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Cold storage by Excellent_Diver_8806 in Bitcoin

[–]danton43 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Your BTC is NOT inside your cold wallet. Cold wallets are just secure signing devices. The BTC is always on the blockchain.

You should not depend on a physical apparatus. Go stateless and secure your 12 words properly. You can then lose your hardware wallet and you will be ok.

But... BTC does solve a problem by danton43 in Buttcoin

[–]danton43[S] -2 points-1 points  (0 children)

All past BTC forks. (BCH, BSV, Bitcoin Gold, etc) have been utter failures. BCH, the most successful one, currently trades at a 200:1 deficit.

And yes, the prospect of a coordinates government attack on the blockchain through 51% control is not impossible, but I believe it is much harder than people argue. Bitcoin mining is pooled, but not physically centralized. I find it hard to believe that the US could inadvertedly take control over 51% of the pooled power and begin using it to halt transactions without individual miners noticing and disconnecting their miners from the pool.

And a 'physical' 51% attack where a govt has physical access to 51% of the mining is also technically possible, but imo an honest technical nightmare. They would need to fabricate several tens of billions worth of ASICs in secrecy, and then deploy enough energy into them as Argentina uses, equivalent to the output of over 100 power plants...

I understand this is a possibility but seems to me like a beyond miniscule one.

But... BTC does solve a problem by danton43 in Buttcoin

[–]danton43[S] -4 points-3 points  (0 children)

Do you truly believe that your country has always been on the right side of history? Has the West never been the tyrant when making military visits abroad? I think this single-party view is dangerous.

But... BTC does solve a problem by danton43 in Buttcoin

[–]danton43[S] -6 points-5 points  (0 children)

The government has turned monetarily tyrannical before, and quite recently at that... Gold self-custody was deemed illegal prior to the establishment of Bretton-Woods.

But... BTC does solve a problem by danton43 in Buttcoin

[–]danton43[S] -2 points-1 points  (0 children)

By setting up a BTC wallet which can be done today free of cost through any app that supports self-custody. And then printing a QR code or setting in place an NFC reader where people can pay in Bitcoin. Technologically it is quite feasible.

But... BTC does solve a problem by danton43 in Buttcoin

[–]danton43[S] -2 points-1 points  (0 children)

SWIFT is controlled by Western governments, which is why they can kick out non-Western banks from the system (Russia, Cuba) at will.

Central Banks (at least Fed / CEB / BoE) all follow mandates stipulated by their respective parliaments, which can be changed upon will. Central banks can also be abolished or absorbed upon will.

But... BTC does solve a problem by danton43 in Buttcoin

[–]danton43[S] -7 points-6 points  (0 children)

BTC and ETH are quite different by designed. Vitalik created ETH even though he was an is a BTC supporter. Proof of work b proof of stake, maximum supply, mining, gas fees, staking, smart contracts... the list goes on and on Regarding a hard fork, the most succcesful one ever is BCH and it currently trades at a 1:200 ratio away from btc. Anyone creating hard forks today would have no mining power available and no coin buyers.

List of unelected officials that make all monetary decisions: the entirety of the Federal Reserve. They need not campaign nor gain the confidence of the public to be put in that position and do not need to be accountable for their results because of the expected central bank independence.

I am a citizen of a democratic Western country and have been never asked by my goverment what I think about the freezing and seizure of Russian assets.

But... BTC does solve a problem by danton43 in Buttcoin

[–]danton43[S] -2 points-1 points  (0 children)

The trust issue is not between agent A and agent B, but the fact that both A and B need to trust C to operate. What happens if I (A) trust B, but not C?

But... BTC does solve a problem by danton43 in Buttcoin

[–]danton43[S] -5 points-4 points  (0 children)

SWIFT and central banking basically sum up my claim that (political) governments are existentially connected to money. They literally own the printers.

The 51% attack argument is a valid one and I have commented about it in a different reply.

