Bitcoin has 'failed,' says one of its most prominent developers http://www.businessinsider.com.au/bitcoin-has-failed-says-developer-mike-hearn-xt-censorship-2016-1
Maybe, but it sounds pretty dire, even if he's exaggerating the problem: https://medium.com/@octskyward/the-resolution-of-the-bitcoin-experiment-dabb30201f7
It's reached Forbes: http://www.forbes.com/sites/theopriestley/2016/01/15/bitcoin-declared-an-inescapable-failure And to think people are worried about a stock market "panic" in 2016 that could make it plummet by 20% or something. A Bitcoin panic might crash the whole damn system: https://youtu.be/coDtzN6bXAM?t=1m9s Well, ok, maybe just bitcoin.
Hmm, my feel is that someone is trying to engineer another crash so he can buy more BTC? Pretty much the same with stock markets and the MSM?
There is a big difference. With paper currency people can hold it in their hands, they can and do use it trade every day, systems are in place the trade it instantly, both electronic and physically and have been so for decades, people trust it, it's the system they use to run their lives. On the other hand, if these transaction limits and consolidation of bitcoin power are correct, then it essentially becomes worthless for it's intended purpose as transactional currency. And hardly anyone trusts bitcoin, it's a new system that can fail and Joe Average wouldn't bat an eyelid.
Big drop indeed, and the timing of the drop is very interesting - amongst some general stockmarket carnage. I got out of bitcoin a while back as my strategy changed. I initially saw it as a currency that might thrive when other mainstream currencies falter, but I don't any more. I now think it is more useful as a tool for facilitating currency flight. I reckon it has been rallying in accordance with capital controls (and threat of more) being introduced in China and the Chinese are clearly the biggest players in the Bitcoin space. You could almost consider it a black market for the Yuan at present. I still reckon crypto-currency is the way of the future and Bitcoin is the best we've got, but I'm not parking any significant funds there any more. The guy writing the blog makes some good points but it looks pretty clear he is jaded about the fact that the XT faction lost the war over block size. He takes more than a few pot shots on his way out....
And after he left he went to work for the banks. Miners have voted, XT was not to be. Other improvements will come next, surely segregated witness and maybe Bitcoin classic. I don't believe it's dead at all.
You mean two Chinese who control over 50% of mining power voted. I think his points about the Chinese miner's reasons were well made.
But that ultimately is the point. Assuming he's right (I don't know the technical details), then Bitcoin will grind to a holt without XT or some similar thing to prop it back it. It will never become a tradeable currency in practice. A system that has a practical capability of 3 transactions a second is not a usable system on a wide scale. And as I gather, even if the limits are expanded, there is a still a problem with the block size and user bandwidth limits. The only thing that can save it with this small a transaction limit is as possible investment vehicle, which many (most?) seem to use it for.
lol theres more than 2 people, a pool is a large collection of individual miners. correct the 2 largest pools are in china. if people dont accept your rules you take your bat and ball and go home.... then work for the banks
I think he loses some credibility here. If he was truly passionate about crypto he would go work for one of the other multitude of crypto currencies, or even start his own. I have a technical background (though not claiming to be a crypto expert) and generally these sorts of technical limits can be overcome with infrastructure and/or code changes over time. Perhaps the core team isn't being utterly pro-active, but I don't think they will sit on their hands over the long run and let Bitcoin die because of them.
gavin is already working on classic and unlimited, i expect it to be resolved soon. its not a technical issue, more a political one in choosing which direction bitcoin development should go in. theres some irony that a decentralised currency is controlled by a few members of a core team.
It is, partially, still with more than 50% hashing power you can attempt an attack on the previous block only... Not really worth it unless there is a huge transaction there. Segregated witness will be equivalent to increasing the block size from 1MB to 2-4MB and at the same time will solve other issues like malleability. Classic will increase the block to 2MB. The urge to scaling the blockchain should not destroy it as a side effect. It's better to attempt a hard fork with segregated witness rather than with block size increase. It is a politicsl matter, but the entire process is still consensus based and the voters there are still the smartest in the room. If also bitcoin fails then, sorry, there is little hope going forward for human beings.
Also, if 51% of chines miners think it's time to kill the bitcoin... Let them do it. It's my loss and their loss at the same time. Chinese can still try to stuff their interiors with gold to bypass capital controls at the borders if they like it better.
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10905658 "Right now there are two forces dominating the Bitcoin community: the miners and those who are holding out on whatever magical unicorn rainbows makes the coins have value. The miners don't want to see changes to the software because it'll hurt their bottom line and the people holding and exchanging it want to see these changes so they can benefit. So as a result, Bitcoin has entered a war of attrition and is starting to show its problems."
So similar to gold, right? Magical unicorn rainbows give value to gold as well (disclosure: I own gold) Edit2: sorry Bron, I respect you and I read your posts on gold with great interest. But I took the time to read the link you took this excerpt from, and I have to say that this guy is either a troll or he has no clue of what he's talking about.
Yes, same as gold, but at least gold doesn't rely on political processes to allow me to transfer our unicorn rainbow value to you. Bitcoin the technology cannot be divorced from the social aspects inherent in a system reliant on volunteers and agreement, it then becomes political which is about power and not about the smarts of the voters on what is right technically.
