10 ms·

Bitcoin Hits New High, but Cryptocurrency's Future Is Uncertain

37 points by elsewhen 6y ago

deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
nmlnn 6y ago
Failure to understand NgU.
- mtmail 6y ago
  What does NgU stand for?
  - cconroy 6y ago
    bitcoin in its finite, pre-determined supply and halvings every ~4yrs (formed through consensus) while going through s-curve adoption brings forth its unique number go up technology that has economist around the globe stumped
    - deleted 6y ago
      [deleted]
  - jpmattia 6y ago
    "Number Go Up" It's a meme among speculators and others who don't see bitcoin as providing an actual value proposition.
    - lai-yin 6y ago
      It's a meme among bitcoin advocates to troll suckers like you. We see plenty of value in bitcoin. Enough to save the world from fiat.
      - bubbleboy2021 6y ago
        Lol you loons are GOLD.
      - jpmattia 6y ago
        > It's a meme among bitcoin advocates to troll suckers like you. We see plenty of value in bitcoin. Enough to save the world from fiat. No need to go all ad hominem. I've been pretty avid about BTC for some years now.
  - layer8 6y ago
    https://davidgerard.co.uk/blockchain/2019/05/27/the-origin-of-number-go-up-in-bitcoin-culture/ https://davidgerard.co.uk/blockchain/2019/05/27/the-origin-o...
fasteddie31003 6y ago
I'm personally buying bitcoin to hedge against possible inflation in the next year. The COVID relief packages are just the government printing more money, making existing money worth less. Once the vaccines are showing their effect in stopping the pandemic there will be a lot of pent up spending people are going to want to do which will lead to higher prices. Bitcoin seems like a good inflation hedge due to its fixed amount.
- _Microft 6y ago
  This is exactly what I do not understand. How would a system with a fixed amount of coins work in real life, i.e. in a case like we currently have, when you just need to get money into people's hands so that they can pay their rent and do not starve?
  - nipponese 6y ago
    People might ask the same question about gold, but after hundreds of years, it's still here as a scarce asset with speculative value.
    - arcticbull 6y ago
      And gold was awful money which is literally why we stopped using it as money. Trying to bring back a digital gold based money is just making new crap digital money.
      - insert_coin 6y ago
        The current fiat system has be around for about 50 years. Don't you think it is a little premature to compare it with 5000 years of monetary history and declare it a winner? In any case, the fact that fiat money has not been able to prevent the business cycle from creating devastating crises would seem to imply otherwise.
        arcticbull 6y ago
rossjudson 6y ago
Buy Bitcoin! Invest in crime!
paulpauper 6y ago
why was this even voted to the front [page. all of the stuff he is concerned about was addressed 5+ yrs ago. nothing new here. Even if you are not a fan of Bitcoin you have to admit these arguments are stale and he provides no new evidence.
- rattlesnakedave 6y ago
  hacker news readers are notorious for missing obvious value propositions. their comments on crypto will be remembered similarly to their comments on dropbox. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9224 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9224
  - dorkwood 6y ago
    While the top comment is certainly skeptical, I think it's worth pointing out that the majority of comments in that thread are positive: > This is genius. It's is problem everyone is having, and everyone knew it (http://www.aaronsw.com/weblog/lazybackup http://www.aaronsw.com/weblog/lazybackup ). If it really works as well as it looks in that demo then they nailed it. I'm both envious and inspired. I'll be surprised if YC does not fund them > I saw your short demo at BarCamp and I must say Dropbox looks great! Are you planning on having a Linux port as well, or is too early to talk about that? Also, as another SFP applicant I have to tell you that I really hope you get the funding - you deserve it. > You know, your app is something that I've been wishing someone would make for some time now. Congrats! > Cool stuff indeed. I would give 5 stars for such an useful application. > It looks great man. I know you'll be accepted. The writing is on the wall. Posting your video here just seals the deal, and puts yourself out there. I didn't apply to YC, but if I did, I'd be putting my stuff up here as well. I'm surprized nobody else has posted like you did. That takes some balls and self-belief. > Kudos from myself as well. In fact, just today I was having problems with ftp and samba, and was wishing for a more graphical rsync. Perhaps it is true that a good way to do a web app is to implement a unix command. :) Good job. can't wait until it's out for the rest of us. > Looks wonderful. You might want to check on the trademark 'dropbox'. I know dropsend used to be called dropbox but had to change due to trademark difficulties. Otherwise excellent work. > Nice job! I was thinking something like this for a while and wonder why no one did it. It looks like dropbox just scratches the right itches for me. > Great job guys, hope to see you get picked up in the next session. Keep me posted for the mac version. > This definitely qualifies as Something People Want, and it looks nicely executed. Very cool! > Great demo, great product, great business, well done. > That's hot! > I'm impressed. > brilliant!
ur-whale 6y ago
https://archive.is/kn3Xj https://archive.is/kn3Xj
boxmonster 6y ago
Bitcoin seems completely irresponsible to me because of the amount of electricity it uses: "Mining companies that run lots of ASIC miners as businesses claim to use only one watt of power for every gigahash per second of computing performed when mining for bitcoins. If this information is correct, the bitcoin network in 2020 consumes 120 gigawatts (GW) per second. https://www.thebalance.com/how-much-power-does-the-bitcoin-network-use-391280 https://www.thebalance.com/how-much-power-does-the-bitcoin-n...
- krupan 6y ago
  How much energy is used to secure other forms of money, like the U.S. dollar? Hint: you need to include the entire military, at least.
  - boxmonster 6y ago
    I don't know. Has any BC enthusiast calculated it to counter this argument? Using BC exclusively doesn't mean we don't need a military anymore btw.
    - krupan 6y ago
      (It’s BTC) There was an article just a day or two ago talking about how our currency is currently a petrodollar. Look that up. Think about the wars we’ve fought over oil, and global warming. Those are the costs of our fiat currency. Bitcoin is cheap!
- ur-whale 6y ago
  Gigawatts per second???? [EDIT]: I see this needs elaboration ... watts are already "per second". Watts per second implies some sort of acceleration of energy consumption. Just wondering if I'm missing the point.
  - arcticbull 6y ago
    77.78TWh/year or the same as Chile. https://digiconomist.net/bitcoin-energy-consumption/ https://digiconomist.net/bitcoin-energy-consumption/
ed25519FUUU 6y ago
Bitcoin is interesting, but a maximum of 7 transactions-per-second gives it very narrow use-case. Also the transaction fee is up to almost $8. Personally I’d rather own diversified stock portfolio to hedge inflation.
- bubbleboy2021 6y ago
  No one care about use case, they just want to be rich. You can go see this is anywhere people are discussing bitcoin.
xref 6y ago
I thought this article had some good counterpoints about the claim Bitcoin uses too much energy https://www.coindesk.com/the-last-word-on-bitcoins-energy-consumption https://www.coindesk.com/the-last-word-on-bitcoins-energy-co... > Dams can only store so much potential energy in the form of water before they must let it out. It’s an open secret that this otherwise-wasted energy has been put to use mining Bitcoin. If your local energy cost is effectively zero but you cannot sell your energy anywhere, the existence of a global buyer for energy is a godsend. > [detractors] are mum when it comes to the energy used to illuminate Christmas lights, to power the data centers behind Netflix or to distribute untold millions of single-serve meal kits. It’s clear that because Bitcoin’s footprint is so easy to quantify...it is singled out for special treatment.

