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Topic: Wall Observer BTC/USD - Bitcoin price movement tracking & discussion - page 21669. (Read 26619982 times)

legendary
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1CBuddyxy4FerT3hzMmi1Jz48ESzRw1ZzZ
hero member
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Legendary trader
What do you do for a girl in a revolving door?
Much like a revolving door I think this wall observer thread is going nowhere.
legendary
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I haven't owned a toaster for 20 years and have no plans for getting one.



I'm sorry. But how can you live without a toaster?? Serious question!
full member
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Evidently I'm easily angered and I swear I just postulated this somewhere else around here.
Seriously, never present a poll that does not include a suck my dick option.
I may not be the one that punches you out but I know a guy who knows an even sicker guy who enjoys punching people in the face and I will not hesitate to point any one of them in your direction.

You were about to say something flock of seagulls?
legendary
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full member
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Why is there no 'suck my dick' option in the poll?
Every poll should have a suck my dick option.
hero member
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legendary
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Strange, yet attractive.
Well, I think we're done revving the engine up n down. I'm off to sleep and FWIW, I have this crazy feeling that it will go up until the morning. G'nite all. Wink
legendary
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member
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legendary
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legendary
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Welt Am Draht

Another possible outcome is a mining cartel taking over and  becoming a de facto central authority, with power to change the protocol, set minimum fees, cancel transactions and seize funds, etc.
 

21 inc is a fine candidate for that. No idea how they make the mining work, but I assume they know how.

There could be tens of millions of devices slaved to their pool and on top of that most of the people hashing away won't actually think through what they're doing.

The present miners are free to point their power anywhere else within a second. That would not be the case if 21 decided they wanted to have a try at 'improving' the protocol.
legendary
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I haven't owned a toaster for 20 years and have no plans for getting one.

hero member
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... there will be another bubble or two ...
George-y is a bull!

You must have missed this:
[ if the image shows truncated, curse @theymos and click on it to see it whole. ]

member
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Honest question: do you agree with the estimation that the more time lapses and bitcoin continues to develop and entrench itself, the less likely it is to outright fail?
Well, first, I doubt that it is actually "developing" and "entrenching itself".  There are many companies that need it to survive, and several hundred millions available for marketing and PR efforts (like the St. Petersburg Bowl, fat discounts for bitcoin purchases, slots on Bloomberg, etc.).  However, the few minimally reliable and meaningful data about adoption do not show that it is growing, and hint that it may be decreasing.

Second, the failure modes that I can imagine are not going to be detectable in advance.  A killer bug may surface, a much better remote payment method may arise, the price may drop further (even if there will be another bubble or two before that) causing most of the miners to stop, there may be a successful majority miner attack, the US may ban it,  etc.  More likely, competition from other digital payment systems will cause the user base to shrink.

Bitcoin's economic structure is unsustainable because mining is being supported by new investors (to the tune of 800'000 USD/day) instead of its users; and there is no plausible roadmap to fix that situation that will not go through a price and network collapse.  Moreover, the radical "free market" system that is supposed to define the transaction fees in that post-reward era, with unpredictable fees and no service guarantee, cannot possibly work.  Because of the mirage of "deflationary currency", its price is 90% o more due to speculation, rather than use as currency.  The huge and unpredictable price swings are a consequence of that.   And so on.

Another possible outcome is a mining cartel taking over and  becoming a de facto central authority, with power to change the protocol, set minimum fees, cancel transactions and seize funds, etc.. Believers have convinced themselves that such takeover is impossible because the "economic majority" has control.  I have looked into those arguments and I believe thay are just wishful thinking.  The only choice that the "economic majority" will have is to accept the cartel's takeover (and tell everybody that it is actually "good for bitcoin", hoping that the coin will not lose much value), or to lose everything.  If that happens, perhaps bitcoin will continue to exist, and will continue to be used as a speculative intrument (as it is in China) and/or as a payment system.  However, if it becomes centralized, it would have failed in its goal.
 

Interesting. Thank you for your answer.
legendary
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legendary
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Trusted Bitcoiner
hero member
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Which would explain why no one seems able to predict the price, even in the short term.
Such person able to do this would not be posting it here anyways, so you would not be aware.

That's true. 
hero member
Activity: 910
Merit: 1003
Honest question: do you agree with the estimation that the more time lapses and bitcoin continues to develop and entrench itself, the less likely it is to outright fail?

Well, first, I doubt that it is actually "developing" and "entrenching itself".  There are many companies that need it to survive, and several hundred millions available for marketing and PR efforts (like the St. Petersburg Bowl, fat discounts for bitcoin purchases, slots on Bloomberg, etc.).  However, the few minimally reliable and meaningful data about adoption do not show that it is growing, and hint that it may be decreasing.

Second, the failure modes that I can imagine are not going to be detectable in advance.  A killer bug may surface, a much better remote payment method may arise, the price may drop further (even if there will be another bubble or two before that) causing most of the miners to stop, there may be a successful majority miner attack, the US may ban it,  etc.  More likely, competition from other digital payment systems will cause the user base to shrink.

Bitcoin's economic structure is unsustainable because mining is being supported by new investors (to the tune of 800'000 USD/day) instead of its users; and there is no plausible roadmap to fix that situation that will not go through a price and network collapse.  Moreover, the radical "free market" system that is supposed to define the transaction fees in that post-reward era, with unpredictable fees and no service guarantee, cannot possibly work.  Because of the mirage of "deflationary currency", its price is 90% o more due to speculation, rather than use as currency.  The huge and unpredictable price swings are a consequence of that.   And so on.

Another possible outcome is a mining cartel taking over and  becoming a de facto central authority, with power to change the protocol, set minimum fees, cancel transactions and seize funds, etc.. Believers have convinced themselves that such takeover is impossible because the "economic majority" has control.  I have looked into those arguments and I believe thay are just wishful thinking.  The only choice that the "economic majority" will have is to accept the cartel's takeover (and tell everybody that it is actually "good for bitcoin", hoping that the coin will not lose much value), or to lose everything.  If that happens, perhaps bitcoin will continue to exist, and will continue to be used as a speculative intrument (as it is in China) and/or as a payment system.  However, if it becomes centralized, it would have failed in its goal.
 
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