That’s layer 1. Read up on layer 2 options. Lightning Network is the best current example, but there are others and will be more. That’s where most of the innovation is happening now. The media never talks about it because it’s necessarily more technical and they think their readers/viewers are all idiots, so why bother.
Or does the media never talk about it because the whole thing is confusing as fuck, there are about a bajillion different coins and no one knows which one to use, and there has yet to be an advantage (and often a big hurdle) to use any of these cyrptocurrencies to do things like buy a gallon of milk.
We hear a lot about how it’s better than “fiat” currency, and yet if I want to go down to the gas station and get a soda, I can pay for that soda with exactly zero cryptocurrencies unless I convert them into dollars first.
Maybe if crypto people ever get their act together, and I don’t see that happening any time soon, this will be more than people investing in digital tulips.
But hey, the local mall here has a Bitcoin ATM. In an entrance almost no one ever uses in a corner of the food court where there are no restaurants and you wouldn’t even notice it unless you happened to walk past it and look at the front panel to see what it was (I only noticed it because my daughter is in online school and still has to do gym and we walk the perimeter of the mall in the winter). So there’s that.
Also they love to act as though fiat isn’t backed by anything despite the fact that fiat is actually backed by something extremely important: you are required by law to use fiat for interactions with some of the most powerful organizations in the world. I can’t pay taxes in crypto or gold or even rubles, my government accepts usd and if I don’t hand them usd every year I get in trouble. When they pay me for any reason it’s in usd. When they fine me it’s in usd. That is a backing. So long as I have to financially deal with the governments of the United States I have to have appropriate quantities of usd. And because of all of this everything around me accepts that currency, even drug dealers take cash. Why? Because it’s the local currency. And it’s reasonably stable.
And on that note, I’d never spend a wildly inflationary currency. It’s not an effective currency and because of that it winds up being entirely theoretical.
I don’t disagree with anything you said. Yes, it’s confusing and there’s no shortage of scammers trying to make it more confusing in order to bamboozle people.
My humble advice is to ignore “crypto”. Adopt, at least for now, the philosophy that, “it’s either Bitcoin, or shit coin.” That’ll simplify things immensely for those just getting started, and is true for at least 99.9% of other coins out there (100% if you want my honest opinion).
Maybe, in the distant future, when/if you decide to dive down the rabbit hole and really get comfortable how Bitcoin functions and what gives it value, then you’ll be in a better position to judge other coins. More likely, you won’t bother because you won’t need to.
But, mark my words, nothing is going to replace Bitcoin. Some other coins might manage to fulfill some esoteric fringe use cases that Bitcoin doesn’t, and maybe one those use cases will be beneficial to you. If so, awesome. But they’re not going to be able to replace Bitcoin.
Layer 2 protocols are tools that operate on top of the (admittedly slow and variable) Bitcoin blockchain. Lightning Network (LN) is currently the most prominent and allows secure transactions that complete in a few seconds with extremely small fees. LN addresses the “it’s too slow/unpredictable” argument against Bitcoin.
There are many other Layer 2 protocols running on top of Bitcoin in various stages of development and production addressing different issues and use cases. But, you don’t need to know about any of them, honestly. You don’t need to pick the winner (there will be many winners doing different things). When any of them catch on and go mainstream, then that will drive more demand for Bitcoin to help power that protocol.
I didn’t miss out at something I was never interested in to begin with.
Also, I have no interest in helping you with your tulips.
Also, Bitcoin ATMs are a massive rip-off and PITA.
Huh. Maybe this whole “fiat currency” thing isn’t the worst idea then. I can get it out of my bank’s ATM from the U.S. dollars in my checking account, they are accepted everywhere in the U.S. And the bank doesn’t charge me anything.
Also, Bitcoin ATMs are a massive rip-off and PITA.
Huh. Maybe this whole “fiat currency” thing isn’t the worst idea then. I can get it out of my bank’s ATM from the U.S. dollars in my checking account, they are accepted everywhere in the U.S. And the bank doesn’t charge me anything.
Maybe you didn’t comprehend the part where I said Bitcoin ATMs are a massive ripoff. I can buy any cryptocoin sitting on my couch at nearly 0% fees, versus the 5-10% the ATMs charge. Like the 2.5-5% fiat ATMs charge. Credit cards are also a massive rip off. Are you out here campaigning against fiat because fiat ATMs and credit cards are a massive rip off, and cash/gift card scams steal more than crypto scams?
