Bitcoin Forum

Used to presume foolishly that most people where drawn to bitcoin for the same reason as myself.
Being that we could potentially grow outside the current system and not be forced into regulation or submitting to the banks.
This seems to have given way to people that will do anything to bitcoin that excels the price and are coming from it in a investment aspect.
So are there less people today than the start of bitcoin that where more anti government or the percentages the same today as then?

Was going to add a poll but rather let the posts speak for the issue.

Lets discuss this...

That's expected.  Any movement that starts small and gains momentum will inevitably be diluted.

This is why it is important to ensure that the core principles/values are correct early on and there is a mechanism in place to propogate them or otherwise prevent against corruption.  Before things start blowing up.

Bitcoin is exciting because it is very good at enforcing the core principles via code and consensus, regardless of what newcomers may want, even a majority of them.

And it got a lot of things right from the start:  immutability (mostly), limited supply (eventually deflationary), basically decentralized, trustless, secure, programmable.

I do worry though that some of necessary "core" bits were not really in at the beginning and are difficult to add later.  These include:   privacy/fungibility, scalability, tx speed,  full mining decentralization.

Fortunately, the core devs seem to agree and are working on all these aspects, as are other projects such as zcash.

As Bitcoin becomes more popular or mainstream some people will withdraw their support for X or Y reason, that's why there is an altcoin community, and yes, some of those projects are crap, but they are small enough to have the liberty and freedom to add more features. The nature of Bitcoin prevents the centralization of its development.

Well bitcoin had become the plaything of speculators by 2013.  I don't think it's going to be successful as a currency, ever. People just aren't going to use it as such and we're already seeing this.  You're absolutely right, that people just want the price to go up and up. But that happens in any bull market.  I'm absolutely no different. I want the price to go up as well. I see bitcoin as a store of value and as a currency for dark markets. For everything else it seems kind of useless.

Now I am starting to see past the hype and realize what it potentially could of done in the world of finance.
But there were missed opportunities that can never be taken back.

speculators are a part of every economy.  why should bitcoin be any different?

So long as the daily transaction volume continues increasing (or fees, by proxy) I am optimistic.

looks like pretty steady growth to me.  why the pessimism?

https://i.imgur.com/0L0nvjS.png

if I am told to think. I would consider bitcoin is a phenomenon in technology. technologies that provide convenience to everything. but on the one hand the government still considers bitcoin as a threat in his country comfort .ini needs to be changed, the government should be more open in every respect. especially things that can make the lives of its citizens better.

Well fighting the government while relying on infrastructure built and maintained by them was never going to work in the first place. That's like being bent on destroying the plane you sit in at 30,000 feet in the air and most people joining Bitcoin don't have a death wish. Especially not when you can peacefully make money instead.

People do change therefor the percentage no longer stays the same. I've noticed some in the start were using it just because there wasn't any sort of regulation towards it, but as we went on and the whole pump and dump cases happened, more and more look at it more like an investment that could have more value at some point and ditched their initial intention towards it. Regardless of everything, there are still some that really care for BTCitcoin to succeed for what it is and there will be more addition as well.

I think this is a natural evolution for a disruptive technology like this. Let's take the horse vs car transition as an example. When cars came out, it received a lot of resistance from the horse community. Cars were noisy and slow and it was perceived to be dangerous. In some states, people had to have someone walking with a flag in front of the vehicle to warn pedestrians of the incoming danger.

Now everyone is driving cars and you only see horses in the country or on race tracks in the city. Now people appreciate the fact that horse shit are not all over the road. ^smile^

So where did the movement shift from society/culture changer to regulate and transparent?

There was a time where I felt a culture here and I am not feeling it any more or seeing people that still believe we can change the world. I see the profit minded folks for sure,ideology do not shift like this!
So where did the elusive white whales go?

I am not against the profit,just thought more for bitcoin than to fall in line and submit to banks and government. Before people say what did you expect,I expected different and thought there was a movement that people where going to get serious about for a change.

