Slashdot Mirror


Twitter CEO Says Bitcoin Will Be the World's 'Single Currency' In 10 Years (theverge.com)

In a recent interview with The Times, Twitter and Square CEO Jack Dorsey said he believes that bitcoin will become the world's single currency within 10 years. "The world ultimately will have a single currency, the internet will have a single currency," said Dorsey. "I personally believe that it will be bitcoin." Dorsey went on to say that the transition would happen "probably over ten years, but it could go faster." The Verge reports: That Dorsey is a fan of bitcoin isn't too surprising, though. In addition to serving as the CEO of Twitter, Dorsey is also the CEO of Square, which recently added the option to buy and sell Bitcoin directly from the Square Cash app. The company also released an illustrated children's story touting the benefits of the digital currency. As for Dorsey himself, he's gone on the record in an interview with The Verge's own Lauren Goode about the benefits of bitcoin as a currency, describing it as the "next big unlock" for the world of finance. (Dorsey owns an unspecified amount of the cryptocurrency.)

256 comments

  1. From the wheres-my-business-model-apartment by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Well, at least it will be sooner than twitter's working business model.

    1. Re:From the wheres-my-business-model-apartment by nonBORG · · Score: 2

      He said that right after buying $15Mil of bitcoin I suspect.

      --
      You can't handle the truth! - Because I don't post left all my comments get modded down, bye bye Karma.
    2. Re:From the wheres-my-business-model-apartment by fahrbot-bot · · Score: 4, Funny

      Well, at least it will be sooner than twitter's working business model.

      And it could be a self-defeating prophecy. All that electricity going toward mining, none left for tweeting. At least we'll all be warm.

      --
      It must have been something you assimilated. . . .
    3. Re:From the wheres-my-business-model-apartment by denzacar · · Score: 5, Interesting

      CEO of bullshit company peddling bullshit Ponzi schemes/pyramid schemes because "HE BEEELIEVEEEZ!!! PRAIZE THE JEBUZ!!! AND THE BUTCOIN!!!"

      Does that qualify as a business model? Lots of churches are doing the same...

      --
      Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens
    4. Re:From the wheres-my-business-model-apartment by denzacar · · Score: 2

      BTW, is there a criplecurrency called Butcoin? And I don't mean that fake one.
      My analsis (60 seconds of googling) can't seem to assertain if there is one.

      If not... I smell a big future for such a currency.
      Everyone in the world is already half way there to assepting it, but they are kinda sitting on the fence about it.
      And there's even a ready-made Latin motto for it - "Non Olet".

      --
      Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens
    5. Re: From the wheres-my-business-model-apartment by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Don't laugh. There is.
      It is called dodecoin.

    6. Re:From the wheres-my-business-model-apartment by rtb61 · · Score: 2

      Not that bad if you bought it when it was worth pennies but buying it over ten thousands dollars, serious ouch and make no mistake apart from thrashing about for a while bitcoin is dead and unbacked crypto getting banned as a ponzi currency. Every government seems to be closing in on it. It's like a big net, catching people, only the criminals and spies left using it, as far as some governments are concerned.

      --
      Chaos - everything, everywhere, everywhen
    7. Re:From the wheres-my-business-model-apartment by hey! · · Score: 5, Insightful

      You've got the wrong end of the stick if you're asking "How will this benefit Twitter?" The question should be "How will the benefit Jack Dorsey?"

      The answer is right there in the summary: he's also the CEO of a credit card processing company that's just gotten into BitCoin. So the title of this article should be "Square CEO says bitcoin will be the world's only currency in ten years," and the summary should note that people believing this would be very good for Square.

      I wouldn't be surprised if Dorsey picked up a bunch of Bitcoin before making the pronouncement. However if I were a Twitter stockholder I wouldn't be too happy about his using his Twitter notoriety this way.

      --
      Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
    8. Re:From the wheres-my-business-model-apartment by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Churches refer to their congregation as "sheep". Sheep get fleeced.

    9. Re:From the wheres-my-business-model-apartment by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      How will there ever be enough Bitcoins for all the transactions in the world? Bitcoin is running at, what, $1500 now? You can't buy groceries or a haircut with that. You can't have an effective currency whose lowest denomination is a thousand dollars (relative to today's prices). And prices in low-wage countries are much less than in the US, so Bitcoin is even less useful there. Perhaps Dorsey means that Bitcoin will be the currency for the million-dollar multinational transactions that the 1% make, rather than all currency. If he "forgot" that ordinary people buy groceries too, that's hilarious. Bitcoin miners are already having trouble finding enough gigawatts for the next coins, and it will inevitably get worse. So there's no freakin' way it can replace the US dollar or euro without switching to a completely different coin model.

    10. Re:From the wheres-my-business-model-apartment by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Bitcoin is not a ponzi scheme. Don't be ignorant.

    11. Re:From the wheres-my-business-model-apartment by trg83 · · Score: 2

      1 Bitcoin is subdivisible into 100,000,000 (one hundred million) parts known as Satoshis. Here you are, with so much misplaced confidence.

    12. Re:From the wheres-my-business-model-apartment by fahrbot-bot · · Score: 0

      Bitcoin is running at, what, $1500 now? You can't buy groceries or a haircut with that.

      1 Bitcoin is subdivisible into 100,000,000 (one hundred million) parts known as Satoshis. Here you are, with so much misplaced confidence.

      Although... Even as a whole unit, one could buy a LOT of groceries or our President could use several bitcoins to get his hair, um..., worked on.

      --
      It must have been something you assimilated. . . .
    13. Re:From the wheres-my-business-model-apartment by blindax · · Score: 1

      Amen bro!

      And remember, nowadays you can have the best of both words with jesuscoin! https://jesuscoin.network/

  2. All that glitters is not bitcoin by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I guess no one informed him that bitcoin has a limited number of transactions. Good luck with that.

    Obvious pump is obvious

    1. Re: All that glitters is not bitcoin by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Bitcoin is a security nightmare as well. If you see the private keys, they can steal it.

    2. Re:All that glitters is not bitcoin by Actually,+I+do+RTFA · · Score: 3, Interesting

      He's the CEO of Square. Decentralized transactions destroy his business model. However, Bitcoin still requires third-parties like Square. TL;DR, from his POV, the limited number of transactions is a feature, not a bug.

      --
      Your ad here. Ask me how!
    3. Re:All that glitters is not bitcoin by ctilsie242 · · Score: 1

      I can see -some- cryptocurrency being the king of the hill when it comes to finances. However, it isn't going to be Bitcoin:

      1: The Lightning Network has a number of flaws (a DDoS can allow an attacker to double-spend.)
      2: The transaction overhead and cost required to add anything to the current blockchain.
      3: The size of the blockchain. You either start and chug through all 160+ gigs of blockchain, or you risk getting double-spend. Yes, you could "trust" an exchange, but then why bother with a decentralized currency, and just use PayPal, which is a lot easier?
      4: No anonymity. There is a lot of money thrown at finding who owns what wallets. Transactions are immutable, and will be definite open-and-shut cases if someone is arrested for their stuff on the Blockchain.
      5: The concern that one party/country has more than 51% control of miners, although AFAIK, nobody has noticed any blockchain hanky-panky.

      What the ideal cryptocurrency will have might be a few of the following:

      1: Anonymity, similar to DASH or Monero's ring signatures.
      2: Multi-sig capability to allow escrow.
      3: Some way of doing a checkpoint where only a tiny subset of the blockchain has to be validated for a transaction to take place.
      4: A way to keep transaction sizes small.
      5: A proof of stake, proof of capacity, or other style for mining.
      6: A large currency cap (trillions to quadrillions), so it can be used long term.

      Bitcoin is an excellent "v1.0" cryptocurrency, but there are so many others that have dealt with BTC's issues.

    4. Re:All that glitters is not bitcoin by jythie · · Score: 1

      *nod* he is probably in the camp that sees the increasing centralization of BTC as an opportunity for a new batch of big players and is having dreams of becoming the next Chase Bank or Mastercard, while assuming that he will be able to slam the door behind them again.

    5. Re: All that glitters is not bitcoin by trg83 · · Score: 1

      If you saw the private keys securing a BANK's non-blockchain transactions, you could steal it too. I'm not sure if the trolls are out in force today, or just the idiots.

    6. Re: All that glitters is not bitcoin by david_thornley · · Score: 1

      Except that bitcoin transactions are irreversible and significant information is not recorded. (You know how much went from which wallet to which wallet, and that will last forever or until the blockchain is banned for having child pornography, but nothing further.) Bank transactions are recorded in detail, and often reversible. This means that, if somebody hacks into your wallet and steals your bitcoins, you're screwed, but if someone hacks into a bank and steals its money you aren't out your money.

      --
      "When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
  3. OK by no-body · · Score: 2, Interesting

    You need Internet to do bitcoins, right?
    So, in 10 years everyone on this planet will have internet access and able to handle bit coins...

    What idiot!

    1. Re:OK by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

      Of course everyone on this planet will have internet access by then. How else will the world government control us?

    2. Re:OK by phantomfive · · Score: 4, Insightful

      If it happens, it won't be used as a day-to-day currency.....the transaction times are too slow, and the volume is too limited for that. Instead, it will be used the way gold was a century ago......mostly kept track of on ledgers in a bank, used for large transactions between currencies.

      The only way that will happen is if there is massive inflation and no one trusts fiat currency anymore. Somehow we made it through the 70s and 80s without that happening, so it seems unlikely.

      --
      "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
    3. Re:OK by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

      in other words, he wants to cash-out his own bitcoin holdings but is pissed the market is down significantly from its all time high; so he's using his position as square c.e.o. to try to boost it... sounds like the sec should take a really close look at him.

    4. Re:OK by mysidia · · Score: 1

      the transaction times are too slow, and the volume is too limited for that.

      But Lightning network fixes that by providing Bitcoin the capability to support extremely high volumes of almost instant and nearly-feeless transactions.

    5. Re:OK by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

      The same thing could be done with Lightning network without any bitcoin anywhere. No matter how hard you and CEO boy try to shill, bitcoin is not only nearly useless, but also wastes significant electricity.

      Enjoy the crash.

    6. Re:OK by phantomfive · · Score: 5, Insightful

      But Lightning network fixes that by providing Bitcoin the capability to support extremely high volumes of almost instant and nearly-feeless transactions.

      There may be someone who figures out how to make Bitcoin derivatives that enable high volume, low-fee transactions, but it won't be Lighting Networks. They will be in the trashbin of VC funding before the end of next year. Their focus on marketing, combined with their lack of focus on actually getting the thing to work has doomed them: if they ever gain any popularity at all, they will be hacked and lose it all, like many other bitcoin startups before them. Lightning Networks is making all the same security mistakes.

