Re:Bitcoin backlash as ‘miners’ stress power grids in Centra...
by acdha on Sunday May 27, 2018 @03:39PM
(#17168726)
I don't think that does anything other than make the comparison worse for Bitcoin: while it's technically true that the Internet started well before 1989, what was popular in 1999 was the web and that really wasn't mainstream before 1993 or so when e.g. Mosaic was released but by 1995-6 it was having significant impacts around the world in most fields.
More interestingly, however, is that Internet was difficult to get and expensive throughout most of that period, not to mention the slow and expensive connection speeds of that era, all of which limited adoption substantially. Even with those barriers to adoption, however, there was plenty of demand because it was immediately useful to have email, Usenet (at least in technical fields), FTP, etc. even before the explosion of activity around the web. When the web boomed, millions of people paid (often by the minute) to surf it at 56K or less.
In contrast, Bitcoin has been available to almost anyone on the Internet for many years without anything like those barriers to adoption but most people haven't had a reason to care.
More interestingly, however, is that Internet was difficult to get and expensive throughout most of that period, not to mention the slow and expensive connection speeds of that era, all of which limited adoption substantially. Even with those barriers to adoption, however, there was plenty of demand because it was immediately useful to have email, Usenet (at least in technical fields), FTP, etc. even before the explosion of activity around the web. When the web boomed, millions of people paid (often by the minute) to surf it at 56K or less.
In contrast, Bitcoin has been available to almost anyone on the Internet for many years without anything like those barriers to adoption but most people haven't had a reason to care.