I think too many coins were trying to fix so-called problems in Bitcoin. They all have their bags of coins that they want to promote. So rather solving any real problem, people just promote their coins/bags. Bitcoin is doing better job at being a Store of Value.

I see some coins have interesting features like privacy. But they're still Store of Value. I have only Bitcoin. I think missing piece is transaction. We can't have a coin for transaction/spending if we hang on to limited supply. I ended up design a new coin. This is a Bitcoin thread so I won't discuss much about my coin design. If you want to know more, please follow the original post link.

I posted a discussion in Bitcoin Discussion to make the case for Bitflate. See the discussion here:

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5179448

Join our discord community: https://discord.gg/utnEyp8

Update: current block 37,776. Coin supply: 1,888,850.

I think you highlight the problem better than me . To secure their stash, Bitcoin users are expected to learn how to do complicated wallet, key manipulation. It's hard to know which one is best practice. You can say it's a behavior change. But stashing away our treasure is a common human behavior. Even animals do that. It's difficult to change this behavior. People don't want to touch their stash unless they absolutely have to. Bitcoin common use case includes lots of deposits and rare withdrawals.

I chatted with a prominent Bitcoin product manager. I pitched my solution of using another token for spending. He insisted that Bitcoin can do both. With up coming multi-sig, there'll be more security. It'll enable more spending with Bitcoin. The problem with Bitcoin is UX. I don't think Bitcoin product designers see the problem. It's not UX. It's human psychology. If the problem is in UX, I guess we'll have a fix and Bitcoin will go to the moon. If not, I hope to chat with him again in the future.  

My idea is to separate 2 types of token: saving/investment (store of value) and spending. We've been thinking of Bitcoin as a token that can do both. That is the issue that prevents adoption of Bitcoin itself.

Spending token needs to have different characteristics. For example, it should not have limited supply. Its price should be more stable than Bitcoin.


I agree with this. But I don't think government regulation is a major hurdle to adoption, at least, in the US. Cryptocurrencies are just hard to use. Try to send some bitcoin. It's super scary.

I put down some thoughts on what I see as missing in Bitcoin adoption. I'm obviously biased.

Original post: https://bitflate.org/post/2019/08/26/bitcoin-missing-link-to-the-world.html

Join our discord community: https://discord.gg/utnEyp8

With halving expected in May 2020, Bitcoin is building up momentum to rise to the next level. Bitcoin bulls tout rising hash rate, halving reward, lightning network, global instability as major reasons for price appreciation. Maybe, it will reach trillion dollar market cap. The 2018 bull run was catalyzed with altcoins and ICOs. Some argue that ICO was distraction. But it’s difficult to say Bitcoin price would rise to almost $20k without the hype of ICOs. This time, the market for altcoins and ICOs seem dead. Bitcoin market cap dominance continues to rise. The lonely king will need to prove to the world.

But it is naive to think that these known fundamentals will drive Bitcoin price to the next level. I believe Bitcoin adoption is the key driver of price. Being able to use it is important. In this post, I describe what I see as the missing link of Bitcoin to the world.

Bitcoin Centralization of Personal Finance

Despite of talk about decentralization and financial freedom, the most dominant narrative around Bitcoin leads to centralization of people’s finance. In this model, users put all of their money in Bitcoin. When they need to spend, they use or convert the needed amount of Bitcoin. Figure 1 depicts money flow in this model.



Figure 1: Bitcoin Centralization

This model probably comes from engineering mindset. It’s logical and optimal. But real world is usually neither logical nor optimal. People categorize and separate things. Money is one thing that needs separation. Mixing money use case leads to loss. This is why recurring and passive investing often delivers better result than actively managed investing.

The Messy World of Personal Finance

Real life situations are more complicated. Over time, people accumulate assets and liabilities. Bitcoin may enter the picture as a new asset class. Figure 2 depicts a more typical picture of personal finance.



Figure 2: Personal Finance

In this model, Bitcoin is an asset class. User buys and sells Bitcoin into fiat currencies to spend. Bitcoin is treated as an investment, Store of Value rather than a bank account for spending. Conversion between Bitcoin and fiat currencies for spending is a complicated process.

Can Bitcoin ever be used for direct spending?

I think the answer is mostly No. The reason for it is mostly psychological.

As I mentioned in the first section, people don’t like to mix money use case. If it is possible, people are already using their saving and investment for direct spending. Figure 3 depicts a model of direct spending using investment or Store of Value. I think it is unlikely to happen.



Figure 3: Direct Spending using Investment or Store of Value

The Missing Link: Crypto Currency for Spending

I think the missing piece in this puzzle is a crypto currency for spending. It is nerve wrecking to open your Bitcoin account each time you want to buy a small item like coffee. If we separate spending out of saving, we introduce familiar setup of personal finance into the picture. Figure 4 adds an adjustment to Figure 1.