Mass. Adoption.
The (current) lack of it is the only reason it’s such a pain to get into.
But no worries, my entire back fence is littered with tulips of every color, I don’t need any more 😉. I’ll take a picture when I get home.
I can buy any cryptocoin sitting on my couch at nearly 0% fees
Cool. How can you buy a soda at the gas station with it?
The (current) lack of it is the only reason it’s such a pain to get into.
Maybe, again, if there weren’t a bajillion different cryptocurrencies that almost no one even understands how to use, there would be mass adoption. I have no idea why you expect mass adoption of something so confusing to happen first and then it gets less confusing. That’s not how anything works.
You can use Coinbase or another similar intermediary to convert it to fiat instantly by using the card that comes with those services but still converting it to fiat isn’t quite the same as using DOGE coin or the like to buy groceries and I do hear you on that. However , man personally I have made thousands off of crypto. I do like some projects for their utility like Monero and Litecoin but a large percentage of so called “alt” coins and stuff like that don’t have any real utility beyond pumping so that’s true and I feel like a lot of what makes crypto seem like a waste of time to people. But certain coins have real inherent value and use cases that are beyond what people like me and you probably need. Those use cases are still important to the people who need them though. El Salvador is a good example everyone shit all over that dude for doing mass adoption of bitcoinand for ainute there it did seem like a rough idea but it worked out. I guess that’s the thing though everyone who has been in it from the beginning its because it keeps working out. Otherwise, everyone would be out of it and venture capitalist companies wouldn’t be buying in the billions. I mean, would you listen to people of they told you something you were up like 700% on was a bad investment?
Cool. How can you buy a soda at the gas station with it?
I can’t yet unless I go to a couple smaller foreign mom and pop shops, lack of mass adoption.
Maybe, again, if there weren’t a bajillion different cryptocurrencies that almost no one even understands how to use, there would be mass adoption. I have no idea why you expect mass adoption of something so confusing to happen first and then it gets less confusing. That’s not how anything works.
A few are dominant already, one that’s been dominant from the start but isn’t the best yet although is improving. Do you worry about the value and exchange rates of every single mineral and resource, of which there are a bajillion? Or do you just follow maybe gold and silver, or do you only follow fiat, and not even invest it?
Edit: Since you down voted all of my discussion, I returned the favor.
Monero (which is actually private like cash - sender, receiver, and amount aren’t known to anyone viewing the blockchain) has transaction fees of a penny or two. It works by mixing every real transaction with 16 decoy transactions. Currently there are supposedly ways to track a small percentage of transactions but it’s so secretive that only approved western government organizations are allowed access, but it doesn’t work well and it only gives a statistical probability. And it’s one of the wider used currencies current at $145 per coin.
The government hates not being able to track you.
Also BTC fees do suck but they vary. Most days they’re around $1-$1.50 which isn’t that far off from the $.50 charged (to businesses) by credit card processors.
but, like, bitcoin has high (and variable) transaction fees.
That’s layer 1. Read up on layer 2 options. Lightning Network is the best current example, but there are others and will be more. That’s where most of the innovation is happening now. The media never talks about it because it’s necessarily more technical and they think their readers/viewers are all idiots, so why bother.
Or does the media never talk about it because the whole thing is confusing as fuck, there are about a bajillion different coins and no one knows which one to use, and there has yet to be an advantage (and often a big hurdle) to use any of these cyrptocurrencies to do things like buy a gallon of milk.
We hear a lot about how it’s better than “fiat” currency, and yet if I want to go down to the gas station and get a soda, I can pay for that soda with exactly zero cryptocurrencies unless I convert them into dollars first.
Maybe if crypto people ever get their act together, and I don’t see that happening any time soon, this will be more than people investing in digital tulips.
But hey, the local mall here has a Bitcoin ATM. In an entrance almost no one ever uses in a corner of the food court where there are no restaurants and you wouldn’t even notice it unless you happened to walk past it and look at the front panel to see what it was (I only noticed it because my daughter is in online school and still has to do gym and we walk the perimeter of the mall in the winter). So there’s that.
Also they love to act as though fiat isn’t backed by anything despite the fact that fiat is actually backed by something extremely important: you are required by law to use fiat for interactions with some of the most powerful organizations in the world. I can’t pay taxes in crypto or gold or even rubles, my government accepts usd and if I don’t hand them usd every year I get in trouble. When they pay me for any reason it’s in usd. When they fine me it’s in usd. That is a backing. So long as I have to financially deal with the governments of the United States I have to have appropriate quantities of usd. And because of all of this everything around me accepts that currency, even drug dealers take cash. Why? Because it’s the local currency. And it’s reasonably stable.