      --
      "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
    7. Re:OK by AC-x · · Score: 1

      So, in 10 years everyone on this planet will have internet access

      We're actually nearly there already thanks to cheap smartphones

    8. Re:OK by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You can easily herd large populations into compliance and general behavior and thought patterns without needing to micromanage each individual. Thought control wasn't invented the day the iphone was invented, though it became much easier.

      The great majority of proles did not even have telescreens in their homes. Even the civil police interfered with them very little. There was a vast amount of criminality in London, a whole world-within-a-world of thieves, bandits, prostitutes, drug peddlers, and racketeers of every description; but since it all happened among the proles themselves, it was of no importance. In all questions of morals they were allowed to follow their ancestral code. The sexual puritanism of the Party was not imposed upon them. Promiscuity went unpunished; divorce was permitted. For that matter, even religious worship would have been permitted if the proles had shown any sign of needing or wanting it. They were beneath suspicion. As the Party slogan put it: "Proles and animals are free."

    9. Re:OK by Mr0bvious · · Score: 2

      It's going to crash big time, it must, an AC on /. said so.

      If you think that since it's worthless/useless and wastes electricity that I'll crash, then you put too much faith in rational behaviour of humans.

      --
      Never happened. True story.
    10. Re:OK by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      They've finally exhausted the supply of people who are actually willing to pay to be surveilled, so they've moved on to giving it away for free. If necessary, forced (de facto) adoption will follow; they will make it impossible to participate in society without one.

      We've come a long way from paranoid fears about government-implanted RFID chips. As usual, the private sector is much better at all that 'dystopian nightmare' stuff than the actual government.

    11. Re:OK by Orgasmatron · · Score: 1

      Speaking as someone who is highly skeptical about Lightning's hype, I have to ask - did it ever occur to you that it might be a good idea to find out what the Lightning Network is before opening your yap?

      --
      See that "Preview" button?
    12. Re: OK by phantomfive · · Score: 2

      Oh look, someone wants to argue. Given that Lightning Networks already has security bugs, given that bitcoin security is very hard to begin with...........What do you think are the chances of them succeeding with security?

      --
      "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
    13. Re:OK by gl4ss · · Score: 2

      there's no fucking need for it to be used day to day like that.

      maybe you could. but you would still just use your credit card or whatever.

      also, one thing you shlops forgot is that DORSEY IS A BIT STUPID. when is twitter gonna make money now again? in 10 years too?

      (*being a bit stupid is not something that would make it impossible to gather a lot of money from outside sources and burn it on running a service at 10x the cost it should take to run and paying yourself huge salaries while at it twitter is a fine example of a company trying to make up for lack of profitability per user by scaling up. sure after that you're bigger, but you're still not profitable because you didn't fix the architecture that makes running the service too expensive per user)

      --
      world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.
    14. Re:OK by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The program of the Two Minutes Hate varied from day to day, but there was none in which <Trump> was not the principal figure...But what was strange was that although <Trump> was hated and despised by everybody, although every day, and a thousand times a day, on platforms, on the telescreen, in newspapers, in books, his theories were refuted, smashed, ridiculed, held up to the general gaze for the pitiful rubbish that they were—in spite of all this, his influence never seemed to grow less.

    15. Re:OK by jshackney · · Score: 2

      So, in 10 years everyone on this planet will have internet access . . .

      Except in Hamilton, NY and Gettysburg, SD. I can't for the life of me get a good enough signal in either of those places.

    16. Re:OK by Powercntrl · · Score: 2

      in other words, he wants to cash-out his own bitcoin holdings but is pissed the market is down significantly from its all time high

      He's probably not alone; I'm sure a lot of people who "invested" in BTC want out before all those Mt. Gox coins get dumped on the market. When it comes to cryptocurrency, beware of the pump - it's almost always a sign of an impending dump.

      --

      ---
      DRM is like antifreeze, to the MPAA/RIAA it's sweet, to the consumers it's poison.
    17. Re:OK by Powercntrl · · Score: 2

      If you think that since it's worthless/useless and wastes electricity that I'll crash, then you put too much faith in rational behaviour of humans.

      Bitcoin did languish at roughly 1/4th of its previous (at that time) high for most of 2015. Bitcoin will probably never crash completely down to $0, but the pool of "suckers" will eventually run dry.

      --

      ---
      DRM is like antifreeze, to the MPAA/RIAA it's sweet, to the consumers it's poison.
    18. Re:OK by Powercntrl · · Score: 4, Insightful

      There may be someone who figures out how to make Bitcoin derivatives that enable high volume, low-fee transactions...

      And they still wouldn't have fixed the biggest flaw in cryptocurrency: instability. Since around noon today, BTC has gone from a high of $9,174, a low of $8,745, and was at $9,000 when I started writing this, but has since dropped about $8.

      The whole concept of a transaction is an exchange of goods or services for an agreed upon sum of currency. Cryptocurrency completely fails at this. Hell, even used iPhones would be a more stable form of currency.

      --

      ---
      DRM is like antifreeze, to the MPAA/RIAA it's sweet, to the consumers it's poison.
    19. Re:OK by mishehu · · Score: 1

      AC on /. ? Pssh. Just wait until Netcraft confirms it.

    20. Re:OK by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Anyone who has been paying attention to the crypto markets should already know the futility of trying a pump and dump right now. Unlike highly liquid securities, the market price for bitcoin shifts significantly for each single coin that is bought or sold, so someone trying to unload 1000 coins (about $9 million) is going to make the market price drop maybe $200-400, or 2-4%. That is one person / group trying to cash out a small stake in a market that produces 14k new coins each day. The game is over. There are no more bitcoin billionaires to be made.

    21. Re:OK by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The real Bitcoin (BCH), which is still being developed by Satoshi (Craig) himself, has instant 0-conf transactions

    22. Re:OK by gravewax · · Score: 1

      the transaction times are too slow, and the volume is too limited for that.

      But Lightning network fixes that by providing Bitcoin the capability to support extremely high volumes of almost instant and nearly-feeless transactions.

      No it doesn't. The lightning network is an offchain network. basically it is a bandaid on a gaping wound where they are trading security for speed. It partially addresses one problem while introducing a shit load more and defeating the entire purpose of decentralised currency in the first place.

    23. Re: OK by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Offchain network... Is that anything like the easily hacked and insider looted MtGox? Why yes, i believe it is.

      Offline wallets make bitcoin secure, they say...
      Offchain networks make it fast and cheap, they say...
      Too bad those are mutually exclusive things. Nay, I say.

    24. Re:OK by pD-brane · · Score: 2

      It is surely reasonable to think that if Bitcoin were used as the main (or only) currency, its value would be stable (as things are priced in Bitcoin).

    25. Re:OK by CrashNBrn · · Score: 2

      Yeah maybe, considering there's also more used iPhones than mined bitcoins.

    26. Re:OK by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Here here, best post on the page.

    27. Re:OK by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "There are no more bitcoin billionaires to be made."

      Except those running the exchanges...

    28. Re:OK by aaarrrgggh · · Score: 1

      3% volatility today is not a big long-term concern; that can be managed with increased use rather than speculation. The 20% dips are what is a concern, as higher use is unlikely to mitigate those forces, and it will scare people off.

    29. Re:OK by StormReaver · · Score: 2

      So, in 10 years everyone on this planet will have internet access....

      That's more likely than Bitcoin becoming the one currency to rule them all. Starlink has tremendous potential to end most (if not all) ground based Internet, but only if reality and theory mesh this time.

    30. Re:OK by thegarbz · · Score: 2

      And they still wouldn't have fixed the biggest flaw in cryptocurrency: instability.

      Actually they might fix that. Instability is the result of low trading volume to tangible things of external value. Fundamentally one of the causes of bitcoin's low trading volume is the high cost and long transaction delay that make it unsuitable to use for trading. Fix that and one of the hurdles disappears which may lead to higher trading volumes which inherently creates stability.

      Mind you some of the other causes are things like chicken and egg scenarios which real currencies around the world overcame by backing of government banks. I don't see that one happening with Bitcoin though.

    31. Re:OK by bloodhawk · · Score: 1

      yeah NO. we are not even close. half the people on the planet have no internet access so that graph is complete and utter garbage. Around 3-4 billion currently have no internet access yet the graph would have us believe that currently 70% of the worlds population use smart phones lol seriously you saw that and believed it to be accurate despite the obvious discrepancy. hell their will be first world countries that don't have 70% with smartphones.

    32. Re:OK by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I will be buying more if it crashes, as will many others.

      Enjoy your servitude to the mad chase for slave money.

    33. Re:OK by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      But Lightning network "fixes" that by eliminating 90% of the things that makes bitcoin potentially interesting and useful and which distinguish bitcoin from other systems already in place.

      Fixed that for you

    34. Re:OK by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

      It is surely reasonable to think that if Bitcoin were used as the main (or only) currency, its value would be stable (as things are priced in Bitcoin).

      And there's your problem. Nations (especially the US) are NOT going to give up their own currencies, because the loss of control over their economies. Yes, the Euro is different, and there are conditions to be able to issue it - "budget deficit of less than 3% of their GDP, a debt ratio of less than 60% of GDP (both of which were ultimately widely flouted after introduction), low inflation, and interest rates close to the EU average"

    35. Re:OK by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Na, it will put western union out of business, and that's it. The price per transaction paid by the network to miners is still over $20. It will never replace a real currency until this price comes down to like 5 cents.

    36. Re:OK by Gr8Apes · · Score: 1

      Bitcoin is an interesting experiment that both validated cryptocurrency as a thing, and demonstrated exactly how not to implement a cryptocurrency. It will go down as a footnote in history for being the first cryptocurrency.

      --
      The cesspool just got a check and balance.
    37. Re:OK by jythie · · Score: 1

      Yeah, but all Lightning really does is put the transactions back in the control of some gatekeepers. If one is going to do that, might as well just go back to Visa and Mastercard.

    38. Re:OK by jythie · · Score: 1

      The currency you can pay your taxes in is the one most people are going to want to stick with. It is one of the reasons gold and silver hold the misty eyed place that they do. They did not get so popular because of some inherent trait, they got popular because states started demanding that taxes be paid in them (instead of grain, work, or whiskey), so all of a sudden everyone needed gold or silver.

    39. Re:OK by jwhyche · · Score: 2

      Hell, even used iPhones would be a more stable form of currency

      According to this dated report I just pulled up, from 2011. Each Iphone contains 0.034 grams of gold, 16 grams of copper, 0.35 grams of silver, and 0.00034 grams of platinum.

      http://money.cnn.com/2011/10/13/technology/iphone_trade_in/index.htm/

      --
      I read at +2. If your post doesn't reach that level I will not see or respond to it.
    40. Re:OK by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      > Hamilton, NY

      What? This might become very important to me very soon. Explain.

    41. Re:OK by mysidia · · Score: 1

      Yeah, but all Lightning really does is put the transactions back in the control of some gatekeepers.

