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bitcoin represents a set of capabilities that haven't been combined before. People believe that the market hasn't discovered the correct market price for this

bitcoin represents a set of capabilities that haven't been combined before. People believe that the market hasn't discovered the correct market price for this set of capabilities yet.

politician 15y ago
Great answer.
- lukesandberg 15y ago
  but what exactly is that set of capabilities, i've heard anonymity touted as one, but according to this article anonymity is clearly not a given.
  - sliverstorm 15y ago
    Besides anonymity, liquidity and the freedom from control by a government, particularly the US Treasury.
  - nazgulnarsil 15y ago
    the distributed ledger means that you don't have to trust anyone to perform a transaction. bitcoins act as digital bearer bonds in the same way that cash does in meatspace. In addition I can securely store an encrypted file containing my private keys on several cloud services and access it from anywhere in the world. If done correctly, it is possible that no one knows that I have this asset until I try to cash it into a national currency. That's just bitcoin itself. The bitcoin protocol opens up the possibility of all sorts of distributed and secure interactions, contracts or property titles for example. namecoin is a distributed DNS service based on this idea.
adrianwaj 15y ago
I totally agree. There has been some criticism of bitcoin's technical aspects. I just wanted to post a thought I've been having for the last week or two, given your great answer (perhaps you could respond): If someone creates a better cryptocurrency than bitcoin, they should lock in a 1:1 exchange with bitcoin - so give 1 bitcoin and get 1 of the new currency back. At any time, one can recall bitcoins with the new currency at the same 1:1 rate. This way current bitcoin holders don't lose out to the new currency. There might be a minuscule commission to the creator. One issue in uptake is trusting the issuer of this new currency to stick around to make good on their promise. One weakness I see with bitcoin is speed of transactions across the network.
- asdfaoeu 15y ago
  That would just be a centralised version of bitcoin which is pretty much equivalent to PayPal or any of the many clones.
  - deleted 15y ago
    [deleted]
  - adrianwaj 15y ago
    There is a centralized aspect to it, a fixed-rate exchange. Sort of like having Mt Gox lock in an exchange rate and promising not to shut down and being on the other side of all trades.

bitcoin represents a set of capabilities that haven't been combined before. People believe that the market hasn't discovered the correct market price for this set of capabilities yet.

politician 15y ago

Great answer.

lukesandberg 15y ago
but what exactly is that set of capabilities, i've heard anonymity touted as one, but according to this article anonymity is clearly not a given.
- sliverstorm 15y ago
  Besides anonymity, liquidity and the freedom from control by a government, particularly the US Treasury.
- nazgulnarsil 15y ago
  the distributed ledger means that you don't have to trust anyone to perform a transaction. bitcoins act as digital bearer bonds in the same way that cash does in meatspace. In addition I can securely store an encrypted file containing my private keys on several cloud services and access it from anywhere in the world. If done correctly, it is possible that no one knows that I have this asset until I try to cash it into a national currency. That's just bitcoin itself. The bitcoin protocol opens up the possibility of all sorts of distributed and secure interactions, contracts or property titles for example. namecoin is a distributed DNS service based on this idea.

adrianwaj 15y ago

I totally agree. There has been some criticism of bitcoin's technical aspects. I just wanted to post a thought I've been having for the last week or two, given your great answer (perhaps you could respond): If someone creates a better cryptocurrency than bitcoin, they should lock in a 1:1 exchange with bitcoin - so give 1 bitcoin and get 1 of the new currency back. At any time, one can recall bitcoins with the new currency at the same 1:1 rate. This way current bitcoin holders don't lose out to the new currency. There might be a minuscule commission to the creator. One issue in uptake is trusting the issuer of this new currency to stick around to make good on their promise. One weakness I see with bitcoin is speed of transactions across the network.

asdfaoeu 15y ago
That would just be a centralised version of bitcoin which is pretty much equivalent to PayPal or any of the many clones.
- deleted 15y ago
  [deleted]
- adrianwaj 15y ago
  There is a centralized aspect to it, a fixed-rate exchange. Sort of like having Mt Gox lock in an exchange rate and promising not to shut down and being on the other side of all trades.