Ask HN: What do you think of Bitcoin?
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Here's a list:
- Waste of resources. - I don't think it will ever replace fiat when everybody is just HODL'ing. - Like any asset that appreciates massively, I am sour that I didn't buy when it was cheap. - Bitcoin made some people really rich, but wonder if it will leave a lot more people holding the bag when things spiral down. - Corollary to the above, the vast majority of people alive did not get a chance to participate in this by the virtue of tech know-how. It still propagates the rich-poor divide.
- Waste of resources. - I don't think it will ever replace fiat when everybody is just HODL'ing. - Like any asset that appreciates massively, I am sour that I didn't buy when it was cheap. - Bitcoin made some people really rich, but wonder if it will leave a lot more people holding the bag when things spiral down. - Corollary to the above, the vast majority of people alive did not get a chance to participate in this by the virtue of tech know-how. It still propagates the rich-poor divide.
And current banking doesn't waste resources?
I draw some amusement from seeing high net worth individuals treat Keynesianism with such disdain for creating jobs by "digging holes and filling them up again" while they essentially do just that to create assets.
It's also good at making me feel better for not recycling.
I honestly feel kind of sorry for some of the people who have earned orders of magnitude more in their entire life by essentially making one lucky bet than through anything that could be attributed to their own positive qualities.
It's also good at making me feel better for not recycling.
I honestly feel kind of sorry for some of the people who have earned orders of magnitude more in their entire life by essentially making one lucky bet than through anything that could be attributed to their own positive qualities.
One aspect I rarely see mentioned is that it undermines capitalism. The idea of capitalism is that wealth allocation is 'fair', because people get rewarded for doing things that benefit others. Put simply, you work hard, you save, you invest, you provide goods and services that others want.
When instead, speculation in cryptocurrencies becomes the road to riches (or creating a startup that never ends up profitable for that matter) that are mostly unattainable by other means, you have a problem. If you work hard, you save, you invest, you provide goods and services that others want, but are still priced out of, say, owning a house by people that provided no value, it creates a dangerous situation.
When instead, speculation in cryptocurrencies becomes the road to riches (or creating a startup that never ends up profitable for that matter) that are mostly unattainable by other means, you have a problem. If you work hard, you save, you invest, you provide goods and services that others want, but are still priced out of, say, owning a house by people that provided no value, it creates a dangerous situation.
Capitalism is not about fair wealth allocation. I think you would like the Psychology of Money. Trend/Sectors can succeed, individual companies fail. And, success is often due to luck.
I'd be curious to ask you, 'what is money'? It seems to you, it's about working hard.
I'd be curious to ask you, 'what is money'? It seems to you, it's about working hard.
No, not about working hard. Digging a hole and covering it up is working hard, but helps nobody.
Money essentially is promises by other people to provide its holder with goods and services, in return for goods and services that someone once provided them with.
Money essentially is promises by other people to provide its holder with goods and services, in return for goods and services that someone once provided them with.
>The idea of capitalism is that wealth allocation is 'fair'
Every system of power comes up with excuses for why it is fair and most are transparently self serving.
Every system of power comes up with excuses for why it is fair and most are transparently self serving.
A system can both be self-serving and be better than other systems - both philosophically and in terms of better outcomes for people living under the system.
- It may or may not be a viable instrument for store of value but not sure if it will be a real fiat currency.
Bitcoin isn't backed by anything. Of course, crypto aficionados will argue that neither is the USD, but I disagree.
The US Petrodollar is backed by a massive overpowered military that will exert pressure on anyone who will try to do otherwise. Plus, the entire world currently has mostly decided that $$ is officially the world's reserve currency. Bitcoin has to be way easier to deal with if it wants to take over the system.
Even with the weakening dollar, it's more realistic that a basket currency of Euro/USD/Yuan would take its place rather than Bitcoin.
- The proof of work system is a massive waste of energy.
- What happens when the max number of bitcoins that can be minted is reached? Why would most number of miners even still be on the blockchain if it isn't lucrative enough? One could argue that they could still make money off of transaction fees, but that has to be high enough to break even. That's another issue then -- high transaction fee.
- What about the dormant coins like Satoshi's wallet and all the other people who just lost their keys/wallet. Is that money just dead? What would happen to the value if there is a sudden influx of these coins on the market?
- The BTC numerical isn't human friendly. Most people won't be able to easily wrap around the fact that they have to pay 0.00000000126751 BTC for their pizza. Oh, now calculate tips.
