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Wow, this may take the cake for most hilariously absurd bitcoin article.

by kungfooguru 13y ago

oleganza 13y ago
Let's see who laughs in 5 years. Do you have an economical counter argument?
- maxerickson 13y ago
  I'm pretty sure you will reject "Bitcoin is just a fad" out of hand. Before you throw too many numbers back at me, realize that billions of dollars were spent on Beanie Babies, even back before the last decade of US fiat erosion.
  - VMG 13y ago
    I keep hearing about these beanie babies as a comparison - is there a whitepaper describing how that revolutionary payment system worked? Otherwise it would be really stupid to use it as comparison to Bitcoin.
    - anoncowherd 13y ago
      It seems he just wanted to draw a parallel between two "manias". I have no idea what will happen to Bitcoin, but it sure does look like a mania. I do see the benefits too, of course. Most Bitcoins are purchased as a speculation, expecting their value to go way up. It's possible that the gold rush is already over, but it's also possible it's only beginning.
    - maxerickson 13y ago
      I wasn't really drawing a comparison. I was pointing out that fads can involve a lot of money (so arguments about lots of money being involved are not good arguments against something being a fad...). Hopefully you will at least concede the logical possibility of a stupid or wrong or meaningless whitepaper.
- hershel 13y ago
  You forgot to mention , in detail, all sorts of attacks nation states could make on bitcoin itself and how would bitcoin respond, realistically.
- anoncowherd 13y ago
  >> Let's see who laughs in 5 years Hah :P It's nice to see yet another sane person on HN, by the way.
- rayiner 13y ago
  In five years the world will be exactly the damn same as it was five years ago (2008). What is it about tech that makes people believe that sociological change happens at absurd time scales?
- DennisP 13y ago
  I'm a fan of bitcoin but I don't think it's scalable enough yet to make such a large change, since every full peer has to see every transaction. A possible solution is for most people to use offchain transactions, with service providers who use onchain transactions to settle balances periodically. But then you have centralized services that can be attacked by governments. Or you put them behind Tor but then it's pretty scary trusting them with your money. Then again, I'm not a millionaire because in 2009 I thought bitcoin wasn't scalable. Maybe they'll solve it before it's a problem.
  - oleganza 13y ago
    It's already not a problem. Look at all those wallets on mobile phones: they never store the whole history and yet the keys they keep are completely safe.

Wow, this may take the cake for most hilariously absurd bitcoin article.

oleganza 13y ago

Let's see who laughs in 5 years. Do you have an economical counter argument?

maxerickson 13y ago
I'm pretty sure you will reject "Bitcoin is just a fad" out of hand. Before you throw too many numbers back at me, realize that billions of dollars were spent on Beanie Babies, even back before the last decade of US fiat erosion.
- VMG 13y ago
  I keep hearing about these beanie babies as a comparison - is there a whitepaper describing how that revolutionary payment system worked? Otherwise it would be really stupid to use it as comparison to Bitcoin.
  - anoncowherd 13y ago
    It seems he just wanted to draw a parallel between two "manias". I have no idea what will happen to Bitcoin, but it sure does look like a mania. I do see the benefits too, of course. Most Bitcoins are purchased as a speculation, expecting their value to go way up. It's possible that the gold rush is already over, but it's also possible it's only beginning.
  - maxerickson 13y ago
    I wasn't really drawing a comparison. I was pointing out that fads can involve a lot of money (so arguments about lots of money being involved are not good arguments against something being a fad...). Hopefully you will at least concede the logical possibility of a stupid or wrong or meaningless whitepaper.
hershel 13y ago
You forgot to mention , in detail, all sorts of attacks nation states could make on bitcoin itself and how would bitcoin respond, realistically.
anoncowherd 13y ago
>> Let's see who laughs in 5 years Hah :P It's nice to see yet another sane person on HN, by the way.
rayiner 13y ago
In five years the world will be exactly the damn same as it was five years ago (2008). What is it about tech that makes people believe that sociological change happens at absurd time scales?
DennisP 13y ago
I'm a fan of bitcoin but I don't think it's scalable enough yet to make such a large change, since every full peer has to see every transaction. A possible solution is for most people to use offchain transactions, with service providers who use onchain transactions to settle balances periodically. But then you have centralized services that can be attacked by governments. Or you put them behind Tor but then it's pretty scary trusting them with your money. Then again, I'm not a millionaire because in 2009 I thought bitcoin wasn't scalable. Maybe they'll solve it before it's a problem.
- oleganza 13y ago
  It's already not a problem. Look at all those wallets on mobile phones: they never store the whole history and yet the keys they keep are completely safe.