      No... the Lightning network is another decentralized system layered on top of the Bitcoin network with its nodes implemented in Lightning-enabled Bitcoin wallets which also does not rely on anyone trusting a central authority.

    42. Re:OK by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      LOL NO, not even close, that looks like an old chart from one of those analytics companies making dumb predictions. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

    43. Re: OK by Brockmire · · Score: 1

      With 5G. Which solves all problems with no downsides or cost.

    44. Re: OK by Brockmire · · Score: 1

      No cell phones allowed during Hamilton. Respect the actors and all.

    45. Re: OK by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Fuck 'Hamilton' and their cultural appropriation of White European history!

    46. Re: OK by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It's not the first - the original whitepaper lists others that it borrowed ideas from

    47. Re: OK by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      There is a certain smell emanating from above post. Bullshit?

    48. Re:OK by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      actually I would say bitcoin becoming the one currency has a higher chance than starlink replacing ground based internet and I say that as someone that believes bitcoin will probably die and has no chance in hell of being the one currency. At least Bitcoin doesn't suffer from issues that can't be addressed technically like distance and latency that make starlink a useless piece of space junk for most of the world.

  4. Should investigate early onset dementia by gweihir · · Score: 4, Informative

    Because he seems to be suffering from it. Alternatively, he bought a lot and now is trying to pump the exchange rate.

    --
    Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
    1. Re:Should investigate early onset dementia by thegarbz · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Not at all. It all makes far more sense when you look at the money:
      Man who somehow made a whole lot of money by starting a company that has been unable to make any money is suggesting that something that isn't money will become worldwide money.

      When you frame it like that you realise that he doesn't have dementia, he just has no idea where money comes from or how it works.

    2. Re:Should investigate early onset dementia by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      He became CEO not by merit, but by giving tons of interviews and pretending to be the CEO while the real people who built twitter and who had him kicked out of the company ignored him, hoping he would go away. Apparently he thinks he can do it again but this time with Bitcoin. What an asshole.

    3. Re:Should investigate early onset dementia by gweihir · · Score: 1

      Possibly. Then he is just utterly clueless in the first place.

      --
      Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
    4. Re:Should investigate early onset dementia by gweihir · · Score: 1

      Makes perfect sense to me.

      --
      Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
    5. Re:Should investigate early onset dementia by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Sounds like he knows exactly where it comes from and how it works...

  5. Yeah by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Because everyone likes spending $20+ in fees to buy a $5 combo at McD's.

    1. Re: Yeah by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Sure they do. And they're more than happy to wait around for 2 or 3 days for someone to process the transaction.

  6. Just a hunch, but... by PopeRatzo · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Twitter and Square CEO Jack Dorsey said he believes that bitcoin will become the world's single currency within 10 years.

    Am I the only one who's starting to get the impression that the people who are running these immense dot-com behemoths might not be as bright as we've been led to believe?

    Could it really be that the so-called leaders of the tech sectors are really just a bunch of shallow jackasses with zero self-awareness?

    --
    You are welcome on my lawn.
    1. Re:Just a hunch, but... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yeah, they're regular scammers, so what? It's just like with Trump, it's only scary when they get a lot of followers. And yeah, I'm scared.

    2. Re:Just a hunch, but... by Zaelath · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Asking @jack about global finance is like asking Michael Jordan about string theory.

      Just because he's "successful" in one endeavour doesn't mean he's any better informed in something completely unrelated.

      They're both really good at promotion though.

    3. Re:Just a hunch, but... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If they were bright, they would use their noggins to cure cancer, or at least make progress towards an endeavor of that scale. Instead they are promoting mindless marketing and plebs broadcasting their idle shallow thoughts while on the shitter.

    4. Re:Just a hunch, but... by walterbyrd · · Score: 1

      Or maybe they're just bitcoin investors?

    5. Re: Just a hunch, but... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Not a single one of them is actually all that smart. 100% of them hit the lucky in the right place at the right time lottery jackpot.

    6. Re:Just a hunch, but... by PopeRatzo · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Asking @jack about global finance is like asking Michael Jordan about string theory.

      Nonsense. Next, you'll say that choosing a crooked New York real estate developer as a political leader might not be the best idea.

      --
      You are welcome on my lawn.
    7. Re:Just a hunch, but... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

      True you need the Harlem Globetrotters for String Theory (per Futurama: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_Keeps_On_Slippin%27)

    8. Re:Just a hunch, but... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      like asking Michael Jordan about string theory.

      Oh c'mon! Everybody knows there's first, second, and third... Some guys are in the action, and others are bench warmers.

    9. Re:Just a hunch, but... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It's just like with Trump

      Seriously, is there ANYTHING bad that happens in the world that isn't "Just Like Trump"? You TDSers are in every damn thread blaming Trump for everything from high laptop prices to shitty cellphone reception in Cambodia.

    10. Re: Just a hunch, but... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Are you retarded?

      I want the slickest, meanest, slimy, ugly motherfucker on my team. We're up against Russia and China, who have no problems murdering anyone to get ahead (or just to make a point).

      Obama was a massive pussy in their worldview. They walked all over him, and we suffered for it.

      Now we're doing the walking. Put your boots on, or shut the fuck up.

    11. Re:Just a hunch, but... by SlaveToTheGrind · · Score: 1

      Am I the only one who's starting to get the impression that [these other people] might not be as bright as we've been led to believe?

      Could it really be that [these other people] are really just a bunch of shallow jackasses with zero self-awareness?

      Projection is a treatable mental disorder, Jimbo -- it's not too late to get help.

    12. Re: Just a hunch, but... by PopeRatzo · · Score: 5, Funny

      Are you retarded?

      I want the slickest, meanest, slimy, ugly motherfucker on my team. We're up against Russia and China, who have no problems murdering anyone to get ahead (or just to make a point).

      Obama was a massive pussy in their worldview. They walked all over him, and we suffered for it.

      Now we're doing the walking. Put your boots on, or shut the fuck up.

      DO NOT CONGRATULATE

      --
      You are welcome on my lawn.
    13. Re:Just a hunch, but... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Any chance you could confine your idiotic, obsessive hatred to reddit where it belongs? Thanks.

    14. Re:Just a hunch, but... by PopeRatzo · · Score: 0

      There's my buddy. Where you been?

      --
      You are welcome on my lawn.
    15. Re: Just a hunch, but... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Yet Trump can't actually say anything negative about Putin. If which there are many opportunities.

      It's almost like they have dirt on him.

    16. Re:Just a hunch, but... by Waccoon · · Score: 1

      Could it be that they are attention whores and don't care if they're right or wrong as long as it's publicity?

    17. Re: Just a hunch, but... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yet Trump can't actually say anything negative about Putin. If which there are many opportunities.

      It's almost like they have dirt on him.

      Ot almost like Trump has some understanding of international diplomacy that you, being a mouth-breathing idiot, lack?

      Diplomacy, my moronic friend, is saying "nice doggie!" while reaching for a big stick, or giving a friendly smile to the guy robbing your store while reaching for a gun. Putin does the same, do you think he is in bed with the foreign leaders he says nice things to/about in official statements?

      Please have yourself sterilized ASAP kthnxbai.

    18. Re: Just a hunch, but... by mapkinase · · Score: 1

      The immediate problem with this prediction arises when you remember that COBOL is still number one language in banking world.

      In other words, banking is very conservative in terms of operation technology.

      I wish it was THAT conservative in terms of what they do with the money.

      --
      I do not believe in karma. "Funny"=-6. Do good and forbid evil. Yours, Oft-Offtopic Flamebaiting Troll.
    19. Re:Just a hunch, but... by LordWabbit2 · · Score: 1

      TDSers? Trump Doom Sayers?

      Also love the way they always seem to post as anon, so much for their conviction.

      --
      There are three kinds of falsehood: the first is a 'fib,' the second is a downright lie, and the third is statistics.
    20. Re:Just a hunch, but... by tehcyder · · Score: 1

      Twitter and Square CEO Jack Dorsey said he believes that bitcoin will become the world's single currency within 10 years.

      Am I the only one who's starting to get the impression that the people who are running these immense dot-com behemoths might not be as bright as we've been led to believe?

      Could it really be that the so-called leaders of the tech sectors are really just a bunch of shallow jackasses with zero self-awareness?

      They are generally humourless money-and-power-obsessed sociopaths, but I'm not sure they're stupid.

      Being bright has nothing to do with being a decent human being.

      --
      To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
    21. Re: Just a hunch, but... by Nidi62 · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Yet Trump can't actually say anything negative about Putin. If which there are many opportunities.

      It's almost like they have dirt on him.

      Ot almost like Trump has some understanding of international diplomacy that you, being a mouth-breathing idiot, lack?

      First rule of diplomacy: do not congratulate the leader of a government (for winning a very questionable election where many opposition leaders were arrested or barred from running) who just tried to murder a former spy on the home soil of one of your biggest allies. It emasculates and humiliates your ally and emboldens the offending state.

      --
      The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for it to be pitted against a slightly greater evil
    22. Re:Just a hunch, but... by thegarbz · · Score: 1

      Am I the only one who's starting to get the impression that the people who are running these immense dot-com behemoths might not be as bright as we've been led to believe?

      You're talking about someone who made lots of money by creating a company that still can't figure out how to make money. Personally I think he's a genius.

    23. Re: Just a hunch, but... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      So Obama = Trump = Hilary?

    24. Re: Just a hunch, but... by Duds · · Score: 2

      "Electing a serial sexual assaulter has helped women come forward"

      Brilliant.

    25. Re: Just a hunch, but... by angel'o'sphere · · Score: 1

      In your banking world, perhaps.
      In mine it is Java ... since nearly 2 decades.

      --
      Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
    26. Re: Just a hunch, but... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Wow, you sure have a lot of sexual frustration to work off.

    27. Re: Just a hunch, but... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      What are you 12 insults for better diplomacy?
      FDR got along with Stalin and saw no reason 2 country's with very different governments could not get along, but America the stupid always needs a boogie man to fear.
      Do you think your enemy's have more influence or friends?

    28. Re: Just a hunch, but... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You mean Bill Clinton?
      Oh sorry forgot you people are still crying over a private conversation 10+ fucking years old about groupies.
      Not sure if you knew this but Trump WAS NOT A POLITICIAN UNTIL THE PEOPLE ELECTED HIM.
      America the fucking stupid you give career politicians a pass on all kinds of evil shit but someone who actually has been successful you crucify because CNN tells you to.
      I guess Hillary should have won because she is pristine, 0 scandals and 0 crime ever committed by her just don't look anything up.

    29. Re: Just a hunch, but... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      But do congratulate the leader of a government for winning a rigged election after he invades a US allied country and steals tens of millions of dollars in US equipment, attacks US troops and allies in Syria, and, oh yeah, had already murdered a former spy on the home soil of one of our allies?

      Since there's precedent, ya know...

