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I just wanted internet money, not a speculative financial instrument. :(

sphix0r 6y ago
Yeah, that's what bitcoin should have been. Too bad it also consumes an insane amount of energy and isn't able to process a lot of transactions per second. Hope that a good cryptocurrency gets more traction and will be the next decentralized "paypal / digital currency".
- vbezhenar 6y ago
  What about Lightning network? AFAIK it works right now, it's instant and scalable.
  - teachrdan 6y ago
    Doesn't relying on the Lightning network compromise Bitcoin's promise of no-trust finance?
    - rawtxapp 6y ago
      Nope, you're still benefiting from the base layer's security while being able to transact much faster and cheaper on layer 2.
  - lawn 6y ago
    You still need one slow and/or expensive Bitcoin transaction to start using it, while having enough funds for a justice transaction. You can't use it trustlessly on your phone and it's also not scalable (no decentralized route finding that scales exists and is an intractable problem). Just use another crypto if you want to pay for things. 0-conf are just as instant as credit card payments are.
bouncycastle 6y ago
DAI is your friend - always pegged to the USD, non-custodial stablecoin.
srgpqt 6y ago
The only cryptocurrency that might one day become real “internet money” is nano, because it has no fees and transactions are almost instant.
- ketamine__ 6y ago
  * In the future sidechains are going to be used in a big way on Ethereum. Lower cost, higher transaction processing. All the cool shit is being developed on Ethereum right now because of a robust toolchain. Also, there are many infrastructure startups that are filling in technology gaps. * Basic Attention Token (BAT) is another "internet money" contender because the user can earn it through viewing ads. No fiat onramp needed. I haven't researched Nano but I would be interested to hear the trade-offs compared to Ethereum and Bitcoin.
- AnIdiotOnTheNet 6y ago
  I looked into nano because it kept getting mentioned. Seems like the only way to acquire it is to buy it from someone who already has it. Somehow, that isn't very motivating.
  - robotmay 6y ago
    Originally it was distributed in a very fair manner, compared to other coins; it had a faucet which required captcha solving to get coins: https://medium.com/nanocurrency/the-nano-faucet-c99e18ae1202 https://medium.com/nanocurrency/the-nano-faucet-c99e18ae1202 Now, yes, you have to exchange for it from other currencies, as there is a finite supply which has already been issued.
    - AnIdiotOnTheNet 6y ago
      Yeah, see, finite supply entirely in the hands of early adopters doesn't really sound very legit to me.
      - robotmay 6y ago
        I'm not sure what other options work out better though. BTC is now only mineable by large groups with tons of hardware, which seems less fair to me. At least with the faucet approach everyone was equal in terms of what they could acquire. Personally I didn't use it anyway, I just traded for the coin like anything else.
tromp 6y ago
Speculation could be discouraged by having a fixed block reward, so that it takes all of a century to bring yearly inflation below rate 1%...
- CyberDildonics 6y ago
  How would that discourage speculation?
  - sprash 6y ago
    It doesn't. Doge works that way and is highly volatile.

Yeah, that's what bitcoin should have been. Too bad it also consumes an insane amount of energy and isn't able to process a lot of transactions per second. Hope that a good cryptocurrency gets more traction and will be the next decentralized "paypal / digital currency".

vbezhenar 6y ago
What about Lightning network? AFAIK it works right now, it's instant and scalable.
- teachrdan 6y ago
  Doesn't relying on the Lightning network compromise Bitcoin's promise of no-trust finance?
  - rawtxapp 6y ago
    Nope, you're still benefiting from the base layer's security while being able to transact much faster and cheaper on layer 2.
- lawn 6y ago
  You still need one slow and/or expensive Bitcoin transaction to start using it, while having enough funds for a justice transaction. You can't use it trustlessly on your phone and it's also not scalable (no decentralized route finding that scales exists and is an intractable problem). Just use another crypto if you want to pay for things. 0-conf are just as instant as credit card payments are.

bouncycastle 6y ago

DAI is your friend - always pegged to the USD, non-custodial stablecoin.

srgpqt 6y ago

The only cryptocurrency that might one day become real “internet money” is nano, because it has no fees and transactions are almost instant.

ketamine__ 6y ago
* In the future sidechains are going to be used in a big way on Ethereum. Lower cost, higher transaction processing. All the cool shit is being developed on Ethereum right now because of a robust toolchain. Also, there are many infrastructure startups that are filling in technology gaps. * Basic Attention Token (BAT) is another "internet money" contender because the user can earn it through viewing ads. No fiat onramp needed. I haven't researched Nano but I would be interested to hear the trade-offs compared to Ethereum and Bitcoin.
AnIdiotOnTheNet 6y ago
I looked into nano because it kept getting mentioned. Seems like the only way to acquire it is to buy it from someone who already has it. Somehow, that isn't very motivating.
- robotmay 6y ago
  Originally it was distributed in a very fair manner, compared to other coins; it had a faucet which required captcha solving to get coins: https://medium.com/nanocurrency/the-nano-faucet-c99e18ae1202 https://medium.com/nanocurrency/the-nano-faucet-c99e18ae1202 Now, yes, you have to exchange for it from other currencies, as there is a finite supply which has already been issued.
  - AnIdiotOnTheNet 6y ago
    Yeah, see, finite supply entirely in the hands of early adopters doesn't really sound very legit to me.
    - robotmay 6y ago
      I'm not sure what other options work out better though. BTC is now only mineable by large groups with tons of hardware, which seems less fair to me. At least with the faucet approach everyone was equal in terms of what they could acquire. Personally I didn't use it anyway, I just traded for the coin like anything else.

tromp 6y ago

Speculation could be discouraged by having a fixed block reward, so that it takes all of a century to bring yearly inflation below rate 1%...

CyberDildonics 6y ago
How would that discourage speculation?
- sprash 6y ago
  It doesn't. Doge works that way and is highly volatile.