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You may have missed the thread that PG started on the topic: It has a decent amount of smart people asking questions about who it might serve. https://news.yco

You may have missed the thread that PG started on the topic: It has a decent amount of smart people asking questions about who it might serve. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5547423 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5547423

unclebucknasty 13y ago
I did miss that. Thanks. The discussion meandered, but there are also interesting comments to be found on the thread. Still, that was nearly 300 days ago, and it's full steam-ahead. That is, people are still supporting it, even as its divergence from the initial intent accelerates. I haven't really seen engaged dialogue among Bitcoin adherents to the extent that there's effort to resolve some of these questions as a condition of continuing to lend their support. As evidenced by that thread, when asked at all, people tend to treat these questions as more of an interesting thought exercise; this, versus approaching them with the serious consideration that such a "revolution" would seem to merit. In short, I would say that Bitcoin is anything but what it was initially purported to be. Yet, people seem to ignore this fact and support it anyway. When you think about it, it's really kind of strange.
- 27182818284 13y ago
  For what its worth, I do see cryptocurrencies as a revolution, just not Bitcoin as the survivor. I think a lot of people have a hard time distinguishing between bitcoin and the concept of a crypto-currency. The potential is pretty clear to me and anyone I meet with a STEM background. The biggest dissenters I meet in real life tend to be liberal arts backgrounds, no matter how educated. So even if they have a masters in econ, art, or a JD, or what have you, they tend to be down on Bitcoin, which I find fascinating! Meanwhile the people I know with STEM backgrounds like mechanical engineering, math, physics, etc think it is incredibly interesting, even when they don't own any or know too much about it. Really what I just wrote is a poor version of what PG wrote about bitcoin: "Hackers love it" So no, I don't think bitcoin will survive, but I think crypto-currencies are here to stay and we are seeing a small revolution. Just like the Internet, or file sharing, or countless other tech things that have happened in my young life.

unclebucknasty 13y ago

I did miss that. Thanks. The discussion meandered, but there are also interesting comments to be found on the thread. Still, that was nearly 300 days ago, and it's full steam-ahead. That is, people are still supporting it, even as its divergence from the initial intent accelerates. I haven't really seen engaged dialogue among Bitcoin adherents to the extent that there's effort to resolve some of these questions as a condition of continuing to lend their support. As evidenced by that thread, when asked at all, people tend to treat these questions as more of an interesting thought exercise; this, versus approaching them with the serious consideration that such a "revolution" would seem to merit. In short, I would say that Bitcoin is anything but what it was initially purported to be. Yet, people seem to ignore this fact and support it anyway. When you think about it, it's really kind of strange.

27182818284 13y ago
For what its worth, I do see cryptocurrencies as a revolution, just not Bitcoin as the survivor. I think a lot of people have a hard time distinguishing between bitcoin and the concept of a crypto-currency. The potential is pretty clear to me and anyone I meet with a STEM background. The biggest dissenters I meet in real life tend to be liberal arts backgrounds, no matter how educated. So even if they have a masters in econ, art, or a JD, or what have you, they tend to be down on Bitcoin, which I find fascinating! Meanwhile the people I know with STEM backgrounds like mechanical engineering, math, physics, etc think it is incredibly interesting, even when they don't own any or know too much about it. Really what I just wrote is a poor version of what PG wrote about bitcoin: "Hackers love it" So no, I don't think bitcoin will survive, but I think crypto-currencies are here to stay and we are seeing a small revolution. Just like the Internet, or file sharing, or countless other tech things that have happened in my young life.