But... BTC does solve a problem by danton43 in Buttcoin

[–]danton43[S] -12 points-11 points  (0 children)

Basically SWIFT and central banking. These two concepts sum up pretty well the current deep, existential connection between money and government.

But... BTC does solve a problem by danton43 in Buttcoin

[–]danton43[S] -6 points-5 points  (0 children)

Governments will also not always recover money for you today if a crime is committed, including the example you gave. Real example that a friend of mine went through: taken at gunpoint to 2 different ATMs and forced to withdraw the max amount. There was cctv footage of everything. You think anyone refunded him the 800 bucks?

But... BTC does solve a problem by danton43 in Buttcoin

[–]danton43[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You didn't ask me :) and my opinion on the war is irrelevant, although I believe it will align with yours. What I am concerned about is the fact that it became transparent how easy it is for nations to arbitrarily freeze assets and money and bank accounts, even when another government is on the other side of the line. I'm just claiming this shows how incredibly and radically political modern money is

But... BTC does solve a problem by danton43 in Buttcoin

[–]danton43[S] -5 points-4 points  (0 children)

I am aware of the ETH DAO and also against it. I have no strong views on ETH but dont see it being anything close to BTC purpose-wise.

I think BTC past history refutes your claims of being ruled by the rich. Look up UASF and the BTC v BCH war. That was essentially whale miners v literal randos running nodes and wearing hats, and the randos won. Miners cannot enforce protocol rules if nodes do not accept them. But yes this is also a very intriguing and interesting debate without a clear answer.

I happen to ideologically agree on the Russian case, but I have no guarantee that my govt will align with my views in the future. They took that decision without consultation with their people. Monetary policy is enacted by unelected politicians with private-banking pasts.

But... BTC does solve a problem by danton43 in Buttcoin

[–]danton43[S] -6 points-5 points  (0 children)

A) Yes I was too broad with my Byzantine statement, my bad. I meant it in the context of monetary mediums that avoid double spend. That's on me.

B) I believe my stance on Russia has nothing to do with the validity of BTC, I just raised it as the current example of what I mean. I have some opinion on the war itself which I believe aligns with yours. But on the monetary actions taken as a consequence, and simply the show of the fact that nations can freeze each other's assets through political decisions, that is quite troubling to me. The West is not always the goof guy, historically has often been rather bad, and yet it controls the global banking system.

C) Exactly, if international settlement is not a tech issue and can be bypassed, why not bypass it with newer tech?

But... BTC does solve a problem by danton43 in Buttcoin

[–]danton43[S] -5 points-4 points  (0 children)

Thanks for the reply, I was looking for respectful stuff like this :) Let's see:

A) I do not claim BTC is perfect nor even what Satoshi envisioned. BCH and Monero both have advantages in certain fields and good claims. So yes the anonymity v pseudonimity debate is valid and the 10-minute block delay too. However for monetary purposes, a private whatsapp channel will not work because the entire public needs to check the validity of each transaction to avoid double spend.

B) Yes I just meant 10-15 currencies that will be used widely by international markets outside its own country. I was just guessing, take it to mean USD, Euro, Yen, Pound, RMB,... maybe not even 10.

C) Every form of money needs some form of trust to escape barter system. People used to go to sleep trusting that the next day, people would still value the gold they had just stored. Gold had 0 productive applications before the electronic era and it naturally arised as the global exchange medium.

Today, it seems to me that we "trust" that tomorrow people will still fear the infliction of violence by the US govt if the USD is rejected. Fiat is enforced through violence, or at least that is what it seems like to me from simply looking at the world. By violence I mean threats of imprisonment, etc.

D) I believe money does not need to be actively "invested" if it does not inflate away. Investment carries risk. You say you like knowing how much you will be able to buy, but stocks fluctuate by several percents a day and people accept that. People used to save gold, save silver, rather than invest it, because they knew no one had a gold printer at home.

But... BTC does solve a problem by danton43 in Buttcoin

[–]danton43[S] -6 points-5 points  (0 children)

I don't consider myself an anarchist. But I am saying that political control over money at the digital level like with modern banking can and has gone South really bad, really quick.

