5 ms·

The are fundamental differences to all of those things versus Bitcoin, and lots of really good sources of information about why they are different. It doesn’t

The are fundamental differences to all of those things versus Bitcoin, and lots of really good sources of information about why they are different. It doesn’t matter if there are a finite supply of integers. I’m guessing you are alluding to being able to “print more Bitcoin” by moving decimal places or changing code or some such. That’s probably not going to happen, since you’d have to convince 51% of Bitcoin holders to dilute their own stake, since that’s how the consensus algorithm works. And if you don’t, we’ll then you have a fork, and as we’ve seen with Bitcoin cash etc, those typically don’t hold value, because fundamentally the value of a store of wealth is that everyone agrees that it’s a store of wealth. No one ever agreed or assumed beanie babies or tulips were stores of wealth. Those were speculative bubbles based on the assumption that tomorrow you could sell it for more. Bitcoin doesn’t need to be worth more tomorrow to make it valuable. It simply needs to hold wealth in a convenient, transferable, counterfeit proof manner that’s also not easily manipulated. And it does all of those things very very well. Ethereum likewise stores value, and also permits useful decentralized finance systems that also provide for storage and transfer of wealth. If you told dollar holders 100 years ago, that the money in their pocket would only be good based on the good faith of the US Federal Reserve they’d look at you cock eyed, because back then the dollar was gold backed. To the average joe, that gave them confidence in its value. And don’t get me wrong I’m not a gold bug that thinks we should go back to the gold standard. Just the opposite. Instead what the US did was brilliant. They simply said “trust” “believe” that the dollar is valuable and will remain valuable. And it’s been incredibly successful, again because it comes down to faith in the ability to hold wealth and have others respond in kind when transferring that asset. So do you believe the US dollar will hold value over the next 20 years? If you base it on the word of the government then that’s not as different as the the word of millions of Bitcoin miners. (Democratic consensus) If you base it instead on the value of the underlying economy using the dollar as a wealth exchange medium, well then again, Bitcoin currently does 87 billion USD worth of transactions per day. So it should be pretty clear that it’s incredibly different than tulips or beanie babies. If it’s not clear, I’d research a little more about the concepts of wealth historically, along with macro economics and monetary policies the world over. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wealth https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wealth https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Store_of_value https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Store_of_value If you think Bitcoin is an odd thing to believe in to store value and wealth, check out this island that uses giant stones... https://www.npr.org/sections/money/2011/02/15/131934618/the-island-of-stone-money https://www.npr.org/sections/money/2011/02/15/131934618/the-...

wpietri 6y ago
Your notion that people who disagree with you are just ignorant is tedious as well as wrong. Bitcoin is also a speculative bubble. It has no use value. It is not in any way living up to its original goal as electronic cash. (Contrast transaction volume and adoption with MPesa, for example.) Its main practical uses are speculation and some financial crime. Well, I left one out. It's also great for market manipulation. The recent runup has been driven by "the largest fraud since Madoff": https://www.kalzumeus.com/2019/10/28/tether-and-bitfinex/ https://www.kalzumeus.com/2019/10/28/tether-and-bitfinex/ Eventually, like all frauds, you run out of dumb new money and accounting chicanery. That day will come: https://davidgerard.co.uk/blockchain/2020/12/13/tether-is-too-big-to-fail-the-entire-crypto-industry-utterly-depends-on-it/ https://davidgerard.co.uk/blockchain/2020/12/13/tether-is-to...
- crazydoggers 6y ago
  I have no notion that people who disagree with me are ignorant. I only have a notion that ignorance is ignorant. I can back up all my arguments with facts, information, research study and understanding. Your articles on Tether is just red herring fallacy since your original argument has no merit. As for Bitcoins uses, there are many. For instance I recently acquired large amounts of bullion at a steep discount via bitcoin. Why? Because it’s cheaper and less trouble transaction wise for the bullion seller. All above board. All taxes reported. Nothing criminal. Defi loans allow collateralization of crypto assets. People in business are currently using them to secure extremely large multimillion dollar notes in minutes to do business transactions. I’ve been in the rooms when these occurred. Again all above board, all tax legal. Simply using banks for certain situations are a pain. Clearly you’ve never experienced such situations, hence why it seems a scam to you. I guess you’re smarter than me and Elon Musk. I would absolutely believe it if you had facts and arguments that didn’t have logical fallacies. There’s political arguments on both sides of the crypto currency debate. Your arguments seem politically motivated. I have no political agenda. The discovery of fission changed the world. There was no keeping it under wraps or going backwards after the physics were discovered. The ability to transfer and store wealth online via blockchain and consensus algorithms will exists from now on. There’s no going back. It’s simply a fact of information science and physics. Remember this discussion. Think on it when in 30 year’s cryptocurrency is considered a norm, and when multiple governments finally transition to digital currencies. Or you know... you can quote more non relevant, poorly educated sources to support a point you wish for. It’s like the old timers laughing that the internet was just a play thing in the 90s... Now if the internet went down it would be a national emergency. Oh... and here’s an actual intelligent article from a fairly respected source rather than some random blogger. Here’s the important point “Many people think that bitcoin is a bubble, and that's predicted on the concept that bitcoin has no value. But there's reason to believe that that just isn't true. By definition, bitcoin is scarce. And the cryptocurrency may have utility as a superior way to store and exchange wealth.” https://www.cnbc.com/2018/01/16/skeptics-say-bitcoin-has-no-value-heres-why-theyre-wrong.html https://www.cnbc.com/2018/01/16/skeptics-say-bitcoin-has-no-... Edit: I also hope you understand that this debate is an intellectual exercise, not a personal issue. So I am somewhat annoyed that you would call my comments tedious :). No one should accept ignorance. And disagreement is wonderful, but it should be an educated discourse. Silent downvoting or flagging of things that are unpleasant isn’t the way forward. I tend to only downvote comments that are provably factually incorrect, make comments that are based on ignorance or misunderstanding, non constructive, or outright hostile. If you truly are interested in open understanding, it’s not a bad thing to say “I am ignorant on this subject.” In the past when I have said that, I have learned a lot. Cryptocurrency and Bitcoin causes emotions or brings up political divides for a lot of people... I can only begin to guess at the reasons why. But burying your head in the sand or listening to the “bubble” crowd chorus is doing yourself a disservice.

