What are the biggest DISTRACTIONS in Bitcoin? \ stacker news ~bitcoin

What are the biggest DISTRACTIONS in Bitcoin?

3366 sats \ 66 comments \ @birdeye21 16 Aug 2023 bitcoin

“Less noise, more signal” is a common mantra among bitcoiners, but for newcomers, wth does this even mean?

What’s the noise in Bitcoin??

I know many higher than thou bitcoiners who would probably say $$ price, but imo price is one of the most direct/translatable ways to understand what Bitcoin “does” for newbies.

And let’s be honest — Bitcoin wouldn’t be very cool if the price only went down..

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392 sats \ 15 replies \ @newnym 16 Aug 2023

Raspberry Pi based full nodes. Poor raspberry doesn't have enough oomph and at current prices you are better off getting a used Dell or HP pc.

110 sats \ 7 replies \ @petertodd 16 Aug 2023

All your node needs to do is stay in sync. You don't need much performance for that.

It's true that you can get better performance/price from used laptops and other alternatives. But a raspberry pi is fine if you want something straight forward (just use a good SD card, rated for endurance).

Also, it's perfectly fine to run a node on your desktop/laptop. Bitcoin Core is just software.

13 sats \ 2 replies \ @newnym 16 Aug 2023

Sorry, I wasn't clear. I ment LN node.

10 sats \ 0 replies \ @petertodd 16 Aug 2023

Ah, yes, LN does want more performance than Bitcoin Core. Though if you just want to learn about LN, you can still run a node on Raspberry Pi. It just won't work as well.

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @WeAreAllSatoshi 16 Aug 2023

Ah, yes that helps tremendously

0 sats \ 3 replies \ @nemo 16 Aug 2023

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31 sats \ 2 replies \ @petertodd 16 Aug 2023

Like I said, you can do better than a raspberry pi in terms of performance/dollar. But the claim that Raspberry Pi's are too slow to be full nodes simply isn't true. They'll stay in sync just fine given time to catch up. That's sufficient to be useful.

10 sats \ 1 reply \ @nemo 16 Aug 2023

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41 sats \ 0 replies \ @m00ninite 16 Aug 2023

They're a great learning tool, but once you have your bearings, it's a good idea to upgrade from the pi. I had an LN node on a pi for well over a year before migrating it to a 2012 MacBook, and now it screams in comparison.

Also, less power issues. The pi4 is so finicky with external drives.

120 sats \ 5 replies \ @WeAreAllSatoshi 16 Aug 2023

It doesn’t have enough oomph for what, exactly?

0 sats \ 3 replies \ @benthecarman 16 Aug 2023

Anything

10 sats \ 2 replies \ @WeAreAllSatoshi 16 Aug 2023

Apparently OP meant lightning node. I have a RPi acting as a full Bitcoin node no problem.

0 sats \ 1 reply \ @benthecarman 16 Aug 2023

it also runs no problem on any laptop, no reason for a dedicated device

64 sats \ 0 replies \ @WeAreAllSatoshi 16 Aug 2023

Personally, I see value in an always-on device that has a physically small footprint so I can tuck it anywhere. But to each their own.

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @nemo 16 Aug 2023

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2 sats \ 0 replies \ @4twenty 17 Aug 2023 freebie

my raspberry runs my bitcoin node fine though

316 sats \ 1 reply \ @EthnTuttle 16 Aug 2023

UASF proposals. We have so many complex things that can be built now with existing primitives and consensus. Let’s master all those first before we add more layers of complexity.

134 sats \ 0 replies \ @pillar 16 Aug 2023

Love this one.

Current state of tech is enough to support so much adoption that hasn't happened yet. I wish more energy was put into leveraging what we have tech-wise to increase usage instead of going crazy with expanding the base layer.

