Is mainstream media finally seeing things clearly?

From Newsweek:


BITCOIN: TOO BIG TO FAIL

The death of bitcoin has been proclaimed once again. Prominent developer Mike Hearn’s recent comments that the bitcoin experiment was over mark the 89th time the digital currency has been pronounced dead since it first launched in 2009, at least according to one website dedicated to tracking bitcoin obituaries. While it's sad to see a talented programmer like Hearn turn his back on bitcoin, there are still thousands of people working on making the world’s first digital currency a success.

The bitcoin network has been running without interruption for seven years now; a feat no banking system can claim. Bitcoin and its underlying blockchain technology—an online ledger that records every bitcoin transaction—represent a fundamental innovation that can dramatically speed up transaction times. The first step is replacing our need for financial middlemen. Next, we can restructure notaries, land registries, stock markets and much more.

People have criticised bitcoin for its price fluctuations but there are applications now that lock the value of bitcoin to dollars, euros or gold; people have insinuated it could be used by drugs or arms dealers operating on the dark web even though the U.K. Government said bitcoin was the least likely funding tool for criminality; people have worried that regulation might discourage innovation. Meanwhile bitcoin continues to grow.

Hearn’s criticisms that the bitcoin network isn’t set up to support the ever-increasing number of transactions performed on it is more a reflection of the currency’s success. It’s true that if bitcoin keeps growing as quickly as it has in the past few months parts of the network will need to be upgraded. This is a good problem to have.

What began as a small experiment is now a rapidly expanding ecosystem. There are so many people using it now that we have to plan for more capacity. It was never a secret that the software powering bitcoin would have to get upgraded occasionally—just like the software on your iPhone. Let’s look at the data. According to Bloomberg, bitcoin was the best performing currency in 2015. Why? More than 5 million new users started transacting in bitcoin last year alone. More importantly, the total transaction volume has more than doubled over the past 12 months.

The Bitcoin blockchain will catalyze innovation over the coming years. As citizens of the internet we demand transparency and ease of use. In 2016 people expect to be able to send money over the internet as quickly and cheaply as sending an email. The fact that it still takes several days to send an international money transfer is a throwback to yesteryear. Bitcoin solves that problem.

This currency is not a “failed experiment”, as Hearn suggested. Our firm, Blockchain (a bitcoin wallet provider), had its best month yet in December. All successful projects face problems as they grow, thankfully there are a multitude of brilliant minds working to solve them. In five years, hundreds of millions of users will be sending money on the internet as easily as they send chats, and the only obituaries being written will be those of the traditional banks.

http://www.newsweek.com/bitcoin-too-big-fail-418481

'Some people in the industry brag about 'getting in' on the next pump & dump like it is a badge of honor.'

Yup! Planet Krypto got sociopaths by the limo-ful; and in late 2013, it was seen as naive to be honest and oriented to the long-term, to be focused on anything except grabbing a chunk of the capital already in 'the bell jar.' But a great sorting-of-the-wheat-from-the-chaff is underway, Chase!

The collapse of Cryptsy will terminate dozens of the dross cryptos of that era.

The number of new cryptos is only now a trickle -- you can no longer successfully launch scam-coins on a daily basis.

ICOs/IPOs ('pre-mines') are now, with their public support by trusted developers and venture capitalists, no longer the indicator of unsoundness that they once were.

Many coins have found their feet by dint of perseverance; they have 12- and 18- and 24-months of price-stability.

Ian and I now readily omit from our analyses of coins the 'debut-era data.' If a coin is two or more years old, we look primarily at its community, its development program, and for price stability its last 'year-plus' of data.

Planet Krypto remains the Wild West, but things are steadily improving; and as Disraeli says, 'All things come to him who waits -- if he labors while he waits, and knows what he is waiting for.'

Great job Nick! 

Step aside banks and let cryptocurrency fix things. 

Thank you Wiser. I remember saying something the first month of DNotes launch to the effect that the "real value of DNotes is in the future". That statement still hold true today. Like everyone else,  I often wonder how could DNotes possibly be trading at sub 1K sat? "Who knows?" is as good as any answer.

