The rise and... rise of Bitcoin | Hacker News Reader

The rise and... rise of Bitcoin

wired.com

45 pointsDiabloD39 comments

The problem with bitcoin is technical, not economical.

It takes too long to make a transaction, there were no easy built in backups built into the wallet, you needed to download the entire block chain, while sometimes you couldn't even GET to the p2p network without hardwiring in a fallback ip, which frankly goes against the whole point. There is also the problem on non-continuous curves through out the whole thing. Every two weeks miners would get onto irc and bitch about the newest hardness level. Why is it every two weeks? That is crazy. Also, why are we running GPU cards for weeks on end just to ensure distribution. That is stupid.

This is the internet with computers, it should take less than 500 ms to confirm a transaction. It should take less than 10 seconds to install bitcoin and accept a new transfer (ie, I shouldn't have to download the entire blockchain). I shouldn't have to heat my house while ensuring the accuracy of the block chain.

The next bitcoin will address these concerns, and will be widely adopted.

Disclaimer: I made a decent amount of money speculating on Bitcoins.

Don't you think a bigger problem is that it's too much of a psychological hurdle for non-technical adopters? Try explaining the concept of bitcoins to most people and they'll become more hesitant, confused or even fearful than interested. Even if the technical concerns are addressed I don't think this gap can be overcome in our lifetime for such a concept to be widely adopted; the current system is too far entrenched.

Try explaining the concept of paper money (as it is currently used) to most people and they'll be very confused. But they still use it.

I love bitcoin. The concept is right up the alley of some of the anti-inflation ideals of milton friedman, locke, keynes, and hayek. The only problem I see is that many people are incentivized to invest in it and hoard it, not to spend it.

Maybe something like a major global economic collapse would actually result in adoption of something like bitcoin; maybe in the long run it'd be good....

Hoarding may happen only in the growth phase. As soon as that becomes stagnant (as a long term trend) people will stop hoarding them.

And isn't hoarding kind of a different word for saving money? The current financial crisis came from huge loans that incentivized careless spending. Maybe a currency that doesn't let you spend on impulse isn't such a bad thing.

Hoarding may happen only in the growth phase. As soon as that becomes stagnant...people will stop hoarding them.

Yeah, that seems to be the trend. It's opening up more and more (thankfully!).

And isn't hoarding kind of a different word for saving money?

Well, I'm not saying the hoarding is necessarily a bad thing. I just mean that hoarding, yes, like saving, limits the available quantity of bitcoins. That raises the barrier to entry for many, many people, but as you pointed out that will deflate over time, hopefully.

I think the article get across quite well the cult-like nature of the whole bitcoin ecosystem, from the founder worship to the reflexive scorn its adherents heap on non-believers. This point is tellingly reinforced by the HN submitter changing the title of the article from 'The Rise and Fall of Bitcoin' to 'The rise and... rise of Bitcoin'.

In a way, the sheer naivety of the bitcoin enterprise is quite endearing, despite the currency having no more chance of success than the libertarian oil rig city state ever did.

I'm sure there will be another Bitcoin. I'm also sure the founder is smart enough to know (e.g. in his note about Wikileaks) that something like this must be introduced in stages. In fact, the design of Bitcoin (e.g. the sharp inflationary tendencies stemming from lack of supply) more or less guarentee that it will be adopted by a few enthusiasts but not make it to mass consumption. Frankly, I think Sir Nakamoto also knew this from the beginning and considered this nothing more than a test run.

with bitcoin under $3 I'm not sure the 'rise and rise' spin is merited.

maybe this is the 'valley of sorrow' after the 'crunch of initiation'.

but without a sounder legal basis, trustworthy, transparent governance, ability to evolve gracefully, bitcoin seems like an interesting experiment, but not very likely to be a widespread medium of exchange, stable store of value, unit of accounting.

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