etr-strike

Except clients don't need a third party to store their Bitcoin, unlike gold. Additionally, the blockchain is a public ledger -- anyone can audit it.

Still your opinion. In order to accomplish the above, monetary experiments at a level never before seen were needed. The QE experiment is, at best, half over (they still need to get rid of all the assets they purchased). Driving interest rates below the rate of inflation has caused debt to accumulate in all areas of the economy.

The fact that you think the impacts of the financial crisis are behind us is hilarious. Just wait till the municipal debt starts to crumble. Places like Chicago and Puerto Rico have only been able to sustain themselves because of the low interest rates on debt. The actions of the Fed didn't fix anything, they just kicked the can down the road.

> As you point out - viciously unfair - but better in the long run.

That's your opinion, not fact. Banks are larger than ever. Inequality higher than ever. Housing more expensive than ever. The world is more unstable now than it was in 2008. Your definition of "better in the long run" is quite odd.

I agree, but it's not the $500 some people are claiming it to be. Also it confirmed in a reasonable timeframe.

I have the following hopes for bitcoin: 1) People upgrade to segwit

2) The people spamming the network stop

3) Lightning Network will reduce some previously onchain transactions

4) Schnorr signatures will compress transactions even more

Hmm I'm confused in that case. Did the Fed start publishing it again? The link I provided is to the official Federal Reserve website clearly stating they are discontinuing the publication of M3.

Sounds like you're intentionally trying to be disagreeable. You don't like the features Bitcoin provides. That's fine, don't use it. Plenty of other people do like them. That's what gives Bitcoin its value.

> Thanks suckers for giving me your warm wallet.....time to fake a hack and shut down this sucker.

Anyone who appreciates the properties of bitcoin is using a cold wallet. The cold wallets available on the market today are quite robust and easy to use. I'd recommend trezor.

> My $20 request to get on the blockchain STILL isn't done after 5 weeks

Here's a recent transaction I made using Segwit just today. Confirmed within 30min: https://blockchain.info/tx/308da302ef589872809f61282154263a4...

> Oh no my Xcoin crashed 50% today

Bitcoiners are well aware we're still in the price discovery phase. Volatility is understandable.

> I lost so much money because of this stupid coin....if only someone can save me from the scammers....

I don't expect anyone to bail me out. Unlike everyone with a 401k and an index fund.

> In javascript!! secure it is.

You're talking about Ethereum now. Bitcoin isn't programmed in Javascript.

> It costs me $500 to send $500......sob

Again, my segwit transaction from earlier today shows how much FUD and misinformation you're spewing: https://blockchain.info/tx/308da302ef589872809f61282154263a4...

Bitcoin is as real as the USD. At least with Bitcoin you know what the properties of your currency are.

The Federal Reserve doesn't even publish the amount of M3 money anymore: https://www.federalreserve.gov/releases/h6/discm3.htm

If that doesn't give you pause, I don't know what will.

Cryptocurrency is useful. Bitcoin allows me to be my own bank. The rules of consensus define characteristics of money I believe are important. It allows me to save my money outside of the global financial system, a system I believe is corrupt and manipulated. It allows me to program my money, something never before possible. It allows me to transact freely, with whomever I please.

Money is whatever people believe it to be. You may value the USD, and that's entirely your right to do so. I choose value Bitcoin. Everyone is free to use whatever medium of exchange they believe in.

Litecoin is essentially the same as bitcoin with slightly different chosen constants. Bitcoin is optimizing for decentralization, Litecoin is not.

If people actually used litecoin it’d have the same exact problems.

Yea, no.

I mean, segwit was activated. That doubles the capacity of blocks. People just need to upgrade.

Lightning Network is moving quickly. It is live on mainnet, tho still considered unstable.

Schnorr signatures are in development. This will further compress transactions.

Seems like progress is happening to me...

Not sure what you’re measuring... gdax alone averages around 25k btc traded per day. At today’s price that’s 450mil usd

Yea, it’s better people just hoard houses to escape inflation.

Inflation is responsible for the wage slavery we find ourselves in today. Those peddling inflation and control of the money supply as a necessary component of modern economics are peddling snake oil. Price discovery is hard enough without an invisible handle manipulating the units you’re trying to measure value in.

You may not know this, but any stocks you own in your brokerage aren't owned by you. They're owned by your brokerage. In all likelihood, your shares are currently being lent to someone and used in short sales. It's entirely possible your brokerage will go bust, and you will lose every share of stock you own.

SIPC insurance will protect you up to a certain amount. Even then, though, you won't have your shares returned to you -- merely the dollar value of those shares will be reimbursed.

Huh? This is referring to a specific api call of a bitcoin library. The developer did not fully understand the API he was calling. This has nothing to do with a specific wallet GUI.

Sounds like you're arguing for another global financial crisis that isn't limited to cryptocurrencies.

Unlike people who invest in the stock market, no one buying cryptocurrencies in under the delusion they'll be bailed out.

Coinbase is insured via FDIC, so I don't think "poorly" as an appropriate adverb.

Debt is given for student loans, and education has never been more expensive.

Cheap debt is given for housing with a mere 10% down becoming quite common, and housing has never been more expensive.

Debt is being used by companies to buy back stocks, and stocks have never been more expensive.

Loans are being given at 0% interest to buy cars, and cars have never been more expensive.

Banks only loan money for the above things because they are backed by, in the banks opinion, collateral.

Which banks are loaning money to buy bitcoin? My position is the amount of debt being used to purchase bitcoin is very small relative to the rest of the economy.

"Cheap money" implies people are taking on debt to buy bitcoin. I see no evidence of this. Real estate, on the other hand...

To be clear: You can sell 100 btc today for USD. Coinbase will hold your USD (and the balance is insured). They will limit your withdraws to 10k, however. To take out more faster, you'll need to contact them and speak with a human. None of this seems unreasonable.

Sorry, I don't believe proclaiming "Bitcoin is a bubble" is a "well-measured criticism" of Bitcoin. And people taking time out of their day to make such baseless claims are coming out of the woodwork lately.

When the iPod was announced, people frequently commented on purchasing apple stock, or how you can't go wrong purchasing apple. No one was calling apple a bubble when taxi drivers were making those statements.

Sorry for speaking up against people who make baseless bubble claims.

I purchased Bitcoin to escape what I believe is a financial system based on fraud. Who are you to say what my motivations are for purchasing Bitcoin? Who are you to speak for everyone else deciding to purchase Bitcoin? It takes quite an ego to presume everyone buying hasn't researched what they're buying and are just mindless sheep hoping for a payday.

It's not just hard drive space. A CPU is needed to verify the contents of the block (and, in ethereum's case, validate the results of any smart contracts). Increasing blocksize also increases validation time. In some cases, the validation times don't scale linearly with size.

The USD is regularly debased to reward people who have taken on debt. Bitcoin, on the other hand, has a fixed supply that cannot be manipulated.

This is a rediculous argument. You can’t just introduce a radically new technology and currency to the market and expect it to instantly be priced at is true value.

Give it time. Bitcoin is a populist movement. Eventually the market will find it’s correct value and volatility will decline (volatility in bitcoin has actually been declining for some time now).

I did not say this was a widely adopted use case yet. I'm just pointing out that every green energy producer in the world right now currently burns off excess energy as waste heat. If they move to mining bitcoin instead, they'll actually earn money from that waste electricity.

You recalled that line about when the taxi driver starts giving stock tips? Wow, you're so original. No one involved in bitcoin over the last 8 years has heard that one before. What other insights do you have?