    30. Re:Just a hunch, but... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Troll

      Once again the little fascist trolls are out moderating in force They'll do anything they can to suppress the truth about normal human behavior. You people are sick! The purge can't come soon enough!

    31. Re: Just a hunch, but... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I want the slickest, meanest, slimy, ugly motherfucker on my team. We're up against Russia and China, who have no problems murdering anyone to get ahead (or just to make a point).

      So you want what you imagined Hillary Clinton to be, right? Because Trump supporters keep claiming she has no problems with murdering anyone to get ahead (which is BS, quite frankly, but no, she's strong), while Trump is a toadying bootlicker who does whatever Putin tells him to do.

    32. Re:Just a hunch, but... by mea2214 · · Score: 1

      The people running these immense dot-com behemoths are bright. They don't think we are very bright.

    33. Re: Just a hunch, but... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "Electing a serial sexual assaulter has helped women come forward"

      Brilliant.

      For some reason I read that as "Serial sexual hamster" which seems like a perfect description of Trump.

    34. Re: Just a hunch, but... by Brockmire · · Score: 1

      Yes, from Taiwan to Israel to Canada trade, Trump has really proven he can talk the foreign policy talk. Oh wait, he fucking makes up shit all the fucking time and admits it! He's a whiny, little bitch. "Do you like me?" What a cunt.

  7. Tulips by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    âBlockchain is unsustainable in its current form. The energy expenditure to validate transactions is HUGE!!!â

    1. Re:Tulips by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It's also slow and has _terrible_ transactional throughput, even with the new lightning network, making it completely unsuitable for a large-scale transaction network.

  8. Obligatory: Predictions are like assholes by Tablizer · · Score: 2

    ...everyone has one and most stink.

  9. No good by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    If it requires a computer or network, it's no good.

  10. Oh come on by Bruce+Perens · · Score: 5, Informative

    This is the same guy whose company is banning cryptocurrency ads.

    I guess that means he's holding bitcoin and is worried about it.

    Even the bitcoin fans will tell you why that won't work. Crazy overhead to validate transactions, limited number of transactions, overall currency limit.

    And the big reason, which is that it's not money. It's just a fantasy. OK, I think dollars are a fantasy too, but cryptocurrency takes all of the problems of fiat currency and amplifies them.

    1. Re:Oh come on by freeze128 · · Score: 2

      "There will be one currency, and bitcoin will be it"... Yeah, right. Just like there will be one spoken language, one written language, one form of government, one type of measurement, etc. All that will only happen if there is only ONE continent on this planet, and it's going to take a hell of a lot longer than 10 years.

    2. Re: Oh come on by mapkinase · · Score: 2

      What if you replace bitcoin in the quotebite with "blockchain based currency"?

      --
      I do not believe in karma. "Funny"=-6. Do good and forbid evil. Yours, Oft-Offtopic Flamebaiting Troll.
    3. Re: Oh come on by tehcyder · · Score: 1

      What if you replace bitcoin in the quotebite with "blockchain based currency"?

      You don't get the hoped-for spike in value of the bitcoins you have just bought.

      --
      To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
    4. Re: Oh come on by swb · · Score: 1

      That's just putting lipstick on a pig.

      I haven't been contacted by any of my financial institutions about their adoption of new blockchain based technologies to manage any of my accounts or transactions despite all its inherent advantages as a ledger alone -- I'm not even talking about the currency component.

      It's a lot of hype and not a lot of anything else yet. It's just a way to hype stocks or products, not anything providing real utility yet.

    5. Re:Oh come on by angel'o'sphere · · Score: 1

      There will never be just one language.
      Everywhere were it was tried most of the time at some point the speakers of the forbidden languages started to "revolt" and in the long run the government gave in and now the languages are even taught in school again.
      See: France, Spain etc. Even in China with the strong drift to establish Mandarin as "the only language", the regional languages survive.
      Heck in India they speak up to 800 languages, depending who you ask and how they define language versus dialect.
      Even in Germany we have 3 official languages and a dialect which IMHO should be considered its own language, too.

      --
      Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
    6. Re: Oh come on by Brockmire · · Score: 1

      That changes as access to the Internet improves and no longer limited to local culture. There will still be tremendous translation capabilities, so it will take a few generations, but should be significantly less languages in three generations.

    7. Re:Oh come on by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If it wasn't for idiot Americans we would already have one system of measurements.

  11. This would be a terrible outcome. by sg_oneill · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Bitcoin is an inherently deflationary currency thats been in almost permanent recession since it first got hype. The thing is , what makes a currency good to invest in is somewhat the opposite of what makes a currency good for an economy. When an economy is working, the dollar will buy less and less over time, commensurate with the increase in money flowing in the economy. But bitcoin is hard wired to a very slow increase in money supply and has no financial instruments capable of stimulating that supply of money. This is counter intuitive to a lot of people, but if you look at how real money actually works, you can see its true. In the good times, theres lots of inflation,. both in the price of things, but also in peoples wages. When that trend reverses, we have a depression on our hands(assuming that trend lasts a few quarters, I believe).

    --
    Excuse the Unicode crap in my posts. That's an apostrophe, and slashdot is busted.
    1. Re:This would be a terrible outcome. by Mike · · Score: 0

      "When an economy is working, the dollar will buy less and less over time" -- typical Keynesian claptrap.

      Real money? You clearly have no sense of history. The current fiat experiment is only about ~100 years old, has proven to be a colossal failure, and will end badly.

    2. Re:This would be a terrible outcome. by phantomfive · · Score: 1

      but if you look at how real money actually works, you can see its true. In the good times, theres lots of inflation,. both in the price of things, but also in peoples wages. When that trend reverses, we have a depression on our hands(assuming that trend lasts a few quarters, I believe).

      This is not true, look at the data.

      In the first place, recessions happen even during periods of inflation. In fact, almost every recession has had quite a bit of inflation. So inflation can happen during good times and bad.

      Point 2: periods of deflation can also occur during economic growth. Examine the 1870s in the US for a period where this happened. Deflation can also happen during recessions.

      --

      Summary: the main thing a currency needs is stability. You can deal with high inflation, or deflation, as long as you know it will be consistent. If I know that there will be 30% inflation over the next 20 years, I can deal with that by borrowing at a 32% interest rate. People merely add the rate into the price of the loan. If the value isn't stable, then that will cause problems.

      --
      "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
    3. Re:This would be a terrible outcome. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If you borrow money you better be in love with inflation and despise deflation.

      Think about this
      Borrow 100 bucks pay back 120 or so in the future. But in reality it costs you 100-105 bucks or so in past dollars. If the guys working the interest rate get it wrong (and they usually do).

      OR

      Borrow 100 bucks pay back 120 or so in the future. But instead of 99 in past dollars you pay 150 in past dollars plus the interest.

      Deflation makes money increase in value.which sounds like a good thing until you understand we are balls deep on loans.

      has proven to be a colossal failure, and will end badly.
      Opinion, with no bases in macro economics or math. Don't think so? Try this on for size. 120 years ago the 'greenback' was unregulated. It would have swings in value of 20-30% in a month. It was also deflationary. Sound familiar? It should as it is exactly what bitcoin has done for pretty much its entire history. It also was the primary causation of the most of our wars from 1800-1920. You could even say it was the cause of ww2 because of how we dumped all the debt on germany.

      Block chain currencies may be the future. They will however be regulated by a central authority and tightly controlled for inflation/deflation. 'The people' will demand it. Bank runs are not a good thing. You should research the history of why the fed exists. Why brussels and hong kong are major players in the credit/money markets. It is actually a pretty amazing story of how we tamed the wave.

    4. Re:This would be a terrible outcome. by Orgasmatron · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Nothing quite like a bitcoin story to bring the middle school economists out of the woodwork.

      Consumption loans would be rare, nearly impossible to get on an unsecured signature in a deflationary scheme. Are you sure this is a bad thing? And if a 20% interest loan is barely breaking even in real terms in today's inflationary scheme, who would borrow at a similar nominal interest rate under deflation knowing that it was an effective 50% real rate?

      I'll give you a tip for thinking about future possibilities. If you change something in your hypothetical universe, it is wise to figure out the consequences of that change by not changing anything else - except for things that are already consequences of the thing you are changing.

      Interest rates are neither the word of God, nor physical law. They are the consequence of a richly dynamic interaction of many forces operating over many years. It is highly implausible to imagine that they would be exactly the same in an environment that is even slightly different, much less one where the very heart of the system has been inverted.

      Inflation always ends badly. And by "always", I mean from literally the dawn of history. The only potential counterexamples are still current, just like the only potential counterexamples of human mortality are still current. I'm pretty confident that every human alive today will die eventually, just as all that came before have, and I'm equally confident that every inflationary currency will die the way inflationary currencies always die.

      --
      See that "Preview" button?
    5. Re:This would be a terrible outcome. by Hognoxious · · Score: 1

      Actually, it's true. Slight inflation encourages people to invest their money or spend it now rather than sitting on it while it accumulates value.

      Both of these boost the economy.

      The problem is that many people confuse inflation with hyperinflation.

      --
      Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
    6. Re:This would be a terrible outcome. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The USA in the 1870s was mostly undergoing a depression, not economic expansion.

    7. Re:This would be a terrible outcome. by Chris+Mattern · · Score: 1

      You can deal with high inflation, or deflation, as long as you know it will be consistent. If I know that there will be 30% inflation over the next 20 years, I can deal with that by borrowing at a 32% interest rate

      Of course, that works only if the bank will give you a loan. That's the worst thing about inflation--the rich and savvy can cope with it, but the poor stooge scraping by is left stuck with cash that becomes worthless.

    8. Re:This would be a terrible outcome. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Deflation ends in things like depressions, torches, pitchforks, and guillotines.

      Inflation is harmless even at fairly high rates so long as the rate doesn't change, since the inflation can just be priced into everything.

      Your analysis is perhaps not wrong, but it is certainly far from complete. Maybe don't make fun of the middle schoolers until your writing could at least earn an "A" in high school?

    9. Re:This would be a terrible outcome. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Inflation always ends badly. And by "always", I mean from literally the dawn of history. The only potential counterexamples are still current, just like the only potential counterexamples of human mortality are still current. I'm pretty confident that every human alive today will die eventually, just as all that came before have, and I'm equally confident that every inflationary currency will die the way inflationary currencies always die.

      How many data points do you have concerning non-inflationary currencies?

    10. Re:This would be a terrible outcome. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The Austrian school of Economics (which closely resembles that of Bitcoin) is not middle school economics.

    11. Re:This would be a terrible outcome. by ceoyoyo · · Score: 1

      Inflation is also an effective tax on the idle rich, which works to decrease inequalities. In some places it is the only form of effective wealth/inheritance tax.

    12. Re:This would be a terrible outcome. by drsquare · · Score: 1

      I guess now the elementary school economists are out of the woodwork. Outside of hyper-inflation, when does inflation end badly? Inflation keeps modern economies working. You're a buffoon and a conspiracy theorist.