267 sats \ 5 replies \ @TheBTCManual 16 Aug 2023

Unit bias, most people I talk to just can't accept that they won't be able to own 1 full BTC, so why even try, unfortunately that's how much thought many people put into it

112 sats \ 0 replies \ @TwoLargePizzas 19 Aug 2023

I couple of years ago I set myself the lofty goal to own 1 full BTC. I'm not there yet and I might never make it but I can say the benefits of having this goal can be tremendous with the right mindset.

Dips in dollar price are a blessing, not a curse. I can stack a little more that week.
You stop wasting money on stuff you don't need. Alcohol, junk food, etc.
More signal, less noise. With singular focus comes clarity. Most stuff doesn't matter.
More motivation to work on side projects and make extra income.

That said, I should also stipulate that you still need to keep yourself grounded. I can imagine some people going too far. I have a few counter rules.

I don't borrow dollars to buy BTC. This is one way to get there faster but adds stress.
I don't use dollars already allocated for bills and stuff. As a side benefit, this made me better at managing the finances.
I don't sacrifice health and wellbeing. A life not lived is not worth living.
I invest in myself and my family before BTC (i.e. books, tools, good food, gym equipment, etc)

To put into more concrete terms how this works. Let's assume the average dollar price of BTC is about 21k in 2023. So in theory, if you could DCA about $400 per week you might get there.

Most people can't afford $400 per week, myself included. I can afford $100 per week though. So the goal is to start thinking about how I can get the extra $300. It seems like a lot, but it's in the realm of achievable if you think outside the box.

21 sats \ 3 replies \ @SpaceHodler 16 Aug 2023

It's a psychological threshold and it's understandable. Everybody wants to be a crab. But unless the population decreases significantly, not everyone can. Most are going to have to set themselves a lower target. And with each halving cycle, perhaps knock one zero off.

0 sats \ 2 replies \ @nemo 16 Aug 2023

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10 sats \ 1 reply \ @SpaceHodler 16 Aug 2023

If you're alluding to the golden ratio (which is closer to 0.618), I don't think the average normie has even heard of it.

0.1 is a more realistic goal for many, it also depends on where one lives etc. I'm in some FIRE-themed subreddits for example, where folks are generally well-off, with 6 figure jobs and brag about their net worth and celebrate hitting the milestone of $1m USD, but at the same time complain it's not even much of an achievement these days and you need at least $3m to retire. I don't think they own any BTC, because it's hardly ever mentioned, while they mention stocks, bonds and cash. So there are cohorts like that too.

10 sats \ 0 replies \ @nemo 16 Aug 2023

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106 sats \ 3 replies \ @mallardshead 16 Aug 2023

Distractions:

Forks that aren't vault related
Binance
SBF
DeFi and alt-coin exploits or fraud
Trans moral panic
Bitcoin energy consumption
Hocus pocus charting and trad-fi soothsaying
What the USD is doing
Ai
Elon Musk and twitter
Conferences not focused on development
Taxes for individuals (get a hardware wallet you donkey and use a DEX)
Larry Fink

221 sats \ 2 replies \ @nemo 16 Aug 2023

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28 sats \ 1 reply \ @mallardshead 16 Aug 2023

Holy shit, how'd that one slip my mind? That should be near the top. Has America always been this dumb?

17 sats \ 0 replies \ @nemo 16 Aug 2023

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240 sats \ 0 replies \ @spraveenitpro 16 Aug 2023

Bitcoin Twitter

147 sats \ 0 replies \ @k00b 16 Aug 2023

Arguing against strawmans.

89 sats \ 0 replies \ @kepford 16 Aug 2023

Governments and the fiat system. What the Fed is gonna do. What the SEC is gonna do.

"You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete."

~ Buckminster Fuller

47 sats \ 0 replies \ @orthwyrm 16 Aug 2023

Macro talk. Plenty of smart analysts out there, but it's almost comical how off-base their predictions tend to be. This time last year nobody thought we'd be getting +5% rates alongside the S&P500 nearing ATHs.

