has settled more value on its network than Visa... So if bitcoin is solving no current problems as some on this forum continue to say ... why is the adoption increasing at a 75% CAGR (as measured by the value settled on the network)??
I'll also add - there seems to be a hangup on forks. Bitcoin isnt scarce bc it can be forked ... even tho the forks are not bitcoin but something different. People say forks are "better" versions of bitcoin. But if they are better versions, why isnt that network used instead? Why does BSV (fork of bitcoin) have a market cap of 1.6BB while real bitcoin has a market cap of 800BB if its better? What I think people are missing is that this is about networks, not which tech has more bells and whistles...
Because holders are not in it for the technology but because of greed. Did you know that Ponzi was copied right away at his time? Once some smart people realized just how good "business" he was in they opened offices with similar return promises in the same building. They were exactly like Ponzi, they ended up the same way. You are asking if I hold one penny stock and I am already up X % why am I not jumping to another penny stock? Why should I? Once lucky, not always lucky. Since this thread is about BTC's role as a currency and as a fast money transferring device, I am sure you can name a couple of cryptos that do those roles much better. Oh wait, I haven't even mentioned the energy usage: https://www.leafscore.com/blog/the-9-most-sustainable-cryptocurrencies-for-2021/ As a minimum we want fast, cheap (tx fee in the pennies), and lots of transactions from a popular crypto, with low carbon print.
Every heard of the trilemma with crypto? You can't get fast, cheap and secure. If you want ultimate security and hacking resistance, that comes at a price. Globalization has made things cheap, but look at the trouble we are now facing with regards to essentials like commodities and food.
95+% of the transactions (and people doing them) that utilize crypto are either on the dark web, dealing in illicit/illegal products, avoiding taxes or just speculating on the movement of the price relative to the dollar. Even if were widely accepted, it's not stable.
If value is simply being exchanged, then it makes no sense for the medium of value to be insanely volatile. To prevent volatility, there is a possibility that the whales agree no one sells BTC ever and takes loans against it in perpetuity. Seems dumb to me. Might as well collude to raise the price to 80 million then. Wait a minute....
Actually, no, I didn't. There was security 5 years ago, yet they didn't have to waste a small country's energy need on that security. 7 fucking txs per seconds, the future of money, my ass. At least Bitcoin Cash can do 112, so that is an I know strange world for you, IMPROVEMENT. Nano or Cardano are better in both regards. Probably another at least 20 coins too. Hey whatever happened to the hedge claim? BTC falling along with the Nasdaq last time I checked.
I think in the future, using the BTC blockchain directly will be for larger transactions, and something like the lightning network will be for day to day spending. So I agree that the lack of throughput is a concern, but this is easily addressed. You don't bring gold bars to the store after all, but some people have lots of their wealth tied up in gold. Pek, you really need to think for one second what you're getting for all that electricity. It couldn't be any more serendipitous that in this year we see the best use cases for crypto emerge. We had the Canadian government freeze accounts, and I'm not even sure what the latest updates are on that, but it should scare anyone to the core. You expect this in corrupt, third world countries, but Canada? Tell me what is to stop any country or politician from essentially destroying you on a whim, or even perhaps by accident? Your account can literally be pillaged or frozen at the whim of someone else. People who operate Youtube channels know all too well that their cash cow can disappear at any moment when the Youtube gods decide to delete their channel. You could be making 20k, 50k, 100k per month, and all of a sudden, it can all be over and your source of income goes to zero. In this woke environment that we are now living in, nobody is safe. How much confidence do you have that your money is truly yours? The politicians are 100% out to get you in the name of "protecting" the population. BTC has proven to be outside of the control of any individual, corporation or government. When people ask what backs US dollars, people say the US army. How expensive is that to maintain? Its a high price both in terms of money and lives. So in comparison, I think the high cost of electricity to maintain the BTC network is both minor and necessary at the same time. Many other coins can serve a purpose, but they all have fundamental drawbacks, most of which is centralization. Bitcoin is in a class of its own. If the day ever comes that you see hashpower dropping, nodes going offline, network shrinking, then fine, be pessimistic about Bitcoin's future. But the sheer amount of additional resources going into the network points to only one direction.
OK. [thinking for a minute] I got nothing. We get nothing extra for all that electricity wasted, and you can't convince me otherwise. The technology is just obsolete and wasteful (aka shit), and you are trying to argue (badly if I may say so) for a shitty technology, instead of improving it. You don't even have to improve it, others have done so, you just have to ACCEPT it and SWITCH. But you are a ponzi runner, not a technology lover, aren't you?