5 ms·

Rephrasing an earlier comment, sorry, but - is Bitcoin really that great as a practical technology? An asset with dubious value (some bytes in a decentralized d

Rephrasing an earlier comment, sorry, but - is Bitcoin really that great as a practical technology? An asset with dubious value (some bytes in a decentralized database) that's so staggeringly inefficient to run that the transaction fees are astronomical and speeds are glacial, and that nobody uses for any real purpose besides speculation - pumped by a million and one influencers and "coin news" sites parroting empty bullish propaganda in hopes the price of their portfolio keeps going up. I was originally fascinated by crypto, but the more I've come to understand it the more I suspect the world has lost its mind.

rawtxapp 5y ago
Lightning network enables almost instant and practically free Bitcoin payments, that's what they are using in El Salvador. Current financial system is pretty broken in my opinion, for example, I'm trying to transfer money into a business checking account I have, my options are: - using Plaid, which will take banking credentials in clear text and store them somewhere for transactions, which is insane to me that this is what we need to enable all the FinTech stuff, - using wire transfers which costs 20$ each, - using check deposits (with 500$ limits), which is like the 1990s. Current financial system has a trust problem, especially for new users, Bitcoin solves that.
rantwasp 5y ago
what do you think money is? some bytes in a centralized database. asset of dubious value? unless you can literally eat it, wear it of use it, all assets are of dubious value. It’s an asset of dubious value that you don’t like. Big difference. The value of crypto comes from the decentralized trust. People don’t seem to grasp this at all, but this is a groundbreaking invention being dragged though the mud because it doesn’t serve the interests of out overlords.
- specialist 5y ago
  > what do you think money is? Opinions differ, mostly on context. Currency, commodity, record of debts, measure of value. > groundbreaking invention being dragged though the mud Bitcoin is not the first collectable, the first escrow system. > because it doesn’t serve the interests of out overlords True. For now.
  - rantwasp 5y ago
    show me another system that does decentralized trust. and works
    - specialist 5y ago
      Middle ages had virtual currencies. Unlike butcoin, they were private. Every generation thinks they invented sex.
ryan29 5y ago
> I was originally fascinated by crypto, but the more I've come to understand it the more I suspect the world has lost its mind. I sort of agree. I have 12 Chia (XCH) so I've been learning about crypto for the last couple months. There's some neat tech alongside crypto, but all of it is completely ruined by the "currency" portion of the deal. Here are the issues I have with it. A lot of governments treat it as a security rather than a currency and that comes along with a ton of accounting and tax implications. In Canada, every exchange of crypto is a taxable event. In the US I've seen people claiming they're supposed to consider _mining_ a block a taxable event. It's hard to spend and there are so many fees it's insane. I wanted to try buying a .eth domain last week, but I gave up when I realized my exchange charges $20 for a single transaction to move my ETH into a private wallet. The fees are extremely hard to figure out if you're not a crypto veteran. I couldn't even figure out what the transaction fees for buying a .eth domain would end up being. The idea of variable rate fees for transactions is so dumb it's almost funny. Being a security, the KYC/AML add a ton of friction for anyone trying to get into the ecosystem. I had to give crypto.com an astronomical amount of information to set up an account. Then, after all that, they don't have _all_ the currencies I'd like to buy and they'd probably charge me an arm and a leg for those transfers anyway. For example, I wanted to try to buy a Handshake (HNS) domain, but they only accept 2 currencies; BTC and HNS. If I want to buy HNS from them I need to go though the KYC/AML verification process. Repeat this for every crypto currency where you can't buy it on your regular exchange or where you don't want to spend a fortune in withdrawal fees. I'd have to pay $14 right now to transfer BTC from crypto.com. That's ONE transaction. Then, add in the complexity of swapping between currency which my country (Canada) considers a taxable event. If I use BTC at namebase.io to buy a Handshake domain, does that get swapped to HNS first. I assume so since the blockchain is only going to work with HNS. Who's responsible for that event? Me? The immutable nature of the blockchains has downsides. The .eth domains are a good example of this. A ton of huge trademarked names are being squatted on, but there's no way to enforce IP laws. The crypto crowd considers this a strength, but it's not. None of the big tech companies are going to buy in to a system where their IP can be abused. IMO they'll actively fight against it's adoption. However, as soon as you take away the immutability, you have another version of ICANN, so where's the benefit? I would have spent $200 on crypto domains last week, but it was such a pain in the ass that I spent $0. The space is 10 years old and I can't even spend my money on anything after making an effort at it (for several hours). BTW, I've been trying to find a way to sell my XCH on a US/Canada banked exchange since they were at $1500 and I _still_ can't sell them as they dropped below $500 today. The only way to do it is to shuffle between currencies and exchanges. So I need to trigger a ton of taxable events and shift my money around in a way that looks like I'm a money launderer. No thanks. That's not for me. End rant I guess. Lol.