    13. Re:This would be a terrible outcome. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Deflation is bad too. Deflation is associated with high unemployment and consumers postponing spending. An economy only works if people exchange money for goods/services: that's what an economy is. A deflationary economy slows down and stops. Japan has survived because of its social services and job-for-life tradition, which bypass deflation. The US does not have either of these safeguards, so deflation leads to 25% unemployment and soup lines and homelessness.

      Hogonoxious is right about the difference between inflation and hyperinflation. Weimar Germany INTENTIONALLY created hyperinflation to make its war debt worthless. The problem is that hyperinflation ran away from them, as it's prone to do.

      Another point: inflation was high and troublesome in the 1970s when people had more purchasing power. Now many people can't even afford the basics, and if they get a raise they'll fill in that gap first. It's not clear that inflation will occur until that gap is filled. And that gap may explain why inflation has stubbornly remained below the Fed's 2% target for over a decade now.

    14. Re:This would be a terrible outcome. by Mike · · Score: 1

      History and common sense prove my statements correct, despite what mainstream (Keynesian) economists falsely believe. Yet my comments get moderated down. Typical slashdot.

    15. Re:This would be a terrible outcome. by Orgasmatron · · Score: 1

      Cite an example, please. Name a deflationary episode that ended in civic unrest.

      Deflation is the state of progress. We expect what we buy tomorrow to be cheaper than today because we expect the producer to be learning. An innovator finds a way to make the same thing with less effort, or a better thing to make for the same effort.

      Inflation is the state of theft. The people who get first access to the newly created money get to buy things at the old (lower) prices, bidding the prices up for the rest of us, who have to spend more and more of our savings to buy less and less.

      If inflation were uniformly distributed - if all prices and accounts changed in the same way in an atomic transaction - it would be harmless. It would also be pointless.

      100 years of artificial inflation has turned nature upside down, so much that people now argue that inflation is necessary and good.

      --
      See that "Preview" button?
  12. Oh, you were serious.... by Jfetjunky · · Score: 1, Insightful

    Let me laugh harder!

  13. Yeah, right. by HanzoSpam · · Score: 4, Funny

    Given that Twitter can't seem to make any money, what makes their CEO's views on economics noteworthy?

    Listening to this guy's opinion on bitcoin is like buying stock based on tips from a homeless guy.

    --

    Progressivism: Parasites helping parasites to help themselves - to other people's stuff.
    1. Re:Yeah, right. by GrimSavant · · Score: 2

      It should be a flashing red light to sell stock in this guy's companies. This indicates a wider scale and deeper cluelessness about business in general, and that sort of aggressive cluelessness that does not bode well for the concept of "long term viability and profitability" for businesses he runs.

      Or maybe he is just BSing and trying to ride a wave of exuberance but doesn't actually believe what he is saying. That's not really much better.

    2. Re:Yeah, right. by thegarbz · · Score: 1

      what makes their CEO's views on economics noteworthy

      The fact that he made a shitload of money by not making any money. This guy is an economic genius.

  14. My bullshitarium won't inflate by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    Advantages of crypto currency over money: anonyous transaction? Nope, its a ledger. Cannot be infinitely inflated? Nope, there can/are an infinite number of these currencies with different keys and techniques. Cheaper to transact? Nope, they're damn expensive to transact and there's nothing inherently expensive about transacting money.

    It has no real utility and therefore no real value. The value is there because people believe it has value.

    I could set up a server right now and sell you numbers if you like. The block chain doesn't add any utility. It's garbage in garbage out, it only records what you feed it, and that could be total garbage, so we can throw that part away. Would you think my numbers have value? Number 3 sold for $100 (to my mum) and she sold it on for $300 (to my dad) who sold it on for $700 (back to me), so that gives my currency a worth of billions!

    Depends on how much of a mock auction I run, and how much astroturf I push to scam the gullible.

    In inflation times, money moves into hard assets, typically stocks and resources not fluff like this.

    1. Re:My bullshitarium won't inflate by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That is up there with the most ignorant assessment of crypto I've ever read.

      Do you know anything about crypto currency? I'll answer that for you, no you don't.

      You're repeating and extrapolating from what you've heard in the mainstream media and what you've read in places like /.

      I'm not going to claim that cryptos are going to succeed or that they're going to take over. But your assessment is utter nonsense and shows how little you know about crypto.

      You think all crypto currencies are like BTC. You couldn't be more incorrect.

    2. Re:My bullshitarium won't inflate by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Insults aside, you didn't counter a single thing I said.

      1) There is an infinite supply of crypto currency. You didn't dispute this.
      2) It has no utility and hence no value. You didn't dispute this either.
      3) Blockchain is garbage in garbage out. Again no dispute.
      4) I could sell you numbers from my limited pool of numbers with the same pump used for 'crypto' and it would have equal value of zero. Again no dispute.
      5) The claimed 'anonymous' nature of Bitcoin transactions is clearly bogus, since all transactions are in the ledger and identifying one traceable transaction identifies them all. No dispute.

      Bogus assets are as old as the hills, junk bonds, junk derivatives, subprime mortgage derivatives, all have the property of having value because people selling them claim they have value.

      Suckers buy in, then the price drops, the suckers try to talk up the price to minimize their losses, drawing in fewer and fewer suckers until the bubble collapses.

    3. Re:My bullshitarium won't inflate by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      1) There is an infinite supply of crypto currency. You didn't dispute this.

      Nonsense argument in the context of inflation. That's like saying that if I sit at home creating new fiat currencies that will inflate existing fiat currencies. Huh? There is an similarly infinite supply of fiat currencies.

      The real difference is that unlike fiat currencies the underlying principle in the vast majority of cryptos is that they are limited in supply and deflationary in nature as their available supply reduces over time.

      2) It has no utility and hence no value. You didn't dispute this either.

      Many cryptos have utility. Ever heard of smart contracts?

      3) Blockchain is garbage in garbage out. Again no dispute.

      What does this even mean? It's has no meaning without context.

      Are you saying the blockchains are having a problem with a certain type of "garbage"?

      How is "garbage in garbage out" a problem? (that's a typical trait of most systems)

      4) I could sell you numbers from my limited pool of numbers with the same pump used for 'crypto' and it would have equal value of zero. Again no dispute.

      No you can't .... well not in the same way cryptos can. The blockchain provides a layer of trust and mechanisms for transactions (that maintain this trust relationship). The fact it uses "numbers" is an implementation detail.

      Again you could make the same argument for fiat currency (a piece of paper with a number on it, heck I'll print you some now!).

      5) The claimed 'anonymous' nature of Bitcoin transactions is clearly bogus, since all transactions are in the ledger and identifying one traceable transaction identifies them all. No dispute.

      You've changed from discussing "crypto currencies" to now being specific about BTC.

      There are many 'anonymous' cryptos if you're wanting one. BTC is not one.

      Bogus assets are as old as the hills, junk bonds, junk derivatives, subprime mortgage derivatives, all have the property of having value because people selling them claim they have value.

      Suckers buy in, then the price drops, the suckers try to talk up the price to minimize their losses, drawing in fewer and fewer suckers until the bubble collapses.

      They are not the same. Your list of assets were all sold under the false idea that there was something tangible supporting them. With crypos it's clear and cut that they're not a claim on a tangible asset. So unlike these assets, crypto will never have an "oh my gosh there is no underlying asset of any value" moment. It's a given from day one.

      Fiat currencies are a flat out failure and will collapse at some point. Something will replace them, it may be crypto currency, it may not.

      Ask yourself: Why does a currency need an underlying asset of value? (yes it's a common trait, but not a required one). What is the underlying asset behind fiat currencies? There's not a whole lot of difference between either except one was here first and the other provides a bunch of additional features (think inflation).

    4. Re:My bullshitarium won't inflate by Moloth · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Nonsense argument in the context of inflation. That's like saying that if I sit at home creating new fiat currencies that will inflate existing fiat currencies. Huh? There is an similarly infinite supply of fiat currencies.

      Yes you can creat new fiat currencies however typically there are only 1 per country.. However you can create as many alt coins as you want and as with any new software they are built to be better than the last. So what stops users changing from one alt coin to the next? You dont have this option when you are using the local currency. If your in Australia you can only use the australian dollar and that dollar is backed by the government so unless the government goes broke your fiat is perfectly fine.

      Many cryptos have utility. Ever heard of smart contracts?

      Yes smart contracts are a good utility, howeve there is no lock in unless one crypto becomes the default way to do contracts. What stops me changing to a new smart contract provider? The issue is it is too easy to create another coin/smart contract/blockchain thing. The only defining asset a crypto has is the amount of people using it.

      How is "garbage in garbage out" a problem? (that's a typical trait of most systems)

      Agree, garbage in garbage not a problem if you are using a coin that has a decent following. If its full of garbage no one would be using it.

      No you can't .... well not in the same way cryptos can. The blockchain provides a layer of trust and mechanisms for transactions (that maintain this trust relationship). The fact it uses "numbers" is an implementation detail.

      Again you could make the same argument for fiat currency (a piece of paper with a number on it, heck I'll print you some now!).

      The parent was saying that he could create a new alt coin and sell coins in it for bugger all capital investment. A lot harder to create a fiat currency and sell it. Yes it is next to impossible to forge a bitcoin and very hard and illegal to forge fiat.

      You've changed from discussing "crypto currencies" to now being specific about BTC.

      There are many 'anonymous' cryptos if you're wanting one. BTC is not one.

      Agree.

      Fiat currencies are a flat out failure and will collapse at some point. Something will replace them, it may be crypto currency, it may not.

      Ask yourself: Why does a currency need an underlying asset of value? (yes it's a common trait, but not a required one). What is the underlying asset behind fiat currencies? There's not a whole lot of difference between either except one was here first and the other provides a bunch of additional features (think inflation).

      Fiats are not a failure, there is a reason for fiat, yes governments can and do abuse it by printing billions which can turn into inflation (or even worse: hyperinflation) . On the other hand having it locked to a physical asset like gold can cause the money supply to dry up which is another set of problems. see Why the Gold Standard Is the World's Worst Economic Idea, in 2 Charts I think having any blockchain as currency and its limited nature is like having a gold standard, which means your screwed in recessions. So I dont think any government is going to allow cryptos as a standard medium of exchange unless they are allowed to increase its supply ( Then cryptos are basically fiat. )

    5. Re:My bullshitarium won't inflate by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yes you can creat new fiat currencies however typically there are only 1 per country.. However you can create as many alt coins as you want and as with any new software they are built to be better than the last. So what stops users changing from one alt coin to the next? You dont have this option when you are using the local currency. If your in Australia you can only use the australian dollar and that dollar is backed by the government so unless the government goes broke your fiat is perfectly fine.

