"Blockchain is useful, Bitcoin is not" — How do you respond to this?

[Swordsoffreedom]

No government could "stop it" anymore than governments can fully stop child porn networks despite how hard they try, but the US government could very easily make Bitcoin so hard get and dangerous to hold that the price would go back down to pennies.

Hence, while it's technically true that "Bitcoin is unstoppable", in practicality it's just as "stoppable" as any other major asset.

And while Bitcoin solves the problem of being impossible to actually kill, that's not a problem that 99.99% of consumers need solved. Most people invest in Bitcoin with an app, a broker, the ETFs, or some other mechanism that makes no use of Bitcoin's decentralization.

So yes, for Bitcoin 2010, when the price was less than a dollar a coin, all of these things are relevant. But these things became meaningless when mainstream investors drove the price into the billions.

China already has proven it with its own hand, completely banning exchange and mining, all hash rate fled the country within a few week the price dropped a little but after 18 month it set a new ATH, XD

And what was the benefit of all the hype about Tornado Cash? The public simply shifted to new tools. Whenever regulators crack down on exchange, self custody volume skyrocket. So no single govt has a master switch that can be flipped and Bitcoin can be shut down

Those who say that 'ownerless, unstoppable money' is just a marketing dodge are not really getting the point. Dude this is the true identity and value of Bitcoin. Blackrock or the etf team are just the paper version of Bitcoin, the real asset are those that are stored in cold storage, multi sig and lightning network. No one can freeze them they cannot be seized and there is no question of closing them. The thinking that the Cypherpunk won in 2010 still survives with force 

[barbara44]

Blockchain is a technology whereas bitcoin is a pioneer product and bitcoin can only exists thanks to blockchain being such a powerful technology, we have seen blockchain being used even on the worst kind of memecoin or shitcoins, and yet those never got the same interest. Because while blockchain made bitcoin possible, it was bitcoin that got the interest and not other projects, and why other projects are not loved as much as bitcoin?

Because while bitcoin is the first, it's the most decentralized and trusted as well. As long as we have bitcoin, I am going to keep loving it, I love them both, blockchain and bitcoin can be possible only together, without one , the other isn't as useful and will not matter.

[legiteum]

No government could "stop it" anymore than governments can fully stop child porn networks despite how hard they try, but the US government could very easily make Bitcoin so hard get and dangerous to hold that the price would go back down to pennies.

Hence, while it's technically true that "Bitcoin is unstoppable", in practicality it's just as "stoppable" as any other major asset.

And while Bitcoin solves the problem of being impossible to actually kill, that's not a problem that 99.99% of consumers need solved. Most people invest in Bitcoin with an app, a broker, the ETFs, or some other mechanism that makes no use of Bitcoin's decentralization.

So yes, for Bitcoin 2010, when the price was less than a dollar a coin, all of these things are relevant. But these things became meaningless when mainstream investors drove the price into the billions.

China already has proven it with its own hand, completely banning exchange and mining, all hash rate fled the country within a few week the price dropped a little but after 18 month it set a new ATH, XD

China was perhaps 1% of the demand for Bitcoin--and they never actually banned owning and trading it, just mining it and bank ownership of it.

The US and its western allies banning Bitcoin would drop the price by 99% at least. Yes, it would still "exist", but you could forget all about billions of dollars pouring into like we have now.

And what was the benefit of all the hype about Tornado Cash? The public simply shifted to new tools. Whenever regulators crack down on exchange, self custody volume skyrocket. So no single govt has a master switch that can be flipped and Bitcoin can be shut down

Again, nobody here is talking about "shutting down" Bitcoin--that's a straw man (that people repeat over and over and over again so go figure). We're only talking about dropping its price by 99% when mainstream money bails out if government(s) ban it.

Currently at least 75% of Bitcoin's price is probably based directly on the Republicans being in power in the USA. After the crypto community bought the 2024 US elections, I think it's pretty safe to say that the old "libertarian" religion that started Bitcoin is long, long gone. Now it's just a government-controlled, government-propped-up speculative asset that is based on US election outcomes and the manipulations of a few whales.