Topic: The early-adoptor unfairness (Read 10231 times)
It was going to happen sooner or later anyways
Can this discussion just stop? This horse has been beat to death already -.-
You revived the thread, way to stop a discussion
The risk for the early adopters was that all the time they spent writing and testing code, all the money they spent on electricity for CPU-mining, all they time they spent disseminating information, all of that might come to nothing.
You didn’t have to do any of that except spend a bit on electricity to qualify.I’m sorry for these early miners, they really took a huge risk just like the people who do folding@home. Can’t imagine what it must be like to be afraid that the CPU electricity you invested might all be for nothing.
As I said, I firmly believe the bigger risk was taken by the later adopters when Bitcoin valuation rose quickly and the infrastructure began to collapse.
Can this discussion just stop? This horse has been beat to death already -.-
... you can only get that decent new car and the vacation because the early schmuck was willing to take the risk at 1 cent to help bootstrap the currency.
What risk? Getting into a huge bubble, getting scammed by MyBitcoin, getting MtGox hacked? No, I think the biggest risk here was the one the later fools took because the infrastructure sucked while the valuation of Bitcoins rose too quickly.
I've read the early forum threads from way before I discovered Bitcoin, and I recommend reading them to everyone. It's fascinating! Satoshi and a few others were quietly confident, although they were obviously aware that Bitcoin was a long way from reaching critical mass. But the majority of early forum posters, although highly enthusiastic about the idea, weren't at all sure that calculations performed on one's computer could ever actually become usable as money for real purchases.
If you had $100 to invest then buying at 1 cent means you can retire vs at $4 you can buy a decent new car and go on a vacation.
But you can only get that decent new car and the vacation because the early schmuck was willing to take the risk at 1 cent to help bootstrap the currency.No, I think the biggest risk here was the one the later fools took because the infrastructure sucked while the valuation of Bitcoins rose too quickly.
If we tell people "Buy BTC, it is a good investment", we are perceived as pyramid schemers.
If we don't tell anyone ... we are silently abusing our "unfair insider information" and are "evil early adopters" and hoarder.
Damned if we do, damned if we don't.
You're presenting a false choice.If we don't tell anyone ... we are silently abusing our "unfair insider information" and are "evil early adopters" and hoarder.
Damned if we do, damned if we don't.
The "non-damned" option is to spread information freely, but don't recommend that others buy. Let the recipients of the information make their own decisions.
If you look back at the early posts on this forum, it's clear that most of the early adopters were doing just that.
Most people won't take the time to fully digest the information, and will instead rely on my tl;dr summary.
So, when I talk to family, friends, and in general people I care about, I recommend they put some money into BTC. It can be as little as 1-10 BTC, but I simply don't understand how holding 0 BTC today is rational.
Damned if we do, damned if we don't.
Preaching to the choir. In the words of Brother Sam Singleton, goddamn! If we tell people "Buy BTC, it is a good investment", we are perceived as pyramid schemers.
If we don't tell anyone ... we are silently abusing our "unfair insider information" and are "evil early adopters" and hoarder.
Damned if we do, damned if we don't.
You're presenting a false choice.If we don't tell anyone ... we are silently abusing our "unfair insider information" and are "evil early adopters" and hoarder.
Damned if we do, damned if we don't.
The "non-damned" option is to spread information freely, but don't recommend that others buy. Let the recipients of the information make their own decisions.
If you look back at the early posts on this forum, it's clear that most of the early adopters were doing just that.
If we tell people "Buy BTC, it is a good investment", we are perceived as pyramid schemers.
If we don't tell anyone ... we are silently abusing our "unfair insider information" and are "evil early adopters" and hoarder.
Damned if we do, damned if we don't.
If we don't tell anyone ... we are silently abusing our "unfair insider information" and are "evil early adopters" and hoarder.
Damned if we do, damned if we don't.
what do you suppose that means?
If you had $100 to invest then buying at 1 cent means you can retire vs at $4 you can buy a decent new car and go on a vacation.
But you can only get that decent new car and the vacation because the early schmuck was willing to take the risk at 1 cent to help bootstrap the currency. 
