9 ms·

Honestly do people still care about Bitcoin? Is it still a thing?

brighton36 11y ago
I'm pretty sure it's just a run of the mill MLM going through it's last stages. You have to be a certain kind of stupid to think Bitcoin could possibly work.
- crimsonalucard 11y ago
  >You have to be a certain kind of stupid to think Bitcoin could possibly work. We live in a society where everyone is stupid. People in our society will essentially give you things for free in exchange for green paper. It all works out because everybody is an idiot. You may have been ripped off for your services in exchange for green paper, but because you can always safely rip off some other idiot with your useless wads of green paper, everything is a-ok. The economy works because of mutual stupidity. Bitcoin is not an MLM. But to get it to work people need to work on being stupid together. When I say hey, I'm going to sell you this worthless data on my computer called Bitcoin for $50, everyone else needs to say "Yes, I buy." When everyone participates in this idiocracy then bitcoin works. Which goes full circle to your original statement. >You have to be a certain kind of stupid to think Bitcoin could possibly work.
  - asdf99 11y ago
    while this is true, there was always transitional periods that you ignore. paper was once issued by a bank clerk while taking your gold or other goods. the govt started to issue them and allowed you to exchange back to gold at any time. eventually they undid all that. checks and credit cards also are tied very closely to existing monetary concepts to start off. bit coin start alone. that's why most people consider it crazy. when money was being adopted, if it failed you could still use the coin metal or exchange it to metal. if bit coin fail, though luck.
  - brighton36 11y ago
    I recognize that my intent was... obtuse. But look me up. These buttcoiners are fun to toy with. I didn't mean a word I said, I mostly wanted testingonprod to look stupid. Because he is.
    - dang 11y ago
      This kind of comment is not ok on Hacker News. Please don't do this here. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
kolev 11y ago
Those who are stuck with it still - they surely care. The rest - not really.
- grubles 11y ago
  Yep. No one cares...[0] [0]http://www.nasdaq.com/press-release/nasdaq-launches-enterprisewide-blockchain-technology-initiative-20150511-00485 http://www.nasdaq.com/press-release/nasdaq-launches-enterpri...
  - bduerst 11y ago
    All bitcoins are a blockchain, not all blockchains are bitcoins. That article doesn't even mention bitcoin once.
    - grubles 11y ago
      Maybe you should google colored coins then: https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Colored_Coins https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Colored_Coins "Colored coins allow you to store assets on the Bitcoin blockchain."
      - bduerst 11y ago
        What does that have to do with the article or VCs??
        brighton36 11y ago
        NASDAQ will be settling securities on Bitcoin, using the colored coin meta-protocol. The reason NASDAQ doesn't mention Bitcoin specifically is because it's a divisive word. This is also why many institutions say 'the blockchain' instead of Bitcoin.
        bduerst 11y ago
        But not all of Blockchain is Bitcoin, which was the point about VC money not going into Bitcoin and interest waning in Bitcoin.
stefanix 11y ago
Do people really care about cash? Is it still a thing? I mean what other way is there online that resembles cash transactions?
- testingonprod 11y ago
  As far as I'm concerned, Venmo, PayPal, Square Cash, Google Wallet, Apple Pay all work fine for me and are as good as cash for 99% of my daily use cases like buying coffee or spotting a friend some money :)
  - brighton36 11y ago
    Bitcoin mostly makes where the inefficiency of incumbent solutions is high. This is typically the case when routing value around regulatory encumberences and/or censorship. I'm sure you don't use tor 99% of the time either.
    - mpyne 11y ago
      "Efficiency" is not the thing Bitcoin is going to hang it hat on... Though yes, I'll grant you that Bitcoin certainly makes it easier to avoid financial regulations. So the next time I have to buy rocket launchers or chemical weapons I guess I'll keep it in mind, even if it does mean I have to be careful to avoid the next exit scam.
      - brighton36 11y ago
        Bitcoin is economically efficient for some markets, as is evidenced by its continued and growing use in those markets. If there were something more efficient to service these markets, that would be used instead. I doubt the market for weapons is terribly large in Bitcoin, but I'm sure you'll find some. The market for drugs however, is booming. As for exit scams, I'm sure you'll see decentralized alternatives to central stores at some point, which will remove that risk. While most Bitcoiners are completely absurd idealists, You should consider that you are also a bit absurdly denialist on the subject. Money is a religion, it tends to bring out that behavior in people.
timbowhite 11y ago
I've never understood Hacker New's (majority) vitriol towards Bitcoin. It's literally programmable money.
- seiji 11y ago
  Well, if money were defined by thousands of lines of poorly written C++ code and you had to run the same (bug-for-bug compatible) C++ code to use your money, then sure, programmable. Also, when the monetary policy needs to change, you need to take all the money offline for a stop-the-world updated coordinated over IRC or even Reddit. And it's "money" only in the sense it's an artificially scarce resource/reward created for wasting electricity to find magic numbers. Not entirely stable in the long term (as we've seen with 2-5 recent proposals to "fix it" in the past few months).
  - brighton36 11y ago
    Man, you wouldn't have believed what maintaining sendmail was like. You're new to the Internet. :) Though I agree that Bitcoin isn't money. If it were money, Michel Espinoza would have to go to jail. It's more like beaver pelts - a commodity
    - yc1010 11y ago
      He must not have been around the internet in the 90s, kids nowadays have it easy, powerful+cheap hardware, great+highly diverse ecosystem of languages and tools, years and years of progressive improvement to everything from email to web to networks. Many of the arguments made against bitcoin remind me of shit I heard in 90s against the web But yeh the parent post is correct, the vitrol against bitcoin on HN is misplaced and downright strange, bitcoin is not perfect (neither was HTTP once upon a time) but as per article its evolving and improving and it sure as hell is interesting and innovative. Anyways I probably will be downvoted, any time i get involved in Bitcoin threads its a if there is an army of paid downvoters whose boat and job bitcoin threatens, digital Luddites if you wish.
      - 11y ago
agenthumble 11y ago
$700M YTD from VCs. Someone still cares.
- this_user 11y ago
  Pets.com collected $300 million before imploding.
  - yc1010 11y ago
    http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/07/06/would-you-like-some-dog-food-with-your-diapers/ http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/07/06/would-you-like-some... > Wag.com, introduced Wednesday, sells 10,000 pet items like food, litter, toys, clothing and grooming supplies. Quidsi, which was acquired by Amazon.com for $500 million last year, also runs Diapers.com for baby supplies, Soap.com for drugstore items and BeautyBar.com for cosmetics.
  - itsnotlupus 11y ago
    Incidentally, I've been buying all my dog food online for a few years. Giant bags of dog food with free shipping. And nowadays my little USPS lady has to carry them up the stairs on Sundays. I think she might hate me, but I don't think Amazon is going out of business.

