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Topic: Will the blockchain become Too Big to Fail? - page 2. (Read 1683 times)

hero member
Activity: 700
Merit: 501
These guys fall into the assumption that the blockchain can exist without a healthy Bitcoin which is nonsense. If the blockchain is a success, it means Bitcoin is doing great because is the native currency in which miners get paid to keep the blockchain going. Everyone will be using Bitcoin, even if they don't know they are using Bitcoin, as the Winklevoss brothers pointed out. It will be the underlying mechanism of all future electronic transactions.
legendary
Activity: 2101
Merit: 1061
Ripple!!! Thats the keyword for a shouting match  Shocked XRP is totally centralised and created at whim of open labs (or whatever they are called these days). The bitcoin in your ripple wallet is not bitcoin it is IOUs, it depends on a chain of debt. Take your ripples away from here

 Embarrassed

Sorry couldn't help myself.

Blockchain is already too big to fail, for me at least. So it better not
hero member
Activity: 703
Merit: 502
One of the narratives in the media these days is that lots of people are saying that they believe in bitcoin the technology, even if they are not necessarily believers in bitcoin the currency. I have the impression that it is the conservative approach in some circles -- it is a way to ease into bitcoin (professionally speaking) without sounding like one of the early adopter nut jobs.

Indeed, there are more and more stories about financial institutions and even governments making use of bitcoin the technology, not necessarily bitcoin the currency. Notable examples include: Overstock issuing the first ever crypto-bond; Nasdaq building a mechanism to record trades on the blockchain; Honduras working with Factom to record land titles on the blockchain. Even the idea that Greece may somehow make use of the blockchain is sounding less like a joke, and more like a serious proposal by serious people.

And yet, the bitcoin market cap remains just a few billion dollars, which makes it vulnerable to attack.

At some point, I can envision the US government waking up to the fact that the bitcoin blockchain MUST be kept safe and secure for the sake of regional or even worldwide political and economic stability. The last thing they would want would be for someone (China?) to spend a few billion dollars in computing power and take over the blockchain in some attempt at economic terrorism. So, how can the US protect the blockchain? In the time-honored tradition of course: they bail it out. IOW it may become official US (and other nations) policy to prop up the value of bitcoin in the name of worldwide stability. Some will oppose this policy. Others will argue that this will turn out to be a lot less expensive than maintaining a gigantic military, and guess what -- more effective.

What do you think, oh ye citizens of bitcointalk? Is this what the future has in store?

The Finance Industry woke up two-three years ago to the idea that a cryptocurrency might prove a disruptive technology and threaten it's operations. Ripple have been aggressively marketing a form of crypto that the existing finance industry love because it enables them to maintain the existing closed user loop model but still take advantage of some of the advantages of crypto around instantish payments and remittance.
In the short term expect the finance system to begin to use ripple , see CBA and others, and try to block/impede the use of other forms of crypto , see bitlicences, and Accenture's submission that wallets should be regulated (ie user loops closed).  In the medium term I think these closed user loops will fail as the tech is there for person to person activity and the US methodology of regulating the point of exchange of fiat for BTC adequately covers the money-laundering angle that banks are using as their main point of defence. However Europe has yet to rule and don't be surprised if they come out in support of the existing European Banking system and make crypto extremely hard to use.

PS: Please don't make this is a shouting match about Ripple I don't like the system but have to admit the way they are selling it to the Finance Industry is smart.
legendary
Activity: 1692
Merit: 1018
At some point, I can envision the US government waking up to the fact that the bitcoin blockchain MUST be kept safe and secure for the sake of regional or even worldwide political and economic stability. The last thing they would want would be for someone (China?) to spend a few billion dollars in computing power and take over the blockchain in some attempt at economic terrorism. So, how can the US protect the blockchain?

I've been following bitcoin for over four years, and during that time I've met a few people who knew about bitcoin and two who mined.  The vast majority of citizens in any country you care to mention have never used a bitcoin.  If bitcoin disappeared tomorrow there would be maybe tens of thousands of upset people, and a few thousand really upset people who lost a lot of money on it.  I'm guessing the other 99% wouldn't notice it's gone.

Maybe a point in time will come where bitcoin is seen as a key financial instrument that should be protected.  Maybe in five years?  Ten years?  I can't see it happening any time soon however.
hero member
Activity: 784
Merit: 1001
One of the narratives in the media these days is that lots of people are saying that they believe in bitcoin the technology, even if they are not necessarily believers in bitcoin the currency. I have the impression that it is the conservative approach in some circles -- it is a way to ease into bitcoin (professionally speaking) without sounding like one of the early adopter nut jobs.

Indeed, there are more and more stories about financial institutions and even governments making use of bitcoin the technology, not necessarily bitcoin the currency. Notable examples include: Overstock issuing the first ever crypto-bond; Nasdaq building a mechanism to record trades on the blockchain; Honduras working with Factom to record land titles on the blockchain. Even the idea that Greece may somehow make use of the blockchain is sounding less like a joke, and more like a serious proposal by serious people.

And yet, the bitcoin market cap remains just a few billion dollars, which makes it vulnerable to attack.

At some point, I can envision the US government waking up to the fact that the bitcoin blockchain MUST be kept safe and secure for the sake of regional or even worldwide political and economic stability. The last thing they would want would be for someone (China?) to spend a few billion dollars in computing power and take over the blockchain in some attempt at economic terrorism. So, how can the US protect the blockchain? In the time-honored tradition of course: they bail it out. IOW it may become official US (and other nations) policy to prop up the value of bitcoin in the name of worldwide stability. Some will oppose this policy. Others will argue that this will turn out to be a lot less expensive than maintaining a gigantic military, and guess what -- more effective.

What do you think, oh ye citizens of bitcointalk? Is this what the future has in store?
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