37 points by elsewhen 6y ago

deleted 6y ago

[deleted]

nmlnn 6y ago

Failure to understand NgU.

mtmail 6y ago
What does NgU stand for?
- cconroy 6y ago
  bitcoin in its finite, pre-determined supply and halvings every ~4yrs (formed through consensus) while going through s-curve adoption brings forth its unique number go up technology that has economist around the globe stumped
  - deleted 6y ago
    [deleted]
- jpmattia 6y ago
  "Number Go Up" It's a meme among speculators and others who don't see bitcoin as providing an actual value proposition.
  - lai-yin 6y ago
    It's a meme among bitcoin advocates to troll suckers like you. We see plenty of value in bitcoin. Enough to save the world from fiat.
    - bubbleboy2021 6y ago
      Lol you loons are GOLD.
    - jpmattia 6y ago
      > It's a meme among bitcoin advocates to troll suckers like you. We see plenty of value in bitcoin. Enough to save the world from fiat. No need to go all ad hominem. I've been pretty avid about BTC for some years now.
- layer8 6y ago
  https://davidgerard.co.uk/blockchain/2019/05/27/the-origin-of-number-go-up-in-bitcoin-culture/ https://davidgerard.co.uk/blockchain/2019/05/27/the-origin-o...

fasteddie31003 6y ago

I'm personally buying bitcoin to hedge against possible inflation in the next year. The COVID relief packages are just the government printing more money, making existing money worth less. Once the vaccines are showing their effect in stopping the pandemic there will be a lot of pent up spending people are going to want to do which will lead to higher prices. Bitcoin seems like a good inflation hedge due to its fixed amount.

_Microft 6y ago
This is exactly what I do not understand. How would a system with a fixed amount of coins work in real life, i.e. in a case like we currently have, when you just need to get money into people's hands so that they can pay their rent and do not starve?
- nipponese 6y ago
  People might ask the same question about gold, but after hundreds of years, it's still here as a scarce asset with speculative value.
  - arcticbull 6y ago
    And gold was awful money which is literally why we stopped using it as money. Trying to bring back a digital gold based money is just making new crap digital money.
    - insert_coin 6y ago
      The current fiat system has be around for about 50 years. Don't you think it is a little premature to compare it with 5000 years of monetary history and declare it a winner? In any case, the fact that fiat money has not been able to prevent the business cycle from creating devastating crises would seem to imply otherwise.
      - arcticbull 6y ago

rossjudson 6y ago

Buy Bitcoin! Invest in crime!