Figure 4: Separate Saving and Spending Accounts

A crypto currency for spending gets users familiar with crypto software. User can swap between Bitcoin Store of Value (saving) and spending coins. Spending tokens are also less valuable than bitcoins. Account separation provides additional layers of security and peace of mind.

reallester, that is not the Bitflate logo. A user on this forum, CryptoSDesigner, designed it and tried to get me to use it. Our current logo is on the explorer page.

https://explorer.bitflate.org

Bitflate (BFL) uses the same PoW consensus as Bitcoin. Miners are using electricity to generate BFL coins. They are spending money. I am cautious of high coin price in the FAQ. But it is reasonable for miners to sell the coins to recoup their mining cost.

Bitflate is not a Store of Value like Bitcoin. The goal is not sky high coin price or competing with Bitcoin Store of Value. The goal is to create a coin with somewhat stable price. I expect miners to sell their coins on the market. Inflation will create pressure to sell. Inflation removes the HODL mentality in limited supply coins.

Why should you mine or get Bitflate coin? Bitflate inflation is set at 7% per year. It doesn't issue more coins arbitrarily. I think if adoption for the coin increases faster than supply inflation, early adopters will be rewarded. That is the bet we're making. It is still an experiment. Do your own research and decide.

Libra and stablecoins are somewhat centralized and permissioned cryptocurrency. Bitflate is more similar to stablecoins. But it is permissionless, decentralized, digital native.

Very funny My story is probably Bitcoin SciFi. Yours is Bitcoin Comedy. He can also name it Bitcoin ForeVER.

Sorry, we don't have an exchange listing. That may change soon. I'll update here when we have one. Join our discord channel for updates: https://discord.gg/utnEyp8.

We're at block 36182 and 1.8 million coins now. Reminder: block reward drops for 4 halvings before inflation.

0: 50
1: 25
2: 12.5
3: 6.25 (end of halving)
4: 6.65 (start of inflation 7%)
5: 7.02
6: 7.51
7: 8.04
8: 8.60
9: 9.20
10: 9.85

https://explorer.bitflate.org/

I wrote a random, made up short story. Have a fun weekend.

Original post: https://bitflate.org/post/2019/08/24/short-story-bitcoin-apocalypse.html

Note: This story is a fiction of the future. It’s not exactly what will happen to Bitcoin.

The year is 2140. A apocalyptic disaster hits planet Earth. Human civilization is wiped out. Humans die of starvation and disease. Bitcoin mining network is down. Bitcoin satellites are still flying around Earth. But nobody communicates to them. Hashrate dropped to 0. No new block is created. Pockets of human survivors are trying to make through their days.

Bitcoin is dead. Except, it isn’t. It’s just silent. Its enormous difficulty is still waiting for someone to mine the next block. But nobody can. Much of the mining infrastructure is destroyed. Bitcoin death prediction was wrong. Civilization can collapse but Bitcoin is still there. Without sufficient hashrate, nobody can attack the Bitcoin blockchain.

Fast forward 100 years. The year is 2240. Humans rebuilt their infrastructure. They are about to reach mining hashrate before the apocalypse. Some groups of humans are able to recover bitcoins from exchanges. Having centralized exchanges can be useful for recovery effort. The network is about to produce new blocks.

But this time, Bitcoin splits into 2 chains. Some people want to soft fork and restart mining rewards since so many coins were lost. The total theoretical supply limit of Bitcoin will be 42 million. Other people want to stick with the original supply limit of 21 million. The first group achieves majority. They took the domain name, social media handles. They anoint new leaders and proclaim themselves to be the true Bitcoin. The second group is angry. They rename their chain to Bitcoin Apocalypse to remind people that they are the Bitcoin chain before the apocalypse. And they also vow to bring apocalypse to the self-proclaimed true Bitcoin chain. Just like the forks that came before, Bitcoin Apocalypse will fade in memory.

Bitcoin is still not dead. It continues to live along with humans. It adapts to the majority consensus. It’s sneaky and controlling. It feeds and survives on human’s desire to fight and control. Bitcoin sheds its old self if necessary. It rules over the world of cryptocurrencies. Its existence seems to immune to human’s suffering and will.

The End.

This comes from two things I learn recently:

1. Hashrate drop to 0 is not going to kill Bitcoin. The network just goes to sleep.
2. Bitcoin doesn’t have to be completely decentralized.

OP author here. I don't believe Bitcoin would gobble up all other assets. But I think it'd be an viable Store of Value.


I think spending for small transactions would not be common. Bitcoin is used for transferring between different stores of value (e.g. bitcoin and real estate).