Everyone was talking about how institutional investors would pump the price before Gemini opened, and they are still saying the institutional investors will join when the twins ETF opens. Regulation is a prerequisite for serious institutional investors. Although I haven't seen much interest from them it does seem like most of the community are happy for bitcoin to fall in line and submit to banks and government if institutional investors send bitcoin to the moon.

Well I think only the early adopters were true believers in the cultural impact Bitcoin could have on the financial world. Then after Bitcoin had gotten famous all the speculators came onboard for the profit and it went from an ideology to a scheme for making more money. I am not saying it's a bad thing that Bitcoin is on the path to becoming regulated for the sake of gaining more users globally, it's just that ideals give way to money-oriented ploys which is characteristic for any business nowadays. And Bitcoin has turned into a huge business that needs to be sleek and transparent to be successful ;)

There is no Philosophy behind bitcoin. just as long as anyone willing to provide services or pay anything that has value in exchange for bitcoin
There will always be bitcoin.

if we talk about philosophy,why dont we talk about what excatly bitcoin purpose. investement or currency?its still make any debate,esspesailly for me,people want use bitcoin as investement,but many people use it for payment,and i confuse. so i used bitcoin for that two purpose ;D

Clearly the number of government bootlickers has grown significantly since the early days. However that perception might be wrong, because it's possible that a large number of those opinions are distributed by only a few entities. Hopefully, since Hearn's and Gavin's plan for a power grab failed the third time, the troll army associated with them might finally depart.

Of course there is some real inflow of simple-minded chartist speculators, who observed the surge in price and the high volatility and think Bitcoin is a nice playground. To these people, Bitcoin is like any other asset. All they want is fiat, which makes them easy to spot, when they talk about generating "profits" in USD. Once Bitcoin stabilizes, they will move on with their losses to other playgrounds, while the hodlers enjoy early retirement... :D

ya.ya.yo!

It may very well become that regulated mechanism by which big banks can control the public's money once again....However, the original philosophy which lead to the technology will persist.  As long third party powers are profiting off the labor of their subjects, then there will always be a resistance to redistribute wealth....Bitcoin may succumb to the motivations of the greedy, but the technology will evolve to bring about the social and political change that kindled its creation.

these days bitcoins(and any altcoin) is way more an investment than a philosophy.
Less regulated than stocks, more volatility.... the only con(in my opinion) is the liquidity. most of the time the liquidity is awful.

As a currency, bitcoin has become known for big moves in value like danda mentioned above,and i'm not different with other member here, using bitcoin for investment, buying bitcoin at a low point and selling it high. But as currency bitcoin still the best payment method

I've noticed, since my long absence from the board, all that anti gov rhetoric has died way down. I still see the same pro privacy sentiment, but it seems the idealism that surrounded this in the beginning has lost a bit of its steam. You live, learn and pay taxes, then realize that if you live in the territory a particular government controls, you should go with the flow or gtfo. The majoriity of btc holders are holding it speculatively, I saw that because I challenge the community to find enough bitcoin accepting merchants to support a family on. I tried. Spoiler, you end up converting it to fiat. Bitcoin is an excellent idea, it's just not fiat. The thing that is synonymous with money. We aren't going to reinvent what money means to a global culture in a single generation.

since i joined in Bitcoin World, i believe it has a better future because many of us believe in its purpose.
and giving us a way of living,..so for me there is no philosophy as long as there is Bitcoin there will also be like us who will patronize Bitcoins. ;)

As I have written in another post, that's very said, al least for me. Nice to know you share my same feeling. I remember a few years ago most of the people in the forum really believed in Bitcoin and the message it was bringing. I remember people fighting and discussing on how to improve Bitcoin. Now I see 90% of the posts by people who only care about the next halving, and which would be the right price to sell all their bitcoins and run away to the next alt-currency. Which is perfectly legit, but it's sad from a philosophical point of view.

If we are going to talk about bitcoin as a currency or investment, then I would say it is both. Utility of bitcoin is what makes it a currency and its price volatility is what makes people to invest to it for fast and easy profit. So bitcoin is a currency and its investment capability is what drives more people to use bitcoin.