Bitcoin is Stupid and Does Not Deserve an Emoji (blog post)

smallpatatas@lemm.ee to Technology@lemmy.world – 708 points –
thedabbler.patatas.ca

35 crypto companies got together to make a change dot org petition called "Bitcoin Deserves an Emoji".

F that

366

You are viewing a single comment

Short reminder that Bitcoin was created as a reaction on the world finance crisis and to allow people like Assange to receive donations, because PayPal and similar just blocked them...

That does not mean that Botcoin is perfect, but: If the alternative system was perfect, there was not bitcoin.

Now, do we need an emoji? I don't care TBH..

I don't mind a system like bitcoin existing but bitcoin itself has way too many problems to be useful and actually is detrimental to the environment. It takes way too long to process a transaction, it is massively energy intensive for what it is, and it's been hyped up like the Californian gold Rush.

Sure it was created to solve a problem but it doesn't actually solve that problem very effectively. It also introduces an infinite number of new problems that no other currency system has ever experienced.

It also introduces an infinite number of new problems that no other currency system has ever experienced.

Infinite problems, eh? Can you name like 10?

Bitcoin is terrible for that though. High transaction fees, slow transaction speeds, everyone can see your balances and transactions (and with KYC requirements it's very easy to link a wallet and a coin to a person).

Monero is the only digital currency worth having.

Monero is great. Except for the fact that when the dev team dislikes what miners are doing, they introduce a new arbitrary rule, and everyone just goes with it. Having a process to introduce such changes unilaterally is a bug that needs to be fixed first.

Also, there's a lightning network which allows you to transact bitcoin fast and cheap. Although the privacy aspect is still not solved there.

No! Bitcoin is a scam created by scammers! Don't look at state currencies!!!! \s

This is like saying "laws aren't always enforced equally, so we should have no laws whatsoever". Bitcoin is not a helpful response.

I think, whether it's helpful is an individual decision. E.g. for people in Turkey, it's a lot more stable than their own currency. Same logic for probably dozens of other countries...

Maybe, it's not useful for you, but that's OK. No one is trying to replace your currency with it and force you to use it.

Bitcoin's "value" in USD terms has dropped ~20% in the last few days, so I'm not sure we can call it 'stable'

In 1998 the USD fell like 20% vs the yen, currencies don't always stay the same value vs. other currencies

Bitcoin regularly loses 85% of its "value" vs USD

85%

This has happened multiple times

The swings were bigger when the market cap was smaller, this is usually the case. The market cap of the yen is much bigger still.

Turns out you're right, BTC price only went down 77% from the 2021 peak, my mistake /s

Turkey's currency dropped 83% in the last 5 years and 94% in 10 years (per USD). And by the way: It dropped and did not rise the same amount ever again...

Why can't we just agree that different people might have different views whether it's useful for them?

Is it more stable compared to USD? No. Is it more stable compared to dozens of other currencies? Yes.

I think, there are very good arguments against BTC, for example the energy consunption... But whether it's too risky for you or not... That's highly subjective IMO. There is no country on this planet with only BTC as official currency. So, no one is forced to hold 100% of their total money in BTC.

So the argument is no longer "Bitcoin provides stability" or whatever, but instead is, "it's no more unstable than the world's most unstable national currency"?

Please tell me where I (or anyone) wrote "Bitcoin provides stability" without comparing it to another currency....

I assume, arguing with you is an endless circle where you argue against fake arguments that no one has brought up. I'll therefore end this here. Why are you like this?

Hey look, I wasn't the one that wrote this:

"E.g. for people in Turkey, it’s a lot more stable than their own currency. Same logic for probably dozens of other countries…"

Is the "dozens of other countries" statement something you no longer stand behind, or are you done being rude?