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Oh I don't want to kill Bitcoin. I'm just saying it can disappear. Gold can't. Similarily, gold miners can't just agree to alter supply. It's impossible for the

by lolc 7y ago

Oh I don't want to kill Bitcoin. I'm just saying it can disappear. Gold can't. Similarily, gold miners can't just agree to alter supply. It's impossible for them to increase supply ten times across the board. You claim there is a "main chain" in Bitcoin as if it were a physical fact. That's one of the myths! It's called consensus protocol for a reason. Forks are part of the protocol and sometimes splits require manual intervention to stabilize the network. The scarcity of Bitcoin is arbitrary. Markets being irrational for years is nothing new. As long as there is influx of capital, it keeps going. Like gods or other fiat currencies, Bitcoin depends on people believing in it to exist. I agree that there are other uses for Bitcoin but they are marginal. The high transaction costs of bitcoin mean that if we ever wanted those features badly enough, a service with less energy consumption would be established.

Sargos 7y ago
>Similarily, gold miners can't just agree to alter supply. It's impossible for them to increase supply ten times across the board. An asteroid containing gold can be mined to drastically increase the supply. A gold asteroid could just hit Earth today and we could increase the supply with current technology. Yes this is a silly scenario but it's possible and just as likely as Bitcoin randomly inflating its supply. Both can pretty much be written off as impossible when discussing supply of Gold or Bitcoin.
- lolc 7y ago
  It is a category error to equate cultural properties with physical properties. Gold is universally scarce, durable beyond our imagination, and perfectly fungible. While there are other elements with comparable physical properties, cultural artifacts like Bitcoin can never qualify. The guarantees of Bitcoin rely on technology (algorithms, Internet-connectivity) and society (self-interest). If any of those things fail (say a broken hash, a network partition, or just disinterest) Bitcoin can't fulfill its promises anymore. But one can believe in them holding for a little while longer. If others do the same, it keeps going.

by lolc 7y ago

Sargos 7y ago

>Similarily, gold miners can't just agree to alter supply. It's impossible for them to increase supply ten times across the board. An asteroid containing gold can be mined to drastically increase the supply. A gold asteroid could just hit Earth today and we could increase the supply with current technology. Yes this is a silly scenario but it's possible and just as likely as Bitcoin randomly inflating its supply. Both can pretty much be written off as impossible when discussing supply of Gold or Bitcoin.

lolc 7y ago
It is a category error to equate cultural properties with physical properties. Gold is universally scarce, durable beyond our imagination, and perfectly fungible. While there are other elements with comparable physical properties, cultural artifacts like Bitcoin can never qualify. The guarantees of Bitcoin rely on technology (algorithms, Internet-connectivity) and society (self-interest). If any of those things fail (say a broken hash, a network partition, or just disinterest) Bitcoin can't fulfill its promises anymore. But one can believe in them holding for a little while longer. If others do the same, it keeps going.