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Bitcoin now is like the internet was in 1985. There is a huge stack of infrastructure yet to be built in order to deliver on the early pre-hyped promises. I don

by jl6 15y ago

Bitcoin now is like the internet was in 1985. There is a huge stack of infrastructure yet to be built in order to deliver on the early pre-hyped promises. I don't think anybody understands this domain well enough to predict the outcome; it's very clearly in an experimental phase. It may well be ridiculous to believe Bitcoin will replace the dollar (much as some believed the internet would replace all manner of things which still happily co-exist), but surely more ridiculous to dismiss it when the experiment has barely begun.

creativeembassy 15y ago
This is a neat analogy. The biggest hurdle to using Bitcoins now is the (lack of) ease of use. There's a potential startup culture here that takes transaction fees from Bitcoins, and presents them in a easier formats to use and transfer. Once that problem is solved (and the adoption of the internet had to solve the exact same problems), then the audience will follow.
- GFischer 15y ago
  I disagree. The biggest hurdle is that the use of Bitcoins as currency probably either already is or will be made illegal. In my country I'm pretty certain it's already illegal (there are some provisions regarding electronic currency). It's even worse in countries with exchange controls (like Argentina). Edit: our laws are so badly redacted that Linden Dollars, Facebook Coins and all that are probably illegal as well, but nobody cares, unless they get popular. The fun of selectively enforced laws ...
lmm 15y ago
To compare with the internet is to compare with the 1% of these kind of ideas that actually succeeds. To me it feels a lot more about the Second Life hype of the early 2000s - we heard stories about people paying millions of dollars for "virtual land", companies held events there, some people were saying it would be the next internet and at the same time a horde of detractors were saying it was all pointless. And then it gradually just faded from view.

by jl6 15y ago

creativeembassy 15y ago

This is a neat analogy. The biggest hurdle to using Bitcoins now is the (lack of) ease of use. There's a potential startup culture here that takes transaction fees from Bitcoins, and presents them in a easier formats to use and transfer. Once that problem is solved (and the adoption of the internet had to solve the exact same problems), then the audience will follow.

GFischer 15y ago
I disagree. The biggest hurdle is that the use of Bitcoins as currency probably either already is or will be made illegal. In my country I'm pretty certain it's already illegal (there are some provisions regarding electronic currency). It's even worse in countries with exchange controls (like Argentina). Edit: our laws are so badly redacted that Linden Dollars, Facebook Coins and all that are probably illegal as well, but nobody cares, unless they get popular. The fun of selectively enforced laws ...

lmm 15y ago

To compare with the internet is to compare with the 1% of these kind of ideas that actually succeeds. To me it feels a lot more about the Second Life hype of the early 2000s - we heard stories about people paying millions of dollars for "virtual land", companies held events there, some people were saying it would be the next internet and at the same time a horde of detractors were saying it was all pointless. And then it gradually just faded from view.