pull down to refresh
22 sats \ 7 replies \ @OriginalSize 8 Mar \ on: Bitcoin Users... and *especially* Lightning users live in a Total Bubble (sofar) bitcoin
Doesn't really bother me. Bitcoin is here for the people who need it. Many of them are going to exhaust every other option first. Those with foresight can hold it for them and be paid well for the service.
reply
There is a reason why we don't see the vendors and the merchant adoption. We should see a lot more than we currently do in my opinion.
It doesn't take 'a lot' of brain cells to figure proof-of-work (energy) and decentralized fixed-supply-predictable issuance to have sound economic terms on a smart-phone.
Everyone would want that.
Instead we've got 'crypto-scams' and we should be moving past that by now.
It's 'here for people who need it' but there's a reason why the Uber driver has never heard of it/can't accept it.
reply
History tells me that big innovations don't reach their most beneficial effects for centuries to decades. The pace has increased but still some things only advance as the old guard dies. We're probably going to be in the stacking phase for quite a few more years.
reply
Or, USA as the global leader in democracy, governance, rule of law, wealth, financial markets and military power is in terminal decline and increasingly corrupt.
China is rising and will take advantage of the corrupt crony capitalist idiocracy farce Trump is delivering.
Bitcoin may or not survive the decline of western civilisation.
Even most Bitcoiners now see Bitcoin as a speculative commodity, not a P2P payment protocol.
Most Bitcoiners are KYCed and taxed.
At current rates most Bitcoin will be held under institutional custody within 5 years...and there it will be explicitly excluded from use as a P2P payments protocol.
The revolution that sought to respond to the corrupt neoliberal deregulated bankers and market fixers who delivered the GFC has now been Occupied by the Libertarian next generation of rentseeking market fixers and they now Occupy The White House.
reply
I am hopeful that people (a lot more people) will figure out Bitcoin and separate it from 'crypto.' I am also hopeful... that eventually it will be used Peer to Peer regularly and Lightning will be 'common'. Used in commerce all the time and 'capital markets' similar to 'gold coins' from hundreds or thousands of years ago...
But the education is desperately missing, and that opens the door for unethical actors, misinformation, and unfortunately scams to proliferate.
It's decentralized with no 'leadership' or 'marketing team'... but that means progress is really, really slow and eternal September.
reply
I am still hopeful too as the protocol has already demonstrated incredible success given the radical nature of the change it represents.
The forces seeking to obstruct Bitcoins use as a MoE are however considerable as are those who see it as simply a speculative commodity plaything.
If enough people want the freedom and monetary integrity it offers it should survive and continue to develop.
Bitcoin at 60% of the entire market cap shows the learning process is ongoing.
Regarding LN it has become a lot easier to use and I think many who tried it a few years ago may not realise it is now much more functional-reliable. There is a fair chance it can now grow in adoption...whereas early on it was not easy to use.
reply
Stacker news (and Nostr too I guess) gives me hope. As do things like... Bitrefill and even some of the Lightning-gambling sites because they're pretty close to permission-less.
I think that the Trump administration... is radial and incompetent enough to actually give Bitcoin a shot not because they understand it but because they're like a bull in a China shop so anything is possible.
And yes I agree if people want it enough (the freedom and integrity) then it will succeed.