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Merged Bitcoin - Part 3

Bitcoin is an outlier compared to other crypto currencies and schemes, which come and go like mayflies - what it has going for it is Inertia, which is the result of its main holders having no need or wish to actually use it in any way and having too high a market evaluation to be easily speculated with.
In the 15 years it has not added anything to the financial system that other instruments couldn't do better and cheaper.
If Bitcoin was gone tomorrow, no one but the people holding it would complain, but none of them would starve because of it.
 
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steenkh said:
It seems that that is long gone: transaction times are so long that nobody uses it as a currency. It is now just a gambling investment object.
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i'd cross the word investment out and put something else after it
 
Another reason why the transaction times are so long, is that the coins may be 'lost'.

There are many circumstances where a person could 'lose' their bitcoins including: death, brain injury, mental incapacity (e.g. alzheimer's) equipment failure, equipment loss (fire, theft, replacement etc.) and of course, good old fashioned theft and incompetence.

Unlike other investments, recovery of bitcoins, due to any of the above, seems to be impossible.

In the normal world, a person dies, and there is a process called probate, where their estate is gathered together and distributed to their heirs.

If you don't have the wallets and keys, that isn't going to happen.

This is similar to other circumstances where people hide their assets, typically to avoid paying tax, and their heirs lose out because no one knows where the gold was hidden.
 
novaphile said:
Another reason why the transaction times are so long, is that the coins may be 'lost'.
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Yes, I guess that if you lose access to your bitcoins then it would take an incredibly long time to do a transaction.

novaphile said:
There are many circumstances where a person could 'lose' their bitcoins including: death, brain injury, mental incapacity (e.g. alzheimer's) equipment failure, equipment loss (fire, theft, replacement etc.) and of course, good old fashioned theft and incompetence.

Unlike other investments, recovery of bitcoins, due to any of the above, seems to be impossible.

In the normal world, a person dies, and there is a process called probate, where their estate is gathered together and distributed to their heirs.

If you don't have the wallets and keys, that isn't going to happen.

This is similar to other circumstances where people hide their assets, typically to avoid paying tax, and their heirs lose out because no one knows where the gold was hidden.
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As I have pointed out before, this has parallels with cash - especially hidden cash. The inability of anybody to access a wallet without the necessary keys (access a safe without the combo/key) and the irreversibility of a transaction can be a strength of the crypto/cash or it could be a weakness.
 
psionl0 said:
Yes, I guess that if you lose access to your bitcoins then it would take an incredibly long time to do a transaction.


As I have pointed out before, this has parallels with cash - especially hidden cash. The inability of anybody to access a wallet without the necessary keys (access a safe without the combo/key) and the irreversibility of a transaction can be a strength of the crypto/cash or it could be a weakness.
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Cash is dying. In New Zealand less than 10% of transactions are done with cash, and that is almost all small transactions. In a time of 'high' inflation it doesn't pay to keep much cash because its value erodes.

Bitcoin is not much like cash. Governments can always print more cash to meet demand. Once all the Bitcoin has been mined there won't be any more. At that point (or even before) lost bitcoins will significantly add to the scarcity, causing it to deflate even more.

It's hard to believe the inventor(s) didn't think of this - unless they were so blinded by libertarian fantasies that they refused to entertain the possibility that it had any flaws. That may well be true, though I'm more inclined to think that it was just developed as a toy to impress fellow libertarians. They thought it would remain a toy so why bother engineering it properly? Then it hit the mainstream media and Boom! Too late to fix it now - and why would you want to after 'mining' 1.1 million Bitcoins at practically no cost.

But perhaps those bitcoins are lost too. Imagine you are 'Satoshi Nakamoto' and you lost those Bitcoins. No wonder he/she/it hasn't shown their face.
 
Roger Ramjets said:
It's hard to believe the inventor(s) didn't think of this - unless they were so blinded by libertarian fantasies that they refused to entertain the possibility that it had any flaws. That may well be true, though I'm more inclined to think that it was just developed as a toy to impress fellow libertarians. They thought it would remain a toy so why bother engineering it properly? Then it hit the mainstream media and Boom! Too late to fix it now - and why would you want to after 'mining' 1.1 million Bitcoins at practically no cost.
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the toy comparison is pretty apt. it’s got a lot more in common with something like pokemon cards than anything else imo
 
dirtywick said:
the toy comparison is pretty apt. it’s got a lot more in common with something like pokemon cards than anything else imo
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Keep claiming that bitcoin has no substance and will fail "soon". Just because these claims have been made continuously for the last 15 years and failed doesn't mean that you won't be correct - one of these centuries.
 
i've never claimed pokemon cards will "fail" and 15 years isn't even half of a bernie madoff ponzi
 
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thanks for reminding me. you can refer to the many articles and videos contained within them that you've never addressed as to why i feel the way i do.
 
psionl0 said:
What story is that? That fewer people are selling their bitcoin holdings?


15 years and counting on that claim.
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And fewer people are buying BTC.

In the last 24 hours, about 5000 bitcoins have been traded. That's about $500 million which seems a lot but compare that to gold where daily volumes are over $200 billion.
 
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