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you seem to know what you are talking about (and I see your name on here a lot) explain this Bitcoin Rune thing that is supposed to launch in about 30 days on

you seem to know what you are talking about (and I see your name on here a lot) explain this Bitcoin Rune thing that is supposed to launch in about 30 days on the halving I feel like ETH is technically superior to BTC but BTC still has like 3x the market cap and while I have you, I have a friend who is ultra mega pro SOL but I read a lot of "FUD"/bad stuff about it. Where do you sit on it? Disclaimer: I'm kind of anti-crypto/hold nothing/don't see it/don't get it

monero-xmr 3y ago
There is a way to insert arbitrary data into Bitcoin transactions. Ordinals and Runes leverage this fact, then create specialized tools and indexers on top of it to create meta-protocols for fungible tokens and NFTs that have a very clunky base-protocol secured by Bitcoin but a lot of higher-level tooling to make interacting with it easier. It’s a positive step for Bitcoin because it moves the ecosystem of a stagnant chain forwards (if you think that’s important, many btc maxis see it as a toxic development) and creates a plausible mechanism to pay miners post-inflation which had not existed yet. ETH is insanely advanced because of Layer 2s. Optimism, Arbitrum, zksync, Blast, Base, and many more literally cost fractions of a cent per transaction and their security is the same as Ethereum because they are protected by the ETH layer 1. Google roll up technology, how Optimism works, etc. it is very fascinating. Solana is the new XRP, they somehow got the normie-aligned faction of crypto (huge retail bags) on board. But it is literally a centralized database - it routinely goes down for hours, because the system is centralized. You can’t join the network as a validator unless you spend enormous amounts of money and colo your server with the foundation’s servers. The major innovation on solana is tons of meme coins. There is money there but I’m not seeing much serious organic development. But they have a lot of capital that will reinvest, so maybe.
- MuffinFlavored 3y ago
  Thank you. So you and I are aligned that ETH is insanely advanced and if tomorrow the world had to choose a "base crypto with Layer 2 on top" to replace credit cards (or whatever the proposed purpose of crypto will be over the next 5-10 years if it doesn't fade away to oblivion), it would be ETH instead of BTC by a country mile, right? What do you see as cryptos use case being? For example, right now it (stablecoins) helps people (Russia, who is out of Swift) transfer money to US. Isn't that "illegal"? It's #1 function is illegal at the moment, is it not? Next to speculative core of value.
  - monero-xmr 3y ago
    If you treat the entire global economic system as made up of "legal" and "illegal" transactions, then the current traditional financial system supports trillion of dollars in illegal economic activity. Drugs were bought with fiat and drug lords ran cartels and narco states before cryptocurrency existed. Cryptocurrency did not invent adverse social behavior and antisocial economic activity. However, there is a plausible argument that ransomware has exploded in popularity because of crypto, but a counter-argument is that these software flaws were always being exploited by nation state actors, and only the financial incentive of ransomware has finally forced companies to patch and secure their systems, which is short-term pain but long-term benefit to society. Cryptocurrency is a neutral technology. It is software-based finance. While the system has advanced by insane amounts since bitcoin was created, it still has at least another decade to go IMO before we start seeing real traction with institutions currently served adequately by the existing tradfi rails. The original people who used crypto were those not served by the existing financial system, and were willing to learn complex topics to use it. These were drug dealers / users and diehard libertarians who despised central banks and fiat currencies. Mixed within it were the experimenters who just wanted to have fun. Create lotteries, ponzis, strange games of economic incentives, memecoins, and ancillary nonsense. 15 years into crypto, there are actually, truly, real people using crypto to conduct daily legitimate finance. These are people trying to flourish in economic disasters, such as Lebanon, Argentina, Venezuela, Egypt, and Turkey. Check out a neat episode of this podcast: https://saifedean.com/podcast/23-bitcoin-in-lebanon-with-thomas-semaan https://saifedean.com/podcast/23-bitcoin-in-lebanon-with-tho... Their situation is so fucked that crypto is now easy enough, and beneficial enough, where real business between firms, vendors, and consumers is conducted over crypto rails, though it is usually in stablecoins like USDT and USDC. The next major thing I would keep an eye on is "RWAs" or "real world assets". Many types of tradfi financial instruments will be issued experimentally this cycle on crypto rails. Finally, while I think Ethereum is the best blockchain because it has the most serious developer community and the largest ecosystem of battle-hardened libraries and projects, there is always room for more. We don't need a monopoly financial system to replace the old monopoly financial system. Let a thousand flowers bloom and we will see what is the best in a competitive market.
    - 3y ago

