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What are the most important properties/goals of Bitcoin, in your view? I am genuinely interested in your view. The attitude on this forum towards Bitcoin liter

What are the most important properties/goals of Bitcoin, in your view? I am genuinely interested in your view. The attitude on this forum towards Bitcoin literally boggles my mind, at most maybe 5% truly understand it.

tsimionescu 6y ago
Fixed supply, algorithmic cryptographic validation of transactions, psuedonimity, no centralized control by a human-like entity. Each of these turns out to be a net-negative in my view: - fixed supply means that people are incentivized to hold bitcoin instead of spending/investing - algorithmic transactions mean that there is no way to reverse a mistaken transaction or a fraud; it also means that losing the key to your wallet is irreversible destruction of the money contained in that wallet - pseudonimity means that it is very hard to track money laundering and other illegal financial schemes - lack of centralized control enforces all of the others and makes it impossible to prop up the currency based on the current needs of the economy I also understand the distrust of fractional-reserve banking and most complicated financial manipulations, and I wouldn't deny in any way that these have been misused very often at the benefit of the rich and powerful. But, at least with the current system, citizens have some amount of democratic control over their financial system, which they wouldn't in a pure Bitcoin world.
- CryptoUnchained 6y ago
  Which is why Bitcoin isn't really considered a currency anymore. It's purely a digital asset, something like gold, a store of value and reserve currency used by large institutions. Once Visa/Bakkt/Paypal get on the custody train bitcoin transactions will be reversible, as they will transact paper bitcoin and settle several times a day, etc. I don't expect to actually spend my bitcoin just like I don't expect to spend my gold and silver, but when I'm ready to I know I won't have to pay a broker 10% fees.

tsimionescu 6y ago

Fixed supply, algorithmic cryptographic validation of transactions, psuedonimity, no centralized control by a human-like entity. Each of these turns out to be a net-negative in my view: - fixed supply means that people are incentivized to hold bitcoin instead of spending/investing - algorithmic transactions mean that there is no way to reverse a mistaken transaction or a fraud; it also means that losing the key to your wallet is irreversible destruction of the money contained in that wallet - pseudonimity means that it is very hard to track money laundering and other illegal financial schemes - lack of centralized control enforces all of the others and makes it impossible to prop up the currency based on the current needs of the economy I also understand the distrust of fractional-reserve banking and most complicated financial manipulations, and I wouldn't deny in any way that these have been misused very often at the benefit of the rich and powerful. But, at least with the current system, citizens have some amount of democratic control over their financial system, which they wouldn't in a pure Bitcoin world.

CryptoUnchained 6y ago
Which is why Bitcoin isn't really considered a currency anymore. It's purely a digital asset, something like gold, a store of value and reserve currency used by large institutions. Once Visa/Bakkt/Paypal get on the custody train bitcoin transactions will be reversible, as they will transact paper bitcoin and settle several times a day, etc. I don't expect to actually spend my bitcoin just like I don't expect to spend my gold and silver, but when I'm ready to I know I won't have to pay a broker 10% fees.