Topic: Don't rely on Venture capital money - these guys don't know what they're doing (Read 4292 times)

Average Joe should use it for all of his online purchases through Amazon, Best Buy, Target, any retailer who sells gift cards through gyft.com. Why?
Because Joe gets 3% discount for using bitcoin, that's why. And Joe can insulate himself completely from bitcoin price fluctuations by converting USD->BTC at the time of purchase at a place like coinbase.

Why should the average Joe buy bitcoin and use it as a currency, if he is not interested in the use cases I just mentioned?

-because no fees? Volatility can fuck that over real good, so no point in saving 1-3% when you can lose 10-30% in a few days. You might argue that over time (IF bitcoin succeeds) volatility will gradually decrease. While I have doubts about that, in the long run bitcoin transaction fees will be higher anyway. I guess you know that miners “need to be paid” in order for bitcoin and the blockchain to exist, whether thanks to ridiculous inflation, or transaction fees. The blockchain is not gratis.
Peter Todd said it himself: “regarding fee economics, we’re fucked”.

If I am not mistaken, I believe that Amazon's original business plan was to build a $75 million platform designed specifically (and solely) to profit from people cashing out their Beenie Baby investment.

If I am not mistaken, I believe that Amazon's original business plan was to build a $75 million platform designed specifically (and solely) to profit from people cashing out their Beenie Baby investment.

Name one, really, just one large company (other than the producer) investing in Beanie Babies infrastructure - one of your favorite analogies for Bitcoin.

My main question still remained unanswered:

If there is no guarantee that the bitcoin's price is gonna go up and allow the average Joe to profit from it, why should he buy bitcoin to use it as a currency?

Have you actually read the WSJ article? Very superficial understanding about bitcoin and the blockchain.
Plenty of hype articles during 2014 right before crashes too.

A fad on the WSJ front page still getting tens of millions of dollars of VC funding this month alone, after 6 years?!

If it is a fad why are you here on a Sunday?

I'm not saying crypto or distributed ledger technologies are a fad. I'm saying that the bitcoin blockchain implementation and especially the idea of a stand-alone currency that is needed in the system is probably a fad.

I can't be arsed to take this discussion any more serious than I do until you come up with some more insightful comparisons than "Bitcoin = pets.com". Same idea as the claims that "Bitcoin = tulip bubble" or "Bitcoin = beanie babies".

There's really no point in arguing with someone who equates a major technological achievement that has half of the computer science world and a few percent of the economical world excited with an online store for pet food, even if both of them underwent a speculative mania phase.

...
I can't be arsed to take this discussion any more serious than I do until you come up with some more insightful comparisons than "Bitcoin = pets.com"...

To return to my dotcom bubble analogy, yes, bitcoin = world.com, pets.com

"VC doesn't really invest in bitcoin the currency."

We know that. But they invest in Bitcoin infrastructure. If you consider that to be bearish, long-term, be my guest.


"Big money invested during the dotcom bubble as well. Shows how stupid they were."

Hardly. Unless they went all-in on pets.com, they made out like bandits in the longer run.


"But that's exactly what Bitcoin is! Pets.com."

Well, yeah. That's just, like, your opinion, man. Just as an example, I don't remember major CS departments all around the world getting all excited about pets.com, introducing courses on the pets.com technology, theses being written about the intricacies of pets.com.

But you probably fail to see the significance in that. Which is fine. That's where my speculative profits come from.

That is still "speculative reasons".

The average Joe wants something that is useful, that has a purpose, if the only purpose is "I will get more dollars when I will be able to sell it higher" (IF it goes higher), that is not gonna work to bring "world adoption" to bitcoin.

As I explained, there really isn't any point for the average joe to actually use bitcoin as a currency or as a store of value, aside from illicit activities.
The only real reason seems to be musical-chairs speculation as an end in itself, and that is not exactly something the average joe might know how to do profitably or be interested in in the first place.

Back when Bitcoin was in the low single digits, I argued that the average Joe who could afford to might pick some Bitcoin as a long-shot bet just in case because the pay-off, in the relatively unlikely event that there was one, could be large.

Also for the reasons of reward size, that the actual amount of BTC need not be very large in order to make things pay off in a moderate to good scenario.

At $1000, we were approaching what I considered the 'moderate win' scenario.  I took some profits and re-balanced my portfolio there which was in-line with the plan I made when I was buying.

Different times now.  I'd not make any suggestions at this point.  Personally I would still probably make a modest bet today if I had a strong desire to diversify.

Nobody answered my question tho.

Why should the average Joe buy bitcoin? For what purposes?

Aside from reasons related to drugs or child pr0nz or wild speculation (profitable and easy trading of a volatile asset), who is using BTC? Mostly people who already own bitcoin for these purposes.

Why should the average Joe buy bitcoin and use it as a currency, if he is not interested in the use cases I just mentioned?
I mean, why are you here? Why do you own bitcoin? For speculative purposes amirite?
Me too tbh, to trade it.
Now why should the average Joe give two shits about all that?

-as a store of value? bitcoin is a shitty store of value, you said it yourself in a post recently. And 2014 clearly shows it (a whole year of terror if you hodled like a fool).

-because no fees? Volatility can fuck that over real good, so no point in saving 1-3% when you can lose 10-30% in a few days. You might argue that over time (IF bitcoin succeeds) volatility will gradually decrease. While I have doubts about that, in the long run bitcoin transaction fees will be higher anyway. I guess you know that miners “need to be paid” in order for bitcoin and the blockchain to exist, whether thanks to ridiculous inflation, or transaction fees. The blockchain is not gratis.
Peter Todd said it himself: “regarding fee economics, we’re fucked”.


So why should the average Joe put up with bitcoin’s volatility and the possibility of having his funds easily stolen (if he has to move his money around, you can’t just keep it in cold storage forever you know) and no consumer protection?
Why?


For musical chairs-ponzi speculative purposes or drugs or child pr0nz, that’s why. But guess what, not enough people care about that to justify a high BTC price.


The masterplan for bitcoin’s world adoption and earth domination might not work out as expected I’m afraid…