- Almost everyone who holds is 'hodling' hoping for it go up. It's not being used as a currency but as a speculative security, at least for now. This is especially true if you 'hold' bitcoin in platforms like Robinhood, etc. where you don't actually hold your own coins/keys. This has all the hallmark of Greater Fool's theory written all over it.
- I think cryptocurrency in general will be an integral part of the future, just not Bitcoin.
I would love to hear arguments against my view from fellow HN'ers who are pro-BTC.
- The proof of work system is a massive waste of energy.
- What happens when the max number of bitcoins that can be minted is reached? Why would most number of miners even still be on the blockchain if it isn't lucrative enough? One could argue that they could still make money off of transaction fees, but that has to be high enough to break even. That's another issue then -- high transaction fee.
- What about the dormant coins like Satoshi's wallet and all the other people who just lost their keys/wallet. Is that money just dead? What would happen to the value if there is a sudden influx of these coins on the market?
- The BTC numerical isn't human friendly. Most people won't be able to easily wrap around the fact that they have to pay 0.00000000126751 BTC for their pizza. Oh, now calculate tips.
- Almost everyone who holds is 'hodling' hoping for it go up. It's not being used as a currency but as a speculative security, at least for now. This is especially true if you 'hold' bitcoin in platforms like Robinhood, etc. where you don't actually hold your own coins/keys. This has all the hallmark of Greater Fool's theory written all over it.
- I think cryptocurrency in general will be an integral part of the future, just not Bitcoin.
I would love to hear arguments against my view from fellow HN'ers who are pro-BTC.
The banking system is a massive waste of resources. Both energy and human talent. Why is this never mentioned? And the ROI. Less than 0.2% interest rates for keeping your money in a bank... for the common man.
While banks create money out of thin air. We should be happy to get rid of centralized banking. And of course, the federal reserve is a private company. Not owned by the US gov't. Tell me why you want the status quo?
While banks create money out of thin air. We should be happy to get rid of centralized banking. And of course, the federal reserve is a private company. Not owned by the US gov't. Tell me why you want the status quo?
Ask yourself honestly. Is it really more about decentralization at the moment or speculations to make shit tons of money ? Since it is the latter, I am not interested and I think it became something that it wasn't supposed to at least in theory.
If you spend enough time learning about it, you will see that it is definitely a lot of both.
HN hates crypto. As someone who missed out on huge gains by selling too early, I sympathize with the hatred and I believe that is the primary catalyst for it. It can blind you to any positive aspects, simply because you feel slighted by it. The missed opportunity can really burn in your brain. I suspect most people are unable or unwilling to admit this and do all kinds of mental gymnastics to convince themselves it's all about the energy usage or control in China or whatever.
The fact is, crypto has value and also has uses which are growing every day. No one discusses the energy usage of the current financial system and crypto is ramping up to disrupt a huge swath of it. Decentralized finance is going to kill entrenched middle men like escrow and payday loan companies just to name a simple few.
Bitcoin converts computational energy into a digital store of that value which can be transferred anywhere, any time, in any amount, without the need for a trusted third-party, for a miniscule portion of that value. To assert this is a waste or that it doesn't have value is disingenuous. The fact that it is not centrally controlled is a huge game-changer and a paradigm shift. No entity can inflate it to worthlessness. No entity can seize your assets for any reason, including politics. There's no stopping crypto. The cat is out of the bag and the innovation will continue. It's decentralized nature prevents entrenched interests from regulating it out of existence and that is great for everyone.
The fact is, crypto has value and also has uses which are growing every day. No one discusses the energy usage of the current financial system and crypto is ramping up to disrupt a huge swath of it. Decentralized finance is going to kill entrenched middle men like escrow and payday loan companies just to name a simple few.
Bitcoin converts computational energy into a digital store of that value which can be transferred anywhere, any time, in any amount, without the need for a trusted third-party, for a miniscule portion of that value. To assert this is a waste or that it doesn't have value is disingenuous. The fact that it is not centrally controlled is a huge game-changer and a paradigm shift. No entity can inflate it to worthlessness. No entity can seize your assets for any reason, including politics. There's no stopping crypto. The cat is out of the bag and the innovation will continue. It's decentralized nature prevents entrenched interests from regulating it out of existence and that is great for everyone.
> No entity can seize your assets…
Wrong.
https://www.investopedia.com/news/how-us-government-handles-...
https://www.justice.gov/usao-ndca/pr/united-states-files-civ...