As casacius mentioned, if you didn't buy bitcoin when it was $2.00 a piece after the crash, then your argument that early adapters had an unfair advantage becomes irrelevant. You were never interested in the success of the bitcoin and are never invested enough to make it succeed.
If an "early adopter" bought or mined (on a cpu) coins for a few cents - and some for much less ( "10,000 bitcoin pizza")- then they have made an enormous amount of money even at today's prices, and much much more if they sold in the bubble, So what is called the unfair advantage is still there in some peoples mind.
If 1 bitcoin becomes worth 1000$ then there isn't much difference if you bought at 1 cent or 4 dollars as far as profit.
Ummm, seems big to me, If you had $100 to invest then buying at 1 cent means you can retire vs at $4 you can buy a decent new car and go on a vacation.
So we yell it to the world so they know about it too and can also profit, and they look and decide to not buy?
We yell it to the world and drown in the noise of the world. How many people have so far made a conscious decision not to buy?
Let's keep yelling
If we tell people "Buy BTC, it is a good investment", we are perceived as pyramid schemers.
If we don't tell anyone ... we are silently abusing our "unfair insider information" and are "evil early adopters" and hoarder.
Damned if we do, damned if we don't.
Easy way out: just tell them you're giving them insider information.
So we yell it to the world so they know about it too and can also profit, and they look and decide to not buy?
We yell it to the world and drown in the noise of the world. How many people have so far made a conscious decision not to buy?
Let's keep yelling
If we tell people "Buy BTC, it is a good investment", we are perceived as pyramid schemers.
If we don't tell anyone ... we are silently abusing our "unfair insider information" and are "evil early adopters" and hoarder.
Damned if we do, damned if we don't.
If an "early adopter" bought or mined (on a cpu) coins for a few cents - and some for much less ( "10,000 bitcoin pizza")- then they have made an enormous amount of money even at today's prices, and much much more if they sold in the bubble, So what is called the unfair advantage is still there in some peoples mind.
Except it's something in the past that nobody can change and has nothing to do with Bitcoin going into the future. You can buy at today's prices and early adopters can sell at today's prices. So any future changes in Bitcoin prices are equally available to early adopters and today's adopters. There are no "ealier" adopter,
there are only "now" adopters,
and "now adopters" take risks.
there are only "now" adopters,
and "now adopters" take risks.
well said, mr. red!
Actually I don't see the currency is a problem in a network based society, and most people don't even care about exchange fee when they buy something on internet using paypal, but the transportation and custom clearance of goods are the biggest trouble, how can BTC help with that? (If you pay by BTC, then shipping and tax will be free?)
So we yell it to the world so they know about it too and can also profit, and they look and decide to not buy?
We yell it to the world and drown in the noise of the world. How many people have so far made a conscious decision not to buy?
Let's keep yelling
There are no "ealier" adopter,
there are only "now" adopters,
and "now adopters" take risks.
there are only "now" adopters,
and "now adopters" take risks.
There is no way in hell you know what the price is going to be tomorrow, with 100% certainty.
This applies today, and it applies 2 years ago. No one "knew" it was going to hit $30. No one "knew" that $32 was the magic mark where it would head to $2.
There is no such thing as early adopter unfairness, because no one can predict the future with certainty. If someone "knew" it was going to be worth $32 when it was worth $0.01, then that's unfair. Did anyone know?
This applies today, and it applies 2 years ago. No one "knew" it was going to hit $30. No one "knew" that $32 was the magic mark where it would head to $2.
There is no such thing as early adopter unfairness, because no one can predict the future with certainty. If someone "knew" it was going to be worth $32 when it was worth $0.01, then that's unfair. Did anyone know?
I think it's more like the price today is $5. If Bitcoin takes off the way we like, the price will be in the order of >10K, more than 2000 times higher than now. The chance for this to happen is probably much larger than one in 2000. Since we *know* this, we're enjoying an unfair early adopter advantage.
So we yell it to the world so they know about it too and can also profit, and they look and decide to not buy?
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