paulpauper 6y ago

why was this even voted to the front [page. all of the stuff he is concerned about was addressed 5+ yrs ago. nothing new here. Even if you are not a fan of Bitcoin you have to admit these arguments are stale and he provides no new evidence.

rattlesnakedave 6y ago
hacker news readers are notorious for missing obvious value propositions. their comments on crypto will be remembered similarly to their comments on dropbox. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9224 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9224
- dorkwood 6y ago
  While the top comment is certainly skeptical, I think it's worth pointing out that the majority of comments in that thread are positive: > This is genius. It's is problem everyone is having, and everyone knew it (http://www.aaronsw.com/weblog/lazybackup http://www.aaronsw.com/weblog/lazybackup ). If it really works as well as it looks in that demo then they nailed it. I'm both envious and inspired. I'll be surprised if YC does not fund them > I saw your short demo at BarCamp and I must say Dropbox looks great! Are you planning on having a Linux port as well, or is too early to talk about that? Also, as another SFP applicant I have to tell you that I really hope you get the funding - you deserve it. > You know, your app is something that I've been wishing someone would make for some time now. Congrats! > Cool stuff indeed. I would give 5 stars for such an useful application. > It looks great man. I know you'll be accepted. The writing is on the wall. Posting your video here just seals the deal, and puts yourself out there. I didn't apply to YC, but if I did, I'd be putting my stuff up here as well. I'm surprized nobody else has posted like you did. That takes some balls and self-belief. > Kudos from myself as well. In fact, just today I was having problems with ftp and samba, and was wishing for a more graphical rsync. Perhaps it is true that a good way to do a web app is to implement a unix command. :) Good job. can't wait until it's out for the rest of us. > Looks wonderful. You might want to check on the trademark 'dropbox'. I know dropsend used to be called dropbox but had to change due to trademark difficulties. Otherwise excellent work. > Nice job! I was thinking something like this for a while and wonder why no one did it. It looks like dropbox just scratches the right itches for me. > Great job guys, hope to see you get picked up in the next session. Keep me posted for the mac version. > This definitely qualifies as Something People Want, and it looks nicely executed. Very cool! > Great demo, great product, great business, well done. > That's hot! > I'm impressed. > brilliant!

ur-whale 6y ago

https://archive.is/kn3Xj https://archive.is/kn3Xj

boxmonster 6y ago

Bitcoin seems completely irresponsible to me because of the amount of electricity it uses: "Mining companies that run lots of ASIC miners as businesses claim to use only one watt of power for every gigahash per second of computing performed when mining for bitcoins. If this information is correct, the bitcoin network in 2020 consumes 120 gigawatts (GW) per second. https://www.thebalance.com/how-much-power-does-the-bitcoin-network-use-391280 https://www.thebalance.com/how-much-power-does-the-bitcoin-n...

krupan 6y ago
How much energy is used to secure other forms of money, like the U.S. dollar? Hint: you need to include the entire military, at least.
- boxmonster 6y ago
  I don't know. Has any BC enthusiast calculated it to counter this argument? Using BC exclusively doesn't mean we don't need a military anymore btw.
  - krupan 6y ago
    (It’s BTC) There was an article just a day or two ago talking about how our currency is currently a petrodollar. Look that up. Think about the wars we’ve fought over oil, and global warming. Those are the costs of our fiat currency. Bitcoin is cheap!
ur-whale 6y ago
Gigawatts per second???? [EDIT]: I see this needs elaboration ... watts are already "per second". Watts per second implies some sort of acceleration of energy consumption. Just wondering if I'm missing the point.
- arcticbull 6y ago
  77.78TWh/year or the same as Chile. https://digiconomist.net/bitcoin-energy-consumption/ https://digiconomist.net/bitcoin-energy-consumption/

ed25519FUUU 6y ago

Bitcoin is interesting, but a maximum of 7 transactions-per-second gives it very narrow use-case. Also the transaction fee is up to almost $8. Personally I’d rather own diversified stock portfolio to hedge inflation.

bubbleboy2021 6y ago
No one care about use case, they just want to be rich. You can go see this is anywhere people are discussing bitcoin.

xref 6y ago

I thought this article had some good counterpoints about the claim Bitcoin uses too much energy https://www.coindesk.com/the-last-word-on-bitcoins-energy-consumption https://www.coindesk.com/the-last-word-on-bitcoins-energy-co... > Dams can only store so much potential energy in the form of water before they must let it out. It’s an open secret that this otherwise-wasted energy has been put to use mining Bitcoin. If your local energy cost is effectively zero but you cannot sell your energy anywhere, the existence of a global buyer for energy is a godsend. > [detractors] are mum when it comes to the energy used to illuminate Christmas lights, to power the data centers behind Netflix or to distribute untold millions of single-serve meal kits. It’s clear that because Bitcoin’s footprint is so easy to quantify...it is singled out for special treatment.