Hacker News Reader

Comment by nikolay | Hacker News Reader

Thanks, but no thanks! I'd keep as far away from this stinking pile as possible! It's 2017! We have instant bank transfers and everybody can get a free Square reader and accept payments. PayPal is not what used to be and you can accept global payments with no friction. It's time to end this nonsense, stop talking about Bitcoin, focus on the blockchain, and let it show its true colors when there are no disoriented people confusing blockchain with Bitcoin who keep buying fueled by their pathological greed. If I want to speculate, there's a more sophisticated method, but, wait, it requires a brain - the stock market! With Robinhood and the likes - it's scam-free and I don't rely on the Chinese miners or government for my fortune's security!

View on HN

>everybody can get a free Square reader and accept payments

* subject to a 3% + $0.3 processing fee

>the stock market! With Robinhood and the likes - it's scam-free

what about the 2008 CDO fiasco? what about enron? the stock market is far from "scam free"

By being a blatant Bitcoin parrot [0], you didn't even bother to look at what the actual Square fees and thus making a fool of yourself!

[0]: https://news.ycombinator.com/threads?id=gruez

>[0]: https://news.ycombinator.com/threads?id=gruez

well no shit, obviously the citation going to be something i say. at least link to some specific comments.

>thus making a fool of yourself!

says the guy who's resorting to ad hominem attacks

> stop talking about Bitcoin, focus on the blockchain

What people miss is that the focus on "blockchain" was a way for the finance industry to talk about Bitcoin at a time when it could get you fired for doing so.

Not really. Implementing a blockchain outside of Bitcoin is bearish toward Bitcoin, but people are stupid enough not to get that still.

I'm sure you rely on the government to keep your fortune safe.

Yup! And not the Chinese government, which is behind the Bitcoin miners.

Put your money where your mouth is and place a short.

Trust Bitfinex with my money? Thanks, but no thanks!

The stock market over bitcoin? Bitcoin is up double the last 30 days. Timing is everything your opionion is dated or belongs in the future in the present bitcoin is a good investment

You mean 30 day ago Bitcoin was a good investment. Who knows whether it's a good investment now.

If you sell now, it was a good investment. If you hold, nobody knows (well, I do.)

Hey, I earned most of my current Bitcoin at $200-$300. Some I'm selling, of course. But the rest, I'm OK with betting.

That's your decision. Nobody in Bitcoin can guarantee you that the value will stay above $200 though.

Yes, no doubt.

But on the other hand, since the parent comment was posted, Bitcoin price has increased 10%. And I'm pretty sure that I could sell before it drops 90%.

Yeah, so, what's the economic reason for the spike? More people use Bitcoin today? Let's cut the bullshit, please! Mere mortals do not have Bitcoin and are not interested in it - at all. All the noise is around blockchain technology and Ethereum, i.e., it's bearish toward Bitcoin. Russia and China are waging wars against it, so, why is the price climbing?

Well, let me share a secret - the demand is Chinese sneaking money out of the country. I know friends who help their buddies and charge a two-digit percentage to move their money out of mainland China. Here in Orange County, there are a lot of Chinese buying houses with cash, and it's a similar situation in the Bay Are, Vancouver, etc. Given more, and more people sneak out, the demand grows as well. The US is fine because fresh money flows into the US economy, but as we know, China realizes that even though some of the people sneaking money out are possibly close to the government.

I have and cannot have solid facts to prove this, but everything pretty much backs my theory and especially the correlation that the harder pressure China does, the higher the price goes!

But for you, it won't be a nice thing to hear one day that there's a total crackdown on this scheme and people who buy Bitcoin in advance to sell it suddenly want to get rid of it!

Sneaking money out of china is only going to increase in the short term regardless of a crackdown

That was exactly my point. The control is not strict (yet!) as many close to the government are part of it!

That makes sense to me.

But US KYC regs are strict, so I wonder how they exchange massive amounts of Bitcoin to USD cash.

I have accounts with most exchanges (including one of the first - Camp BX) and I've passed thru their KYC checks and I can tell you that KYC is a joke!

Tell that to WikiLeaks.

Your "instant bank transfers" claim is irrelevant. Traditional banking lacks the openness, borderless access, censorship resistance aspects of decentralized cryptocurrencies like bitcoin.

With traditional banking you are in a master-slave relationship, where your bank is the master and can wipe your money clean at a whim. Bitcoin means you are your own bank.

It's pointless to compare "instant bank transfers" with bitcoin, bitcoin makes traditional banking obsolete.

If "censorship resistant" is the main selling point, it's a lost cause.

Why? Do you prefer the government having the power to confiscate people's money?

Tell me a recent case of confiscated money in the US. Well, I remember the Feds confiscating tons of bitcoins though!

The US is not the whole world. Are you that stupid?

No, I'm not stupid, but you're pathologically paranoid. Something that solves a problem for <1% of the global population and some niche cases is of virtually no utility.

> No, I'm not stupid, but you're pathologically paranoid.

I'm not paranoid, I want the world to be a better place. Banks and governments are the cause of the global financial crisis/recession. Lots of families and people's future were destroyed by them.

The US is 4.3% of the total world population, there are other 6 and a half billion people in the world.

Most of the other 6 and a half billion are completely unbanked, they never had access to a bank account. Bitcoin can help those people.

> Something that solves a problem for <1% of the global population and some niche cases is of virtually no utility.

I don't know how you can say that. You must be blind.

It can't be a better anything with reliance on the Chinese miners and the mining cartels in general. Bitcoin was a decent initial implementation of the idea, but there are better and more resilient technologies in 2017. I am not blind; I just don't accept the solution as a technologist with 30+ years of experience and as one of the first Bitcoin adopters. I am disgusted by the kind of people Bitcoin attracts today and I don't want to be associated with that crown in any possible way!

> Bitcoin was a decent initial implementation of the idea, but there are better and more resilient technologies in 2017.

What are those "more resilient technologies" that you speak about? I want to know, because all the other shitcoins are either more centralized or a scam and not worth looking at in my opinion.

I dare you to tell me another cryptocurrency that is more decentralized than bitcoin.

> I am disgusted by the kind of people Bitcoin attracts today and I don't want to be associated with that crown in any possible way!

What I want to know is why you associate the technology with the people, or why even generalize the whole community because of a few bad actors.

I agree there are many toxic people in bitcoin, but you know what? I don't give a shit, just ignore them I'd say.

There are far worse people in the current financial system, but you don't seem to be talking about that, I wonder why.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com