6 ms·

Reading these comments is depressing. Bitcoin isn't a few geeks trading bits over IRC anymore, guys. To some of the common bitcoin concerns: 1) They're easy

by blhack 12y ago

Reading these comments is depressing. Bitcoin isn't a few geeks trading bits over IRC anymore, guys. To some of the common bitcoin concerns: 1) They're easy to steal! Look at this person who did $something_stupid and had all their coins stolen! Yeah, sure...and if you had left $10,000 in cash just sitting on your table, the same thief could have stolen that as well. There are stories every single day of people having cash stolen from them. The people keeping that much value stored on their local machine are usually pretty crazy bitcoin evangelicals. These are not normal people who bought some coins on coinbase. 2) It doesn't do $things_credit_cards_do! No, it doesn't! What you people seem to be missing is that it's a totally new way of transferring value. It has its own quirks, requires its own security models, etc. It also does $things_credit_cards_dont_do! That's why people have an interest in it!

EthanHeilman 12y ago
>It doesn't do $things_credit_cards_do! Boats are totally useless they only travel on water. Why would anyone prefer a boat to a truck for moving freight?
pauletienney 12y ago
I do agree. However, i feel there won't be strong adoption without a great advantage for customers.
- laichzeit0 12y ago
  Let's see. I could pay for hardcore online pornography in a pretty anonymous way. I could board a flight with a flash drive containing $1million dollars in BTC. I don't have any draconian restrictions on who I can and can't exchange my "money" with. If you send me BTC and the network confirms I never have to worry about your cheque "bouncing". I could donate to Wikileaks without a company like MasterCard or Visa deciding who I can and can't send my money to. I can do all these things on my own without having some third party potentially fucking me over or charging me a monthly fee. I consider all these things great advantages. It also doesn't mean I need to abandon credit cards or other forms of value transfer. But in those cases I now have an alternative I did not have had BTC not existed. It's a weird black and white kind of logic that HN has where it seems for Bitcoin to succeed it must replace everything currently in use. That's a false dichotomy. They can mutually coexist. Right tool for the job.
  - gcb0 12y ago
    > I could board a flight with a flash drive containing $1million dollars in BTC lol. wat?
foobarqux 12y ago
Why would a consumer use it over a credit card? Especially when you need to use a credit card or other payment method to buy the bitcoin in the first place?
- Nakatomi_Plaza 12y ago
  Some don't, like everybody who posts on the mining forums of bitcointalk.org and is generating their own coins, or converting alternative coins to bitcoin. All these miners want computer hardware, makes sense to directly market to them.
  - foobarqux 12y ago
    That's an incredibly small and relatively inconsequential market.
sanswork 12y ago
1) What are the best practises for having a bunch of bitcoin? You say you shouldn't keep it stored on your local machine but where? Keeping it stored on exchanges is kind of prone to failure in the bitcoin world. If you want to use a cold wallet you need a second computer that you don't plan to use for anything else and you need to learn linux or its pointless 2) Just because its new doesn't mean its better or makes more sense than the existing methods.
- neomindryan 12y ago
  1) Try this? https://www.bitgo.com https://www.bitgo.com
- blhack 12y ago
  1) Store it on coinbase. And don't invest your life savings into bitcoin in the same way that you might not want to "invest" your life savings into Western Union Travelers Checks. 2) What is a way that I can transfer value to somebody in a far away place that is easier (if both parties already accept coins) than bitcoin?
  - sanswork 12y ago
    1) Given the history of exchanges is it really smart to store your bitcoin in one? 2) Is only easier if you ignore the process of getting bitcoins and the process of converting them to something else. If you do that then me sending you an email saying "IOU value" is easier.
    - blhack 12y ago
      1) If you don't feel comfortable storing things in coinbase, and don't feel comfortable storing coins on your local machine, then you might not want to use bitcoins. This is fine, but there are plenty of people (like me) who are completely fine with coinbase. 2) If you had an easy way of converting that IOU into USD, or converting it into real goods (by, for instance buying something on newegg), then I would say that yeah, that would be just as good. In fact, that's a great analogy! Bitcoin is a very widely accepted system of IOUs (kindof like a banking system...or cash).

by blhack 12y ago

EthanHeilman 12y ago

>It doesn't do $things_credit_cards_do! Boats are totally useless they only travel on water. Why would anyone prefer a boat to a truck for moving freight?

pauletienney 12y ago

I do agree. However, i feel there won't be strong adoption without a great advantage for customers.

laichzeit0 12y ago
Let's see. I could pay for hardcore online pornography in a pretty anonymous way. I could board a flight with a flash drive containing $1million dollars in BTC. I don't have any draconian restrictions on who I can and can't exchange my "money" with. If you send me BTC and the network confirms I never have to worry about your cheque "bouncing". I could donate to Wikileaks without a company like MasterCard or Visa deciding who I can and can't send my money to. I can do all these things on my own without having some third party potentially fucking me over or charging me a monthly fee. I consider all these things great advantages. It also doesn't mean I need to abandon credit cards or other forms of value transfer. But in those cases I now have an alternative I did not have had BTC not existed. It's a weird black and white kind of logic that HN has where it seems for Bitcoin to succeed it must replace everything currently in use. That's a false dichotomy. They can mutually coexist. Right tool for the job.
- gcb0 12y ago
  > I could board a flight with a flash drive containing $1million dollars in BTC lol. wat?

foobarqux 12y ago

Why would a consumer use it over a credit card? Especially when you need to use a credit card or other payment method to buy the bitcoin in the first place?

Nakatomi_Plaza 12y ago
Some don't, like everybody who posts on the mining forums of bitcointalk.org and is generating their own coins, or converting alternative coins to bitcoin. All these miners want computer hardware, makes sense to directly market to them.
- foobarqux 12y ago
  That's an incredibly small and relatively inconsequential market.

sanswork 12y ago

1) What are the best practises for having a bunch of bitcoin? You say you shouldn't keep it stored on your local machine but where? Keeping it stored on exchanges is kind of prone to failure in the bitcoin world. If you want to use a cold wallet you need a second computer that you don't plan to use for anything else and you need to learn linux or its pointless 2) Just because its new doesn't mean its better or makes more sense than the existing methods.

neomindryan 12y ago
1) Try this? https://www.bitgo.com https://www.bitgo.com
blhack 12y ago
1) Store it on coinbase. And don't invest your life savings into bitcoin in the same way that you might not want to "invest" your life savings into Western Union Travelers Checks. 2) What is a way that I can transfer value to somebody in a far away place that is easier (if both parties already accept coins) than bitcoin?
- sanswork 12y ago
  1) Given the history of exchanges is it really smart to store your bitcoin in one? 2) Is only easier if you ignore the process of getting bitcoins and the process of converting them to something else. If you do that then me sending you an email saying "IOU value" is easier.
  - blhack 12y ago
    1) If you don't feel comfortable storing things in coinbase, and don't feel comfortable storing coins on your local machine, then you might not want to use bitcoins. This is fine, but there are plenty of people (like me) who are completely fine with coinbase. 2) If you had an easy way of converting that IOU into USD, or converting it into real goods (by, for instance buying something on newegg), then I would say that yeah, that would be just as good. In fact, that's a great analogy! Bitcoin is a very widely accepted system of IOUs (kindof like a banking system...or cash).