https://www.reddit.com/r/nanocurrency/comments/7ucw1a/the_en...) The new generation of cryptocurrencies is here to compete with the previous ones, and with the established financial services. Exciting times. Disclosure: I own a few of those coins

clarkmoody 9y ago
No cryptocurrency can beat a centralized database for speed and cost.
- koonsolo 9y ago
  You mean a single point of failure central database? How much uptime do you expect for such a database? 99.9%? Where is this database located? In US while I do payments in Australia? I think you are seriously underestimating the complexity of a decent payment system.

abricot 9y ago

0.111Wh per transaction still seems like a huge waste.