Re:Bitcoin.org removes “fast” and “low fees” from Bitcoin de...
by ryanisnan on Monday January 22, 2018 @11:06AM
(#16205404)
So perhaps you can help clarify one thing. In the absence of an exchange, if I wanted to pay you $20, how exactly would this establish itself as truth on the block chain?
Re:Bitcoin.org removes “fast” and “low fees” from Bitcoin de...
by vec on Monday January 22, 2018 @03:12PM
(#16207489)
In theory, we could either have one of us run a mining node for long enough to confirm the transaction or we could find a third-party miner to do it for us on whatever terms we could negotiate directly with them.
In practice, running a mining node without specialized equipment is prohibitively expensive so we're stuck finding a third party. Most of those third parties are looking to do a volume business and aren't interested in one-off small dollar transactions, so it's centralized exchanges or nothing.
Re:Bitcoin.org removes “fast” and “low fees” from Bitcoin de...
by hndamien on Tuesday January 23, 2018 @12:35AM
(#16211282)
No, that isn't how it works at all. You would broadcast a transaction to your friend for $20. It would sit in the mempool and eventually get picked up by miner and would then be forever logged in the blockchain.
Centralized exchanges will remain a thing for rapid and cheap exchange; Bitcoin in particular has the flaw that it's slow and expensive to transfer between wallets, so the exchanges provide a fast alternative. You give up the decentralized nature in favor of fast and cheap transfers between wallets and currencies. This is more for the traders though.