5 ms·

Sigh. Bitcoin BTC, at 3 transactions per second, doesn't have the capacity to support El Salvador's economy. Even if Lightning worked (it doesn't), BTC doesn't

Sigh. Bitcoin BTC, at 3 transactions per second, doesn't have the capacity to support El Salvador's economy. Even if Lightning worked (it doesn't), BTC doesn't have enough capacity to open channels for users at a reasonable cost. Salvadorians will end up forced to use proprietary payment networks denominated in BTC. BTC is not cash anymore, it won't work as such. There are other cryptos that could work, we'll have to see how broadly 'bitcoin' is interpreted. The CGT exemption will be of interest to crypto whales and entrepreneurs and may attract some, but organized crime is a concern given the nature of the asset.

adriancr 5y ago
It's a good experiment: - we'll see how good of a currency it is - how creative people are when trying to avoid delays / transaction costs. - how law enforcement will work when money is stolen. (imagine their government's funds getting stolen, ordinary people I doubt they will do much) I assume they will likely make their own exchange where people can park funds and 'transfer' funds on paper. This also solves returning money back and so on.
- standyro 5y ago
  Lol doesn’t this defeat the whole point of a decentralized currency? You basically just described a modern bank
  - adriancr 5y ago
    That is unfortunately correct, I'm curious what other solutions to usual problems bitcoin can provide, as it stands now the volatility/transaction costs/speed/immutability of transactions are going to be felt badly.
  - gruez 5y ago
    >You basically just described a modern bank In what way? The "make their own exchange where people can park funds and 'transfer' funds on paper" bit? The lightning network allows this to be done without trusting your exchange with your funds since transfers are nearly free and instant.
xur17 5y ago
> Even if Lightning worked (it doesn't) In what way doesn't it work?
sennight 5y ago
> Sigh. Bitcoin BTC, at 3 transactions per second... Are you confusing the current fill rate with the max? I remember the battlecry of the bcash people being something like "7 tps is nowhere near visa levels!", has that changed? > Even if Lightning worked (it doesn't)... wut? There are nearly 50 thousand channels open right now with 50 million dollars in flight, what isn't working?
ilaksh 5y ago
Right. Why not any of the many options that are faster. Even Eth had more transactions per second. I'm a big fan of Algorand. But also Litecoin or even Dogecoin could go faster. Plus a bunch of others.
TimJRobinson 5y ago
They're literally using Lightning for payments right now in El Salvador. They didn't do this without having local projects already. Bitcoin Beach (https://twitter.com/Bitcoinbeach https://twitter.com/Bitcoinbeach) made a lot of this happen.
daehee 5y ago
Lightning Network capacity visualized: https://embed.theblockcrypto.com/data/on-chain-metrics/bitcoin/lightning-networks-capacity-daily/embed https://embed.theblockcrypto.com/data/on-chain-metrics/bitco...

adriancr 5y ago

It's a good experiment: - we'll see how good of a currency it is - how creative people are when trying to avoid delays / transaction costs. - how law enforcement will work when money is stolen. (imagine their government's funds getting stolen, ordinary people I doubt they will do much) I assume they will likely make their own exchange where people can park funds and 'transfer' funds on paper. This also solves returning money back and so on.

standyro 5y ago
Lol doesn’t this defeat the whole point of a decentralized currency? You basically just described a modern bank
- adriancr 5y ago
  That is unfortunately correct, I'm curious what other solutions to usual problems bitcoin can provide, as it stands now the volatility/transaction costs/speed/immutability of transactions are going to be felt badly.
- gruez 5y ago
  >You basically just described a modern bank In what way? The "make their own exchange where people can park funds and 'transfer' funds on paper" bit? The lightning network allows this to be done without trusting your exchange with your funds since transfers are nearly free and instant.

xur17 5y ago

> Even if Lightning worked (it doesn't) In what way doesn't it work?

sennight 5y ago

> Sigh. Bitcoin BTC, at 3 transactions per second... Are you confusing the current fill rate with the max? I remember the battlecry of the bcash people being something like "7 tps is nowhere near visa levels!", has that changed? > Even if Lightning worked (it doesn't)... wut? There are nearly 50 thousand channels open right now with 50 million dollars in flight, what isn't working?

ilaksh 5y ago

Right. Why not any of the many options that are faster. Even Eth had more transactions per second. I'm a big fan of Algorand. But also Litecoin or even Dogecoin could go faster. Plus a bunch of others.

TimJRobinson 5y ago

They're literally using Lightning for payments right now in El Salvador. They didn't do this without having local projects already. Bitcoin Beach (https://twitter.com/Bitcoinbeach https://twitter.com/Bitcoinbeach) made a lot of this happen.

daehee 5y ago

Lightning Network capacity visualized: https://embed.theblockcrypto.com/data/on-chain-metrics/bitcoin/lightning-networks-capacity-daily/embed https://embed.theblockcrypto.com/data/on-chain-metrics/bitco...