Bitcoin isn't the future of money -- it's either a Ponzi scheme or a pyramid scheme
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The bitcoin libertarian ponzi scheme defined with writing about Bitcoin is that the subject has become so emotional. The very name inspires triumph, greed, resentment, or fury. Triumph from those handful of hodlers yes, really who are watching the destiny they long foretold actually come true before their eyes.
Greed from those hundreds of thousands of newbies who just bought in. Those two groups are, of course, bitcoin believers. As someone enmeshed in the outskirts of the San Francisco hacker scene I know more than a few of those. And fury from those for whom Bitcoin represents tech bros busy fiddling with some kind of bullshit libertarian Internet money while all around us Rome is burning:.
Fuck your block chain Fuck your crypto currency Fuck your imaginary techno utopia built out of my burning world https: Those people are, to understate, bitcoin skeptics. But wait, it gets worse! The bad faith, and generally correct assumption of bad faith, among bitcoin conversationalists on Reddit is really something even for Reddit. Even many of the cryptorati are, shall we say, not always exactly redolent of good faith.
Even their most vicious critic would have to admit that they have had a truly extraordinary run over the last eight years. Bitcoin libertarian ponzi scheme defined good question to ask is: Is permissionless programmable money a fad which will go away?
Programmable money is too useful for people to give up on entirely, and permissionless money would now be very, very difficult to ban. Transactions can be fully anonymous, and while you could ban exchanges, exchanges are not bitcoin libertarian ponzi scheme defined necessary bitcoin libertarian ponzi scheme defined more. Is Bitcoin going to become the dominant global currency for daily transactions? Will financial institutions make more and more use of blockchains and programmable money?
To pick a single very simple example: Will financial institutions around the world wind up using Bitcoin as the global settlement currency? Major financial institutions are quite comfortable with requiring permission; in fact they very much prefer it. Will Bitcoin be replaced by a better cryptocurrency? This, if you ask me, is the most interesting question here, the one whose answer is not obvious. More chains are coming online every month.
Is it really so unlikely that Bitcoin will be supplanted? First, Bitcoin is a complete, complex, highly engineered cryptographic, economic, and software system and network, now thoroughly battle- and time-tested, with enormous mindshare and a thriving ecosystem.
Betting bitcoin libertarian ponzi scheme defined some new idea with a whitepaper is a bit like deciding that a dude folding paper airplanes for kids will one day beat Boeing; maybe, but awfully unlikely.
Second, thanks to the immense — horrifyingly immense — number of watts poured into it by miners every hour, it is, by far, the scarcest of all our digital scarcities. That second point is a little wobbly, though. Yes, the estimate that made the rounds recently is probably wildly off, but as its valuation grows, its power bitcoin libertarian ponzi scheme defined will grow too, as miners are more and more incentivized.
Second, even if Bitcoin succeeds, as Rusty Russell points out, people will want to change it e. So what are we left with? Does that mean its current valuation is justified in the long term? I can give you a very firm answer for that: Disclosure, since it seems requisite: I mostly avoid any financial interest, implicit or explicit, long or bitcoin libertarian ponzi scheme defined, in any cryptocurrency, so that I can write about them sans bias.
I do own precisely one bitcoin, though, which I purchased a couple of years ago because I bitcoin libertarian ponzi scheme defined silly not owning any while I was advising a since defunct Bitcoin-based company.
And fury from those for whom Bitcoin represents tech bros busy fiddling with some kind of bullshit libertarian Internet money while all around us Rome is burning: