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Re:In Defense of Bitcoin Maximalism by bin_bash on Friday April 01, 2022 @09:47AM (#30878016)
Who keeps a large percentage of their wealth in cash?
Re:In Defense of Bitcoin Maximalism by justinpowers on Friday April 01, 2022 @09:58AM (#30878127)
~22% of the US population if you equate being unbanked or underbanked with holding your wealth in cash.

Worldwide, the percentage is similar.

Of course being unbanked isn’t equivalent but it’s likely very nearly so.

Not to mention, the chances of being unbanked are higher for vulnerable populations, especially those who might benefit from uncensorable money.

Re:In Defense of Bitcoin Maximalism by SketchySeaBeast on Friday April 01, 2022 @10:18AM (#30878304)
Given the required internet access, transaction fees, and general tech sophistication required to use crypto (even more to use it safely), does it seem like it would be a good fit for those people?
Re:In Defense of Bitcoin Maximalism by kragen on Friday April 01, 2022 @10:42AM (#30878511)
I know a lot of "those people" who are using Bitcoin already, but I would never refer to unbanked people as "those people," being for all practical purposes one of them. We mostly aren't using it safely (a lot of us don't know the difference between Binance and Bitcoin) but we are using it.

The last transaction fee I paid was 33¢, and the average transaction in the last Bitcoin block was 913 bytes, so your internet access speed isn't an obstacle to sending a transaction as long as it's above about 20 bits per second; if you want to run a full node you need at least 17000 bits per second of internet access unless you're using the Blockstream satellite.

Typically I pay US$5 a month for cellphone internet access when I have it, but more commonly I use Wi-Fi in various places.

Re:In Defense of Bitcoin Maximalism by aaaaaaaaata on Saturday April 02, 2022 @09:13AM (#30888003)
How long before there's safe tech for relaying your transactions via other people's connections, as a cooperative distributed mesh, to improve confirmation and delivery speed of your own packets?
Re:In Defense of Bitcoin Maximalism by kragen on Saturday April 02, 2022 @12:44PM (#30889570)
That's been part of Bitcoin since it was invented in 02008.
Re:In Defense of Bitcoin Maximalism by aaaaaaaaata on Saturday April 02, 2022 @09:11AM (#30887993)
I hate to see this repeated argument, because it seems to indicate an unimaginative, or perhaps altruistic?, perspective regarding the future of tech's role in society.

Centralized internet is not long for this world. The Internet is being fractured, both ideologically and physically, right now, by world war.

This only gets worse before it gets better, which probably means mesh networks will be adopted soon enough. Anyway,

This is why adopting distribution of responsibilities is so important in projects like Ethereum — your offline handhelds will be able to make provable transactions without having immediate communication with every star in the constellation, so to speak.

Re:In Defense of Bitcoin Maximalism by justinpowers on Friday April 01, 2022 @10:43AM (#30878520)
The fit of alternatives was not the focus of the comment I was replying to.

The fact is that many people hold their wealth in cash, and many of the same people are part of vulnerable populations.

One shouldn’t remove another’s alternatives simply because it’s assumed that the other lacks access or sophistication. Even if true, both potential deficiencies are fully reparable and do not permanently negate the benefits of uncensorable money.

Re:In Defense of Bitcoin Maximalism by smeej on Friday April 01, 2022 @09:54AM (#30878087)
I don't know, but they're comparable in sophistication and foresight to people who keep a large percentage of their crypto wealth in a single-signature wallet. Neither one is a good idea.

It isn't difficult to set up multisignature wallets, where you can lose some subset of the keys and still retain access to the funds. (It's not easy either, but it's not difficult, and there are companies like Casa and Unchained making it easier.)

Just like someone might keep a couple hundred dollars in their wallet/on their person, a couple percent of their wealth in a home safe, and the majority of their wealth distributed across multiple locations with various failsafes to access it, someone might keep a couple hundred bucks worth of BTC in a wallet on their phone, another percent or two of their BTC in a single-sig hardware wallet in a safe at home, and the majority of their BTC in a 3-of-5 multisig setup with only two keys at home, one in a safety deposit box, one in a trusted family member's home, and one in the custody of their attorney.

Re:In Defense of Bitcoin Maximalism by lottin on Friday April 01, 2022 @10:18AM (#30878302)
> It isn't difficult to set up multisignature wallets

I don't think setting up the wallet is the hardest part. The hardest part would be to get into a legally binding agreement with the other parties, that you depend on from now on to access your "wealth", the very situation that crypto-currencies were supposed to avert.

Re:In Defense of Bitcoin Maximalism by smeej on Friday April 01, 2022 @11:39AM (#30879317)
How is that any harder than getting into a legally binding agreement with anyone else about anything else under the existing system?

You can make sure they don't have enough of the keys to move your funds without your consent. Making a legally binding agreement that they have to give you access to the key they have if/when you demand it is no more complex a legal task than any other instance where you trust someone to custody something for you.

Re:In Defense of Bitcoin Maximalism by lottin on Friday April 01, 2022 @12:15PM (#30879810)
> How is that any harder than getting into a legally binding agreement with anyone else about anything else under the existing system?

I never said it was harder. I'm merely pointing out that the proposed solution to this particular usability issue that crypto-currencies suffer from involves reverting back to a web of mutual obligations enforced by courts of justice, which entirely defeats the purpose of using a crypto-currency.