Slashdot Mirror
Ask Slashdot: Time To Get Into Crypto-currency? If So, Which?
Qbertino writes: With the ever-looming cyberpunk future in close proximity, I'm starting to wonder if it isn't time to get myself familiar with crypto currency as a means of trade. Bitcoin is all the hype, but the blockchain has flaws, in that it isn't as anonymous as one would hope for — you can track past transactions. Rumors of Bitcoin showing cracks are popping up and also there are quite a few alternatives out there. So I have some questions: Is getting into dealing with crypto currency worthwhile already? Is Bitcoin the way to go, or will it falter under wide use / become easily trackable once NSA and the likes adapt their systems to doing exactly that? What digital currency has the technical and mind-share potential to supersede bitcoin? Are there feasible cryptocurrencies that have the upsides of Bitcoin (such as a mathematical limit to their amount) but are fully anonymous in transactions? What do the economists and digi-currency nerds here have to contribute on that? What are your experiences with handling and holding cryptocurrency? And does Bitcoin own the market or is it still flexible enough for an technology upgrade?
Money is for economic transactions. Do you want to buy stuff overseas or online without using a credit card? Then consider Bitcoin. If you don't need Bitcoin for any transactions, don't bother.
The automobile was more convenient than owning a horse. MP3 is more convenient than dealing with CDs. Try actually using cryptocurrency and it rapidly becomes apparent that it's far simpler just to whip out your credit/debit card, or good old cash. If you're buying something online, PayPal's more or less got your back if the seller screws you over. Ordered an iPhone and received this instead? File a claim.
The only reason anyone bothers with Bitcoin is because they believe a bigger fool will buy the Bitcoins off of them at a later date, or because they're buying things (contraband merchandise) that they don't want legitimate payment processors knowing about. Most legitimate businesses that accept Bitcoin simply use a payment processor that immediately exchanges the Bitcoins for cash, and generally you're the one eating the transaction fees on both ends (unless you get lucky and Bitcoin fluctuates up in the time since you exchanged cash for your Bitcoins).
If you really want to live in the brave new world of electronic payments, get a phone with NFC and try using that for awhile. You'll quickly discover it's still more convenient to use a form of payment that's accepted everywhere (cash, credit/debit), rather than remembering which merchants have functional NFC equipment and fumbling with your phone.
---
DRM is like antifreeze, to the MPAA/RIAA it's sweet, to the consumers it's poison.
Which is why I've paid for cannabis[0], domainnames, VPSs and bountysources with it?
It was really volatile until people figured out what it was but it's no worse or better than any other currency. Try owning any random currency during government unrest. It's "collapsed" to all of ~$350. Which is still worth more than your Zimbabwe dollars.
It's still easier to carry $50 of BTC on my phone than $50 cash and if I lose my phone I can always just go grab the keys and send it to another wallet before the idiot that stole my phone figures out BTC. I can also 'back up' my money to multiple places. I have a few PGP encrypted wallets sitting on VPSes should my house burn down.
Coinbase has 2 factor auth for everything. I trust it much more than my bank that still uses 1 factor auth. It also looks like it was designed after the year 2010.
Log in to coin base? 2 factor. Send money over $X amount? 2 factor. Make any account changes? 2 factor.
Personally BitCoin is a bit too 'heavy'. The full chain is going on 100GB now and in my mind it's the crypto currency equivalent of Gold. Good for long term, but a PITA to deal with daily. I think OP has a valid question and I'd like to know if there are any other ones out there.
Personally I wouldn't care if Mastercard or Visa backed a currency as long as it could do faster transactions.
For a 'tech' website Slashdot seems to have its fair share of luddites. "NEW CURRENCY, PYRAMID SCHEME". Teach the kids to code. "IT'LL NEVER WORK, EVEN THOUGH I'VE BEEN CODING SINCE I WAS 4".
Calm down and evaluate it on a technical basis and it's not that bad, the 'easy' money is long gone but I never intended to get rich on BTC. It's just another currency like carrying around Euro or Pesos, except this one I can backup on a piece of paper, to a flash drive, or elsewhere.
There are also a lot of newer readers here. Reddit is bleeding users that want real discussion. Twitter is imploding and a cesspool. Even with everything slashdot has been through it's discussions on some topics are still better than anywhere else I've found on the web, StackExchange included.
If you're really convinced that the whole thing is a scam put up some numbers and reasoning other than just dismissing it as a pyramid scheme.
[0]. The dark net is kind of interesting, about where the interwebs were in the late 90s. no flash and javascript piazza. At times it actually feels faster than the normal web because of all of that.
Gonna go out on a limb and say maybe that boat left port sometime around March 2014.
Already sailed for Bitcoin, you mean. The time to get into any cryptocurrency is at the beginning, when its units are easy to mine without owning your own silicon fab and power station, and before its transaction system starts to break down as users discover it won't scale.