However, I may add that DNotes has done so much, we have reached the point that most people barely keep up with  what we are doing, especially in a noisy and confusing industry. So DNotes is priced like other  cryptocurrency without any infrastructure. This is a growing pain for those who are invested for the long term. By the end of this year, investors will see DNotes in a very different light.

One day DNotes may have its own exchange that will operate on a higher moral level, in line with the way DNotes just mentioned the DNotesVault operates - where the vault only acts as a 'custodian' of users' crypto. The way many of the other exchanges are operating is quite worrying, and it kind of makes me think it could be a good idea to have a dedicated page or 'how to' on the DCEBrief page with recommendations on how and where to store, spend, buy and sell crypto etc for new industry members. If we can encourage  people to keep minimal funds on exchanges but for what they plan to trade, we could potentially avoid future crypto 'bank runs'. Of course, all these things take time - which seems to be the most limited resource for everybody! But hey, successful people keep busy right!?

Some really great topics being pumped out by the writing team. I'm well impressed. It also appears that articles are coming out more frequently. I can only see more and more exciting news to happen in this industry as it grows, so there will be no shortage of great topics to cover!

Agreed, great article. I've looked at the policy of every exchange I've used and none of them state specifically how the coins are used once deposited into your exchange account. So I'm left to assume the worst.

From Twitter:

BigVern ‏@cryptsy  3m3 minutes ago

50 wallets have been opened for withdrawals. More will be opening over next few days

I really enjoyed that article from Evander. People should follow their own desires, and Hearn is and that's all well and dandy. I liked it so much I've even 'boosted' the post on Facebook on a new community page we've created and it has reached nearly 300 people in the last 2 hours here: https://www.facebook.com/Anarkiwis/?fref=ts

Just doing some re-writing now on an article I can hopefully release soon

One interesting comment about blockchains would be the decentralised nature of upgrades to the network. Invariably, I think this should be decided by the client people choose to use. Some people may comment that if you can change the new coin supply value or max limit (DNotes would know?) - then is a blockchain really as resistant to "printing money" (quantitative easing) as when compared to fiat money? At the least though, even if the algorithm is changed, there is no way to 'rig' the system so that the people who changed it get all the money to spend first - which is the case with the fiat system.

Anyway, back to writing.

This story is all over the news. Mike may have had motivation to stretch the truth, but I wonder how much of a problem it will be for network stability as we start to reach capacity, that seems like it could be a real issue. I guess we are going to find out
"Sometimes it takes a crisis to get everyone in a room... So if we are going to have a crisis, let's get on with it. No better time than the present."

I have to admit, the title made me nervous when I first read it  - lol. But it did exactly what it was supposed to do and that is draw me into a story I couldn't stop reading. This is a fantastic article!!

'The key reason we feel DNotes has a chance to become the globally accepted supplemental digital currency we have envisioned is because we are building a framework that allows us and everyone else to have a vested interest in DNotes success.'

Ian and I are rock-solid convinced of one thing: ultimately, it's the community not the instrument. Indeed the recent drop in price (suffered by plenty of other good cryptos . . . ) is a concern; but 99.9% of community talk about 'commitment to long-term development' is hot air, just feel-good stuff to mask a short-term desire to make a buck. And when such coins drop in price, the community bails.

Dnotes strikes us as the exception. Where It Will All End Up is shrouded in mystery -- welcome to the human condition -- but (a) the frank countenancing of the situation, and (b) the patient nature of development until now both encourage us strongly.

[And the Dnotes wallet? It's a beautie! Never plays up.]

Mark

How about to add DNotes to staisybit stacking online wallet? I can try to ask staisybit dev for that. He says,thats is difficult but I can try to ask:)

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1091402.0

That's interesting that there are options for modifying the DNotes blockchain in the future to deal with these issues. And I can also see why it would be premature to try to do so now. I guess part of what you all need to do is pay attention to altcoins that do have interesting block chain innovations (especially the ones not getting media attention) and see what you can learn in the mean time.

I wonder if 1 second block interval with ten required confirmations would be technically feasible at this point. If so, it might work. There are probably better options out there in development, though, so no hurry...

Interesting technical article on why Bitcoin will probably eventually be replaced. I'm not sure I agree with his picks for replacements as I know of quite a few next generation coins that he doesn't even mention, but then again, I'm not a cryptographer...

https://tonyarcieri.com/the-death-of-bitcoin