I'm pretty sure it's just a run of the mill MLM going through it's last stages. You have to be a certain kind of stupid to think Bitcoin could possibly work.

crimsonalucard 11y ago
>You have to be a certain kind of stupid to think Bitcoin could possibly work. We live in a society where everyone is stupid. People in our society will essentially give you things for free in exchange for green paper. It all works out because everybody is an idiot. You may have been ripped off for your services in exchange for green paper, but because you can always safely rip off some other idiot with your useless wads of green paper, everything is a-ok. The economy works because of mutual stupidity. Bitcoin is not an MLM. But to get it to work people need to work on being stupid together. When I say hey, I'm going to sell you this worthless data on my computer called Bitcoin for $50, everyone else needs to say "Yes, I buy." When everyone participates in this idiocracy then bitcoin works. Which goes full circle to your original statement. >You have to be a certain kind of stupid to think Bitcoin could possibly work.
- asdf99 11y ago
  while this is true, there was always transitional periods that you ignore. paper was once issued by a bank clerk while taking your gold or other goods. the govt started to issue them and allowed you to exchange back to gold at any time. eventually they undid all that. checks and credit cards also are tied very closely to existing monetary concepts to start off. bit coin start alone. that's why most people consider it crazy. when money was being adopted, if it failed you could still use the coin metal or exchange it to metal. if bit coin fail, though luck.
- brighton36 11y ago
  I recognize that my intent was... obtuse. But look me up. These buttcoiners are fun to toy with. I didn't mean a word I said, I mostly wanted testingonprod to look stupid. Because he is.
  - dang 11y ago
    This kind of comment is not ok on Hacker News. Please don't do this here. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

kolev 11y ago

Those who are stuck with it still - they surely care. The rest - not really.

