I ended up reading this article...and I'm kind of drunk right now but i'll bite..
(UPDATE: A few people have commented that the Bitcoin source code has already been changed significantly, and further design changes can be made, which is exactly what should happen with a prototype. It’ll be interesting to see whether Bitcoin can be changed enough to deal with the flaws and make it a functioning currency.)
Looks like he already corrected himself with his first short sighted / laughably uninformed comment.
As with the current monetary system, Bitcoin rewards the creators of the currency (the ‘miners’ who use their computers to do complex calculations to create the currency). The early adopters have become very wealthy, along with speculators who sit on their coins rather than spending them. Again, this means that those who benefit from the currency are not those who use it to trade in the real economy i.e. people who actually produce real value and make Bitcoin a viable and usable currency. Instead, the benefit goes to those who sit on the currency (which prevents it functioning as a currency and makes it a speculative asset).
Disagree. First of all, those who are speculating / holding all have a threshold where they will eventually sell and in a sense redistribute. The holdums from $5/btc aren't all the same holders today. They are long gone by now, or at least have reduced their overall bitcoin wealth and thus released the coins back in supply; new people discover it or gain access, new speculators arise, etc. The cycle can repeat.. and having a habit of saving $ is a good thing imo.
The part about bitcoin not providing benefit to people who use in the economy is complete bogus.... the benefits of bitcoin are there, and it's not all about as Andreas likes to say "shopping in the West". A lot of it use cases have not been realized yet, partly because of high volatility that naturally comes form the small user base. Because this is a currency that becomes more beneficial to everyone as more people use it. If companies used it for all remittences legally and efficiently the benefits are clear as day. If people are able to use it to transfer money globally the benefits are there. It grants people complete control, usability, and transferability of their money, which by itself is a benefit to many. It allows micropayments via any platform which can potentially monetize anything on the internet. Think an online video, and instead of having commercials they give an option for people to pay a fraction of a penny with the click of a button (dumb down example but idea can be applied in many ways). I was reading a Time article the other day and it's said that 85% of the world's population has access to internet via some data tower, and of course far less use it because they don't have the ability, the services aren't good or cheap enough, or it doesn't apply to their daily lives. Imagine if the entire population had access to internet and accessibility wasn't an issue; someone from some poor village in india can potentially provide a service that reaches out an audience of the entire world, or a niche that he attracts. And if bitcoin is utilized for payment this villager is now running his own business, and he did it without a bank. Those who understand this kind of power and all the other benefits it can potentially provide.. they get it. Those who get it, but have conflicting interests will do what they can to stop it, slow it down, restrict it. Unfortunately it seems like the author just doesn't get it.
By the way, tech giants like google, facebook, members of intenet.org, etc are making big progress to make internet available to all, particularly accessible to those who don't currently use it; they're creating more wifi hubs w/ drones and balloons, providing cheaper/free services, and content dedicated to their socioeconomic culture.. I see all this as a good thing.
I would prefer to see a cryptocurrency that rewards those who use the currency as a means of payment, rather than as a speculative asset. So the more you use the currency to buy goods and services from the real economy, the more you would get rewarded with a portion of any newly created currency, whereas those who sit on their coins and use them as a speculative asset would get no share of the newly created money.
What the flying fuck is this, a cash-back rewards program? lmao!
But with regards to Bitcoin, it’s time to let it die to make way for something better.
Haha I definitely wasted my time reading this article.
Poll