rawtxapp 5y ago

Lightning network enables almost instant and practically free Bitcoin payments, that's what they are using in El Salvador. Current financial system is pretty broken in my opinion, for example, I'm trying to transfer money into a business checking account I have, my options are: - using Plaid, which will take banking credentials in clear text and store them somewhere for transactions, which is insane to me that this is what we need to enable all the FinTech stuff, - using wire transfers which costs 20$ each, - using check deposits (with 500$ limits), which is like the 1990s. Current financial system has a trust problem, especially for new users, Bitcoin solves that.

rantwasp 5y ago

what do you think money is? some bytes in a centralized database. asset of dubious value? unless you can literally eat it, wear it of use it, all assets are of dubious value. It’s an asset of dubious value that you don’t like. Big difference. The value of crypto comes from the decentralized trust. People don’t seem to grasp this at all, but this is a groundbreaking invention being dragged though the mud because it doesn’t serve the interests of out overlords.

specialist 5y ago
> what do you think money is? Opinions differ, mostly on context. Currency, commodity, record of debts, measure of value. > groundbreaking invention being dragged though the mud Bitcoin is not the first collectable, the first escrow system. > because it doesn’t serve the interests of out overlords True. For now.
- rantwasp 5y ago
  show me another system that does decentralized trust. and works
  - specialist 5y ago
    Middle ages had virtual currencies. Unlike butcoin, they were private. Every generation thinks they invented sex.

ryan29 5y ago

> I was originally fascinated by crypto, but the more I've come to understand it the more I suspect the world has lost its mind. I sort of agree. I have 12 Chia (XCH) so I've been learning about crypto for the last couple months. There's some neat tech alongside crypto, but all of it is completely ruined by the "currency" portion of the deal. Here are the issues I have with it. A lot of governments treat it as a security rather than a currency and that comes along with a ton of accounting and tax implications. In Canada, every exchange of crypto is a taxable event. In the US I've seen people claiming they're supposed to consider _mining_ a block a taxable event. It's hard to spend and there are so many fees it's insane. I wanted to try buying a .eth domain last week, but I gave up when I realized my exchange charges $20 for a single transaction to move my ETH into a private wallet. The fees are extremely hard to figure out if you're not a crypto veteran. I couldn't even figure out what the transaction fees for buying a .eth domain would end up being. The idea of variable rate fees for transactions is so dumb it's almost funny. Being a security, the KYC/AML add a ton of friction for anyone trying to get into the ecosystem. I had to give crypto.com an astronomical amount of information to set up an account. Then, after all that, they don't have _all_ the currencies I'd like to buy and they'd probably charge me an arm and a leg for those transfers anyway. For example, I wanted to try to buy a Handshake (HNS) domain, but they only accept 2 currencies; BTC and HNS. If I want to buy HNS from them I need to go though the KYC/AML verification process. Repeat this for every crypto currency where you can't buy it on your regular exchange or where you don't want to spend a fortune in withdrawal fees. I'd have to pay $14 right now to transfer BTC from crypto.com. That's ONE transaction. Then, add in the complexity of swapping between currency which my country (Canada) considers a taxable event. If I use BTC at namebase.io to buy a Handshake domain, does that get swapped to HNS first. I assume so since the blockchain is only going to work with HNS. Who's responsible for that event? Me? The immutable nature of the blockchains has downsides. The .eth domains are a good example of this. A ton of huge trademarked names are being squatted on, but there's no way to enforce IP laws. The crypto crowd considers this a strength, but it's not. None of the big tech companies are going to buy in to a system where their IP can be abused. IMO they'll actively fight against it's adoption. However, as soon as you take away the immutability, you have another version of ICANN, so where's the benefit? I would have spent $200 on crypto domains last week, but it was such a pain in the ass that I spent $0. The space is 10 years old and I can't even spend my money on anything after making an effort at it (for several hours). BTW, I've been trying to find a way to sell my XCH on a US/Canada banked exchange since they were at $1500 and I _still_ can't sell them as they dropped below $500 today. The only way to do it is to shuffle between currencies and exchanges. So I need to trigger a ton of taxable events and shift my money around in a way that looks like I'm a money launderer. No thanks. That's not for me. End rant I guess. Lol.