That’s just the USA.
Even assuming your crypto wallet is secure and can’t be seized, as soon as you buy anything with it you face seizure. Even if you never convert to dollars and spend it the asset (your word) is subject to taxes denominated in fiat currency. Having your BTC taxed or trapped forever because you can’t spend them are essentially seizure or forfeiture.
Wrong.
https://www.investopedia.com/news/how-us-government-handles-...
https://www.justice.gov/usao-ndca/pr/united-states-files-civ...
That’s just the USA.
Even assuming your crypto wallet is secure and can’t be seized, as soon as you buy anything with it you face seizure. Even if you never convert to dollars and spend it the asset (your word) is subject to taxes denominated in fiat currency. Having your BTC taxed or trapped forever because you can’t spend them are essentially seizure or forfeiture.
Please explain the mechanism where I send someone bitcoin the government wants to seize and they successfully seize them. Do you think people in other countries care what the US government "seizes"?
Bitcoin get stolen by hacking and fraud all the time — alarmingly often, I would say. So let’s imagine a world where state actors like the US government have resources equivalent to teenagers in the Ukraine.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cryptocurrency_and_crime
The US government already seized a pile of Bitcoin that was stolen from Silk Road by apparently strong-arming or negotiating with the hacker who stole the BTC. I imagine the US government could do the same kind of hacking — a claim the FBI appeared to make in the case.
If the government wants to seize your assets but can’t find them or get to them, they seize you. A bank robber who hides the cash and refuses to give it up can’t spend it from jail.
Do people in other countries care what the US government seizes? Probably not. But governments and law enforcement agencies in other countries do. Look at how the US government strong-armed banks in almost every country to comply with US money laundering and tax avoidance laws. Try to open a bank account in a foreign country with a US passport and see if they care about US law (hint: they do). And the US government can seize foreign assets, you should have no trouble finding numerous examples of that actually happening.
Supposing BTC exchanges and your wallet are 100% secure from even government hacking and seizure (all evidence to the contrary). If the government wants to seize those assets but can’t they will seize what they can. The minute you try to use your BTC for anything of value the government can seize the cash or goods you exchange BTC for. So maybe they never get the BTC, but those coins are useless to you in the same way the box of stolen cash buried in the woods is useless to the bank robber. Forget about leaving the country, the FBI canceled your passport.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cryptocurrency_and_crime
The US government already seized a pile of Bitcoin that was stolen from Silk Road by apparently strong-arming or negotiating with the hacker who stole the BTC. I imagine the US government could do the same kind of hacking — a claim the FBI appeared to make in the case.
If the government wants to seize your assets but can’t find them or get to them, they seize you. A bank robber who hides the cash and refuses to give it up can’t spend it from jail.
Do people in other countries care what the US government seizes? Probably not. But governments and law enforcement agencies in other countries do. Look at how the US government strong-armed banks in almost every country to comply with US money laundering and tax avoidance laws. Try to open a bank account in a foreign country with a US passport and see if they care about US law (hint: they do). And the US government can seize foreign assets, you should have no trouble finding numerous examples of that actually happening.
Supposing BTC exchanges and your wallet are 100% secure from even government hacking and seizure (all evidence to the contrary). If the government wants to seize those assets but can’t they will seize what they can. The minute you try to use your BTC for anything of value the government can seize the cash or goods you exchange BTC for. So maybe they never get the BTC, but those coins are useless to you in the same way the box of stolen cash buried in the woods is useless to the bank robber. Forget about leaving the country, the FBI canceled your passport.
Sure, anyone can strong-arm you, including the government, but they'll generally have to go through the law to do it and it doesn't guarantee they'll succeed. If you have multi-sig set up, your benefactors could just take over and continue using it with impunity.
I see this getting downvoted quite a bit. I for one have upvoted it, as I too have noticed this toxicity toward decentralised finance, yet all other forms of decentralisation are celebrated here.
I asked this question to better understand the resistance toward decentralised finance in this community, and so far this answer has been the most eye opening.
So thank you!
I asked this question to better understand the resistance toward decentralised finance in this community, and so far this answer has been the most eye opening.
So thank you!
Some of the selling points are also it's greatest problems...
Be your own bank!
Now you have to deal with all sorts of security issues that you never thought of. One wrong move and you loose your coins.
Decentralized!
You forgot your password or deleted your wallet? Too bad. There is nobody to call, no way to recover it, and it's gone completely. Forever.