Original post: https://bitflate.org/post/2019/08/24/bitcoin-eats-the-world-or-not.html

There is a vision of Bitcoin where it would gobble up all assets in the world. Eventually, everything would be tokenized into bitcoins. First, Bitcoin would eat up currencies. Then, equities, then real estates. There are strong supporters of this vision.

Can this vision become true? I believe it would NOT happen. Such future would be a dystopia. When everything is pegged into 21 million bitcoins, we would all be slaves to the bitcoin owners. It’s also likely some would use violence to seize bitcoins from others.

Bitcoin is Financial Freedom, not Slavery

There are only 21 million bitcoins. How can billions of people on this planet acquire bitcoins? Bitcoin ownership is also known to be heavily concentrated. If I believe that Bitcoin would eat up everything, why should I ever give up my bitcoins? Many bitcoin owners believe in this vision. They are holding on to their bitcoins.

It is a tug of war. Bitcoin owners try to convince everyone else of Bitcoin world domination. Everyone else tries to resist this vision. Even when you jump ship, you quickly realize that there are people who own more bitcoins than you. Such vision creates a divided world: bitcoin owners versus everyone else.

Instead of locking our minds into Bitcoin world domination, we should think of Bitcoin as a new financial option. It is a new investment category, Store of Value, a new kind of financial freedom. As bitcoin owners, we invite people to examine bitcoin properties and potential.

Saving versus Spending

Some people advise to put all money into bitcoins. That is the form of saving and investment. When you need to spend money on something, you convert the corresponding amount of bitcoins to spend. Upcoming multi-sig wallet would enable more security for this scenario.

I don’t think this scenario would happen. We cannot constantly calculate pro and con of converting our investments. It is wise to directly deduct pay checks for retirement saving. Too many financial decisions often leads to worse result. Human brain needs separation between saving versus spending. We have several store of values: equity investment and real estate. Brokerages and banks are happy to provide us financial products to take out money from our assets. But it is often unwise to follow these advice. They only make money for brokerages and banks, not us.

Bitcoin is a Store of Value

Bitcoin is a fairly good store of value. It is decentralized, has network effect, not controlled by government entity. We can make a choice of investing a small amount of saving into this new Store of Value. It is a new type of financial freedom. The Lindy effect makes Bitcoin more likely to survive. But the Lindy effect likely makes Bitcoin remain a Store of Value. That is still an exciting future. We will have new financial options to choose.

PS: Don’t let excitement fool you. Beware of financial frauds.

I don't think Bitcoin can be or need to be a currency for transaction. With limited supply, it's settling into being a Store of Value. It's very good at that. I think the space needs an inflating chain that mirrors bitcoin. Money comes in contradictory duality: inflationary and deflationary. I'm currently experimenting with an inflationary chain, Bitflate. https://bitflate.org

The future I see is that people will save their money in Bitcoin SoV. Its value can fluctuate a lot. For transactions, we'd use an inflationary alternative. Why do we need two tokens/chains? I think human brain cannot comprehend two processes (saving vs. spending) together.

It came to our attention that previous software builds didn't enable SegWit properly. I fixed the issue and rebuilt v0.18.1. You can download it here:

https://github.com/bitflate/bitflate/releases/tag/v0.18.1

We're now at block 29510. SegWit is enabled since block 28224.

https://explorer.bitflate.org/

It came to our attention that previous software builds didn't enable SegWit properly. I fixed the issue and rebuilt v0.18.1. You can download it here:

https://github.com/bitflate/bitflate/releases/tag/v0.18.1

We're now at block 29510. SegWit is enabled since block 28224.

https://explorer.bitflate.org/

I created a discord channel. If you have any question, you can ask me directly in there.

https://discord.gg/utnEyp8

I'll try to be online in the channel during day time. I live in the Seattle area, Pacific Time.

One day: we're at block 22693 and 1.1 million coins now. Looks like some professional miners are acquiring Bitflate coins. They slowly push up hashrate and mine lots of coins. We're at 548 GH/s and 1461 difficulty. I hope the chain is not under attack. I don't see anything irregular. If someone notices anything, please let me know.

Looks like some professional miners are acquiring bitflate coins. They slowly push up hashrate and mine lots of coins. We're at 548 GH/s and 1461 difficulty. I don't see anything irregular. If someone notices anything, please let me know.

CryptoSDesigner, I posted Windows instruction on the mining guide article:

https://bitflate.org/post/2019/07/21/bitflate-solo-mining-with-gekkoscience-newpac-usb.html

Someone is mining heavily in the past 2 days. We're at block 20k now. MiningCoinsPool, is that you?

It just changed to 91. Our hashrate is at 37 GH now. Nice!