3 ms·

The problem with trying to suggest that Bitcoin is a fundamentally flawed idea is that you will be down voted to oblivion. As a computer science concept it's r

by cecida 6y ago

The problem with trying to suggest that Bitcoin is a fundamentally flawed idea is that you will be down voted to oblivion. As a computer science concept it's rather mundane. We know what merkle trees are. It's an extremely wasteful form of computing. Mining is an exercise in wastefulness. Proof-of-work is one of the worst concepts I've ever seen. Ah, Tether.

kneel 6y ago
I've never seen self propagating transaction networks that pay for themselves and recruit their own evangelists before bitcoin. Seems pretty amazing.
- LegitShady 6y ago
  It's called religion. They just separated the transacting (tithing, etc) from the self propagating evangelism. The tithing was the important part, though.
  - kneel 6y ago
    That's a pretty unique take! I like it
vmception 6y ago
that has nothing to do with this article, I’m sure there will be plenty of other bitcoin articles less tangentially related to your copypasta where you’ll be more in context pasting that
lukifer 6y ago
> Mining is an exercise in wastefulness While I don't disagree (I think PoW should be carbon-taxed or fully outlawed), a massive portion of the non-crypto economy is intentional waste for social signaling purposes: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Veblen_good https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Veblen_good
nyolfen 6y ago
> As a computer science concept it's rather mundane. We know what merkle trees are. a practical, robust solution to a long-standing computer science problem (byzantine generals) that directly results in an entire new branch of computer science and economic sector is hardly mundane. bitcoin solves previously intractable trustless coordination problems. we are only at the early stages of discovering what it makes possible; you are the newspaper editor laughing at the web in 1996.
- cecida 6y ago
  This is spaghetti language. What problem does Bitcoin solve? Economic inflation, deflation, hard money, computer science theoreticals. I'm talking about all proofs btw. So I'd have the same questions about ethereum. This is very flawed computer science.
  - lostmsu 6y ago
    You ignored the answer to your own question in the comment you were responding to. The problem is byzantine generals problem. In application to finance it is about trusting your bank and central bank.
andrewflnr 6y ago
It's hilarious that this comment is right below https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26043119 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26043119, which is whining about HN being too anti-cryptocurrency, both being similarly downvoted.

by cecida 6y ago

kneel 6y ago

I've never seen self propagating transaction networks that pay for themselves and recruit their own evangelists before bitcoin. Seems pretty amazing.

LegitShady 6y ago
It's called religion. They just separated the transacting (tithing, etc) from the self propagating evangelism. The tithing was the important part, though.
- kneel 6y ago
  That's a pretty unique take! I like it

vmception 6y ago

that has nothing to do with this article, I’m sure there will be plenty of other bitcoin articles less tangentially related to your copypasta where you’ll be more in context pasting that

lukifer 6y ago

> Mining is an exercise in wastefulness While I don't disagree (I think PoW should be carbon-taxed or fully outlawed), a massive portion of the non-crypto economy is intentional waste for social signaling purposes: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Veblen_good https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Veblen_good

nyolfen 6y ago

> As a computer science concept it's rather mundane. We know what merkle trees are. a practical, robust solution to a long-standing computer science problem (byzantine generals) that directly results in an entire new branch of computer science and economic sector is hardly mundane. bitcoin solves previously intractable trustless coordination problems. we are only at the early stages of discovering what it makes possible; you are the newspaper editor laughing at the web in 1996.

cecida 6y ago
This is spaghetti language. What problem does Bitcoin solve? Economic inflation, deflation, hard money, computer science theoreticals. I'm talking about all proofs btw. So I'd have the same questions about ethereum. This is very flawed computer science.
- lostmsu 6y ago
  You ignored the answer to your own question in the comment you were responding to. The problem is byzantine generals problem. In application to finance it is about trusting your bank and central bank.

andrewflnr 6y ago

It's hilarious that this comment is right below https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26043119 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26043119, which is whining about HN being too anti-cryptocurrency, both being similarly downvoted.