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Bitcoin is so fundamentally deficient that I am absolutely shocked by its continuing popularity. I’ve tried and tried to think of a legitimate purpose for it, b

Bitcoin is so fundamentally deficient that I am absolutely shocked by its continuing popularity. I’ve tried and tried to think of a legitimate purpose for it, but I’m confident that it doesn’t have one. It is just too slow and inefficient to be used as a currency, and I can’t understand why anybody would use something so volatile as a value storage mechanism similar to gold. Transactions provide extremely dubious privacy as well, and governments still control it to a large extent via the exchanges, since at the end of the day, you still need to convert it to cash for anything useful. Its only true use is for wild speculation and greed. It just makes me sick to think of the energy wasted by this when we are on the brink of climate catastrophe.

tippytippytango 6y ago
Lots of people are paying for the energy the network uses right now and they thought it was worth it. You might have missed something in your thinking. Maybe go talk to some people that have used the network and ask why they though it was worth it to pay for all this energy.
- brokencode 6y ago
  I know why, and I said as much in my original post. Bitcoin is purely for speculation at this point. It’s a money making scheme. These people don’t care about energy usage or transaction fees as long as they are getting incredible returns on their investment.
anigbrowl 6y ago
While I largely agree, the existence of volatile instruments (in the abstract) is a Good Thing in that it offers the possibility of rapid gains for people who are willing to accept risk but only have a small pile of capital, sort of like a poker game with no minimum stake (unless you want to treat the transaction fees as such). Where else can you take those sort of risks? Stock fads like $GME are notable for their rarity because large capital holders benefit more from stability than volatility. You could gamble in a casino but people don't like betting against the house, which fills the role of a market maker. Volatile instruments like bitcoin are more like a casino where the dealer is paid a fee per hand but is not a participant in the game.
- perfunctory 6y ago
  > are notable for their rarity If you consider that there are gazillion crypto currencies, bitcoin is a rarity among them. How is it different from stocks?
  - anigbrowl 6y ago
    I don't really understand your question. Lots of cryptocurrencies are very volatile, and cryptocurrencies are different from stocks insofar as they lack street addresses, SEC filings etc. (which is part of why they're so volatile).

tippytippytango 6y ago

Lots of people are paying for the energy the network uses right now and they thought it was worth it. You might have missed something in your thinking. Maybe go talk to some people that have used the network and ask why they though it was worth it to pay for all this energy.

brokencode 6y ago
I know why, and I said as much in my original post. Bitcoin is purely for speculation at this point. It’s a money making scheme. These people don’t care about energy usage or transaction fees as long as they are getting incredible returns on their investment.

anigbrowl 6y ago

While I largely agree, the existence of volatile instruments (in the abstract) is a Good Thing in that it offers the possibility of rapid gains for people who are willing to accept risk but only have a small pile of capital, sort of like a poker game with no minimum stake (unless you want to treat the transaction fees as such). Where else can you take those sort of risks? Stock fads like $GME are notable for their rarity because large capital holders benefit more from stability than volatility. You could gamble in a casino but people don't like betting against the house, which fills the role of a market maker. Volatile instruments like bitcoin are more like a casino where the dealer is paid a fee per hand but is not a participant in the game.

perfunctory 6y ago
> are notable for their rarity If you consider that there are gazillion crypto currencies, bitcoin is a rarity among them. How is it different from stocks?
- anigbrowl 6y ago
  I don't really understand your question. Lots of cryptocurrencies are very volatile, and cryptocurrencies are different from stocks insofar as they lack street addresses, SEC filings etc. (which is part of why they're so volatile).