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Incredible to read how dismissive people in the thread are about the shortcomings of decentralization, up to the point where it feels like people are just prais
by Tehnix 8y ago
Incredible to read how dismissive people in the thread are about the shortcomings of decentralization, up to the point where it feels like people are just praising gospel without ever having given it a critical thought.
There is still quite a valley between feasibility of crypto currencies in real world settings, and the current state of affairs.
- trophycase 8y agoCryptocurrency is feasible and is being used in "real world settings" right now. So many things are ruined by people preferring safety over freedom so I don't thinn this sort of thing bothers a freedom loving person.
- ceejayoz 8y agoI suspect it somewhat bothers the freedom loving person (or people) who's out 200 BTC.
- rejschaap 8y agoIt is unlikely anyone lost 200 BTC, we can't say for sure because Bitcoin wallets are pseudonymous. But what happened is that someone received a lot of BTC from a lot of different wallets. I would hope that someone who owns 200 BTC would put a little thought into how to secure it and would not be affected by this hack.
- root_axis 8y agoAnd this is why BTC will never be mainstream. All it takes is a single misstep to lose all of your money forever. Why would average citizens take that deal over the security guarantees provided by the incumbent financial institutions?
- acct1771 8y agoIf cryptocurrencies were the main currency, do you think anyone would feel bad if someone kept their entire net worth in a single wallet? This would be the social prudence equivalent of walking around 24/7 with all of your life savings in cash.
- spookthesunset 8y agoThe problem with your hypothetical is it will never happen because the system in place works much better than Bitcoin. Our current system doesn't have the flaw that you have to distribute your wealth in hundreds of wallets or you get perma-fucked and booted into the street.
- root_axis 8y agoWhat's your point? The nature of cryptocurrencies make them easily lost or stolen compared to money in the bank. Banks are regulated and insured so customers never risk losing their money due to ineptitude. They get nothing in exchange for the hassle and risk of cryptocurrency.
- leppr 8y agoRaw Bitcoin is the equivalent of cash, not bank money. Bitcoin can be (and often is) regulated and insured. It's possible to implement chargebacks on a smart-contract platform, or even at layer 0 as EOS and XRP do. What's so bad about the possibility of marrying the benefits of cash with the convenience of electronic money ?
- root_axis 8y agoCash in the bank already is "electronic money". Cryptocurrency doesn't add any benefits, only complexity, waste and unnecessary risk.
- leppr 8y ago> Cash in the bank already is "electronic money". Cryptocurrency doesn't add any benefits [...] Why bother replying to comments in threads about cryptocurrency if they don't have any benefit ? Clearly now that cryptocurrency long speculators have pretty much all died, cryptocurrency should just disappear by itself if it doesn't have any use over fiat. Or do you not believe in your own opinion ?
- pavel_lishin 8y ago"Fake news," cries the person with some skin in the game he desperately wants others to also play.
- tomnipotent 8y agoWhere is it actually being used in "real world settings"? Other than opening a Coinbase account and doing some speculative trading, I don't see any of these "real world settings".
- lawn 8y agoFor example: 1. Paying for a VPN, VPS, mail, domains or other digital goods. 2. Paying for physical goods. I usually buy via the Swedish sites webhallen and inet for example. 3. Dark net markets. 4. EatBCH charity which give food to Venezuelans. 5. Cam sites accepting Bitcoin. First search result: https://www.bestwebcamsites.com/bitcoin-cam-sites https://www.bestwebcamsites.com/bitcoin-cam-sites
- root_axis 8y agoDo you have any examples of companies that offer VPS or domain services that accept bitcoin and also don't require some other type of personally identifying information?
- spookthesunset 8y ago> Do you have any examples of companies ... that accept bitcoin? ... And also don't immediately convert it to dirty legacy fiat using a third party service?
- root_axis 8y agoWell yes, but if they accept bitcoin as payment without requiring a credit card on file then its at least possible in theory to setup hosting and a domain without anyone's real name attached. I doubt many businesses offer such a service.
- colejohnson66 8y agoPRQ in Sweden does https://prq.se/ https://prq.se/
- Fej 8y agoI think the tide is turning on this one. The overall feeling definitely seems to be shifting away from positivity about cryptocurrencies. It's a slow change (naturally) but noticeable.
- acct1771 8y agoFrom my perspective, there's barely been a pickup in the dissent. It's just a lack of fake enthusiasm coming from stakeholders in the cryptocurrency community (mostly longs/business owners).
- JumpCrisscross 8y ago> there's barely been a pickup in the dissent Many people who were wrong about the dot-com bubble still think they were right. Some external agent just screwed them. People don't tend to change their views about stuff like cryptocurrencies. The best we can expect is a wealth transfer to saner minds.
- hanniabu 8y agoThere was only 1 dotcom bubble. Which crypto bubble are you referring to? Because there seems to be one every 2 years and every time you hear the same talk about the bubble is over, it's all worthless, etc and yet it recovers, surpasses, and diminished previous highs.
- TomMarius 8y agoProbably because Electrum is not decentralized
- gcb0 8y agoSo true, and yet you are being downvoted. Which just prove the repeating-the-gospel comment from above.
- hanniabu 8y agoYes, there is a gap, but that will be closing quickly. What I hate to see is people using this gap as a reason against crypto/ blockchain as if every new technology is ideally perfect and meets every demand. This is the type of mindset that would have prevented us from having computers, laptops, and cell phones because computers the size of record courts don't make sense, computers take too much energy to be portable, and nobody wants to carry around a suitcase all day to make a phone call. It's all part of technological maturation.
- nradov 8y agoHow will the gap be closing quickly? Computers the size of tennis courts made a lot of sense when those were the fastest, cheapest way of calculating ballistics tables.
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- hanniabu 8y agoThe ecosystem is gathering a lot of contributors and researchers. A lot of the issues revolving around tools, infrastructure, scaling, security, user experience have various solutions in development, which are expected to come to fruition in (roughly) the next 2 years.
- throwaway50859 8y agoThat's HN for you, pretentious people who think they are great, while they are mediocre at best.
- dang 8y agoThe reason not to post a comment like this is not that it's false, but that it's an even worse exemplar of the same phenomenon. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html