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by cwkoss 1792 days ago
Trustless banking is the killer app.

Credit card payments, bank deposits, stock holdings: nearly everywhere humans hold value currently is a trust-based system that leaves you at the whims of more powerful counterparties.

If the bank decides to zero out your account balance, they can. You can sue them, and should be able to get you money back if you take them to court, but they have the absolute ability to destroy your wealth.

Bitcoin gives technologically savvy people the opportunity to store value in a way which is not subject to any other party. If I lock 1BTC up in an encrypted wallet, nobody can deprive me of that 1BTC without my consent and participation. That is the killer app.

1 comments

>If I lock 1BTC up in an encrypted wallet, nobody can deprive me of that 1BTC without my consent and participation. That is the killer app.

And that's where you went wrong.

Its not "nobody" instead its everybody who participates in this who collectively decide where the price goes.

It doesn't matter at all that nobody can take your BTC the only thing that matters is the value of it which can be taken away while you still have it.

The value is defined by supply and demand and thus collectively moved by thousands of people by their actions. If enough people would sell the price would go so low that miners go out of business and the hash rate drops to the point where its no longer secure. At that point the value is essentially zero. You simply hope that there will never be enough people selling at the same time.

Yes, Bitcoin is much more volatile, but literally everything you said applies to every other currency or monetary instrument.

There is no guarantee that Tesla stock, or t-bills or the dollar will have value in 20 years. Money is a collective hallucination and can disappear as soon as people stop believing in it.

I called out whats wrong in your logic. I never claimed anything about fiat/stock or whatever. Its irrelevant, the only point you made FOR bitcoin (namely that no one can take it away from you) is moot because the value can still go away there is just no one to sue/blame if it happens.
You missed the point.

Bitcoins value can go to zero.

Stocks, bonds, cash: all monetary instruments' value can go to zero. Non-crypto assets can also be taken from you against your will.

Part of why Bitcoin is valuable is because it cannot be seized without consent of the owner (if owner is diligent about security).

Your criticism of Bitcoin broadly applies to all forms of "saving money" or preserving value. Value can go away from any vehicle you park your money. Your argument essentially boils down to "I believe Bitcoin in particular will crash more than other monetary instruments, so it doesn't have value" - which could be correct and you could short BTC if you feel confidently about that, but I wouldn't recommend it.

No you missed the point. There was never any comparisons between BTC any other "money". There was just your claim that no one could take away you BTC which is true but irrelevant because you dont want the BTC you want the value. Which can be taken away form you any time. It doesn't matter that this is true for other money types as well. You specifically said that his is unique to BTC but its not true. No one said the claim you made is true for other types of money. Its just wrong for BTC.

>Your criticism of Bitcoin...

No, it did not it pointed out the flaw in your claim. Your logic is nonsense. Thats not a critic on BTC at all.

>Your argument essentially boils down to "I believe Bitcoin in particular will crash more than other monetary instruments, so it doesn't have value"

Again no, that was not my argument nor what I said and not even implied. You make shit up on the go to deflect from what I actually said which has nothing to do with bitcoin but everything with your nonsense claim t which you already agreed on that is is wrong as you said ... >"....applies to all forms of "saving money" or preserving value."