Anonymous!
Not really, but you'll never be able to track down that person who cheated you. No court can help you. It's the wild west, and it's your fault you lost your coins.
It's a cool idea!
Everyone in the space is trying to convince you it's the next big thing, but at the end of the day people just want to be able to buy things, and converting to crypto is an extra step in the payment flow for most people, and one that is unnecessary.
Buy the dip! Hold!
It's crowded with institutional investors. Yes you could have gotten rich if you bought a bunch, but you also could have lost your shirt. Bitcoin is the coyote, the only reason it doesn't fall is because it's not looking down.
It could crash to zero and everyone would just say "it was always just a proof of concept" and "You thought it was real? LoL Rekt!"
I'm good without it.
I want to live in a future where we don't have to keep track of who has what because everyone has enough.
Be your own bank!
Now you have to deal with all sorts of security issues that you never thought of. One wrong move and you loose your coins.
Decentralized!
You forgot your password or deleted your wallet? Too bad. There is nobody to call, no way to recover it, and it's gone completely. Forever.
Anonymous!
Not really, but you'll never be able to track down that person who cheated you. No court can help you. It's the wild west, and it's your fault you lost your coins.
It's a cool idea!
Everyone in the space is trying to convince you it's the next big thing, but at the end of the day people just want to be able to buy things, and converting to crypto is an extra step in the payment flow for most people, and one that is unnecessary.
Buy the dip! Hold!
It's crowded with institutional investors. Yes you could have gotten rich if you bought a bunch, but you also could have lost your shirt. Bitcoin is the coyote, the only reason it doesn't fall is because it's not looking down.
It could crash to zero and everyone would just say "it was always just a proof of concept" and "You thought it was real? LoL Rekt!"
I'm good without it.
I want to live in a future where we don't have to keep track of who has what because everyone has enough.
I don’t see any use cases for it except tax avoidance or illicit transactions, neither of which I have any need for. Why use it for anything else when I have no way to know that it will be worth anything tomorrow? I realize the same could be said for paper money but I have less confidence in Bitcoin.
There is one thing that's absolutely guaranteed about paper money... you'll be able to pay your taxes with it. I'm not being flippant here, some people, like the MMT (modern monetary theory) crowd, are saying that's the whole basis of fiat currency.
There's interestingly a couple of instances where governments have collapsed and the currency was still traded (Somalia, Kuwait).
There's definitely an element of "it's valuable because people think it's valuable". This might be working to Bitcoin's advantage.
There's definitely an element of "it's valuable because people think it's valuable". This might be working to Bitcoin's advantage.
I like that it's a hedge against governments printing endless amounts of money that isn't backed by anything. That was why I bought it initially. I like that it's a way to transact value over the internet without a third party like a bank.
And honestly, I like that I got 'in' early (not early enough though!).
I don't like that it's not scalable. Bitcoin SV is seen a scam since it's headed by Craig Wright (who says he is Satoshi) but I like the vision that it has. In short, it wants to be a micro transactions chain. That's another reason I got interested in Bitcoin. I don't like what I have seen of the lightning network so far.
And honestly, I like that I got 'in' early (not early enough though!).
I don't like that it's not scalable. Bitcoin SV is seen a scam since it's headed by Craig Wright (who says he is Satoshi) but I like the vision that it has. In short, it wants to be a micro transactions chain. That's another reason I got interested in Bitcoin. I don't like what I have seen of the lightning network so far.
> I like that it's a hedge against governments printing endless amounts of money that isn't backed by anything
This depends a lot on how much you of the price of bitcoin you think is speculation (versus fundamental), and exactly how much inflation you expect. If the FED overshoots the inflation target speculation could cool down a lot [1]. That may give you an "inflation hedge" that evaporates if inflation actually happens.
[1] Page 74, Section A.7 Speculative premium, https://researchdatabase.minneapolisfed.org/downloads/0p0966... [PDF, 1.8MB]
This depends a lot on how much you of the price of bitcoin you think is speculation (versus fundamental), and exactly how much inflation you expect. If the FED overshoots the inflation target speculation could cool down a lot [1]. That may give you an "inflation hedge" that evaporates if inflation actually happens.
[1] Page 74, Section A.7 Speculative premium, https://researchdatabase.minneapolisfed.org/downloads/0p0966... [PDF, 1.8MB]
What is Bitcoin backed by? What commodity could any currency be backed by that isn’t subject to the same volatility?
