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Let me explain bitcoin in a way that hackers will understand. Bitcoin is javascript. Hackers don't like javascript. It's got a lot of terrible quirks. There
by sixQuarks 6y ago
Let me explain bitcoin in a way that hackers will understand.
Bitcoin is javascript.
Hackers don't like javascript. It's got a lot of terrible quirks. There are so many languages better than javascript. But that doesn't matter. Javascript is ubiquitous, and you can't avoid it. Bitcoin is the same.
Either you accept it as the way things are and profit from it, or you keep pounding your head against the wall.
- tome 6y ago> Javascript is ubiquitous, and you can't avoid it. I can't avoid it if I want to do web frontend programming, agreed. So "what is the web frontend programming" in your analogy, i.e. the thing I can't do without Bitcoin?
- sixQuarks 6y agoThat's actually false. You can do what javascript does on the front-end with web assembly. Nevertheless, my point has gone right over your head if you have to ask a question like this.
- tome 6y ago> That's actually false. You can do what javascript does on the front-end with web assembly. True. My comment mutatis mutandis. > my point has gone right over your head if you have to ask a question like this. Indeed it has! I would appreciate it if you could tweak it down to the level of my head.
- sixQuarks 6y agopoint taken, didn't mean to sound condescending. Sorry
- bearjaws 6y agoYeah but Javascript can actually be used to create a blockchain or any number of applications. I bet SpaceX could land a Falcon-9 with Javascript if they wanted nightmare difficulty. Bitcoin's main purpose for everyone I know is to buy drugs and treat as an 'investment'.
- qqii 6y agoBitcoin is currently accepted by a large number of companies including Microsoft, Newegg and Namecheap. We've seen greater use in counties like Venezuela.
- sixQuarks 6y agoBitcoin's main purpose is as a store of value. You have to compare it to other stores of value. Bitcoin is not the "best" store of value just like javascript is not the "best" programming language. But both are the defacto in their category. This is what I'm trying to explain.
- Closi 6y agoI don't think people do see it as a store of value though - they see it as an appreciating asset, as proven by the linked article and Elon investing to "maximize returns on [Tesla] cash". And very few people are using it for spending. So what does that mean? Rising prices -> More new investors buying into the currency -> further rising prices -> more new investors buying into the currency. What happens when the price eventually plateau's and stabilises? Well we know that particularly Bitcoin isn't a good currency to actually use in daily transactions, so people are going to want to take their Bitcoin winnings and do something with them. So they withdraw -> prices drop a bit -> people withdraw more -> prices drop a lot. It's bounced back before, but eventually the bounce back won't happen. There can only be so much new money pumped into the bottom to the people in the top - it's all a zero sum game, and the rich people at the start were just paid by people who joined later. As all pyramid schemes say, 'if you start now you won't be at the bottom of the pyramid!'.
- fomine3 6y agoWhy not Ethereum?
- usehackernews 6y agoBitcoin is offering the 30%+ of the worlds population that is unbanked an opportunity to do so. Bitcoin is providing those living in a poor economy a route to economic alternatives.
- nkohari 6y agoExcept JavaScript, for all of its faults, is actually incredibly useful. Unlike bitcoin.
- christiansakai 6y agoI am a JavaScript hacker. Are you serious...?
- sixQuarks 6y agoI actually like javascript. And yes, I'm serious.