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This is what Bitcoin was designed for: > Commerce on the Internet has come to rely almost exclusively on financial institutions serving as trusted third partie
by user-the-name 5y ago
This is what Bitcoin was designed for:
> Commerce on the Internet has come to rely almost exclusively on financial institutions serving as trusted third parties to process electronic payments. While the system works well enough for most transactions, it still suffers from the inherent weaknesses of the trust based model. Completely non-reversible transactions are not really possible, since financial institutions cannot avoid mediating disputes. The cost of mediation increases transaction costs, limiting the minimum practical transaction size and cutting off the possibility for small casual transactions, and there is a broader cost in the loss of ability to make non-reversible payments for non- reversible services. With the possibility of reversal, the need for trust spreads. Merchants must be wary of their customers, hassling them for more information than they would otherwise need. A certain percentage of fraud is accepted as unavoidable. These costs and payment uncertainties can be avoided in person by using physical currency, but no mechanism exists to make payments over a communications channel without a trusted party.
> What is needed is an electronic payment system based on cryptographic proof instead of trust, allowing any two willing parties to transact directly with each other without the need for a trusted third party. Transactions that are computationally impractical to reverse would protect sellers from fraud, and routine escrow mechanisms could easily be implemented to protect buyers.
Nothing in there about corruption.
- HeckFeck 5y agoSatoshi mentions later in the paper that BTC is impossible to inflate by design. Inflation enables much of the corruption in our current financial system. "Just print more money bro! ;)" Also, designing a means of transaction that is independent of governments and banks - two of the most corrupt institutions in every society - is surely a deliberate move against them? Finally, the genesis block of Bitcoin specifically mentions bailouts of banks. The arrival of Bitcoim amid the 2008 financial crisis is no coincidence. I welcome anything that weakens their hold and means my money doesn't lose half its value over my lifetime.
- user-the-name 5y ago> Inflation enables much of the corruption in our current financial system. "Just print more money bro! ;)" Sorry, but this is just plain ignorant libertarian nonsense. If you want to be taken seriously you need to do at least the bare minimum of understanding an issue before making big claims.
- HeckFeck 5y agoI'd strongly disagree there, inflation is terrible for anyone with savings or bills to pay. Libertarianism is based upon Austrian economics, an entire economic school of thought. It isn't "ignorant" even if you don't agree with it. > If you want to be taken seriously you need to do at least the bare minimum of understanding an issue before making big claims. OK, so since this is your principle, will you retract your claim that bitcoin wasn't invented to combat corruption? Even if you don't agree with the method or ideology, there is good evidence this was their intention. And please explain how inflation benefits me, a saver with ever rising bills to pay. I'd be very curious to hear it. Relieve me of my ignorance.
- user-the-name 5y ago1) None of what you just said addresses the claim that inflation "enables much of the corruption in our current financial system". 2) If you have debt, like a lot of people do, inflation means you now have less debt. 3) You have provided zero justification for why "bitcoin was invented to combat corruption", except through your unjustified claim that inflation and corruption are somehow connected.