tgraves83

As a systems person you don't see any benefit to having different layers? Currently you are getting to watch the issues of shoving everything into layer 1 play out on Ethereum. Bitcoin isn't just a distributed system, it's value is derived from being a decentralized one.

Almost every technical aspect of Bitcoin that people like to claim makes it "old technology" or inefficient were purposefully chosen trade offs with decentralization. It's obvious that a single centralized database would beat every cryptocurrency on transactions per second.

Since you are using an appeal from authority citing your distributed systems background, could you provide some actual detail of the "obvious deficiencies" of the lightning network?

I believe Strike is upfront about the fact they are using the stable coin USDC at the exchange for that part of the transaction. USDC is backed by Circle and Coinbase and is probably regarded as the most trusted centralized stable coin. The downvotes are probably because of the “intrinsic value” and Ponzi scheme arguments which people that have been in this space for a decade have grown tired of.

Have you ever used a cryptocurrency exchange? I admit, there have been some bad actors in the space as there is in any nascent technology, but at this point there are a number of legitimate and even regulated exchanges in multiple jurisdictions.

You can easily look up the volume traded on these exchanges. There are still some shady exchanges out there so I’d mainly look at the more trusted/regulated ones like Coinbase Pro, Bitstamp, Gemini, Kraken etc.

Strike has already released a working app for US customers that I’ve been using without issue for payments to friends and family as an alternative to Venmo/PayPal.

It doesn't sound like you bothered reading the link I posted. Price volatility caused by a "run on the bank" doesn't really matter if you are sending payments between two people using different currencies. The link I posted describes an app that as an example allows a payment to be sent from someone in the US to someone in Europe and have it settled instantly. Bitcoin is only used on the end of each transaction and converted in and out of dollars and euro's instantaneously making it's price irrelevant.

The intrinsic value argument is old and tired at this point so I'm not even going to bother with it.

Yes, Bitcoin at this stage is extremely volatile and anyone buying it to hold as an investment should understand it can lose or gain a lot of value quickly. However, it does have multiple use cases at this point that clearly the market has determined have some type of value. We're still figuring that out.

As a side note, if you do some digging you can find some pretty good on-chain analytics that can theoretically put a sort of floor on the price based on how coins have moved over time. There are now quite a few sites like glassnode.com, cryptoquant.com, coinmentrics.io etc that provide this data or if you are technical enough set up your own node and verify it for yourself.

I generally agree. However, these can become bubbles themselves or be overcrowded trades. Plenty of the value in those investments is pure speculation and not productive investment. A typical hedge against equities being overvalued would be bonds but those don't look that attractive right now either. Maybe the world needs another alternative. I would argue the current price of bitcoin is the market agreeing with that.

I think cryptocurrencies definitely do have stronger network and memetic effects than gold. I agree with you that something like a bitcoin standard would probably be a disaster.

However, I think of bitcoin as more of an inflationary hedge (even if we don't actually get inflation) or check on central bank monetary policy. So it's ultimately just an alternative asset. It also has some pretty amazing potential as a global settlement network but more so when it's volatility goes down.

Do you think the government is going to tie the currency to bitcoin and we'll be on a bitcoin standard? That would be the equivalent and would mean bitcoin would be insanely valuable so maybe you should buy some.

On the other hand, it's far more likely the fed will stick with fiat currency. You'll still get paid in USD, pay your taxes in USD but bitcoin will exist as an alternative store of value like gold. There is around ~$11 trillion worth of gold above ground. Bitcoin has some properties that could make it a better store of value and much easier to transact with than gold. If it eats into gold's primary use case it will probably be a lot more valuable than it is right now.