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It's a technology that is still looking for a problem to solve. I have yet to see why I would want to use Bitcoin over a credit/debit card or something like Pay

It's a technology that is still looking for a problem to solve. I have yet to see why I would want to use Bitcoin over a credit/debit card or something like PayPal.

SemanticStrengh 5y ago
you can't buy monkeys pictures otherwise.
standardUser 5y ago
Good point. Part of my "struggle" is the fact that my crypto holdings are essentially just for fun, and I never need to figure things out.
kupfer 5y ago
I agree with bitcoin specifically. When it started it was useful to me for cheap cross border value transfer and timestamping. Now we have alternatives. I still would prefer if a more efficient payment mechanism was widespread, that hides my transaction details from the payment processor.
- rchaud 5y ago
  When it started, you could mine Bitcoin on a laptop for fun. Now you need a faceless cartel of datacenter owners running rigs 24/7 and selling options on mined BTC to keep the lights on.
smokey_circles 5y ago
> still looking for a problem to solve The Satoshi protocol is about creating a mechanism to achieve distributed, trustless consensus. Plenty of applications for such a platform. Whether it's achieving that goal is a separate debate (so far it has managed to establish itself as a crazy high risk forex medium that's only slightly less unwieldy than FIX) and I'm not convinced anyone in the builder space has even a vague understanding of the problems crypto has to overcome to be _practical_, let alone replace _the entire global financial system_. Call me a pessimist but it's not gonna happen without violent revolution (and let's not please). But we can stop saying vacuous things like "cryptography doesn't have a problem to solve", it's clearly always been about replacing trust with verification. Que KGB expression.
- jqpabc123 5y ago
  The Satoshi protocol is about creating a mechanism to achieve distributed, trustless consensus. Plenty of applications for such a platform. Name one that can't be achieved easier, faster and more efficiently by other means?
- babypuncher 5y ago
  I was talking about cryptocurrency specifically. Though I do not think any argument against blockchains can be so easily reduced to an argument against cryptography in general.

It's a technology that is still looking for a problem to solve. I have yet to see why I would want to use Bitcoin over a credit/debit card or something like PayPal.

SemanticStrengh 5y ago

you can't buy monkeys pictures otherwise.

standardUser 5y ago

Good point. Part of my "struggle" is the fact that my crypto holdings are essentially just for fun, and I never need to figure things out.

kupfer 5y ago

I agree with bitcoin specifically. When it started it was useful to me for cheap cross border value transfer and timestamping. Now we have alternatives. I still would prefer if a more efficient payment mechanism was widespread, that hides my transaction details from the payment processor.

rchaud 5y ago
When it started, you could mine Bitcoin on a laptop for fun. Now you need a faceless cartel of datacenter owners running rigs 24/7 and selling options on mined BTC to keep the lights on.

smokey_circles 5y ago

> still looking for a problem to solve The Satoshi protocol is about creating a mechanism to achieve distributed, trustless consensus. Plenty of applications for such a platform. Whether it's achieving that goal is a separate debate (so far it has managed to establish itself as a crazy high risk forex medium that's only slightly less unwieldy than FIX) and I'm not convinced anyone in the builder space has even a vague understanding of the problems crypto has to overcome to be _practical_, let alone replace _the entire global financial system_. Call me a pessimist but it's not gonna happen without violent revolution (and let's not please). But we can stop saying vacuous things like "cryptography doesn't have a problem to solve", it's clearly always been about replacing trust with verification. Que KGB expression.

jqpabc123 5y ago
The Satoshi protocol is about creating a mechanism to achieve distributed, trustless consensus. Plenty of applications for such a platform. Name one that can't be achieved easier, faster and more efficiently by other means?
babypuncher 5y ago
I was talking about cryptocurrency specifically. Though I do not think any argument against blockchains can be so easily reduced to an argument against cryptography in general.