wpietri 6y ago

Your notion that people who disagree with you are just ignorant is tedious as well as wrong. Bitcoin is also a speculative bubble. It has no use value. It is not in any way living up to its original goal as electronic cash. (Contrast transaction volume and adoption with MPesa, for example.) Its main practical uses are speculation and some financial crime. Well, I left one out. It's also great for market manipulation. The recent runup has been driven by "the largest fraud since Madoff": https://www.kalzumeus.com/2019/10/28/tether-and-bitfinex/ https://www.kalzumeus.com/2019/10/28/tether-and-bitfinex/ Eventually, like all frauds, you run out of dumb new money and accounting chicanery. That day will come: https://davidgerard.co.uk/blockchain/2020/12/13/tether-is-too-big-to-fail-the-entire-crypto-industry-utterly-depends-on-it/ https://davidgerard.co.uk/blockchain/2020/12/13/tether-is-to...

crazydoggers 6y ago
I have no notion that people who disagree with me are ignorant. I only have a notion that ignorance is ignorant. I can back up all my arguments with facts, information, research study and understanding. Your articles on Tether is just red herring fallacy since your original argument has no merit. As for Bitcoins uses, there are many. For instance I recently acquired large amounts of bullion at a steep discount via bitcoin. Why? Because it’s cheaper and less trouble transaction wise for the bullion seller. All above board. All taxes reported. Nothing criminal. Defi loans allow collateralization of crypto assets. People in business are currently using them to secure extremely large multimillion dollar notes in minutes to do business transactions. I’ve been in the rooms when these occurred. Again all above board, all tax legal. Simply using banks for certain situations are a pain. Clearly you’ve never experienced such situations, hence why it seems a scam to you. I guess you’re smarter than me and Elon Musk. I would absolutely believe it if you had facts and arguments that didn’t have logical fallacies. There’s political arguments on both sides of the crypto currency debate. Your arguments seem politically motivated. I have no political agenda. The discovery of fission changed the world. There was no keeping it under wraps or going backwards after the physics were discovered. The ability to transfer and store wealth online via blockchain and consensus algorithms will exists from now on. There’s no going back. It’s simply a fact of information science and physics. Remember this discussion. Think on it when in 30 year’s cryptocurrency is considered a norm, and when multiple governments finally transition to digital currencies. Or you know... you can quote more non relevant, poorly educated sources to support a point you wish for. It’s like the old timers laughing that the internet was just a play thing in the 90s... Now if the internet went down it would be a national emergency. Oh... and here’s an actual intelligent article from a fairly respected source rather than some random blogger. Here’s the important point “Many people think that bitcoin is a bubble, and that's predicted on the concept that bitcoin has no value. But there's reason to believe that that just isn't true. By definition, bitcoin is scarce. And the cryptocurrency may have utility as a superior way to store and exchange wealth.” https://www.cnbc.com/2018/01/16/skeptics-say-bitcoin-has-no-value-heres-why-theyre-wrong.html https://www.cnbc.com/2018/01/16/skeptics-say-bitcoin-has-no-... Edit: I also hope you understand that this debate is an intellectual exercise, not a personal issue. So I am somewhat annoyed that you would call my comments tedious :). No one should accept ignorance. And disagreement is wonderful, but it should be an educated discourse. Silent downvoting or flagging of things that are unpleasant isn’t the way forward. I tend to only downvote comments that are provably factually incorrect, make comments that are based on ignorance or misunderstanding, non constructive, or outright hostile. If you truly are interested in open understanding, it’s not a bad thing to say “I am ignorant on this subject.” In the past when I have said that, I have learned a lot. Cryptocurrency and Bitcoin causes emotions or brings up political divides for a lot of people... I can only begin to guess at the reasons why. But burying your head in the sand or listening to the “bubble” crowd chorus is doing yourself a disservice.