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I think there are fair number of revolutionary things that you discount: 1) You can send it to anyone, anywhere without involving a middleman or needing financ

I think there are fair number of revolutionary things that you discount: 1) You can send it to anyone, anywhere without involving a middleman or needing financial infrastructure. How can you do this with gold? 2) You can "program" it via smart contracts to execute fairly complicated logic without trusting individual actors to carry out their part of the deal. How can you do this with gold?

Proven 5y ago
Kbelicius 5y ago
1) You can't send it to someone without a btc address. You can't send it to somewhere without internet, or rather, someone somewhere without internet can not use their newly received btc. Every transaction requires a middleman that you pay and you can't even choose which one you would like to use. Gold: can send it to anybody with an address, doesn't need internet. Can actually be used without middleman and in instances where you want one you can actually choose which one you want to use. Also doesn't need financial infrastructure. On paper gold seems better. 2) This only works for on chain stuff. Want to program a smart contract that pays out building contractors as they finish stuff around your house? Congratulations, now you have additional work of programming the smart contract. Simpler to use gold.
- halpert 5y ago
  You cannot send gold securely to anyone with an address. Even in advanced, stable countries, mail theft is common. In countries with high corruption, you are very likely to have your gold stolen. Sure, you need the internet to send BTC, but that’s not that big of an ask in this day and age. Regarding smart contracts, yes they only work for on chain stuff. What do programmatic contracts using gold work on? Answer: nothing. Even if you used tradition contracts, you would need to hire a lawyer and still worry about how they’re written. You’d also need a strong legal system to enforce them. Your criticisms are weird. You’re like “yes btc enables new things, but they aren’t 100% perfect so we should keep using this old thing despite its limitations.”
  - Kbelicius 5y ago
    > You cannot send gold securely to anyone with an address. Even in advanced, stable countries, mail theft is common. In countries with high corruption, you are very likely to have your gold stolen. Yes, you can send gold securely to anyone with an address. You just need to choose an appropriate middleman. > Regarding smart contracts, yes they only work for on chain stuff. So then, what is so revolutionary about them? > What do programmatic contracts using gold work on? Answer: nothing. Did I say anything about gold smart contracts? Did anybody compare Bitcoin to Gold? No. It is always easier to argue strawmans. > Even if you used tradition contracts, you would need to hire a lawyer and still worry about how they’re written. How is that any different than having to hire a programmer and still worrying about how they've written the smart contract? > You’d also need a strong legal system to enforce them. That is because those contracts can be about things other than the ones on chain. > Your criticisms are weird. You’re like “yes btc enables new things, but they aren’t 100% perfect so we should keep using this old thing despite its limitations.” I wasn't criticizing Bitcoin and I have no idea why you'd think that. I was criticizing your "revolutionary things BTC did" list. At least you dropped the middleman thing.
    - halpert 5y ago
      I’m not even sure what you’re trying to say. How would you, personally and right now, send gold to someone in the DRC? Using Bitcoin, I would just ask them to give me their Bitcoin address via email.

Proven 5y ago

Kbelicius 5y ago

1) You can't send it to someone without a btc address. You can't send it to somewhere without internet, or rather, someone somewhere without internet can not use their newly received btc. Every transaction requires a middleman that you pay and you can't even choose which one you would like to use. Gold: can send it to anybody with an address, doesn't need internet. Can actually be used without middleman and in instances where you want one you can actually choose which one you want to use. Also doesn't need financial infrastructure. On paper gold seems better. 2) This only works for on chain stuff. Want to program a smart contract that pays out building contractors as they finish stuff around your house? Congratulations, now you have additional work of programming the smart contract. Simpler to use gold.

halpert 5y ago
You cannot send gold securely to anyone with an address. Even in advanced, stable countries, mail theft is common. In countries with high corruption, you are very likely to have your gold stolen. Sure, you need the internet to send BTC, but that’s not that big of an ask in this day and age. Regarding smart contracts, yes they only work for on chain stuff. What do programmatic contracts using gold work on? Answer: nothing. Even if you used tradition contracts, you would need to hire a lawyer and still worry about how they’re written. You’d also need a strong legal system to enforce them. Your criticisms are weird. You’re like “yes btc enables new things, but they aren’t 100% perfect so we should keep using this old thing despite its limitations.”
- Kbelicius 5y ago
  > You cannot send gold securely to anyone with an address. Even in advanced, stable countries, mail theft is common. In countries with high corruption, you are very likely to have your gold stolen. Yes, you can send gold securely to anyone with an address. You just need to choose an appropriate middleman. > Regarding smart contracts, yes they only work for on chain stuff. So then, what is so revolutionary about them? > What do programmatic contracts using gold work on? Answer: nothing. Did I say anything about gold smart contracts? Did anybody compare Bitcoin to Gold? No. It is always easier to argue strawmans. > Even if you used tradition contracts, you would need to hire a lawyer and still worry about how they’re written. How is that any different than having to hire a programmer and still worrying about how they've written the smart contract? > You’d also need a strong legal system to enforce them. That is because those contracts can be about things other than the ones on chain. > Your criticisms are weird. You’re like “yes btc enables new things, but they aren’t 100% perfect so we should keep using this old thing despite its limitations.” I wasn't criticizing Bitcoin and I have no idea why you'd think that. I was criticizing your "revolutionary things BTC did" list. At least you dropped the middleman thing.
  - halpert 5y ago
    I’m not even sure what you’re trying to say. How would you, personally and right now, send gold to someone in the DRC? Using Bitcoin, I would just ask them to give me their Bitcoin address via email.