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bitcoins

In bitcoin there is no controlling party. The code is the controlling party. In code we trust. Open source code that anyone can look at, contribute too, and change. I trust this system way more than what we have now.
 
I agre on it being a better system. By "controlling", I'm meaning "issuing". I.E. Federal government(s) should the dollar convert to blockchain.
 
mercurial said:
Sure but you could probably be a bit more nuanced about it. For instance, does the trust model enable a particular pattern of payment that is sorely needed by a specific industry? From what I can tell, the answer is generally, no.

The main thing crypto could enable is massive disruption of the current norms of international commerce in a total shift away from fiat. Of course this would be a massively terrible outcome that would make the world a more chaotic place. I would prefer that our economic future be controlled by the fed, and not a bunch of conniving bitcoin whales.
Click to expand...

I could be more nuanced, but in my experience, most people aren't really in to learning about the 'why'.

a main feature I like about bitcoin is in fact the trust model, in which that it is 'trustless'. sounds like a bad word, until letting it digest a bit. I don't have to trust that everybody's transactions are being recorded equitably, as my money goes into the black boxes that are banks. Hey, there are people with way more than me (whales). That's life. Every time a whale, or anyone, makes a transaction, we all see it. we can see all transactions since the beginning of it all. even from hackers and scammers, we see their wallet addresses.

there will still be wealth and value. No collapse of society needed. No disruption, only fairness. if you own 1 bitcoin, you will have no less than 1/21millionth. hold it for 10 years and it'll still be no less than 1/21millionth. trustless, immutable, pseudonymous and decentralized.

is this needed? depends on which side of the fiat you are on. Maybe you just like our current system because you have something to lose? You may have noticed recently, if they don't like what you are doing with your own fiat, they can stop you. Does that make you feel safer?

in order for bitcoin's system to flourish, there is no need for the creation of new bitcoin, like fiat. who is threatened by the challenge to the current norms? what is 'fiat' but a violence-dependent way to control the money supply to benefit who and what they like? and if they don't like that you have it, they can take it. or, print enough new fiat to make what you have worthless.
 
Right, I mean I get the theoretical appeal. But putting aside the notion that we collectively might actually want to have an elected government to control our currency (inflation as an economic pressure relief valve and a way to prevent recession via currency deflation, the idea that our government is elected and thus ultimately but somewhat imperfectly accountable to the people, etc) as the sovereign, the government has the right to create laws and rules that make your bitcoin illegal at a civil and criminal level. They can apply all these rules directly to you, they can do it by regulating the exchanges, the power companies, the ISPs.

So to envision a future where btc is dominant, you pretty rapidly have to dive into pretty wild left field speculation, where powerful central governments are somehow forced into consent because of mass popular will, or where same governments collapse but somehow btc's infra continues to run flawlessly (this one seems particularly bizarre.)

I do agree with Berto that there is some possibility that blockchain as a technology may lead, via treaty, to some kind of new reserve currency system that isn't strictly dollar denominated. FWIW this turn of events would be quite bad for the US and it's people.
 
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I just recently read a article that said Putin will now accept Bitcoin for
Oil purchases From countrys to generate more power to make more Bitcoin...
Wtf.?
 
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That makes sense to me. It does seem pretty theoretical and radical, the idea of creating a system that governments can't screw with, and expect them eventually adopt it.

I would add that governments already are, whether intentionally or not, ruining their own fiat by relieving the economic pressure artificially by creating new fiat out of nothing. This, necessarily, leads to a system that will rely on this process to continue in order for it to "flourish" in an fake sense (we are here). This will ultimately lead to a massive debasement and loss of adoption of any fiat that the individual governments do this to, and a rise of another currency to take over. This is just how history has worked. So, with or without bitcoin, due to government action the debasement of the dollar and rise and takeover of another currency (probably yuan) will happen.

Whether bitcoin stays on the sideline as an investment tool to hedge against inflation, or become a reserve currency, IMO doesn't matter quite as much as what the controllers of our current reserve currency is doing to themselves. It won't be bitcoin's fault when the dollar loses it's status.
 
Definitely true that debasement tests the stability of the status quo system, I think the british pound's downfall began when they printed so much of it to fund WW1. The Biden printing presses simply cannot continue to go brrrr, but at least it seems like they know that.

The yuan seems like an imposing competitor, but the CCP are a bunch of control freaks with their capital controls, they would have to let it freely float and transfer freely around the globe, to gain any traction. No signs of that yet.
 
Pound is stronger than the Euro and USD, certainly stronger than the Canadian Peso or whatever it is they use up there.
 
To be clear: I don't believe "bitcoin" as a branded name will succeed beyond the (formal) adoption of block chain currencies. The possibilities of a currency with use/ velocity tracking is incredible, IMO. And that's NOT a good thing for the governed.
 
just want to add that we need to have a sense of scope of time and breadth here. we are actually, in real life, now, comparing bitcoin to fiat currency. 13 years old. why?
 
almost 1/100 of what Madoff did with fiat...getting closer!

I'm glad the article addressed the problem of actually getting that bitcoin out to be used in the real world. Even mixing programs seem to have a hard time disguising the origin of the crypto addresses.
 
A lesson in buying into a fad at the wrong time. Last year an NFT collector bought an NFT of Jack Dorseys first tweet for 1630 ETH, like 2.9 million dollars at the time.

He announced he was going to sell it. He listed it on opensea for 14969 ETH, like 46 million now. It was also listed for auction.

The auction received 7 bids over the course of a week, the top bid was .09 ETH, about $290.

Bet all the folks with their bored monkeys are really happy with their choices right now.
 
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