A network of nodes who gets rewarded for helping the network process transactions. Not more, not less. The beauty of the network, and also a big problem (in Proof of Work at least).
Bitcoin isn't backed by anything. It's limited in supply though so no more can be printed.
Someone might say that it can be hard forked to change the supply limit. That is true but the fork won't be bitcoin.
Someone might say that it can be hard forked to change the supply limit. That is true but the fork won't be bitcoin.
Why is it good that no more can be printed though? The value of all total goods in existence is not fixed, so why a currency where you don’t know how much you’ll able to buy with it in the future?
Not who you asked and I'm not a fan of BTC, but generally a fixed quantity of measure is helpful when trying to evaluate worth.
The fixed value acts as a measuring tape against objects, but instead of measuring length you measure value. When you measure to cut an inch of wood, you need the measuring tape to keep the length of an inch constant. If an inch were to shrink or expand at will it would be difficult to figure out how much wood to cut. Because BTC is infinitely divisible it acts like a retractable tape, allowing for as much room to measure as needed.
>why a currency where you don’t know how much you’ll able to buy with it in the future?
A fixed quantity helps with this. If your currency is free-floating and relative to others you can enter into different periods of relative purchasing power. Zimbabwe, Japan, Wiemar Germany, and Venezuela are all popular examples of floating currency behavior which can oscillate wildly.
The fixed value acts as a measuring tape against objects, but instead of measuring length you measure value. When you measure to cut an inch of wood, you need the measuring tape to keep the length of an inch constant. If an inch were to shrink or expand at will it would be difficult to figure out how much wood to cut. Because BTC is infinitely divisible it acts like a retractable tape, allowing for as much room to measure as needed.
>why a currency where you don’t know how much you’ll able to buy with it in the future?
A fixed quantity helps with this. If your currency is free-floating and relative to others you can enter into different periods of relative purchasing power. Zimbabwe, Japan, Wiemar Germany, and Venezuela are all popular examples of floating currency behavior which can oscillate wildly.
> Why is it good that no more can be printed though?
I can't fully answer that but I can play both sides by holding a position in bitcoin. I still earn and save fiat too.
I can't fully answer that but I can play both sides by holding a position in bitcoin. I still earn and save fiat too.
A fork would still be bitcoin if that's what was voted on, no? Or is that just a soft fork? Anything could change if it gained consensus, right?
I really don't see the value in it. Electronic payments could be better in some ways but they seem to work fine and using normal ledgers in a db is much more efficient than distributed POW or whatever.
Lack of governmental control seems like a fantasy, so long as you live somewhere with a government they will exert control over money.
Will freely admit that I'm upset I didn't run a computer program 10 years ago a get free money becoming a millionaire for no effort, I have a friend that did just that and just didn't see the value back then just like now so I passed. I really underestimated how far something so irrational could go.
Lack of governmental control seems like a fantasy, so long as you live somewhere with a government they will exert control over money.
Will freely admit that I'm upset I didn't run a computer program 10 years ago a get free money becoming a millionaire for no effort, I have a friend that did just that and just didn't see the value back then just like now so I passed. I really underestimated how far something so irrational could go.
It should have died long time ago. I never bought because I see it too fragile. To be honest, I don't understand its resilience, there's just too many fault points and still none has blown up so far.
To help understanding cryptocurrencies still working in a adversarial environment, it might help by looking at why torrents succeeded (and still succeed) in a adversarial environment as well, even without any monetary incentives.
Would you mind sharing which fault points you mean? I can't think of any.
Legislation (see Turkey's crackdown), the 50% consensus, branching into oblivion, increasing transaction ack times, mining resources(I mean, at some point they'll be told "no, you cannot have power if it's for mining"), progress in decryption. Now imagine for a moment China decides to block its firewall, even for a few days, how does that leave the transaction ack network?
The HN hatred of crypto is off the charts. I thought startup developers were open to change and innovation. Not so. And few have actually done any deep research into it.
As a developer working in the Crypto startup space. I see the writing on the wall. This is a once in a lifetime tail-event with massive disruption across industries. Everything changes.
And, I will not post the myriad examples of disruption happening now. Do your own research. Open your mind.
As a developer working in the Crypto startup space. I see the writing on the wall. This is a once in a lifetime tail-event with massive disruption across industries. Everything changes.
And, I will not post the myriad examples of disruption happening now. Do your own research. Open your mind.
Thank you. Any chance of getting some insight into what you’re working on?
