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Bitcoin isn't necessarily well aligned to what people usually think of as a "currency". It's an entirely new beast in the financial instrument space. It does

Bitcoin isn't necessarily well aligned to what people usually think of as a "currency". It's an entirely new beast in the financial instrument space. It does bear some characteristics of traditional currencies, but not all of them. Specifically, as it works today, and until Lightning gets some traction, BTC isn't very convenient for small day to day transactions like buying a cup of coffee. On the flipside, it does have attributes that traditional currencies strictly do not have. For cases such as the OP, there is no other financial instrument on the planet that will cut it (other than things like Monero / ZCash / MimbleWimble). Besides being antifragile and censorship resistant, there is also a very strong case to be made for Bitcoin in the 'preservation of wealth' niche (if you are strongly insensitive to short-term volatility, and capable of playing on a 5 year time horizon, that is). [EDIT]: To answer your question more precisely, Bitcoin has most definitely been a success story for sites like sci-hub, Wikileak and generally speaking, people who try to speak truth to power.

LeoPanthera 6y ago
There are forks of Bitcoin that solve (most of) these problems and make it more usable as an actual currency, rather than a gold-like store of value. "Bitcoin Cash" is the most famous, there are others. Frankly the failure of "original" Bitcoin to adapt to use as a currency seems to me to be a total failure of vision.
- octocop 6y ago
  With that logic the wright brothers made a shitty airplane. Bitcoin will exist forever, it will be like the Egyptian pyramids for our ancestors.
- ahnick 6y ago
  My understanding of Bitcoin Cash and Bitcoin SV is that they have just increased the blocksize the clients can handle. Is there something more to them than that?
  - fsckboy 6y ago
    there's also sidechains, segwit, and lightning network which shrink and consolidate transactions to increase the number of them that can fit in a block
  - SnowProblem 6y ago
    Yes. It's really worth dwelling on the long-term implications of terabyte+ sized blocks and fees of a thousand of a cent. This is where BSV is heading and everything changes at that scale. New use cases are unlocked. Old architectures need to be rethought. It's the most interesting technology I've encountered in a long time and it's a gem of entrepreneurship opportunity for those that can stomach swimming upstream.
  - zhoujianfu 6y ago
    Not really, but the result is essentially no fees. And thanks to Moore’s Law there’s no trade-off for it. Bitcoin (Core) is insane for having high fees.
- ur-whale 6y ago
  > seems to me to be a total failure of vision. First, the market seems to strongly disagree with you [1] Second, what seems to me a total failure of vision is trying to shoehorn something as new and disruptive as Bitcoin in the old and worn out yoke of currencies as they used to exist. There's paypal for that. [1] https://www.tradingview.com/symbols/BCHBTC/?exchange=COINBASE https://www.tradingview.com/symbols/BCHBTC/?exchange=COINBAS... (choose the 5 yr. view)
mirimir 6y ago
> To answer your question more precisely, Bitcoin has most definitely been a success story for sites like sci-hub, Wikileak and generally speaking, people who try to speak truth to power. Also for VPN providers, and their customers. And generally for people who want to buy stuff and lease online services ~anonymously. If one mixes well enough, that is.
- DEADBEEFC0FFEE 6y ago
  It's not that easy to be anonymous with Bitcoin. Eventually you have to pay for Bitcoin, and that going to involve cash or trust, neither is simple.
  - lallysingh 6y ago
    Bounce through monero first.
    - RandomBacon 6y ago
      Might as well just stay in Monero. If you have to pay someplace that doesn't use Monero, just use XMR.to to pay (converts Monero to Bitcoin).
  - mirimir 6y ago
    Mirimir earns his Bitcoin, so there's no cash involved. But no matter how you get the Bitcoin, you can get whatever degree of anonymity you want, by mixing it many times. You mix via Tor and nested VPN chains, with a different Whonix VM and mixing service for each mix.
  - bitcointruther 6y ago
    you can buy bitcoin KYC free on bisq.network (but there is a premium). Very low risk of loss of funds. You can even use zelle which is supported by most banks. From there, send your coins through a samouari whirlpool https://samouraiwallet.com/whirlpool https://samouraiwallet.com/whirlpool Then send them wherever you like. There is still some counterparty risk (what if you're buying coins from the CIA, or whatever), but it's almost minimal. Buying coins from a Bitcoin ATM is even easier, if there's one near you.

LeoPanthera 6y ago

There are forks of Bitcoin that solve (most of) these problems and make it more usable as an actual currency, rather than a gold-like store of value. "Bitcoin Cash" is the most famous, there are others. Frankly the failure of "original" Bitcoin to adapt to use as a currency seems to me to be a total failure of vision.

octocop 6y ago
With that logic the wright brothers made a shitty airplane. Bitcoin will exist forever, it will be like the Egyptian pyramids for our ancestors.
ahnick 6y ago
My understanding of Bitcoin Cash and Bitcoin SV is that they have just increased the blocksize the clients can handle. Is there something more to them than that?
- fsckboy 6y ago
  there's also sidechains, segwit, and lightning network which shrink and consolidate transactions to increase the number of them that can fit in a block
- SnowProblem 6y ago
  Yes. It's really worth dwelling on the long-term implications of terabyte+ sized blocks and fees of a thousand of a cent. This is where BSV is heading and everything changes at that scale. New use cases are unlocked. Old architectures need to be rethought. It's the most interesting technology I've encountered in a long time and it's a gem of entrepreneurship opportunity for those that can stomach swimming upstream.
- zhoujianfu 6y ago
  Not really, but the result is essentially no fees. And thanks to Moore’s Law there’s no trade-off for it. Bitcoin (Core) is insane for having high fees.
ur-whale 6y ago
> seems to me to be a total failure of vision. First, the market seems to strongly disagree with you [1] Second, what seems to me a total failure of vision is trying to shoehorn something as new and disruptive as Bitcoin in the old and worn out yoke of currencies as they used to exist. There's paypal for that. [1] https://www.tradingview.com/symbols/BCHBTC/?exchange=COINBASE https://www.tradingview.com/symbols/BCHBTC/?exchange=COINBAS... (choose the 5 yr. view)

mirimir 6y ago

> To answer your question more precisely, Bitcoin has most definitely been a success story for sites like sci-hub, Wikileak and generally speaking, people who try to speak truth to power. Also for VPN providers, and their customers. And generally for people who want to buy stuff and lease online services ~anonymously. If one mixes well enough, that is.

DEADBEEFC0FFEE 6y ago
It's not that easy to be anonymous with Bitcoin. Eventually you have to pay for Bitcoin, and that going to involve cash or trust, neither is simple.
- lallysingh 6y ago
  Bounce through monero first.
  - RandomBacon 6y ago
    Might as well just stay in Monero. If you have to pay someplace that doesn't use Monero, just use XMR.to to pay (converts Monero to Bitcoin).
- mirimir 6y ago
  Mirimir earns his Bitcoin, so there's no cash involved. But no matter how you get the Bitcoin, you can get whatever degree of anonymity you want, by mixing it many times. You mix via Tor and nested VPN chains, with a different Whonix VM and mixing service for each mix.
- bitcointruther 6y ago
  you can buy bitcoin KYC free on bisq.network (but there is a premium). Very low risk of loss of funds. You can even use zelle which is supported by most banks. From there, send your coins through a samouari whirlpool https://samouraiwallet.com/whirlpool https://samouraiwallet.com/whirlpool Then send them wherever you like. There is still some counterparty risk (what if you're buying coins from the CIA, or whatever), but it's almost minimal. Buying coins from a Bitcoin ATM is even easier, if there's one near you.