Nassim Nicholas Taleb, Author of Black Swan, on Bitcoin

Re:Nassim Nicholas Taleb, Author of Black Swan, on Bitcoin by matthewbauer on Tuesday January 23, 2018 @12:53PM (#16215561)

Yes definitely. If you replace "Bitcoin" in this essay with "blockchain based assets", Taleb would have a fairly good point. But "Bitcoin" has been manipulated so much that I think most people recognize that a crash is inevitable. There is nothing special about Bitcoin-anyone can start their own blockchain. Bitcoin is just an overpriced version of the infinite possible blockchains.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Nassim Nicholas Taleb, Author of Black Swan, on Bitcoin by soneca on Tuesday January 23, 2018 @01:05PM (#16215691)

But he indeed is mostly talking about the idea/concept behind Bitcoin (that could be translated as "blockchain based assets") rather than necessarily Bitcoin itself. He doesn't discard Bitcoin as not having these qualities, but he also doesn't state that only Bitcoin is capable of it.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Nassim Nicholas Taleb, Author of Black Swan, on Bitcoin by jebeng on Tuesday January 23, 2018 @02:18PM (#16216566)

I think you have it backwards here for the most part.

What problems do you see infinite blockchains solving?

No comment on whether or not a crash is inevitable, who knows where the price is going. That's not really too important to me. But the fact that Bitcoin is for now the most secure and technologically sound blockchain is what makes it interesting. And actually having those unique characteristics is what makes it special. I definitely don't see much special with 'blockchain the data structure' on its own.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Nassim Nicholas Taleb, Author of Black Swan, on Bitcoin by matthewbauer on Tuesday January 23, 2018 @03:44PM (#16217498)

Yes there’s definitely value in Bitcoins hash power and underlying technology. But the code is open source and easy to copy. There’s a team behind it that is definitely worth something for Bitcoin but they could certainly work on any blockchain (especially if it’s a Bitcoin fork).

I think forks are definitely the biggest concern for Bitcoin. I think most longterm holders arent realizing how big of a threat it is.

Bitcoin Cash is still around and can probably stay around for a long time reusing Cores work. Other forks will be less friendly and won’t preserve Bitcoins transaction history.

[ Parent | on HN ]