9 ms·

Do you believe that bitcoin is useful as an actual currency? As far as I can tell, its only use is to buy drugs and other illegal things online.

stronglikedan 7y ago
I buy legal things online and use Bitcoin occasionally. Especially on sites that give a discount for using it.
hombre_fatal 7y ago
"Digital cash" is really the best way to explain the uses of it. Cash is still useful as well. And, equally, don't fall into the cashless utopia "why would anyone want to use cash except criminals?!" trap either.
- elcomet 7y ago
  all transactions are public, so to me it looks more like the opposite of cash..
nighthawk24 7y ago
Bitcoin Cash adoption is growing around the world for restaurants https://map.bitcoin.com/ https://map.bitcoin.com/
- littlestymaar 7y ago
  I've always been puzzled when I heard about shops accepting bitcoin: how to they deal with double spending?
  - j_shi 7y ago
    Wait for enough confirmations where the payment becomes unlikely to reverse, which of course takes time and that's the more practical blocker for regular shops to accept Bitcoin.
    - littlestymaar 7y ago
      They aren't doing that, in places I've seen, they just take your payment and let you go away with that. (I've never paid myself, but I've seen other customers do so) If it's raw bitcoin, they couldn't even be sure that the transaction is a valid one (that the wallet has the funds in the first place, not even talking about double spending). I suspect they use some kind of third party like Coinbase, and that there aren't really using bitcoin at all (and just use Coinbase as a bank) but I'm not sure.
      - nighthawk24 7y ago
        https://www.reddit.com/r/btc/comments/dry028/hows_an_bch_0_conf_is_more_reliable_than_an/f6lqnbf https://www.reddit.com/r/btc/comments/dry028/hows_an_bch_0_c...
        littlestymaar 7y ago
        Thanks. I'm not sure I understood the answer given in the specific post you're liking to (or at least, I don't see how it answers my question). A following response linked to this story: https://www.ccn.com/bitcoin-atm-double-spenders-police-need-help-identifying-four-criminals/ https://www.ccn.com/bitcoin-atm-double-spenders-police-need-... which gives a pretty good answer.
        nighthawk24 7y ago
        There are 2 approaches to Bitcoin Network usage in play. Bitcoin Core team went with RBF(Replace-By-Fee) which gives rise to the double spending problem as the funds can be re-directed before a transaction gets in to a block. And Bitcoin Cash protocol implementation removed the RBF to support trust in 0-confirmation. There are even more optimizations in BCH implementation of Bitcoin, you can review it here https://cash.coin.dance/development https://cash.coin.dance/development
        littlestymaar 7y ago

stronglikedan 7y ago

I buy legal things online and use Bitcoin occasionally. Especially on sites that give a discount for using it.

hombre_fatal 7y ago

"Digital cash" is really the best way to explain the uses of it. Cash is still useful as well. And, equally, don't fall into the cashless utopia "why would anyone want to use cash except criminals?!" trap either.

elcomet 7y ago
all transactions are public, so to me it looks more like the opposite of cash..

nighthawk24 7y ago

Bitcoin Cash adoption is growing around the world for restaurants https://map.bitcoin.com/ https://map.bitcoin.com/

littlestymaar 7y ago
I've always been puzzled when I heard about shops accepting bitcoin: how to they deal with double spending?
- j_shi 7y ago
  Wait for enough confirmations where the payment becomes unlikely to reverse, which of course takes time and that's the more practical blocker for regular shops to accept Bitcoin.
  - littlestymaar 7y ago
    They aren't doing that, in places I've seen, they just take your payment and let you go away with that. (I've never paid myself, but I've seen other customers do so) If it's raw bitcoin, they couldn't even be sure that the transaction is a valid one (that the wallet has the funds in the first place, not even talking about double spending). I suspect they use some kind of third party like Coinbase, and that there aren't really using bitcoin at all (and just use Coinbase as a bank) but I'm not sure.
    - nighthawk24 7y ago
      https://www.reddit.com/r/btc/comments/dry028/hows_an_bch_0_conf_is_more_reliable_than_an/f6lqnbf https://www.reddit.com/r/btc/comments/dry028/hows_an_bch_0_c...
      - littlestymaar 7y ago
        Thanks. I'm not sure I understood the answer given in the specific post you're liking to (or at least, I don't see how it answers my question). A following response linked to this story: https://www.ccn.com/bitcoin-atm-double-spenders-police-need-help-identifying-four-criminals/ https://www.ccn.com/bitcoin-atm-double-spenders-police-need-... which gives a pretty good answer.
        nighthawk24 7y ago
        There are 2 approaches to Bitcoin Network usage in play. Bitcoin Core team went with RBF(Replace-By-Fee) which gives rise to the double spending problem as the funds can be re-directed before a transaction gets in to a block. And Bitcoin Cash protocol implementation removed the RBF to support trust in 0-confirmation. There are even more optimizations in BCH implementation of Bitcoin, you can review it here https://cash.coin.dance/development https://cash.coin.dance/development
        littlestymaar 7y ago