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Bitcoin has chosen consistency with its original principles over "innovation." A good choice, in my book. What we should think of as constituting sound money h

by javert 5y ago

Bitcoin has chosen consistency with its original principles over "innovation." A good choice, in my book. What we should think of as constituting sound money has not changed since 2008. That is what bitcoin is supposed to be - sound money. Ethereum is supposed to be something else - and it makes sense for Ethereum to "innovate" much more than bitcoin does.

Tepix 5y ago
> That is what bitcoin is supposed to be - sound money. Bitcoin can't be used as money in most cases as transactions are too expensive and slow. It has failed its primary function. Instead of doing something about it, the notion of using bitcoin like money has been abandonded and it's merely a "store of value". That's until people stop valuing it.
- jkhdigital 5y ago
  Is cash money? What percentage of your transactions are settled in cash? Money and payment settlement systems are not the same thing, although you could be forgiven for believing that. I use a credit card for 99% of my transaction volume, and credit cards are not money. The fact that the notional value of the transaction is denominated in dollars doesn't mean I am actually using dollars as the medium of exchange--the exchange is facilitated by a clearinghouse and my individual transaction may not even result in a transfer of money (actual dollars) between parties, if there is an offsetting transaction (or chain of transactions) within the same settlement period.
  - Tepix 5y ago
    Yes, cash is money and a large percentage of my transactions are settled in cash (currently with covid the percentage is a bit lower).
everfree 5y ago
> Bitcoin has chosen consistency with its original principles Bitcoin was originally invented as a "peer to peer electronic cash system". The fees have made it impossible to use it as such for quite some time.
- javert 5y ago
  Despite the tagline from the whitepaper, it's always been clear to me that bitcoin was an Austrian-style sound money system and could not scale to be a network for small payments. I think bitcoin has remained consistent with the original vision and design.
  - everfree 5y ago
    I remember using Bitcoin to buy coffee in town back in the day (2014, 2015-ish). All the retailers stopped accepting it as payment due to the results of the scaling debate. Steam, WordPress, Microsoft and others. If its current design under the block size limit was clear to you, it very much wasn't clear to me back then.
    - javert 5y ago
      Just making blocks bigger isn't enough to scale bitcoin to Visa levels, so making on-chain bitcoin payments work for small payments was never on the table. It would have required a radical redesign of bitcoin to even have a chance of success, and that has always been off the table and has been left for new, experimental digital currencies.

by javert 5y ago

Tepix 5y ago

> That is what bitcoin is supposed to be - sound money. Bitcoin can't be used as money in most cases as transactions are too expensive and slow. It has failed its primary function. Instead of doing something about it, the notion of using bitcoin like money has been abandonded and it's merely a "store of value". That's until people stop valuing it.

jkhdigital 5y ago
Is cash money? What percentage of your transactions are settled in cash? Money and payment settlement systems are not the same thing, although you could be forgiven for believing that. I use a credit card for 99% of my transaction volume, and credit cards are not money. The fact that the notional value of the transaction is denominated in dollars doesn't mean I am actually using dollars as the medium of exchange--the exchange is facilitated by a clearinghouse and my individual transaction may not even result in a transfer of money (actual dollars) between parties, if there is an offsetting transaction (or chain of transactions) within the same settlement period.
- Tepix 5y ago
  Yes, cash is money and a large percentage of my transactions are settled in cash (currently with covid the percentage is a bit lower).

everfree 5y ago

> Bitcoin has chosen consistency with its original principles Bitcoin was originally invented as a "peer to peer electronic cash system". The fees have made it impossible to use it as such for quite some time.

javert 5y ago
Despite the tagline from the whitepaper, it's always been clear to me that bitcoin was an Austrian-style sound money system and could not scale to be a network for small payments. I think bitcoin has remained consistent with the original vision and design.
- everfree 5y ago
  I remember using Bitcoin to buy coffee in town back in the day (2014, 2015-ish). All the retailers stopped accepting it as payment due to the results of the scaling debate. Steam, WordPress, Microsoft and others. If its current design under the block size limit was clear to you, it very much wasn't clear to me back then.
  - javert 5y ago
    Just making blocks bigger isn't enough to scale bitcoin to Visa levels, so making on-chain bitcoin payments work for small payments was never on the table. It would have required a radical redesign of bitcoin to even have a chance of success, and that has always been off the table and has been left for new, experimental digital currencies.