Re:Bitcoin: the Stripe perspective
by pmorici on Monday July 21, 2014 @04:52PM
(#8065924)
The answer for why Bitcoin instead of Gold or stocks or whatever comes down to trust and logistics. Take Gold for example you have to have to either ship the gold around which is expensive and slow or have a trusted third party store the gold and handle netting out the transactions between entities or accept delayed payment and trust that the counter party will deliver the underlying asset. Bitcoin does not require trust in anything except the math underlying the system.
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You are completely ignoring that you still have to trust your own security and 3rd party apps and services.
I don't think you'll ever be able to devise a system where you don't even have to trust yourself.
Also that BTC has no chargebanks, fraud detection etc. Once its gone from your account its gone.
Re:Bitcoin: the Stripe perspective
by Natanael_L on Tuesday July 22, 2014 @05:32AM
(#8068032)
Multisignature services enable escrow and fraud detection, etc.
> Bitcoin does not require trust in anything except the math underlying the system.
False. It requires trust in the liquidity of bitcoin. If you can't convert bitcoin to local currency, it has no value. Bitcoin's fragility is in its ability to act as a holder of value, as repeatedly show by speculative price swinging (sometimes without apparent cause).
Gold, for all its faults, has a huge track record as a value store.