grubles 11y ago
Yep. No one cares...[0] [0]http://www.nasdaq.com/press-release/nasdaq-launches-enterprisewide-blockchain-technology-initiative-20150511-00485 http://www.nasdaq.com/press-release/nasdaq-launches-enterpri...
- bduerst 11y ago
  All bitcoins are a blockchain, not all blockchains are bitcoins. That article doesn't even mention bitcoin once.
  - grubles 11y ago
    Maybe you should google colored coins then: https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Colored_Coins https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Colored_Coins "Colored coins allow you to store assets on the Bitcoin blockchain."
    - bduerst 11y ago
      What does that have to do with the article or VCs??
      - brighton36 11y ago
        NASDAQ will be settling securities on Bitcoin, using the colored coin meta-protocol. The reason NASDAQ doesn't mention Bitcoin specifically is because it's a divisive word. This is also why many institutions say 'the blockchain' instead of Bitcoin.
        bduerst 11y ago
        But not all of Blockchain is Bitcoin, which was the point about VC money not going into Bitcoin and interest waning in Bitcoin.

stefanix 11y ago

Do people really care about cash? Is it still a thing? I mean what other way is there online that resembles cash transactions?

testingonprod 11y ago
As far as I'm concerned, Venmo, PayPal, Square Cash, Google Wallet, Apple Pay all work fine for me and are as good as cash for 99% of my daily use cases like buying coffee or spotting a friend some money :)
- brighton36 11y ago
  Bitcoin mostly makes where the inefficiency of incumbent solutions is high. This is typically the case when routing value around regulatory encumberences and/or censorship. I'm sure you don't use tor 99% of the time either.
  - mpyne 11y ago
    "Efficiency" is not the thing Bitcoin is going to hang it hat on... Though yes, I'll grant you that Bitcoin certainly makes it easier to avoid financial regulations. So the next time I have to buy rocket launchers or chemical weapons I guess I'll keep it in mind, even if it does mean I have to be careful to avoid the next exit scam.
    - brighton36 11y ago
      Bitcoin is economically efficient for some markets, as is evidenced by its continued and growing use in those markets. If there were something more efficient to service these markets, that would be used instead. I doubt the market for weapons is terribly large in Bitcoin, but I'm sure you'll find some. The market for drugs however, is booming. As for exit scams, I'm sure you'll see decentralized alternatives to central stores at some point, which will remove that risk. While most Bitcoiners are completely absurd idealists, You should consider that you are also a bit absurdly denialist on the subject. Money is a religion, it tends to bring out that behavior in people.

timbowhite 11y ago

I've never understood Hacker New's (majority) vitriol towards Bitcoin. It's literally programmable money.

seiji 11y ago
Well, if money were defined by thousands of lines of poorly written C++ code and you had to run the same (bug-for-bug compatible) C++ code to use your money, then sure, programmable. Also, when the monetary policy needs to change, you need to take all the money offline for a stop-the-world updated coordinated over IRC or even Reddit. And it's "money" only in the sense it's an artificially scarce resource/reward created for wasting electricity to find magic numbers. Not entirely stable in the long term (as we've seen with 2-5 recent proposals to "fix it" in the past few months).
- brighton36 11y ago
  Man, you wouldn't have believed what maintaining sendmail was like. You're new to the Internet. :) Though I agree that Bitcoin isn't money. If it were money, Michel Espinoza would have to go to jail. It's more like beaver pelts - a commodity
  - yc1010 11y ago
    He must not have been around the internet in the 90s, kids nowadays have it easy, powerful+cheap hardware, great+highly diverse ecosystem of languages and tools, years and years of progressive improvement to everything from email to web to networks. Many of the arguments made against bitcoin remind me of shit I heard in 90s against the web But yeh the parent post is correct, the vitrol against bitcoin on HN is misplaced and downright strange, bitcoin is not perfect (neither was HTTP once upon a time) but as per article its evolving and improving and it sure as hell is interesting and innovative. Anyways I probably will be downvoted, any time i get involved in Bitcoin threads its a if there is an army of paid downvoters whose boat and job bitcoin threatens, digital Luddites if you wish.
    - 11y ago

agenthumble 11y ago

$700M YTD from VCs. Someone still cares.

this_user 11y ago
Pets.com collected $300 million before imploding.
- yc1010 11y ago
  http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/07/06/would-you-like-some-dog-food-with-your-diapers/ http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/07/06/would-you-like-some... > Wag.com, introduced Wednesday, sells 10,000 pet items like food, litter, toys, clothing and grooming supplies. Quidsi, which was acquired by Amazon.com for $500 million last year, also runs Diapers.com for baby supplies, Soap.com for drugstore items and BeautyBar.com for cosmetics.
- itsnotlupus 11y ago
  Incidentally, I've been buying all my dog food online for a few years. Giant bags of dog food with free shipping. And nowadays my little USPS lady has to carry them up the stairs on Sundays. I think she might hate me, but I don't think Amazon is going out of business.