[lwansbrough]

> So you're saying a technology that has spawned a new market doing volume to the tune of $500 million per day is 'not very useful'?

Well, actually that's pretty obvious. Most of the volume you speak of is just trading. Trading isn't very useful, especially when it's just speculations on speculations on virtual things that nobody really trusts enough to actually go whole-hog on.

[Tor3]

Yep. Trading doesn't create any kind of value by itself. Instead there's (obviously) friction involved, i.e. costs (small or big, doesn't matter, it's necessarily larger than zero). If all there is is trading then it'll all grind down to waste heat after enough time.

[jstanley]

Person who trusts it enough to actually go whole-hog on it here: you are wrong.

[mrschwabe]

Nobody really uses the internet, most of the traffic you speak of is just usenet boards and people pirating books. The internet isn't very useful especially when you can get all the information you need at the library. Nobody really trusts all these servers in different locations, it's to slow to actually go whole-hog on anyway.

[lwansbrough]

The benefits of the internet at the time were time to access information, and the varying types of information (much of which couldn’t be provided by a library, such as email, or porn.) Bitcoin doesn’t win either of these scenarios: it’s somehow slower to transact in digital currency (specifically Bitcoin) than even hand to hand exchange of physical money - it’s faster for me to walk down the block and pay for a sandwich than for me to pay online with Bitcoin and have someone deliver it. Bitcoin isn’t really accepted anywhere. You can take cash anywhere and pay for anything. Same with credit for the most part.

Solve these issues and your argument might make sense.

And a friendly reminder that blockchain PoW systems are incredibly bad for the environment.