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It's nice to see level-headed crypto optimism here. It's disheartening seeing bulls who have long since stopped pretending their favorite coin has any utility b
by ZoomerCretin 3y ago
It's nice to see level-headed crypto optimism here. It's disheartening seeing bulls who have long since stopped pretending their favorite coin has any utility beyond being a speculative asset and a get-rich-quick scheme given its poor transaction rate, or that the features they've bolted on will make it valuable, none of which make it viable as a currency.
Why would anyone bother with Bitcoin?
If you want to avoid financial regulations in transmitting value across borders or purchase black market goods and services, you're going to be caught since all/most Bitcoin is KYCd and impossible to keep private, unlike Monero.
If you want to avoid transaction fees, you're SOL since it's at $10 right now versus $0.06 for Monero.
If you want a store of value, it's poor because it's volatile, not backed, and theft is not reversible, unlike virtually any other regulated security.
If you want to make legal purchases with it, any transaction costs $10 and can take hours or days, and is not reversible if you are defrauded, unlike USD.
Bitcoin has no value proposition beyond being a speculative asset and a Ponzi scheme for early buyers.
- rahen 3y agoBe mindful of potential biases. Monero is rightfully highly regarded for its privacy, but you may be overlooking certain aspects: - Unlike Bitcoin, Monero's monetary issuance is not auditable, which could prove a major problem in case of an attack, potentially leading to inflation. - Monero faces blockchain bloat issues due to its ring signatures. It cannot scale gracefully. - Privacy and transaction cost concerns with Bitcoin have largely been addressed by Lightning and potentially other upcoming layer 2 solutions. A lot of work is being done here. If you are technologically inclined, you can also participate: https://lists.linuxfoundation.org/pipermail/lightning-dev/2023-November/004204.html https://lists.linuxfoundation.org/pipermail/lightning-dev/20... - KYC happens on exchanges. Buy your BTC on decentralized platforms like Bisq or RoboSats and be done with KYC. - A private-only ledger can pose challenges when transaction notarization is necessary. Bitcoin lets you choose between a private L2 transaction or a public blockchain transaction. That said, I love Monero and am glad it exists.
- kylebenzle 3y agoHas there been any Bitcoin "L2" that is actually functional. Last I checked the inventor of the most popular L2 said it was a failure.
- rahen 3y agoLightning has grown beyond its two original creators and now has a healthy community behind it. Worth mentioning are Rusty Russel (iptables, netfilter, some network layers of the Linux kernel) and the fine folks at Acinq (acinq.co). Yes, it still has some rough edges but it's now mostly usable. https://medium.com/coinmonks/lightning-network-2018-to-2023-and-beyond-9ea9359ada77 https://medium.com/coinmonks/lightning-network-2018-to-2023-... Besides, about 80% of transactions within exchanges are actually off-chain, so this is nothing new.
- play_ac 3y ago"Usable" is a massive stretch. The only way most people will ever be able to use it is through a custodial wallet, so it's right back to bank accounts and centralized exchanges. But the whole thing is a distraction anyway. The majority of transactions happening off-chain means that Bitcoin is an utter failure at everything it ever set out to accomplish.
- doublepg23 3y agoLightning does work if you're using a large provider but it undermines the utility of BTC not requiring a middle-man. Running a lightning node with personal funds is simply not likely or safe for your average hodler. I'm not sure you've used Bisq or RoboSats if you think they're good replacements for exchanges. Barely anyone is online at a given time.
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- tomcar288 3y agoall i can say that, is you better have everything in stocks, housing and gold, otherwise you're going to have one sad retirement.