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Topic: Bitcoin in the Headlines: The Chicken and Egg Debate (Read 802 times)

legendary
Activity: 2506
Merit: 1030
Twitter @realmicroguy
Otherwise don't you just have nodes managed by a centralized authority confirming transactions.

Bitcoins decentralized nature is a myth perpetuated by people for reasons unknown. I think sometimes folks get transparency confused with autonomy.

If the ruler of the united states wanted to eradicate cash circulating in the supply, he would not have the power. The core developer(s) of bitcoin have that power.
legendary
Activity: 929
Merit: 1000
When I first heard the name bitcoin I assumed it was something like a normal coin. It was only later that I realized it was more complicated than that. Bitcoin is a very clever name that hides the complexity behind the concept for first time users. If bitcoins are transactions, then I would say the first 50 were mined and entered into the blockchain at exactly the same time the blockchain was created. You cannot have a blockchain without transactions in it, and the first 50 bitcoins were the first transaction.
sr. member
Activity: 469
Merit: 250
J
Are not the bitcoins the incentive for managing and confirming transactions on the blockchain?

Otherwise don't you just have nodes managed by a centralized authority confirming transactions.
legendary
Activity: 4410
Merit: 4788
It's not really a chicken and egg debate, what came first doesn't matter one bit.

A better analogy would be "the motorcar and petrol"  - One can't fulfill its potential without the other.

It's not really a "motorcar and petrol" debate, since many modern cars can run without gasoline.  Cheesy
Why did the Bitcoin cross the road....?

well. maybe it is a motorcar and petrol debate.. bitcoin being the diesel.. litecoin being unleaded petrol and banks want to make the hyro-electric....
legendary
Activity: 2114
Merit: 1040
A Great Time to Start Something!
It's not really a chicken and egg debate, what came first doesn't matter one bit.

A better analogy would be "the motorcar and petrol"  - One can't fulfill its potential without the other.

It's not really a "motorcar and petrol" debate, since many modern cars can run without gasoline.  Cheesy
Why did the Bitcoin cross the road....?
legendary
Activity: 1122
Merit: 1017
ASMR El Salvador
"Contrary to popular belief, there is indeed a definite answer [to the Chicken and Egg debate]"
Read: http://www.megafoundation.org/CTMU/Articles/Which.html
Q7
sr. member
Activity: 448
Merit: 250
Well my initial though was that it must have the blockchain in place first and then only the bitcoin comes later part right? But the more I think about it, it gets more and more complicated. I guess at this stage it doesn't matter whether the blockchain or bitcoin comes first right?
Vod
legendary
Activity: 3668
Merit: 3010
Licking my boob since 1970
It's the classic philosopher's dilemma, the chicken and egg. Which came first?

This is not a classic dilemma at all.  All chickens must come from eggs.  So the egg had to of come first.

The egg that hatched the first chicken was laid by an animal that wasn't a chicken.  Evolution happens all the time.
legendary
Activity: 1218
Merit: 1007
Such debate is totally nonsense, it's not the relationship like chicken and eggs. Blockchain and bitcoin can't be separated.

Blockchain is a technology and can easily be separated and used for some other purposes too.
I have seen some companies adopting blockchain itself rather than going for Bitcoins.
sr. member
Activity: 322
Merit: 250
Such debate is totally nonsense, it's not the relationship like chicken and eggs. Blockchain and bitcoin can't be separated.
legendary
Activity: 3248
Merit: 1070
bitcoins are not database entries.. they are not stored value.. they are simply list of transactions..

what i mean by this is there is not database that says fred owns 26btc, dierdre owns 24btc.. what bitcoin is, is simply a list of transactions of movements. thus the blockchain (chain of blocks of transactions) IS bitcoin

the blockchain is the secured ledger. there is no bitcoin without it

but there is blockchain without bitcoin, that's the point i guess, you can always replace bitcoin with something else, this is the reason for some bank starting the adoption of blockchain technolgy, they are not interestd in bitcoin, because they know that the fulcrum is not that but the decentralized ledger

i still think that the egg come first because it is a cell, we know that the life originated from a cell
legendary
Activity: 4410
Merit: 4788
bitcoins are not database entries.. they are not stored value.. they are simply list of transactions..

what i mean by this is there is not database that says fred owns 26btc, dierdre owns 24btc.. what bitcoin is, is simply a list of transactions of movements. thus the blockchain (chain of blocks of transactions) IS bitcoin

the blockchain is the secured ledger. there is no bitcoin without it
legendary
Activity: 1188
Merit: 1016
It's not really a chicken and egg debate, what came first doesn't matter one bit.

A better analogy would be "the motorcar and petrol"  - One can't fulfill its potential without the other.
hero member
Activity: 896
Merit: 1000
It's the classic philosopher's dilemma, the chicken and egg. Which came first? And how do you make sense of being stuck in that unknowing middle?

For the media and the general public, debates in the bitcoin space are often muddled in the same confusion – 'Can you have the blockchain without bitcoin?' 'Is the protocol safe even if bitcoin businesses are not?' and 'Who made this thing anyway and why can't we ask them?'

Such is the struggle of making sense of a technology that seems to have emerged as a fully formed chicken in the financial barnyard.

But, while it's natural that the media are out for their answers to these questions, this week's reporting illustrates how the search for answers is often betrayed by life's complexity.

source: http://www.coindesk.com/bitcoin-in-the-headlines-the-chicken-and-egg-debate/
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