3 ms·

A bitcoin block is mined every 10min and 1-2 blocks is usually enough for the transaction to be considered settled (6 blocks used to be the convention, but with

by glerk 3y ago

A bitcoin block is mined every 10min and 1-2 blocks is usually enough for the transaction to be considered settled (6 blocks used to be the convention, but with today’s hash rates it is very unlikely 2 blocks will be reversed). The confirmation time is different depending on the network, for example, Algorand has ~4s transaction finality. And yeah, you can use MasterCard until you hit your daily withdrawal limit, or your account is frozen, or your transactions are flagged and reversed and you have to explain why you want to spend your own money a certain way.

SketchySeaBeast 3y ago
20 minutes is still an inconveniently long time. 4s is much faster, but now we're on a proof of stake coin. Mastercard doesn't have a daily withdrawal limit. Bitcoin requires access to both your wallet and whatever security paraphernalia you have set up around accessing it. If you lose access or it's compromised you're out all that coin unlike a credit card, and you're burning massive amounts of fossil fuels for these "conveniences".
- andirk 3y ago
  Bitcoin is a great storage of value for now. Mastercard is also very useful for transactions. The US military burns more fossil fuels than any entity on earth, and that's how your USD is protected.
  - ben_w 3y ago
    The US military protects the US; if the US dropped the dollar for any other currency, be that bitcoins or the Euro or gold or antimatter, the military in particular would still have to burn exactly as much energy. Conversely, bitcoin and other similar cryptocurrencies, whichever collective burns more than half of all computational resources, gets to wage economic war on anyone else. By extension this also includes them getting the ability to undo transactions they don't like, which is actually a genuinely useful thing, despite being used as totemic example by pro-crypto people against fiat currencies. But there is no upper bound to this connected to any underlying asset, so a K2 Dyson swarm does exactly the same number of BTC transactions as the current network, and that number isn't enough for even just the daily fast food purchases in Berlin. Conversely, the US military cost is basically "how much do we want to spend to defend our country and way of life?" to which the answer is "lots, but not too much".
- glerk 3y ago
  You conveniently skipped over the "your account is frozen" and "your transactions are flagged and reversed" parts, and you are splitting hairs now. If you're not concerned by the problems addressed by cryptocurrency, nobody is forcing you to use it. Cryptocurrency users aren't lobbying the government and attempting to ban MasterCard last time I checked.

by glerk 3y ago

SketchySeaBeast 3y ago

20 minutes is still an inconveniently long time. 4s is much faster, but now we're on a proof of stake coin. Mastercard doesn't have a daily withdrawal limit. Bitcoin requires access to both your wallet and whatever security paraphernalia you have set up around accessing it. If you lose access or it's compromised you're out all that coin unlike a credit card, and you're burning massive amounts of fossil fuels for these "conveniences".

andirk 3y ago
Bitcoin is a great storage of value for now. Mastercard is also very useful for transactions. The US military burns more fossil fuels than any entity on earth, and that's how your USD is protected.
- ben_w 3y ago
  The US military protects the US; if the US dropped the dollar for any other currency, be that bitcoins or the Euro or gold or antimatter, the military in particular would still have to burn exactly as much energy. Conversely, bitcoin and other similar cryptocurrencies, whichever collective burns more than half of all computational resources, gets to wage economic war on anyone else. By extension this also includes them getting the ability to undo transactions they don't like, which is actually a genuinely useful thing, despite being used as totemic example by pro-crypto people against fiat currencies. But there is no upper bound to this connected to any underlying asset, so a K2 Dyson swarm does exactly the same number of BTC transactions as the current network, and that number isn't enough for even just the daily fast food purchases in Berlin. Conversely, the US military cost is basically "how much do we want to spend to defend our country and way of life?" to which the answer is "lots, but not too much".
glerk 3y ago
You conveniently skipped over the "your account is frozen" and "your transactions are flagged and reversed" parts, and you are splitting hairs now. If you're not concerned by the problems addressed by cryptocurrency, nobody is forcing you to use it. Cryptocurrency users aren't lobbying the government and attempting to ban MasterCard last time I checked.