10.4k sats \ 4 replies \ @m00ninite 16 Aug 2023

nostr as a Twitter clone. No social media platform has ever effectively replaced another one by being "the thing we already have, but slightly different". Brand new apps and machine-to-machine communication are where it gets really interesting. I don't care how shit the site was or is, nobody needed another fucking Twitter

10 sats \ 3 replies \ @orthzar 16 Aug 2023

I've been thinking along similar lines. IMO, Nostr will fade into obscurity if it doesn't transcend the confines of social media. And what a lost opportunity that would be.

You're the second person this week who I've seen bring this idea up, which has given me the initiative to start a list of the things that Nostr has made possible -- if only people would pursue those awesome possibilities.

70 sats \ 2 replies \ @m00ninite 16 Aug 2023

I haven't even started building it yet, but I'll put it out there for anyone to steal the idea; an uncensorable bracketing/tournament system with payouts. I like to play in video game tournaments somewhat regularly, and I've seen how some companies exercise control over these communities when they get too big. Take the advertising money and the throat to throttle out of the equation by putting everything on nostr and adding sats payouts.. you have a system where people can enjoy their hobbies how they like, rather than what big corps will "allow".

The existing tournament bracket apps kinda suck on mobile, too. Very slow and unresponsive, and basically unusable in in-person situations where there's hundreds of people on the wifi. If something agnostic can be built that doesn't need to send/receive a lot of information, that would be killer imo.

Bolt.fun is doing a month-long nostr hackathon starting Oct 3rd, btw ;)

0 sats \ 1 reply \ @orthzar 16 Aug 2023

That's a good idea, I'll add it to the list.

That reminds me of a related idea I had: to use Nostr to replace game-servers entirely, using Nostr for matchmaking and to transmit game-state updates between clients. Multiple relays could be used to reduce the chance of connection issues.

Bolt.fun is doing a month-long nostr hackathon starting Oct 3rd, btw ;)

I'll check it out, thanks!

40 sats \ 0 replies \ @m00ninite 16 Aug 2023

That reminds me of a related idea I had: to use Nostr to replace game-servers entirely, using Nostr for matchmaking and to transmit game-state updates between clients. Multiple relays could be used to reduce the chance of connection issues.

I've also had this sort of idea! Though more for replacing the master server list, not for actual communication between server and client (I think that would be way too slow). You could run a Minecraft server, for example, and publish to nostr where you're located, rather than relying on a centralized Microsoft server.

155 sats \ 0 replies \ @Bitcoiner1 16 Aug 2023

Trading could be a big distraction. Some people tries to make more Sats doing trading and 90% of them will loose their capital.

91 sats \ 0 replies \ @jtwoodhouse 16 Aug 2023

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236 sats \ 1 reply \ @Longtermwizard 16 Aug 2023

The price, but i understand that is a little bit difficult to arrive to that. Maybe the altcoins have something to do with this, don't you think?

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @birdeye21 OP 16 Aug 2023

yeah i think price can def dissuade you to more short term thinking, but in terms of newcomers getting the "signal" they need to understand bitcoin, I do think seeing and understanding the fiat price is a critical part of that

21 sats \ 0 replies \ @SpaceHodler 16 Aug 2023

And let’s be honest — Bitcoin wouldn’t be very cool if the price only went down..

Sure. Its price going to infinity asymptotically is essential for it to be cool. But that doesn't mean short term volatility isn't noise.

21 sats \ 0 replies \ @jtwoodhouse 16 Aug 2023

On-chain analysis.

