This is such a typical answer from bitcoin proponents. "There is a service that allows x, y, z" and solves all of your problems with Bitcoin.
No, don't strawmen people's statements. I'm telling you that there are specific properties, that being the divisibility and speed of transfer which allow instant-transaction services that can largely ignore volatility, that make your complaint a non-concern. That is not "one thing solves all your problems," that is me
paying attention to your claim and offering a specific explanation to demonstrate for you why that claim is not an actual concern or problem.
Of course people will know what the current value of a Bitcoin is!
...?
I told you that there with instant intermediary-based transaction services the people in question do not even have to know the price of an individual Bitcoin, and you reply as though I claimed that no one will know it?
I don't understand how you go about reading the thread and replying. You clearly are not even following single sentence arguments and responses.
Particularly if they are to invest in the system. Your assumption that these services will be widely adopted and accepted, but this is a big assumption.
I am telling you that that the problems you are claiming are not actual problems for very clear reasons...which are already being shown in practice. So my assumption is not an assumption but just pointing out reality.
Firstly, I would also like you to point out where have I insulted you.
I said you made accusations (which you did, of fraud and dishonesty amongst basically all business that are listed as accepting Bitcoin) and that you ignorantly insulted people here who have made patient efforts to explain what Bitcoins are and why they think they are interesting or a solid concept that is worth time. When you declare Bitcoin to be a fraud and sweep away all these patient posts I and others have made, you're rudely dismissing a ton of effort and time that others have put forth, and also assuming quite clearly that we're either liars or fools for contradicting what you claim is your "perfect understanding." I would never say something like that, but I do know quite certainly from this exchange that the understanding I've acquired of the basic aspects of Bitcoin is currently more in-depth and consistent than yours.
I have read lots, I follow the developments because I find the subject interesting, but I would not consider my understanding in any way perfect.
ETA: Reading back, I did use the words "perfectly understand". That is an idiom that I should stop using
That's fair enough, but to use that phrase and to dismiss the entire notion of Bitcoin is irksome to people. We all do this to each other at times, but it helps us to recognize that a lot of the way people react to us is due to our own words and actions.
This however brings me to another pet-peeve of mine in the Bitcoin discussion, and one that I believe serves as another indication of the reason why it has not taken off, and it will never be used as a currency.
I can't fathom how going from an unknown program that produces coins at one penny in value to over $100 each and a billion dollar market 4 years later is "failing to take off."
Your phrasing is out-of-whack, irksome, wrong and unconstructive and creates a lot of problems when trying to speak to you.
People like you tend to jump immediately at critics accusing them of ignorance. "You don't understand bitcoin!" you protest. Yet, I and many critics understand it enough and do not like what we see.
I'm discussing Bitcoins in multiple threads on multiple forums, at least one of which has actual Bitcoin programmers participating in the thread and underlining some of my statements and giving the same explanations that I've found from my research. So I think it's safe to say that I do have a decent understanding of the logistics of it and the economic dynamics that apply to it, and I would not tell someone they didn't understand it unless they made an argument that was clearly in ignorance of some key aspect and accompanied it with a wrong proclamation. Asking a question is totally different and not a cause for any disparaging remark from me or anyone else and that is what I wish you would do instead.
But let us assume that what you say is true and I don't understand BTC at all. I have put some considerable time in trying to understand the basics. If that still does not make me worthy enough of the BTC elite, then what hope does the scheme have with the mainstream?
In short, if you cannot sell BTC to a person who has put some time and effort in trying to understand it, how do you expect to sell it to your Average Joe?
I know what you'll answer... that all of the complexities will disappear once it becomes more widespread... the issue is, it is not really happening, is it? It still is a very niche interest.
Well first...there is no BTC elite. Just people who use it and people who don't.
Secondly, this same issue came up in one of the other Bitcoin threads I'm in...as I said there...ideas or services or products don't spread by people laboriously arguing or explaining minutiae about the idea to each other. They spread by being useful. If they are useful, then more people will do it...and others will start to use them too without even investigating the technical aspects of it.
Think of Facebook. I don't know anything about website programming, no one ever argued with me about whether it was a good idea, people just signed up for it in larger and larger numbers because they found it useful, and that created a wave of momentum where I checked out and clicked the necessary buttons to join in.
The same will be true of Bitcoin. It will live or die by how useful it is. Speculation doesn't matter, and neither do flames. Just whether or not it works to make people's lives easier or better in some way. And a lot of us feel it will.
