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Bitcoin Splits in Two Amid Feud (cnet.com)
Bitcoin is dividing in two. Disagreements about how to operate the cryptocurrency have led to a new strand called Bitcoin Cash, which is breaking off from the bitcoin system. From a report: Bitcoin Cash launches Tuesday in what is known as a "hard fork" from bitcoin, a virtual currency based on peer-to-peer transactions without any central authority or bank behind it. The new offshoot is a response to the increasing popularity of bitcoin, which is struggling to deal with massive numbers of transactions with its underpinning technology. The main bitcoin currency is adopting a system called Segwit2x that moves transactions out of the current blockchain, while bitcoin Cash will use bigger blocks within the blockchain. Bitcoin holders are set to receive the same amount of bitcoin cash as they have in bitcoin if the exchanges and wallets they use support the new coin, another report added. Exchanges including Kraken and ViaBTC have said they'll support both, while others like Coinbase and Poloniex have said they won't, citing uncertainty that bitcoin cash will have lasting market value.
I must be missing something. I assume everyone involved is working toward strengthening the currency as a whole and not trying to undermine it's success. With that goal in mind it would seem coming to terms over it's future would make a lot more sense than segmenting it's user base.
BTC "wins" because some Chinese mining pools are making money hand over fist from transaction fees. Obviously they don't want that to end. It also "wins" because many people holding BTC don't want the supply to effectively double with a hard fork, as that devalues their "investment".
The ultimate problem with Bitcoin is that it involves multiple parties who are strongly motivated to operate at cross-purposes for their own personal gain. Bitcoin Cash won't be the last hard fork.
Because there's no such thing as "free money"? And when someone promises you "free money" you can be assured it's a fraud?
I'm starting ANOTHER new ripUoffCurrency.
K Coin now available! Just send you CASH to PO BOX 7184
That's how this works, right? :)
Bitcoin would disappear tomorrow if there was an actually anonymous (Bitcoin isn't even really anonymous) way of sending literally anything of value. This need is most fervently expressed by privacy advocates, but lets be real: a huge amount of bitcoin's actual transactions are sketchy, and at least a decent number are outright criminal.
So many things about Bitcoin should ring alarm bells. The fact that there's huge amounts of the blocks that have been mined and never moved. The fact that it's set up to be almost mined completely out not merely in our lifetimes, but reasonably soon (unlike, for instance, a precious metal- 70% of all possible bitcoins have already been mined). The fact that there's numerous vulnerabilities if enough of the network is under control of a bad actor. The fact that it markets so heavily to principle-driven libertarian types with an anarchist or minarchist mindset. The fact that the bulk of the mining is taking place in China, specifically where electricity is cheap, and is controlled by a few shadowy men. It's a a goddamned parade of red flags.
And yet, there's still a desire to subscribe to suicidegirls without your wife finding out, and there's still a desire to get weed mailed to you or whatever. So it still has value, because it is providing a market need, even though everyone knows in their hearts it is just like, so fake. Just so super doubleduper fake.
WHOOOOOOSSSSHHH!
Linux, you magnificent bastard, I read the fucking manual!
Gold was made illegal in the US for decades.