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I see BTC as an immensely successful first try at making this kind of thing - and like any emerging tech it's slow, inefficient, sharp edges, mostly used by exp
by megameter 6y ago
I see BTC as an immensely successful first try at making this kind of thing - and like any emerging tech it's slow, inefficient, sharp edges, mostly used by experts. It's a tech channeled towards an Ayn Randian utopian fantasy, and has run right into the limits of that fantasy as a working philosophy.
And yet, it still has practically useful properties.
The coins that win as a currency will have to loosen their grasp on the rentier-merchant aspects, become more energy efficient, more usable, more integrated into society(within and without its institutions).
- madeofpalk 6y ago> and like any emerging tech The problem that everyone else sees is that Bitcoin has been "emerging tech" with all its rough edges for so many years.
- shawnz 6y agoIs that wrong? What other new asset class was developed this rapidly?
- arcticbull 6y agoThink about what other technology is 12 years old you’d call “nascent” - 12 years is an eternity in tech. The iPhone is 12 years old and bears only a passing semblance to what was launched. Bitcoin is practically identical. The first ETF launched in 1993, and 12 years later they had 400 billion in net asset value - 533 adjusted for inflation. Your argument that the growth is unprecedented is specious.
- shawnz 6y agoYeah, but I believe it's the economic side which is moving slowly, not the technological side. People have been working on improved technologies for cryptocurrencies for a while now but the problem is that none of them have gained the same trust as Bitcoin.
- arcticbull 6y agoI suspect ETF cash inflows far, far outpace crypto cash inflows.
- saalweachter 6y agoI suspect you could take a lot less cash out of crypto without collapsing the market.
- arcticbull 6y agolol that’s very much backwards, by crypto advocates own admission there’s zero liquidity in the space.
- ric2b 6y ago> Think about what other technology is 12 years old you’d call “nascent” Cars, Steam engines, Airplanes, Trains, the Internet, Radio, Phones, Mobile phones, Smart phones, Cinema, TV's, basically anything that is actually new technology? I actually can't think of any new technology that reached maturity within 12 years of it's original prototype. > The first ETF launched in 1993, ETF's are a contract, they're not technology. By the way, BTC currently has 450 billion in net asset value, so...
- arcticbull 6y agoWhat technology do you use from 2008 that hasn't changed at all since then, and is also considered nascent?
- ric2b 6y agoI don't know but Bitcoin is definitely not it, it's seen multiple large improvements over the years.
- arcticbull 6y agoOh cool! Does it exceed 7tx/sec now? That's great news.
- alwillis 6y agoAs I type this, bitcoin's market cap is a little over $554 billion.
- narrator 6y agoMost of the problems of Bitcoin are solved by centralization. Reversibility, transaction speed, increasing and decreasing the supply. The problem is that centralization creates an investment contract. We already have a medium for exchanging those. It's called the stock market. Bitcoin operates out of the control of any government or regulation. Thus, the decentralization imposes limitations on its design. XRP tried to make a centralized cryptocurrency that solved those problems and now the SEC is basically telling them they have to give all the money back because it's an investment contract.