monero-xmr 3y ago

There is a way to insert arbitrary data into Bitcoin transactions. Ordinals and Runes leverage this fact, then create specialized tools and indexers on top of it to create meta-protocols for fungible tokens and NFTs that have a very clunky base-protocol secured by Bitcoin but a lot of higher-level tooling to make interacting with it easier. It’s a positive step for Bitcoin because it moves the ecosystem of a stagnant chain forwards (if you think that’s important, many btc maxis see it as a toxic development) and creates a plausible mechanism to pay miners post-inflation which had not existed yet. ETH is insanely advanced because of Layer 2s. Optimism, Arbitrum, zksync, Blast, Base, and many more literally cost fractions of a cent per transaction and their security is the same as Ethereum because they are protected by the ETH layer 1. Google roll up technology, how Optimism works, etc. it is very fascinating. Solana is the new XRP, they somehow got the normie-aligned faction of crypto (huge retail bags) on board. But it is literally a centralized database - it routinely goes down for hours, because the system is centralized. You can’t join the network as a validator unless you spend enormous amounts of money and colo your server with the foundation’s servers. The major innovation on solana is tons of meme coins. There is money there but I’m not seeing much serious organic development. But they have a lot of capital that will reinvest, so maybe.

MuffinFlavored 3y ago
Thank you. So you and I are aligned that ETH is insanely advanced and if tomorrow the world had to choose a "base crypto with Layer 2 on top" to replace credit cards (or whatever the proposed purpose of crypto will be over the next 5-10 years if it doesn't fade away to oblivion), it would be ETH instead of BTC by a country mile, right? What do you see as cryptos use case being? For example, right now it (stablecoins) helps people (Russia, who is out of Swift) transfer money to US. Isn't that "illegal"? It's #1 function is illegal at the moment, is it not? Next to speculative core of value.
- monero-xmr 3y ago
  If you treat the entire global economic system as made up of "legal" and "illegal" transactions, then the current traditional financial system supports trillion of dollars in illegal economic activity. Drugs were bought with fiat and drug lords ran cartels and narco states before cryptocurrency existed. Cryptocurrency did not invent adverse social behavior and antisocial economic activity. However, there is a plausible argument that ransomware has exploded in popularity because of crypto, but a counter-argument is that these software flaws were always being exploited by nation state actors, and only the financial incentive of ransomware has finally forced companies to patch and secure their systems, which is short-term pain but long-term benefit to society. Cryptocurrency is a neutral technology. It is software-based finance. While the system has advanced by insane amounts since bitcoin was created, it still has at least another decade to go IMO before we start seeing real traction with institutions currently served adequately by the existing tradfi rails. The original people who used crypto were those not served by the existing financial system, and were willing to learn complex topics to use it. These were drug dealers / users and diehard libertarians who despised central banks and fiat currencies. Mixed within it were the experimenters who just wanted to have fun. Create lotteries, ponzis, strange games of economic incentives, memecoins, and ancillary nonsense. 15 years into crypto, there are actually, truly, real people using crypto to conduct daily legitimate finance. These are people trying to flourish in economic disasters, such as Lebanon, Argentina, Venezuela, Egypt, and Turkey. Check out a neat episode of this podcast: https://saifedean.com/podcast/23-bitcoin-in-lebanon-with-thomas-semaan https://saifedean.com/podcast/23-bitcoin-in-lebanon-with-tho... Their situation is so fucked that crypto is now easy enough, and beneficial enough, where real business between firms, vendors, and consumers is conducted over crypto rails, though it is usually in stablecoins like USDT and USDC. The next major thing I would keep an eye on is "RWAs" or "real world assets". Many types of tradfi financial instruments will be issued experimentally this cycle on crypto rails. Finally, while I think Ethereum is the best blockchain because it has the most serious developer community and the largest ecosystem of battle-hardened libraries and projects, there is always room for more. We don't need a monopoly financial system to replace the old monopoly financial system. Let a thousand flowers bloom and we will see what is the best in a competitive market.
  - 3y ago