22 sats \ 0 replies \ @melvincarvalho 16 Aug 2023

Alt coin propaganda

21 sats \ 0 replies \ @2bithits 16 Aug 2023

Price predictions

21 sats \ 0 replies \ @Bear 17 Aug 2023

$$ price

17 sats \ 1 reply \ @kim 16 Aug 2023

tits

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @birdeye21 OP 16 Aug 2023

not sure that's just a bitcoin distraction

10 sats \ 0 replies \ @wikparclones 16 Aug 2023

Thr biggest is the Leverage Trader... They doing blame a lot of things #bitcoin one of them 😅

21 sats \ 1 reply \ @oraltosun 16 Aug 2023

Bitcoin needs mass adoption. But, unfortunately only 67% of the World population have a chance to reach internet connection.

43 sats \ 0 replies \ @Undisciplined 16 Aug 2023

We're pretty far away from that being our bottleneck

140 sats \ 10 replies \ @nullcount 16 Aug 2023

Pretty much everything bitcoiners have made in the last 3 years:

Stacker News: let's see how much time we can make bitcoiner's waste for a pittance of sats
eCash Mints: Let's make custodial BTC more private, oh wait, custodians don't want their users to have privacy. I'm amazed ecash tokens don't get more hate for being custodial IOU shitcoins.
Nostr: Let's build (another) censorship resistant protocol where only the people who are censored will post and there's so much spam you'll wish it was at least somewhat censorable. Meanwhile only a handful of relays actually hold most the data.
Inscriptions/Stamps: Let's make a cheaper / more persistent way to anchor data on chain (wait, that's actually kinda useful) but let's use it to mint shitcoins and NFTs.

13 sats \ 8 replies \ @birdeye21 OP 16 Aug 2023

distraction: spending energy on any and every opportunity available to "criticize" rather than solve

if earning sats on SN is a waste, what are you doing here?

0 sats \ 7 replies \ @nullcount 16 Aug 2023

So your critique of my critique is, I should go fix it myself or stop using it. Super.

121 sats \ 1 reply \ @premitive1 16 Aug 2023

Nah, the critique here seems to be that you're calling a distraction am activity you actively participate in. In asking, "what are you doing here?" The commenter doesn't conclude, but rather creates space for you to explain why you like to distract yourself from important things.

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @nullcount 16 Aug 2023

It wouldn't be a good distraction if it wasn't effective.

0 sats \ 1 reply \ @birdeye21 OP 16 Aug 2023

nah just ask yourself if using my every post to "critique" this platform you're logging onto every day is the best use of your energy

i can appreciate hot takes but you don't offer anything constructive, it's just negativity

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @nullcount 16 Aug 2023

I spend a few seconds posting hot takes and it drains minutes or maybe hours of other's collective time reading and responding to them.

If that isn't peak distraction technology, IDK what is.

0 sats \ 2 replies \ @birdeye21 OP 16 Aug 2023

21 sats \ 1 reply \ @nullcount 16 Aug 2023

At this time, I just want to protest, thanks.

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @nemo 16 Aug 2023

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0 sats \ 0 replies \ @k00b 16 Aug 2023

😢

100 sats \ 0 replies \ @orthzar 16 Aug 2023

One such distraction is all the social media influencers who claim to be Bitcoiners. They are eager to shill companies whose services only serve to separate you from your keys/coins. And they often say things that are counterproductive to the adoption of Bitcoin (e.g. S2F).

The Bitcoin influencer scene is undoubtedly some sort of informal pyramid/MLM scheme. They usually interview each other on their podcasts, to give each other exposure to each-other's audiences. Hopefully it will all be wiped out during the upcoming global depression.

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @teodor 17 Aug 2023

Bitcoin compared to USD... It shouldn't be. For example, EUR price isn't always compared to USD, but only when traded on Forex market! Then, why BTC should always be compared...? 🤔

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @AllCatsAreEvil 16 Aug 2023

Anything bells and whistles - if it's not directly about the disintermediation of the banking system it's noise.

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @f6287b82CC84bcbd 16 Aug 2023

Beginners but they are also important for adoption.

That is beginners doing the following:

Trading in an effort to make more dollars.
Shitcoining and shitcoiners

The above is where people possibly would lose their money and get disenfranchised