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I don't get it. A crypto-currency which will hard-fork twice yearly and all miners accept that hard-fork? If you trust changes not backed by computations but f

by ezoe 9y ago

I don't get it. A crypto-currency which will hard-fork twice yearly and all miners accept that hard-fork? If you trust changes not backed by computations but from central authority regularly, why don't you use the traditional bank backed by a nation-currency?

stale2002 9y ago
The little known secret of ALL cryptos, is that they are all fundamentally backed by a SOCIAL consensus, and not just a technical definition. If everyone in the world just decides that a new fork of bitcoin IS bitcoin, then it really does become bitcoin. This exact thing happened with Ethereum. A bunch of people in the community just decided to hardfork, and then it happened. And now the hard forked ethereum is the real ethereum. Computing power doesn't stop your "real" version of the old currency from becoming worthless, and the "new" "forked" version of the same currency from becoming worth more money.
- erikpukinskis 9y ago
  I agree this is super important and often missed. People think the blockchain prevents bad things from happening, but it’s the exact opposite: The blockchain allows EVERYTHING. It permits all possible universes with all possible transactions. I can go back to the first block and pretend Satoshi never mined more than the first one, and I have all the bitcoins. That reality is just as valid as any other. This is the central idea of blockchain tech: you assume all realities will exist. Then you code ways for people to do business despite inevitable lack of consensus. Coincidentally this is exactly what young hippies miss about anarchism when they are trying to run consensus processes. They think anarchism is about obtaining consensus. But it’s really the opposite: anarchism is about what happens when you DONT have consensus. If you have consensus it doesn’t matter what political system you’re in: monarchy, communism, libertarianism, it’s all the same when there’s consensus. This all became clear to me after reading The Dispossessed (rip Ursula K Leguin). An anarchist syndicate is differentiated (from e.g. a co-op) by how people react when someone DISSENTS. If you dissent from the co-op you have essentially no rights. Unless you have a voting quorum the others can use the police to stop you operating against policy. In a syndicate, a dissenting member has the same rights as the entire rest of the syndicate. They have equal claim to the facilities, the resources, even the staff. They stand peer to peer with the syndicate itself. Bitcoin is the same. A fork has all the same capabilities as the long chain.
whytaka 9y ago
Because the traditional bank backed by a nation-currency has no privacy features. Please read up on Monero.
- s73v3r_ 9y ago
  It's very uncivil to assume that people who disagree have not "read up" on whatever topic. I have read up on Monero, and know what it's offering. To me, those features have no value, and thus, this hard fork happening quite often is not worth it.
  - erikpukinskis 9y ago
    Why did you ask the question (“why don’t you use...”) if you already knew the answer then? The fact that you asked the question in such a broad way suggested you hadn’t done the basic research.
  - deleted 9y ago
    [deleted]
plasticmachine 9y ago
Why would you assume all miners accept the hard fork? They don't have to.

by ezoe 9y ago

stale2002 9y ago

The little known secret of ALL cryptos, is that they are all fundamentally backed by a SOCIAL consensus, and not just a technical definition. If everyone in the world just decides that a new fork of bitcoin IS bitcoin, then it really does become bitcoin. This exact thing happened with Ethereum. A bunch of people in the community just decided to hardfork, and then it happened. And now the hard forked ethereum is the real ethereum. Computing power doesn't stop your "real" version of the old currency from becoming worthless, and the "new" "forked" version of the same currency from becoming worth more money.

erikpukinskis 9y ago
I agree this is super important and often missed. People think the blockchain prevents bad things from happening, but it’s the exact opposite: The blockchain allows EVERYTHING. It permits all possible universes with all possible transactions. I can go back to the first block and pretend Satoshi never mined more than the first one, and I have all the bitcoins. That reality is just as valid as any other. This is the central idea of blockchain tech: you assume all realities will exist. Then you code ways for people to do business despite inevitable lack of consensus. Coincidentally this is exactly what young hippies miss about anarchism when they are trying to run consensus processes. They think anarchism is about obtaining consensus. But it’s really the opposite: anarchism is about what happens when you DONT have consensus. If you have consensus it doesn’t matter what political system you’re in: monarchy, communism, libertarianism, it’s all the same when there’s consensus. This all became clear to me after reading The Dispossessed (rip Ursula K Leguin). An anarchist syndicate is differentiated (from e.g. a co-op) by how people react when someone DISSENTS. If you dissent from the co-op you have essentially no rights. Unless you have a voting quorum the others can use the police to stop you operating against policy. In a syndicate, a dissenting member has the same rights as the entire rest of the syndicate. They have equal claim to the facilities, the resources, even the staff. They stand peer to peer with the syndicate itself. Bitcoin is the same. A fork has all the same capabilities as the long chain.

whytaka 9y ago

Because the traditional bank backed by a nation-currency has no privacy features. Please read up on Monero.

s73v3r_ 9y ago
It's very uncivil to assume that people who disagree have not "read up" on whatever topic. I have read up on Monero, and know what it's offering. To me, those features have no value, and thus, this hard fork happening quite often is not worth it.
- erikpukinskis 9y ago
  Why did you ask the question (“why don’t you use...”) if you already knew the answer then? The fact that you asked the question in such a broad way suggested you hadn’t done the basic research.
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]

plasticmachine 9y ago

Why would you assume all miners accept the hard fork? They don't have to.