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> What's Bitcoin's excuse? Existing currency solutions exist. There was no technology or infrastructure displaced by the (early) internet. No industries or gov

> What's Bitcoin's excuse? Existing currency solutions exist. There was no technology or infrastructure displaced by the (early) internet. No industries or governments (who realized they should feel) threatened by the internet. The internet was backed by nuclear weapons and aircraft carriers. Is that really a fair comparison? Just think if there was never a person in the room to say "but what will regulators say?" when cryptocurrency came up. Finally the internet as we know is unrecognizable compared to its initial incarnation. The network protocols we now have are layers upon layers of innovation that were all required steps to allow YouTube and Netflix to operate. And many or these innovations are solutions to problems the early engineers hadn't even encountered yet. > Do we need nuclear fusion or 100Terabyte internet links for it to become usable? Do we need high speed data transmission to Mars? I think it's fair to say that there are unknown innovations in our future that will drive cryptocurrency adoption. I think it's unfair to insist that we must predict those right now or abandon all work on the technology.

hannasanarion 6y ago
> I think it's fair to say that there are unknown innovations in our future that will drive cryptocurrency adoption This isn't an argument, it's a statement of faith. Innovations such as what? What innovations? What technology? What is missing from society today that would suddenly make bitcoin useful if it existed? What problem exists preventing people from using bitcoin that would be solved with a new invention? I believe there are unknown innovations in our future that will drive everyone to adopt my toenail clippings as currency, is that a good enough argument for you to start investing in Anarion's Toenails LTD? If you asked somebody in 1975, "What is preventing people from making mass utility out of ARPAnet?" they would say "a connection to it". Because that's literally all it took: access. When the internet went public in 1993, Ebay, Amazon, Netscape, Yahoo, Altavista, and Geocities were all founded and seeing substantial usage within months.
simias 6y ago
So basically you're saying that cryptocurrencies don't work currently because there are established solutions that already solve the problem it attempts to solve but it's totally going to work eventually due to unknown unknowns and it's unfair to point that out somehow? Come on. Apply that logic to literally anything else and see how that sounds. >The internet was backed by nuclear weapons and aircraft carriers. Is that really a fair comparison The comparison was made by cryptozealots to begin with to justify the lack of results after many years of development and billions of dollars sunk into them. "How useful was the internet 3/5/7 years after its inception?!". Now that even this incredibly silly comparison fails to justify this waste of resources for so little results, cryptozealots have turned their back on it. What's next, the timescale of the evolution of life on Earth? Who knows, maybe in a billion years Bitcoins will finally serve a purpose beyond buying cocaine online. HODL!

hannasanarion 6y ago

> I think it's fair to say that there are unknown innovations in our future that will drive cryptocurrency adoption This isn't an argument, it's a statement of faith. Innovations such as what? What innovations? What technology? What is missing from society today that would suddenly make bitcoin useful if it existed? What problem exists preventing people from using bitcoin that would be solved with a new invention? I believe there are unknown innovations in our future that will drive everyone to adopt my toenail clippings as currency, is that a good enough argument for you to start investing in Anarion's Toenails LTD? If you asked somebody in 1975, "What is preventing people from making mass utility out of ARPAnet?" they would say "a connection to it". Because that's literally all it took: access. When the internet went public in 1993, Ebay, Amazon, Netscape, Yahoo, Altavista, and Geocities were all founded and seeing substantial usage within months.

simias 6y ago

So basically you're saying that cryptocurrencies don't work currently because there are established solutions that already solve the problem it attempts to solve but it's totally going to work eventually due to unknown unknowns and it's unfair to point that out somehow? Come on. Apply that logic to literally anything else and see how that sounds. >The internet was backed by nuclear weapons and aircraft carriers. Is that really a fair comparison The comparison was made by cryptozealots to begin with to justify the lack of results after many years of development and billions of dollars sunk into them. "How useful was the internet 3/5/7 years after its inception?!". Now that even this incredibly silly comparison fails to justify this waste of resources for so little results, cryptozealots have turned their back on it. What's next, the timescale of the evolution of life on Earth? Who knows, maybe in a billion years Bitcoins will finally serve a purpose beyond buying cocaine online. HODL!