5 ms·

Could you elaborate on this? It's an interesting comment

by seldon 8y ago

eridius 8y ago
One of the main selling points of cryptocurrencies is decentralization, of not needing to trust a central party in order to use the currency. But the cryptocurrency doesn't actually eliminate that trust, it simply moves it. It moves it into trusting the protocol design, trusting the implementation of the clients, trusting your local hardware and OS to not be compromised, and in the case of smart contracts, trusting the smart contract to not be buggy. What's worse is in the centralized case, as long as the government continues to function you have lots of options for what to do if a transaction goes badly. In the cryptocurrency case, for the most part you're SOL, because cryptocurrencies by design don't allow anyone to e.g. void a transaction.
- PycptN2MH 8y ago
  > It moves it into trusting the protocol design, trusting the implementation of the clients, trusting your local hardware and OS to not be compromised These are not central parties and they present risks with anything one does with a computer on a network. > what to do if a transaction goes badly. In the cryptocurrency case, for the most part you're SOL, because cryptocurrencies by design don't allow anyone to e.g. void a transaction. Transaction finality is a feature not a bug. Whatever conveniences that are enjoyed int traditional banking can be implemented in a layer on top of the base protocol.
  - eridius 8y ago
    > These are not central parties and they present risks with anything one does with a computer on a network. If someone compromises my OS and steals my credit card details, the bank sends me a new card and handles the fraudulent charges on my behalf. I'm not out any money If someone compromises my OS and steals my bitcoin private key, they can drain my entire wallet and I've lost everything, and have zero recourse.
    - aeternus 8y ago
      Those examples ignore the other side: If I'm a merchant and someone uses a stolen or cloned credit card, or simply performs a charge-back, they get my goods for free and I have basically zero recourse. If I'm a merchant and someone pays me with bitcoin, I'm not out any money regardless, nor do I have to expend time/money/legal resources to ensure I keep that payment.
      - Fellshard 8y ago
        Show me merchants who trust Bitcoin enough to accept it directly, and not through an exchange.

Could you elaborate on this? It's an interesting comment

by seldon 8y ago

Could you elaborate on this? It's an interesting comment

One of the main selling points of cryptocurrencies is decentralization, of not needing to trust a central party in order to use the currency. But the cryptocurrency doesn't actually eliminate that trust, it simply moves it. It moves it into trusting the protocol design, trusting the implementation of the clients, trusting your local hardware and OS to not be compromised, and in the case of smart contracts, trusting the smart contract to not be buggy. What's worse is in the centralized case, as long as the government continues to function you have lots of options for what to do if a transaction goes badly. In the cryptocurrency case, for the most part you're SOL, because cryptocurrencies by design don't allow anyone to e.g. void a transaction.

PycptN2MH 8y ago
> It moves it into trusting the protocol design, trusting the implementation of the clients, trusting your local hardware and OS to not be compromised These are not central parties and they present risks with anything one does with a computer on a network. > what to do if a transaction goes badly. In the cryptocurrency case, for the most part you're SOL, because cryptocurrencies by design don't allow anyone to e.g. void a transaction. Transaction finality is a feature not a bug. Whatever conveniences that are enjoyed int traditional banking can be implemented in a layer on top of the base protocol.
- eridius 8y ago
  > These are not central parties and they present risks with anything one does with a computer on a network. If someone compromises my OS and steals my credit card details, the bank sends me a new card and handles the fraudulent charges on my behalf. I'm not out any money If someone compromises my OS and steals my bitcoin private key, they can drain my entire wallet and I've lost everything, and have zero recourse.
  - aeternus 8y ago
    Those examples ignore the other side: If I'm a merchant and someone uses a stolen or cloned credit card, or simply performs a charge-back, they get my goods for free and I have basically zero recourse. If I'm a merchant and someone pays me with bitcoin, I'm not out any money regardless, nor do I have to expend time/money/legal resources to ensure I keep that payment.
    - Fellshard 8y ago
      Show me merchants who trust Bitcoin enough to accept it directly, and not through an exchange.