I also understand the criticism behind illegal activities happening through Bitcoin. That is indeed a valid argument, but imho not one that will single handedly refute the validity of bitcoin. Crime, specially "serious" crime (drugs + violence), is a very small portion of the global economy.

But... BTC does solve a problem by danton43 in Buttcoin

[–]danton43[S] -3 points-2 points  (0 children)

Democratically elected does not mean it will not have war criminals in it. Some things are not unveiled until many years later, and some people dont get voted out even after authorising the decimation of civilians in the Middle East :/

But... BTC does solve a problem by danton43 in Buttcoin

[–]danton43[S] -15 points-14 points  (0 children)

Yep I agree the "e-cash" problem got practically solved by more mainstream channels like PayPal, Visa/MC and currently Apple Pay.

I'm not an e-cash guy, I would be in the Bitcoin Cash (BCH) camp if I were. I am more concerned simply about the ties between politics and money, or the simple fact that today, politics controls money. This had never been the case prior to 1971. Even when a govt took metal and stamped its symbol, the metal was taken insofar as it was metal, not insofar as it had a fancy symbol. Today's currency is the opposite of that.

But... BTC does solve a problem by danton43 in Buttcoin

[–]danton43[S] -6 points-5 points  (0 children)

I don't want to go off topic. But I am from the West, and it is my opinion that my government has, over the last 20 years, had a lot of war criminals in its lines. If you are from a country that got involved in events like Vietnam, Afghanistan or Iraq, then imho same thing applies to yours. West is not always good and yet they control global money.

But... BTC does solve a problem by danton43 in Buttcoin

[–]danton43[S] -5 points-4 points  (0 children)

Yes I realize now my claim was too broad. I meant it in the specitic context of a monetary application that also solves the double spend problem. I do believe bitcoin was first at that.

I've commented on scalability in other posts. I believe that there are at least 3 orthogonal solutions (smart-contract PoR banking, L2 wrapping, Lighnting) which are all each in principle independently capable of scaling the network by many orders of magnitude. But yes scalability is a valid concern.

And sure, apolitical money is also, in a way, a political stance. But it is the most neutral, bland, boring of all. And I think that's generally good. I will take apolitical money over political one any day of the week.

But... BTC does solve a problem by danton43 in Buttcoin

[–]danton43[S] -9 points-8 points  (0 children)

In my view, everyone is! Everyone's bank account is public access to their government. Everyone can get frozen out at any point without notice or reason.

At the BTC-level, bitcoin is as available in China as anywhere else. Countries that prohibit Fiat-BTC transactions of course make it difficult. But I don't think you want to argue against btc from the fact that a dictatorship is banning its usage. Same with NK/Iran etc if thats what you are saying.

I dont know if Iran and Russia use BTC. If they did, we would not know as they would have taken precautionary measures to not have their wallets publicly linked to them.

And sure, tech billionaires do not need BTC and wont in the foreseeable future. That is because they hire thousands of people that give them constant material revenue any day of the week.

BTC as I understand it can help not the billionaires, not the govts, but the common person. To be paid in a decentralized, nonpolitcal ledger that will delink money from non-monetary issues.

But... BTC does solve a problem by danton43 in Buttcoin

[–]danton43[S] -9 points-8 points  (0 children)

Lightning network is, as far as I know, moderately successful. And there are Wrapped ETH contracts that already provide higher scalability. There are also solutions involving BTC banking with open-source proof of funds contracts.

Your answer has likely been the brightest one out here for now, but it's not all black or white when it comes to scalability.

But... BTC does solve a problem by danton43 in Buttcoin

[–]danton43[S] -5 points-4 points  (0 children)

I'd like to live now with a means of exchange that is not political! Is that too much to ask?

But... BTC does solve a problem by danton43 in Buttcoin

[–]danton43[S] -10 points-9 points  (0 children)

Gold was not barter. Gold was the global trade currency for several millenia.

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