Topic: rpietila Calling the Bottom - page 3. (Read 45360 times)

That's racist Dusty.  Don't be a racist.

Bitcoin has given me hope to be one day free from the ideas that governs your way of thinking.

Thanks for continually remind me it with every post you make.

We seem to have a different mindset, which makes responding to your amenable letter either a pleasant yet unfortunately pointless exercise, or a brief matter. I acknowledge that you may have a point, and will drop the word "may" when Bitcoin is no longer useful for me for its intended purpose(s), and assume you do likewise when the exchange rate appreciation to at least $3,000 per BTC proves my point to you in the realm that you are comfortable with. 

"For the time being, certainly, it had been found necessary to make a readjustment of rations (Squealer always spoke of it as a "readjustment," never as a "reduction"), but in comparison with the days of Jones, the improvement was enormous. Reading out the figures in a shrill, rapid voice, he proved to them in detail that they had more oats, more hay, more turnips than they had had in Jones's day, that they worked shorter hours, that their drinking water was of better quality, that they lived longer, that a larger proportion of their young ones survived infancy, and that they had more straw in their stalls and suffered less from fleas. The animals believed every word of it. Truth to tell, Jones and all he stood for had almost faded out of their memories. They knew that life nowadays was harsh and bare, that they were often hungry and often cold, and that they were usually working when they were not asleep. But doubtless it had been worse in the old days. They were glad to believe so. Besides, in those days they had been slaves and now they were free, and that made all the difference, as Squealer did not fail to point out."

Animal Farm, Chapter 9

(although pretty much the whole book is fast becoming a parallel to BTC).

Bitcoin 2:15 Beware of false profits who come to you in cryptographic format but inwardly are inflationary fiat.

Matthew 7:15
Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves.

Well, this was easy. It is pretty clear now that the starting point and value have changed. If you can make that the main point of the posting and make fun of it, please do it elsewhere.

Haven't you heard of the latest technical improvement to the protocol? The development team determined that price does not matter.

I'm just dying to hear what Risto makes of this (Stamp 155 and falling).

And the corollary: if there's a mechanism that makes it happen, and yet it has not happened yet,

=> IT WILL SURELY HAPPEN.

This is the whole point of the whole thread. Elsewhere I'm talking about probabilities and stuff, and that's where I really excel. This thread is simple: if it grows by design, and you cannot kill it, it will take over the world, and the question is only about that of timing. Or altering the premises. Many critics cannot go that far though, or generally to anything else except USD/BTC.

For blockchain technology to live up to its full potential, it is going to take multiple steps and it's going to take time. Lots of time. The internet did not spring into existence fully formed and neither will the bitcoin economy. Jorge, I think you simply do not appreciate this fact. Some people cannot envision something until after it is already built and perhaps you are just one of those people.

Let me try to break down just a few of these steps for you. Right now, merchants are adopting bitcoin because 1) it's cheap and easy so there's little reason not to try it out and see how it goes, 2) they get their money faster compared to CC transactions and 3) they save on CC fees (which is a big deal for low margin businesses). But most of them are just dipping their toes in the water. They don't want lots of customers using it because they (the business owner) haven't yet figured out how this whole thing works. It will take some time before Joe the Store Owner becomes comfortable enough with bitcoin to decide to incentivize customers to use it instead of CCs. And once that starts to happen, we will start to see consumer adoption rise. But this process will take time. Just because it didn't happen yesterday doesn't mean it's never going to happen.

OMG my replies are removed?  Mr. Freedom is in to censorship like the hypocrite he is!!!

At least some of us appreciate your efforts and/or troll baiting. 

What a loaded question.


Such hysterics. Any detrimental side of this Wild West is short term and can be tamed by technological advancement. This isn't some pie in the sky prediction. Stuff is getting solved.


A complete distortion.


At least you give it some chance to do so. We must me making progress here.

My position in this debate is:
- A government that claims the right to regulate what people do to themselves, or adults between themselves, is a tyrannical government based on this alone. There is no need to claim a media label of being such. Also just because you own the media, does not make you a non-tyrant if you engage in tyranny, ie. suppression.
- People do not need to apply for permission for anything, from the government. Liberty means you are free to do stuff, and if the others are infringed in their rightful rights to life, liberty or property, then they, or the government, make you pay, or gouge your eye, or put you to jail, or death (according to the crime). But not before.

Really? Could you please explain how those 100'000 people get more "freedom from oppresive governments" by using bitcoin?  Is "freedom"  just evading taxes, or buying illegal drugs, weapons, child porn -- or is there something else?

Claim: in its 6 years of existence, bitcoin has caused 1000x more damage than benefits to the world.

The number may be exaggerated, but can you dispute it?  If you add MtGOX and all the other bitcoin scams and thefts, add the use of bitcoin in financing crime, all the people who had their life ruined for believing in the fantastic price predictions or gambling in online casinos -- you will get easily a billion dollars of damages inflicted on mankind.  Even if you subtract the cases of thieves stealing from other thieves, crooks scamming other crooks, and scumbags profiting at the expense of other scumbags, you are still left witha balance of hundreds of millions transferred from those who worked for that money to those who did nothing to deserve it, by the force of misleading claims and impossible promises.

And what good has bitcoin brought to mankind?  Savings of a few % in the purchases of trinkets from Newegg and Overstock?

Bitcoin is mostly a Chinese thing now: they make the most ASICs, they have the most miners, their exchanges have most of the volume.  But hwat has bitcoin done for human rights in China?  Or in any part of the world?

Perhaps bitcoin will one day make good on its promise to bring freedom and productivity.  But so far its score is not good at all.


It is precisely the "people who feed me" that are most in danger of losing money to this "industry".  Aren't first world bitcoiners looking at the people of Latin America as the possible next market for bitcoin investment -- i.e., as the "greater fools" whose money will ensure their profits?

Of course I don't have the power to "shut bitcoin down", or to pop its speculative bubble (that is collapsing on its own).  All I can do is to advise those who would pay attention to me; but they are not that many either, and my powers of persuasion are no match for those of the Vers and Antonopouloses, alas.

JorgeStoffli's arguments are textbook examples of Platonic dualism. Educators typically use these arguments because they are constrained to a curriculum and become inculcated with facts as presented by their textbook publishing firms. They are incapable of their own critical thought. Again, no disrespect intended, but he is typical of many bored tenured educators and venturing way outside his field of expertise and pretending to wield some authority. Add to that he has never offered any constructive criticism beyond his pass/fail mindset. In fact, he hasn't even mentioned that he has even thought about how cryptcurrencies will affect his field. That to me indicates he is just plain bored with his work and probably needs a hobby rather than obsess over something he has no interest in providing any meaningful contributions. As long as you keep quoting him, I'll see hist posts, but until he has anything interesting to say he will go back on ignore.