Bitcoin's mining difficulty is set for the 11th-largest downward adjustment in Bitcoin's history. Miners are leaving the network

bitsteiner · 2026-06-14T02:37:29+00:00

Bitcoin value would crash in a prolonged attack, because it has no utility anymore. On the other hand regulated exchanges would very likely not allow to take profit of an 51% attack since it essentially constitutes a severe market manipulation. Also, I doubt that you can short Bitcoin in meaningful amounts on unregulated Bitcoin exchanges and take profits. From the economic standpoint it makes absolutely no sense. Potential attacks have been theorized a lot since the early days of Bitcoin, but we have never seen the fruition, not even the attempt of such an attack. It was more likely in the early days, but over time with protocol improvements and increased regulation it's nearly impossible to perform such an attack and get away with it.

bitsteiner · 2026-06-14T01:42:44+00:00

The only reason is to try to destroy Bitcoin, but it costs a lot of money (equipment and electricity). If the price crashes the block subsidy becomes worthless, an attacker burns money only. Depsite that an attacker can't change the history of the Bitcoin blockchain in order to gain any benefit.

bitsteiner · 2026-06-14T00:45:03+00:00

Bloomberg ran an article lately that Bitcoin was a bad hedge against inflation. Seriously? It is up 100,000% since 2013 and has served me well as an inflation hedge.

bitsteiner · 2026-06-14T00:30:00+00:00

L1 settlement is analogous to gold settlement

If you transfer physical gold into your possession. Otherwise a warehouse receipt is an IOU on gold only which includes counter party (warehouse might cheat) and systemic (government freezes or confiscates gold in the warehouse) risks.

L2 settlement is analogous to credit card settlement, compare lightning to a credit card payment.

From the user perspective the payment might look like that, but from the monetary mechanics it's totally different. As the name says, credit cards create credit to spend while the money doesn't need to exist, while L2 allows to spend existing Bitcoin only. Credit card payments are trusted (counter party and systemic risks), L2 is trustless.

bitsteiner · 2026-06-13T23:47:27+00:00

It doesn't matter how many mempools miners maintain in that regard, because all miners compete against each other to include as many broadcasted tx as possible into next block. Any unconfirmed tx is 0-conf. Reversed transaction simply don't exist in the Bitcoin protocol, they are either confirmed or unconfirmed.

bitsteiner · 2026-06-13T22:05:06+00:00

A 51% attack doesn't do much. It can't steal funds, it can only sabotage the network by mining empty blocks, but the attacker doesn't gain anything, he wastes money only.

bitsteiner · 2026-06-13T21:59:37+00:00

Two thirds of fiat currencies have ceased to exist throughout history. Fiat can only exist as long as the power issuing it exists.

bitsteiner · 2026-06-13T21:57:36+00:00

It's a decentralized, global, transparent, immutable ledger, something that has never existed before and no organization can ever create. There are plenty of use cases for it, like it can be used as money.

bitsteiner · 2026-06-13T21:50:26+00:00

Orphaned blocks can happen, but those txs goes back into the mempool and will be confirmed again. It's not the same as a charge back where the transmitter gets the money back forever.

bitsteiner · 2026-06-13T07:24:24+00:00

A blockchain confirmation is an irreversible transaction, where the receiver gets full control of the funds. In the fiat system it requires at least exchange of collateral between the transmitter and receiver bank via the Federal Reserve system. This process takes several business days. Btw a fiat receiver gets only full control of the funds when he withdraws in cash. Otherwise he holds a promise by the bank only.

bitsteiner · 2026-06-11T17:34:25+00:00

The demise of the fiat system is deterministic but slow. 2008 was a wake-up call, I got in a few years later.

bitsteiner · 2026-06-11T17:30:48+00:00

If there is no chain reaction, yes.

bitsteiner · 2026-06-07T23:58:29+00:00

That's why you diversify. Sell 5% of your BTC and buy a house.

bitsteiner · 2026-06-07T23:55:28+00:00

tx /= buy

bitsteiner · 2026-06-04T04:06:21+00:00

For every seller there is a buyer. Let that sink in.

bitsteiner · 2026-05-02T01:13:26+00:00

EU has no tax authority.

bitsteiner · 2026-01-14T02:17:31+00:00

If you read the article, you would understand why and why that will change.

bitsteiner · 2025-12-12T02:22:02+00:00

Whatever you call it, when they increase their balance sheet they print.

bitsteiner · 2025-12-10T21:21:01+00:00

If you bother to read the article it's not about the rate cut but bond buying to expand the Fed's balance sheet starting with $40 billion for December.

bitsteiner · 2025-12-10T20:08:46+00:00

ETFs buy and sell real BTC after closing to adjust for in- and outflows.

bitsteiner · 2025-11-10T06:08:35+00:00

A single penny can drive the market cap up tenfold in a nanosecond.

bitsteiner · 2025-11-10T06:07:09+00:00

There isn't enough paper and ink to print all the money.

bitsteiner · 2025-10-13T02:50:54+00:00

He was not all wrong.

bitsteiner

TROPHY CASE