      I agree, but this still does not equate to inflation (that was the claim). There is little barrier to entry (almost none) and the market can become saturated. But that's fine, market leaders and products with relevance will survive and the others will become irrelevant, like a lot of emerging markets. It's a bit like saying that a website can't be successful because the are no barriers to creating a competing site. Other factors play.

      Yes smart contracts are a good utility, howeve there is no lock in unless one crypto becomes the default way to do contracts. What stops me changing to a new smart contract provider? The issue is it is too easy to create another coin/smart contract/blockchain thing. The only defining asset a crypto has is the amount of people using it.

      There's always going to be competition to any product. Smart contracts are a good utility, and they're not the only one. My point was that "has no utility and hence no value" when referencing crypto is not a true statement.

      Fiats are not a failure, there is a reason for fiat, yes governments can and do abuse it by printing billions which can turn into inflation (or even worse: hyperinflation) . On the other hand having it locked to a physical asset like gold can cause the money supply to dry up which is another set of problems. see Why the Gold Standard Is the World's Worst Economic Idea, in 2 Charts I think having any blockchain as currency and its limited nature is like having a gold standard, which means your screwed in recessions. So I dont think any government is going to allow cryptos as a standard medium of exchange unless they are allowed to increase its supply ( Then cryptos are basically fiat. )

      I suppose their success depends on how you measure it.

      Fiat is not a store of value. In fact it's become one of the worst stores of value.

      Fiat's ability to employ quantitative easing is its biggest failure. Recessions are not something that need fixing, they are a natural part of the system, they're supposed to run their course. Bucking against them gets us to where we are today - a big colossal cluster fuck of financial shit. You can't fix a recession, but you can kick it down the road a little and let it grow some on the way. We need more recessions and more frequently, avoiding them makes them worse. Humans seem to do this for just about every "discomfort" we see approaching. It's nearly always better to face it head on than avoid it and let it fester.

      Limited supply is not an inherent issue unless your chosen monetary system relies on unlimited supply. Redistribution is the real issue. Redistribution is not a currency issue, its a policy issue.

      I fail to see how fiat has succeeded unless you're willing to ignore everything being swept under the carpet.

    6. Re:My bullshitarium won't inflate by jythie · · Score: 1

      The cost to transact is going to be the real killer. Cryptocurrency is computationally mind boggling expensive to work with compared to other alternatives, requiring specialized hardware and significant power. Mining primes the pump, but long term transaction fees need to cover the cost of the incredibly inefficient system, a system built from the ground up to BE inefficient and thus expensive for people to process.

  15. How does bitcoin deal with by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    How does bitcoin deal with inflation and the finite number of coins?

    With standard money the government can print larger values of it to deal with inflation and the higher cost of things eg when a burger eventually costs $100 one day people will be using $1000 dollars notes but with bitcoin the base is always one bitcoin.

    Secondly when the government needs to they can print more money as the economy grows but bitcoin has a finite supply. Wouldnt that be a problem?

    1. Re:How does bitcoin deal with by tehcyder · · Score: 1

      How does bitcoin deal with inflation and the finite number of coins?

      As I understand it, extreme right wing economic theory says that with bitcoin (or the Gold Standard), there would be no inflation, as this was something invented by left wingers along with votes for women and other evil progressive ideas like Government some time after WW1.

      --
      To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
    2. Re:How does bitcoin deal with by angel'o'sphere · · Score: 1

      There is not enough gold on the world (including the not mined one) to "back" the world trade.
      World GDP:$107.5 trillion
      Total amount of gold: $8.1 trillion

      Bitcoin is designed to be deflationess and not inflationess.

      --
      Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
  16. That's nothing . . . by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    In 6 months it will be the sole topic on /.

  17. Not with the kiddie porn on the blockchain. by Ungrounded+Lightning · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Yesterday we saw an article saying the bitcoin blockchain contains kiddie porn inserted by the users.

    Today we saw an article saying the senate has taken another step to amend the Communications Decency Act to cut into the broad protections [online services] have from legal liability for content posted by their users.

    Maybe Bitcoin won't be around much longer because the miners will all be in jail as pornographers.

    --
    Bantam Dominique roosters crow a four-note song. Once you've heard it as "Happy BIRTHday" you can't NOT hear it that way
    1. Re:Not with the kiddie porn on the blockchain. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

      Oh Slashdot, with your low UID graybeards who know everything from decades ago but are just clueless reactionaries on anything current and unfamiliar. You do realize mining in a pool doesn't require maintaining a full local copy of the blockchain, right? And being the sage you are, I'm sure you also realize that virtually no one mines solo.

    2. Re:Not with the kiddie porn on the blockchain. by thegarbz · · Score: 1

      Maybe Bitcoin won't be around much longer because the miners will all be in jail as pornographers.

      Or more likely the application of laws where technically everyone is already a criminal aren't actually enforced the way you think they'll be.

    3. Re:Not with the kiddie porn on the blockchain. by MrVictor · · Score: 2

      I am noticing this too. Any story on bitcoin sends the low UID accounts into fits of rage. It's their way of rationalizing missing the boat on, what might be, the greatest wealth transfer in history. It's either that or early onset dementia.

    4. Re:Not with the kiddie porn on the blockchain. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      >what might be, the greatest wealth transfer in history

      I hold BTC and XMR, and have no illusions about either, but this statement is hilariously off-base.

    5. Re:Not with the kiddie porn on the blockchain. by ceoyoyo · · Score: 1

      I suspect the OP's comment about the miners going to jail was hyperbole. Embedding kiddie porn in the blockchain DOES seem to be a pretty clever attack on BitCoin though. YOU may not need a copy of the blockchain as an individual miner, but your pool definitely does.

      In fact, the only thing that secures the blockchain is that a whole bunch of people have a copy of it. If the blockchain is illegal to possess (or too large to conveniently possess, or in any other way difficult to possess) fewer people will have it, making the whole system less secure. Likewise, if the whole chain needs to be rewritten frequently to delete illegal stuff unknowingly embedded in it, that's going to add a LOT of overhead and vulnerability to shenanigans.

      PS: my beard isn't the least bit grey.

      PPS: there does seem to be something about blockchains that attracts idiots to make sweeping proclamations based on nothing but sound-bite sized sweeping proclamations about what blockchains are. It's an intriguing idea that this tendency is correlated with age.

    6. Re:Not with the kiddie porn on the blockchain. by Ungrounded+Lightning · · Score: 1

      Or more likely the application of laws where technically everyone is already a criminal aren't actually enforced the way you think they'll be.

      When the government passes a bunch of laws that together criminalize everyone, then selectively enforce them, you have defacto totalitarianism without needing it to be dejure.

      Once they have something on everybody, so they can select who they want to go after and do so. That's what such laws are FOR.

      When the police can bust anybody their administrators want busted, and make it stick, it's called a "police state".

      Any bets on whether the major banks (especially the Federal Reserve banks) or the Treasury Department would like to have felony-conviction level leverage over bitcoin and the people who operate it?

      --
      Bantam Dominique roosters crow a four-note song. Once you've heard it as "Happy BIRTHday" you can't NOT hear it that way
    7. Re:Not with the kiddie porn on the blockchain. by sl3xd · · Score: 1

      I am noticing this too. Any story on bitcoin sends the low UID accounts into fits of rage.

      We've seen several "this will change the world" financial trends. We gave into "#FOMO" in our time as well, back in the dot-com days of 1998-2003, the housing craze of 2006-2008, the gold rush of 2009-2012, and so on.

      We've seen the road already, and try to convince others not to go down it (as our elders did with us). I don't expect you to believe us any more than we believed our elders. It's the circle of life.

      It's their way of rationalizing missing the boat on, what might be, the greatest wealth transfer in history.

      I've watched Bitcoin shed over half its value in 30 days. I've seen Ethereum lose ~2/3 of its value in 90 days. I'm quite comfortable passing up that action.

      Do as you will; it's your money. Just remember to periodically ask yourself the same question all of us need to ask from time to time: Am I willing to ride the bomb all the way down?

      --
      -- Sometimes you have to turn the lights off in order to see.
    8. Re:Not with the kiddie porn on the blockchain. by thegarbz · · Score: 1

      They pretty much already do. My point is that this isn't a change from the norm. You're ignorant if you think the government can't find something to hang you with, even when we're talking about governments who don't run secret courts behind closed doors.

      If you're worried about totalitarianism as a result of *this* law, you are waaaay too late.

    9. Re:Not with the kiddie porn on the blockchain. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I had a Bitcoin. I mined it myself.

      I put it in Mt.Gox aaaaaaaaaand it's gone. :(

    10. Re:Not with the kiddie porn on the blockchain. by Ungrounded+Lightning · · Score: 1

      If you're worried about totalitarianism as a result of *this* law, you are waaaay too late.

      We're on the same page there. I was only pointing out that this isn't anything new, just yet another instance of the powers that be patching a hole that threatened to let newbies into the game.

      --
      Bantam Dominique roosters crow a four-note song. Once you've heard it as "Happy BIRTHday" you can't NOT hear it that way
  18. This just in by redmid17 · · Score: 2

    Jack Dorsey is a moron.

  19. lol...no it won't be by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    why? because governments can't control it. 1st world countries will put the kibosh on it because it can't be taxed easily

  20. If you told me folks would be paying $20k by rsilvergun · · Score: 1

    for a bitcoin 10 years ago I woulda called you nuts, so I can't rule this craziness out. I could see the rich and powerful using it to hide money from the tax man. I'm pretty sure that's what they're doing in China. I'm pretty sure that would suck. Getting the rich to pay a share for civilization is hard enough as is. I don't think they need any more easy ways to hide money. And I'm sure just like today I won't be able to get away with hiding the pittance of my salary in bitcoin anymore than I can declare my earnings taxed in whatever country has the lowest rate.

    --
    Hi! I make Firefox Plug-ins. Check 'em out @ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/youtube-mp3-podcaster/
  21. ROFL drunk, drugged or just plain stupid? by bloodhawk · · Score: 2, Informative

    LOL, so did he happen to have a needle stuck in his arm at the time or was he plastered on cheap moonshine? or does he actually believe that magically every country in the world is going to convert to an inherently flawed, non scalable currency controlled by the chinese? and that is before you consider the technical problems of no way in hell will everyone in the world have sufficient technology access for this to even be possible.

    1. Re: ROFL drunk, drugged or just plain stupid? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      None of the above, he's just a disingenuous asshole with invested in bitcoin.

    2. Re:ROFL drunk, drugged or just plain stupid? by iggymanz · · Score: 1

      no he's just a shill trying to pump likely because the recent drop caught him with his pants down, so he's looking for some bag holders.

  22. Next big unlock by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    ... "next big unlock" for the world of finance ...

    The USA has spent 40 years locking-down international finance, so there's major incentive for its use but popularity will only result in governments demanding Id. for purchases with crypto-currency.