ETH breaks $3000. But NFT prices are crashing. Will some "collectors" get wobbly on the long term value of these assets?
One data point to watch is Christie's live auction of 9 Cryptopunks. Final bid below $9M may look "over" next to a rare Basquiat skull painting shattering records:
https://www.christies.com/lot/lot--6316969/
One phenomenon that looks interesting: Proc Gen gambling systems! Simulacra with more appeal than the actual Kentucky Derby.
Digital Horses Are the Talk of the Crypto World by Taylor Lorenz
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/01/style/zed-run-horse-racin...
https://zed.run/
And just this morning, US Fed's CBDC moves beyond the "hypothetical" into the "experimental" stage (with help from Accenture).
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-cenbanks-digital-usa/digi...
One data point to watch is Christie's live auction of 9 Cryptopunks. Final bid below $9M may look "over" next to a rare Basquiat skull painting shattering records:
https://www.christies.com/lot/lot--6316969/
One phenomenon that looks interesting: Proc Gen gambling systems! Simulacra with more appeal than the actual Kentucky Derby.
Digital Horses Are the Talk of the Crypto World by Taylor Lorenz
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/01/style/zed-run-horse-racin...
https://zed.run/
And just this morning, US Fed's CBDC moves beyond the "hypothetical" into the "experimental" stage (with help from Accenture).
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-cenbanks-digital-usa/digi...
environmental disaster/waste of resources
How's this any different than: hey, I printed my own cool banknotes, and guess what, there's a limited supply? Common, buy some!
P.S. Those who invest in crypto will always find a way to rationalize the fact that it simply has no value. I'm really really curious when this will burst.
P.S. Those who invest in crypto will always find a way to rationalize the fact that it simply has no value. I'm really really curious when this will burst.
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The most obvious and resilient scam ever. Makes me doubt how bright the future of humanity is.
It’s interesting p2p got back into popularity. Where most stuff seems to be client-server crud stuff, it was something refreshing. But it’s over a decade old now. While originally intended as digital cash, it seems more like another asset class
No personal use for a digital monetary source.
Do not invest to gamble...
so no holdings or use of BC, and no plans to.
Could change some day if I am forced to (say hacker-news requires a .001 BC payment to use, maybe I will go buy a fraction of a bitcoin or something).
Do not invest to gamble...
so no holdings or use of BC, and no plans to.
Could change some day if I am forced to (say hacker-news requires a .001 BC payment to use, maybe I will go buy a fraction of a bitcoin or something).
I had some bitcoin and sold it. I found myself constantly checking it's value which distrubed my peace. So I got shot of it and am happier :-)
Same.
I think bitcoin is a cool idea, but it results in too much waste that i can't like like it
i think some descendant of cryptocurrency technologies has a good chance of being in use in 100 years, it's very cool stuff. will it be Bitcoin? i don't know, I think it's likely something better will come along but there are counterarguments to that.
there is a loud minority of Bitcoin freaks on social media who are incredibly strange, aggressive, hostile, and irritating. if bitcoin is going to be a major part of the world economy, then these new rich people will have to learn how to behave like decent adults, or normal people won't put up with them.
there is a loud minority of Bitcoin freaks on social media who are incredibly strange, aggressive, hostile, and irritating. if bitcoin is going to be a major part of the world economy, then these new rich people will have to learn how to behave like decent adults, or normal people won't put up with them.
I'm a huge fan of decentralization. I dislike capitalism. I used to like cryptocurrencies until I realized cryptocurrencies are just capitalism in an extreme form, over the internet, and in blazing speeds. Everything bad with capitalism gets amplified in cryptocurrencies, as it never sleeps. It's all about the money, from the protocols to the organizations that gets build on top.
Contrast that against decentralization efforts like Secure Scuttlebutt (SSB) or Mastodon, where the communication and liberation is the core focus, enabled by protocols that works offline-first (in the case of SSB) and can pass data between any peer.
Contrast that against decentralization efforts like Secure Scuttlebutt (SSB) or Mastodon, where the communication and liberation is the core focus, enabled by protocols that works offline-first (in the case of SSB) and can pass data between any peer.
It’s not de-centralized, though. It’s just not centralized and controlled by banks or governments. A very small number of miners and trading platforms effectively control it, even if BTC is theoretically decentralized. It’s decentralized peer to peer in the same sense as Facebook Messenger.
cool technology
decentralized cult
decentralized cult
Just curious what your thoughts are on bitcoin, or cryptocurrencies in general?