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Re:Bitcoin has a huge scaling problem–Lightning could be the... by kylnew on Sunday February 04, 2018 @10:44AM (#16303166)
It’s funny to say ‘replacing’ bitcoin to me because we talk like it had a strong value and use in the past but really this has all just been speculation since the start. We all seem in agreement that blockchain as a technology is legitimate but none of these currency implementations float my boat yet because of how highly speculative the whole market is right now.

Aside: last week up I looked it up and sure enough there’s a ‘PonziCoin’ out there

Re:Bitcoin has a huge scaling problem–Lightning could be the... by zdfjkhiuj on Sunday February 04, 2018 @11:37AM (#16303417)
I don't think the blockchain is a good technology. Traditional databases or something like Git solve the same problems better. I have an ideological desire to see more trustless and peer-to-peer systems and I think they'll take hold eventually, but at the moment blockchains are worthless.
Re:Bitcoin has a huge scaling problem–Lightning could be the... by sidibe on Sunday February 04, 2018 @05:22PM (#16305288)
It's a good technology if you agree with the goals of libertarians today which is that we should be able to do everything without trust. Having trust is such a huge shortcut of energy and enables you not to have to completely do everything yourself. It pretty much enabled civilization to begin with, but many people now have given up on trusting anything and don't think they have the agency to improve any sort of trusted authority.
Re:Bitcoin has a huge scaling problem–Lightning could be the... by kylnew on Sunday February 04, 2018 @11:50AM (#16303485)
There’s a lot more I could know about the practicality of blockchain but the value of the technology is still more real than the currencies that live on it. It seems to me, in my perhaps naive opinion, that in the long run blockchain might just be a way to make digital certificates of authenticity for digital goods that need a guaranteed uniqueness feature.