    There are several countries (*cough* BRICS *cough*) that want to move away from a currency that mostly benefits one country (USA). Replacing the greenback with another currency that is easily manipulated, is pointless.

  23. Is this the same bitcoin..... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    That China and India have heavily restricted and S. Korea has basically banned? Yeah, it will surely take over the world.

  24. Bitcoin does not scale by manu0601 · · Score: 2

    It is surprising Jack Dorsey did not realize that bitcoin cannot scale.

    There are already too many transactions, which cause delays and/or rising fees. This is such a serious problem that even ransomware business turns away from it.

    And the worst is to come. Since bitcoin volume is limited by design, mining new bitcoin will become harder and harder over time, leading to the situation where the incentive for miners to maintain the blockchain will vanish.

    1. Re:Bitcoin does not scale by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It is surprising Jack Dorsey did not realize that bitcoin cannot scale.

      Cars as a transport solution in large cities does not scale either yet here we are...

    2. Re:Bitcoin does not scale by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      People stuffed into a too small area does not scale, don't blame the cars.

    3. Re:Bitcoin does not scale by belthize · · Score: 1

      Good example; it doesn't scale so we found an alternative. For instance only about 1/3rd of New Yorkers commute by car.

      So the trick is finding the alternative bandwagon and hop on that because bitcoin isn't it.

    4. Re:Bitcoin does not scale by angel'o'sphere · · Score: 1

      leading to the situation where the incentive for miners to maintain the blockchain will vanish.
      Hm ...

      rising fees.
      Hm ...

      Do I need to explain the correlation between fees and the "mining network"?

      --
      Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
  25. World's Top 15 Disasters... by rally2xs · · Score: 1

    Was reading one of those Facebook "lists", this one about the world's worst 15 disasters. Those things are fun to read, but one is pertinent to this. One notch on the list was some poor Brit that bought bitcoin early and amassed a fortune of 7.5 million (dollars? pounds?) and lost it all when he lost the hard drive (discarded it, I think) in his computer.

    I'm not sure we want to be using a currency that is quite so fragile. You have $7.5M, you're looking for a fork lift to move it around (just weighed a dollar bill at about 1 gram, so $7.5 M would be 7,500 Kg, or 16,500 lbs), and losing it would be a chore. I hereby vote to keep the current currency...

    1. Re:World's Top 15 Disasters... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I'm not sure we want to be using a currency that is quite so fragile.

      It might surprise you to learn that our current currency is also stored digitally. The trick to success is to keep more than one copy of anything important.

    2. Re:World's Top 15 Disasters... by Megane · · Score: 1

      Or maybe incidents like that are part of the reason it has gone so high. Just like how Superman #1 is only worth so much because of all the other copies that got thrown out.

      --
      #naabhaprzrag, #sverubfr-000, #agi-fcbafberq, negvpyr[pynff*=' negvpyr-ary-'] { qvfcynl: abar !vzcbegnag; }
  26. Twitter Stock... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Sell!!! Sell!!! Sell!!!

    1. Re:Twitter Stock... by Locke2005 · · Score: 1

      That presumes one was foolish enough to buy in the first place. Looking at Twitter's fundamentals, I'm pretty sure Warren Buffett would never have touched it. Selling short might be a good play, but I'm not sure when the stock is actually going to tank -- how long a time can you get an option for?

      --
      I've abandoned my search for truth; now I'm just looking for some useful delusions.
    2. Re:Twitter Stock... by Opportunist · · Score: 1

      Or, for anyone who has a brain and hence has none, "Short, Short, Short!!!!!!"

      --
      We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
    3. Re:Twitter Stock... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "how long a time can you get an option for?"

      For as long as you can pay to maintain it.

  27. I call BS by Locke2005 · · Score: 1

    The Twitter CEO also thinks Twitter has a viable business model, so I wouldn't believe anything he says!

    --
    I've abandoned my search for truth; now I'm just looking for some useful delusions.
  28. Pretty transparent, actually by Locke2005 · · Score: 1

    Dorsey obviously has a shitload of Square stock that he's trying to pump and dump before it's value goes down.

    --
    I've abandoned my search for truth; now I'm just looking for some useful delusions.
  29. tech firm not in the headlines by Hognoxious · · Score: 1

    1) Tech firm isn't being talked about enough.
    2) CEO spouts shite
    3) ????
    4) Profit!

    --
    Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
    1. Re:tech firm not in the headlines by Opportunist · · Score: 1

      3 would be "finding a way to make the business profitable".

      Twitter is still one of those "could one of the big players FINALLY buy me?????" companies.

      --
      We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
    2. Re:tech firm not in the headlines by ceoyoyo · · Score: 1

      He should just do like everyone else and change the name to Square Blockchain Technologies Inc.

  30. Slashdot Reader Says... by Zontar+The+Mindless · · Score: 1

    Twitter will still be a money-sink in ten years.

    --
    Il n'y a pas de Planet B.
  31. Currency exchange rates and trade relations by RhettLivingston · · Score: 2, Informative

    To have a single world currency, you'd have to find a replacement for the role that exchange rates play in international trade relations. Currency is portable. Economies are not. They are tied to regions. Inequities are created when vastly different economies use the same currency.

    You can see some of the issues within the US. You can buy a home on loan for say $800K in California, hold it for a few years, sell it for a $1M, take the $200K to Tennessee, and buy a nearly identical home for $200K.

    I once used that equation as a recruiting method to recruit experienced engineers from California. They went from struggling to make it to living on easy street despite a 30% cut in salary because their house payment completely disappeared and all other expenses went down at the same time.

    That is only possible because California and Tennessee use the same currency. If they didn't, the exchange rate would likely counter the difference so that $1M California dollars = $200K Tennessee dollars since money should have the same purchasing power everywhere. Granted, using houses as the comparison stretches this a bit over reality. But, even when you look at mundane things like gasoline, groceries, or getting your grass mowed, the dollar is worth less in California than Tennessee.

    Imagine the abuses that could occur if this was extended to California vs. a poor third world country. It doesn't seem dangerous when you just look at people taking their money to a place where it is worth 10 times more and living there, but if they purchase resources there and bring them here to where they are worth ten times more and then sell them, you could dangerously reduce the resources in the third world country.

    1. Re:Currency exchange rates and trade relations by Antique+Geekmeister · · Score: 2

      > you'd have to find a replacement for the role that exchange rates play in international trade relations. C

      You'd ideally also prevent large scale arbitrage from sucking all the profit out of those exchange rates, which is modern high-speed trading does to the stock market. I'm afraid that the thigh speed trading firms would balance the local currencies _very_ swiftly, before the ordinary worker had any possibility of personal benefit through switching markets.

    2. Re:Currency exchange rates and trade relations by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      India's economy is suffering because a key resource trained engineers are being imported to USA. Its already happening. The market will correct the imbalance with salaries rising in India till it makes no sense to come to US on an H1B

    3. Re:Currency exchange rates and trade relations by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You can buy a home on loan for say $800K in California, hold it for a few years, sell it for a $1M, take the $200K to Tennessee, and buy a nearly identical home for $200K.

      True statement. But the point you're trying to make with it is rubbish. The house in Tennessee is not equivalent to the house in California. We know that because people are willing to pay $600K more for the house in California. It's not because California dollars are worth less, but that Tennessee houses are worth less. Not the physical structure, but the environment in which it exists. California features the ocean, mountains, and lots and lots of Californians and the culture they foster. Tennessee has hills, rivers and far fewer Tennesseeans and the culture that THEY foster. The Californian experience has, historically, been quite a bit more popular.

    4. Re:Currency exchange rates and trade relations by houghi · · Score: 1

      Have you ever heard of the Euro? The cost of living in Sweden is not the same as the cost of living in Spain. Yet they still both use the Euro.
      So I try to imagine the abuses concerning the money if everybody would use the Euro in the world, because all other limits would still apply. We would just have it easier to compare and the banks will not get their 1% or higher cut both ways.

      What many people do not realize (not even in Europe) that before we had the Euro, we had the "Euro". That was that all the exchange rates where fixed. That went on for several years and everybody was happy. They then changed it to the Euroe and everybody was yelling murder, because they did not have a Frank, Mark, Guilder or Peseta anymore. But in reality, except for the profit for the exchange banks, nothing changed.

      The Lira was already linked to all the rest.

      --
      Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
    5. Re:Currency exchange rates and trade relations by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Good point, except that in this universe, Sweden uses the krona instead of the euro. And the krona-to-euro exchange rate is not fixed, but floats.

    6. Re:Currency exchange rates and trade relations by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      > The cost of living in Sweden is not the same as the cost of living in Spain. Yet they still both use the Euro.
      Sweden uses the Krona, not the Euro. Now had you said Finland, Denmark, etc.... You may have had a point.

    7. Re:Currency exchange rates and trade relations by houghi · · Score: 1

      Doh!

      --
      Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
    8. Re:Currency exchange rates and trade relations by houghi · · Score: 1

      If I would have said Denmark, the same would have applied. They also do not have the Euro.

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

      --
      Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
    9. Re:Currency exchange rates and trade relations by drsquare · · Score: 1

      The Euro has caused all sorts of problems in Europe, especially the South.

    10. Re:Currency exchange rates and trade relations by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yeah, but that depends upon finding engineers who want to live in Tennessee. I really don't. I'd take a pay cut NOT to have to live in Tennessee.

      AC

    11. Re:Currency exchange rates and trade relations by Perky_Goth · · Score: 1

      Yes, the ERM and the ESM weren't a prediction for the euroland disaster at all.

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
      It should be no surprise it only survives because the ECB doesn't follow the law.

  32. Smart CEO by bankman · · Score: 1

    With someone like this at the helm, divesting from Twitter may be the thing to do.

    --
    I feel so sig.
  33. It won't be bitcoin - f*#k the banks by FeelGood314 · · Score: 2

    Crypto currencies are so much easier to use than regular FIAT currency that there will be a crypto currency that will be used for at least 10% of all world wide transactions in the next 10 or 15 years. It just won't be bitcoin. There are just to many problems with it. The supply is limited, the transaction times are too long, the number of transactions per second is far to low, and the governing group on policy is not the people using it but the miners. Oh and the cost of the mining in terms of electrical usage is just nuts.

    1. Re:It won't be bitcoin - f*#k the banks by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Then again, there's nine years of continuous development, second-layer solutions for scaling, and the most powerful cryptographic network in the world.

      It will be Bitcoin. There will be others, but Bitcoin will be the gold standard.

  34. Myriad of issues by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I'm firmly in the this will never happen camp but if it were possible bitcoin and Blockchain currencies would have to solve it's huge number of issues from the already mentioned speed and transaction issues to the abuse issues, it was only a few days ago researchers found people using bitcoin to spread and share child pornography. I think a world currency probably shouldn't have the feature to attach random data.

