Readit Newsbendtheblock commented on The Blockchain in a Historical Perspective jonstokes.com/p/the-block... · Posted by u/socialdemocrat
The Libor sandal. That was precisely banks changing their own ledgers to defraud their customers on a massive scale.
That was price fixing - nothing to do with the bank's ledger. https://www.investopedia.com/terms/l/libor-scandal.asp
bendtheblock commented on The Blockchain in a Historical Perspective jonstokes.com/p/the-block... · Posted by u/socialdemocrat
> In recent history have there been examples of banks changing their own ledgers?
Yes.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wells_Fargo_account_fraud_scan...
That wasn't a change in the ledger - it was the misselling and fraudulent opening of accounts. And it was remediated, there was a change in the leadership and settlements to the victims. You're proving my point, as a system we do a decent job of enforcing good behaviour.
bendtheblock commented on The Blockchain in a Historical Perspective jonstokes.com/p/the-block... · Posted by u/socialdemocrat
A better title would be Ledgers in historical perspective. The hypothetical he ends with (what if ledgers could be decentralised) is a classic example of blockchains looking for a problem. In recent history have there been examples of banks changing their own ledgers? As a civilisation we have already solved the problem of trust in a much more efficient way.
bendtheblock commented on The Lightning Network: Turning Bitcoin into Money papers.ssrn.com/sol3/pape... · Posted by u/olalonde
Due to blockchain's architectural shortcomings, you need to do the transactions off chain. Fine...
But crypto-"currencies" are actually highly speculative assets (as South Africa declared today [1]). No bro will spend them - the ideology is to HODL for 100k remember [2]? Earnest patron saints like Laszlo Hanyecz bought two papa john’s pizzas in 2010 for what would be worth today roughly $200,000,000 [3]. They wanted a new currency, but today the purpose is speculation. The whole point is not to be the greater fool.
Bitcoin was never meant to be gold, it was meant to be spent. But that hasn't happened.
[1] https://cointelegraph.com/news/bitcoin-not-a-currency-south-...
[2] https://www.wealthsimple.com/en-ca/magazine/laser-eyes-crypt...
[3] https://www.the-sun.com/news/2935660/bitcoin-pizza-laszlo-ha...
what's wrong with this comment?! that it's anti-crypto? currency needs to be a medium of exchange, unit of account, and store of value. Given its volatility, Bitcoin could only ever realistically be useful for the latter, and only then as a risky speculation.
bendtheblock commented on The Lightning Network: Turning Bitcoin into Money papers.ssrn.com/sol3/pape... · Posted by u/olalonde
It keeps many of the properties of bitcoin:
- decentralised
- trustless
- censure resistance
Edit: - pseudonymous
but what's the benefit of these?
- decentralised: why is this good?
- trustless: I trust the companies I use, it works
- censure resistance: OK, fringe case for most
- pseudonymous: why do I want anyone to be able to see my transaction history?
bendtheblock commented on The Lightning Network: Turning Bitcoin into Money papers.ssrn.com/sol3/pape... · Posted by u/olalonde
Due to blockchain's architectural shortcomings, you need to do the transactions off chain. Fine...
But crypto-"currencies" are actually highly speculative assets (as South Africa declared today [1]). No bro will spend them - the ideology is to HODL for 100k remember [2]? Earnest patron saints like Laszlo Hanyecz bought two papa john’s pizzas in 2010 for what would be worth today roughly $200,000,000 [3]. They wanted a new currency, but today the purpose is speculation. The whole point is not to be the greater fool.
Bitcoin was never meant to be gold, it was meant to be spent. But that hasn't happened.
[1] https://cointelegraph.com/news/bitcoin-not-a-currency-south-...
[2] https://www.wealthsimple.com/en-ca/magazine/laser-eyes-crypt...
[3] https://www.the-sun.com/news/2935660/bitcoin-pizza-laszlo-ha...
bendtheblock commented on Coinbase is reportedly selling geolocation data to ICE theintercept.com/2022/06/... · Posted by u/rukshn
That all of those systems are extremely centralized? i don't get your point on this one as it seems to reaffirm my comment.
The centralized nature of these oligopolies is a property of capitalism, i.e. capital consolidates power. You are saying that search, storage etc are centralised because of the tech? Why are they any more centralised than the other (pre-internet) examples I mentioned?
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/14/technology/ftx-sam-bankma...
https://www.mollywhite.net/annotations/latecomers-guide-to-c...
It seems as if NYT have a couple of relatively pro-crypto (or just naive) writers.