  35. In other news, everyone will use Google Glasses by Maxo-Texas · · Score: 1

    They were going to be big too.

    --
    She was like chocolate when she drank... semi-sweet at first and then increasingly bitter.
  36. Bitcoin won't be by 91degrees · · Score: 1

    Perhaps Ethereum, because it solves several of the problems with Bitcoin. Perhaps ripple, because it has support from banks. Perhaps one of the other top 10, but Bitcoin itself has a lot of problems, discussed by pretty much everyone in the comments.

  37. Pump it Up! by nateman1352 · · Score: 1

    Anyone want to bet that Dorsey bought a bunch of Bitcoin before releasing this statement hoping to make a quick buck?

  38. No surprise... by chris.vanderheyden · · Score: 0

    ... twitter still has no working business model ... Maybe Jack should go back to school

  39. Self serving prediction no doubt by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Sounds like a self serving prediction.

  40. Bill Gates said in 1996 by mapkinase · · Score: 1

    Appr. quote:

    We tend overestimate things that will happen in 2 years, and underestimate things that will happen in 10 years.

    Despite bumper sticker nature of that quote, it's a food for thought.

    --
    I do not believe in karma. "Funny"=-6. Do good and forbid evil. Yours, Oft-Offtopic Flamebaiting Troll.
  41. Truth in advertising by Rumagent · · Score: 3, Funny

    Translation: Twitter CEO has bought bitcoin and want to dump it

  42. Found the guy by Opportunist · · Score: 1

    that just sunk a few millions into bitcoins.

    --
    We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
    1. Re:Found the guy by dwillden · · Score: 1

      He mostly bought at or near the peak last year and is desperate to push it back up so he doesn't lose as much when he decides to sell it.

      --
      I'm too lazy to compose a creative sig.
    2. Re:Found the guy by dwillden · · Score: 1

      Oops, that was supposed to say

      "He probably bought most of it at or near the peak..."

      --
      I'm too lazy to compose a creative sig.
  43. Idiots, idiots everywhere by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Bitcoin in its current state is already a failure, both from the technical and social point of view. Now it is merily a global Ponzi scheme. What global currently with transaction verification time of a few hours and energy consumption of a small skyscraper?

  44. Coming from a CEO of a Company by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Who uses deceptive business practices to bilk money off of people by offering advertisement services, then bans the advertisements they created, and the customer, and does not refund the money.

    Twitter's business model is total shit and eventually they will see their day in court.

  45. Nope. by Chris+Mattern · · Score: 1

    Governments depend too much on their power to issue currency. Bitcoin will be made illegal before that happens. It's already happening in some places.

    1. Re:Nope. by ceoyoyo · · Score: 1

      It probably won't even be necessary. Bitcoin is a crappy currency. As a system for transferring money, it has a few advantages (and lots of disadvantages). The biggest advantage is that it's somewhat anonymous. Except governments figured that out and are cracking down. When everything settles down, including the actual price of bitcoin, Western Union might be getting some competition, but government issued currencies probably aren't.

  46. Hmmm by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I guess that idiot thinks that only a few people in the world need to buy and sell at any given time.

  47. lolz by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    These tech prophecies are never correct... it's like weather forecasting.

    "Why the Iphone will fail"

  48. Insanity by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Twitter CEO declares to world plus dog that he is really insane!!! News at Nine.

  49. Where was Dorsey in B-school? by Applehu+Akbar · · Score: 2

    Obviously not in many econ classes. Bitcoin is failing as a currency precisely because now that most of the ultimate available supply has been mined, that's all there will ever be. Because of this, Bitcoin has transitioned from being a digital currency to a sort of imaginary investment which will be hoarded so long as each buyer thinks he can sell it for a higher price to some other buyer. Either Dorsey already holds a lot of it or he just doesn't know any better.

    Even gold makes a better currency than BTC, because the gold supply has increased by an annual couple of percent or so over all historic time as new gold comes out of the ground. That's why it made a perfectly good currency across the pre-technology centuries when the amount of wealth in the world barely changed and every transaction was a zero-sum exchange. When the Industrial Revolution made it possible for net economic wealth to increase every year, the need arose for managed currencies that grew at the same rate as everything for which it can be traded.

  50. 10 years from now... by sizzzzlerz · · Score: 2

    15-year old script kiddies control the world's economy through their successful hacking of the sole world currency.

  51. illustrated children's story? Really? by BadTuna · · Score: 1

    I guess dumbing it down to the lowest common denominator works for some things. If every single Twitter user went strictly Bitcoin, that's less than 5% of the worlds population.
      Sound economics from this guy. What's next? Uber CEO touting the global ramifications of New Coke?

    --
    Your sig here!
  52. how the rich going to take even more by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    when there is a limit on the amount there can be. rich wanna get richer! Fuckwit.

  53. HA! HA! HA! by neo-mkrey · · Score: 1

    no

  54. Never going to happen by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    It is not backed by anything. At most, it may act as a way to get free conversions between two denominations of currency instantaneously.

    Other than that it's worthless. Literally. It is not backed by anything. Not gold or a government. So good luck to people that think this will last.

  55. If not outlawed... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    If it is not outlawed before that due to embedded child porn references, see

        https://www.sciencealert.com/bitcoin-illegal-almost-everywhere-after-shocking-blockchain-discovery-child-pornography
        http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-43485572
        https://gizmodo.com/child-pornography-that-researchers-found-in-the-blockch-1823927566

  56. Bitcoin is piece of shit by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Bitcoin is piece of shit:
    - Bitcoin wastes energy
    - Bitcoin fuels all illegal activity including gambling, which is restricted by law to some geographical locations only.

    It is not step forward it is 2 steps backward in technology

  57. Re:Who is this guy a cockholster to? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    He's one of the many blowhards out there trying to talk up his bad investment so he can unload it on someone else. Everyone who has two brain cells realizes bitcoin is many times more expensive to transact than any other currency on the planet and is unsuitable for anything other than planting in a virtual tulip pot.

  58. Or it could all Implode by Dusanyu · · Score: 1

    As soon as people figure out the places they can spend it is limited and exchanges for it have been Shady at best People will decide that Bitcoin is worthless than like Pu o Hiro the rock that the people of Easter island used to fight wars over, that now sits on the side of the road getting poor reviews on trip advisor, deemed worthless and almost forgotten.

  59. In 10 years by KingMotley · · Score: 1

    I suspect that twitter will allow messages longer than 280 characters, and we will see that sometime in the next 10 years. Maybe faster.

    Bitcoin as the only currency in 10 years? ROFLMGDAO!

  60. yay! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    just go my pay, I can buy a new house! wait ! no, just an ice cream, hang on, a car! nope, a sandwich...

  61. More bullshit from idiots who know nothing by Rick+Schumann · · Score: 1

    Clickbait at best. I feel dirty even commenting on it this much.

    While we're making wild claims, I may as well make one of my own: in 10 years, everyone will have forgotten cryptocurrency, except as something only used regularly by criminals, and that it was banned worldwide. Since I'm saying up front that's a 'wild claim', you can't criticize me for saying it. xD xD xD

  62. Tech Site or Propaganda? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    This Slashdot or Slashpropanda? Sometimes I forget. How can Slashdot seriously post this under anything but the humor or propaganda categories. Jack Dorsey is not just with Twitter, but also CEO of Square which is now accepting Bitcoins, so he will profit quite nicely of Bitcoin and "fake news" like stories on here.

  63. All so-called cryptocurrencies are scams! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    If so-called cryptocurrencies are really good innovation, why they attract so many criminals/criminal activity?
    Could it really be because, all cryptocurrencies themselves are scams, and that is why they attract all kinds of criminals/criminal activity?

    If so-called cryptocurrencies are really currency, why no company/store can use Bitcoin as currency anymore?
    Because the price of Bitcoin proved to be extremely unstable to use as a currency?
    Would the result be different, if Bitcoin replaced by any other "cryptocurrency"?
    Aren't all work the same way?

    Or, they are not actually virtual currency but virtual investment?
    But, if they are actually investment, why we need/want them?
    What would happen to world economy, if people invested in virtual investments, instead of real investments?

    Or, all so-called cryptocurrencies are actually just a modified (made decentralized and paying variable interest) Ponzi Schemes?
    (Price of cryptocurrencies would keep increasing in the long term (by their design), so it is equivalent of paying variable interest to all long term investors.)

    As more and more people invest in cryptocurrencies, it will become harder and harder to ban their trading everywhere!
    All cryptocurrencies need to be banned globally before it is too late!

  64. WAR by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Crypto currencies are the single biggest threat to freedom the world has ever seen.

    As somebody else said to me: "Crypto currencies are such a big threat that it mandates a military response on any and every government agency or other entity that tries to force it's use."

  65. Re:Who is this guy a cockholster to? by tattood · · Score: 1

    There isn't enough bitcoin for it to be the single worldwide currency. According to coindesk, the market cap of bitcoin is $0.146T, or $146 billion. Apple alone has more cash than that, so it is not feasible for bitcoin to ever be the single worldwide currency.

    --
    WTB [sig], PST!!!
  66. No one is using now, so in 10 years everyone will? by rrconan · · Score: 1

    Not a chance, from 0 to 100%.Nothing suggest that this will occur. More, which one of the criptocurrencies will be used ?

  67. Just more proof by Stan92057 · · Score: 1

    Just more proof that the super rich are so far disconnected from the real world its not funny.

    --
    Jack of all trades,master of none
  68. Bitcoin is not a currency! by heson · · Score: 1

    Bitcoin is not a currency it is a easily traded bubble stock. The current value has no substance, value is only based on speculation. I was there in the dotcom bubble, I was a virtual millionaire, I was looking through the Ferrari catalog, no the stocks were not sell-able. No, I am not bitter, I did not pay for my virtual fortune.

  69. Translation by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    For those of you who don't speak Silicon Valley sociopathese, let me translate:

    "I thought about selling all my BC last December when they hit their high-point of $16k a pop, but I really thought they'd go higher. However, now that the story has broke regarding the use of the blockchains as secure vehicles for kiddie porn, I think cryptocurrencies fifteen minutes of fame are up and I want to pump the price as much as I can so I can sell out and move to a country that doesn't observe international law nor has an extradition treaty with any country that does."

  70. Greece by DarthVain · · Score: 1

    The problem with the expansion of centralized economies is that the partners in such a scheme loose the flexibility to adjust their own economy (and debt) VIA currency deflation/inflation.

    This was most noticeably seen very recently with Greece and the Euro.

    As soon as a country agrees to do this, they loose the sovereign ability to control their currency and will be at the whim of all the other countries that use the same thing.

    Never mind all the intrinsic fundamental issues with using bitcoin as an actual currency rather than a speculative "investment". I'd think it would be more likely that one of the larger conventional currencies eventually get adopted more and more until only one is left standing (Dollar, Euro, Yuan). Even then that would likely take many decades, and not in the next "10 years".