And on that note, I’d never spend a wildly inflationary currency. It’s not an effective currency and because of that it winds up being entirely theoretical.
I don’t disagree with anything you said. Yes, it’s confusing and there’s no shortage of scammers trying to make it more confusing in order to bamboozle people.
My humble advice is to ignore “crypto”. Adopt, at least for now, the philosophy that, “it’s either Bitcoin, or shit coin.” That’ll simplify things immensely for those just getting started, and is true for at least 99.9% of other coins out there (100% if you want my honest opinion).
Maybe, in the distant future, when/if you decide to dive down the rabbit hole and really get comfortable how Bitcoin functions and what gives it value, then you’ll be in a better position to judge other coins. More likely, you won’t bother because you won’t need to.
But, mark my words, nothing is going to replace Bitcoin. Some other coins might manage to fulfill some esoteric fringe use cases that Bitcoin doesn’t, and maybe one those use cases will be beneficial to you. If so, awesome. But they’re not going to be able to replace Bitcoin.
Layer 2 protocols are tools that operate on top of the (admittedly slow and variable) Bitcoin blockchain. Lightning Network (LN) is currently the most prominent and allows secure transactions that complete in a few seconds with extremely small fees. LN addresses the “it’s too slow/unpredictable” argument against Bitcoin.
There are many other Layer 2 protocols running on top of Bitcoin in various stages of development and production addressing different issues and use cases. But, you don’t need to know about any of them, honestly. You don’t need to pick the winner (there will be many winners doing different things). When any of them catch on and go mainstream, then that will drive more demand for Bitcoin to help power that protocol.
deleted by creator
I didn’t miss out at something I was never interested in to begin with.
Also, I have no interest in helping you with your tulips.
Huh. Maybe this whole “fiat currency” thing isn’t the worst idea then. I can get it out of my bank’s ATM from the U.S. dollars in my checking account, they are accepted everywhere in the U.S. And the bank doesn’t charge me anything.
Maybe you didn’t comprehend the part where I said Bitcoin ATMs are a massive ripoff. I can buy any cryptocoin sitting on my couch at nearly 0% fees, versus the 5-10% the ATMs charge. Like the 2.5-5% fiat ATMs charge. Credit cards are also a massive rip off. Are you out here campaigning against fiat because fiat ATMs and credit cards are a massive rip off, and cash/gift card scams steal more than crypto scams?
The (current) lack of it is the only reason it’s such a pain to get into.
But no worries, my entire back fence is littered with tulips of every color, I don’t need any more 😉. I’ll take a picture when I get home.
Cool. How can you buy a soda at the gas station with it?
Maybe, again, if there weren’t a bajillion different cryptocurrencies that almost no one even understands how to use, there would be mass adoption. I have no idea why you expect mass adoption of something so confusing to happen first and then it gets less confusing. That’s not how anything works.
You can use Coinbase or another similar intermediary to convert it to fiat instantly by using the card that comes with those services but still converting it to fiat isn’t quite the same as using DOGE coin or the like to buy groceries and I do hear you on that. However , man personally I have made thousands off of crypto. I do like some projects for their utility like Monero and Litecoin but a large percentage of so called “alt” coins and stuff like that don’t have any real utility beyond pumping so that’s true and I feel like a lot of what makes crypto seem like a waste of time to people. But certain coins have real inherent value and use cases that are beyond what people like me and you probably need. Those use cases are still important to the people who need them though. El Salvador is a good example everyone shit all over that dude for doing mass adoption of bitcoinand for ainute there it did seem like a rough idea but it worked out. I guess that’s the thing though everyone who has been in it from the beginning its because it keeps working out. Otherwise, everyone would be out of it and venture capitalist companies wouldn’t be buying in the billions. I mean, would you listen to people of they told you something you were up like 700% on was a bad investment?
And plenty of other people have lost their shirts. This is gambling on tulips.
I can’t yet unless I go to a couple smaller foreign mom and pop shops, lack of mass adoption.
A few are dominant already, one that’s been dominant from the start but isn’t the best yet although is improving. Do you worry about the value and exchange rates of every single mineral and resource, of which there are a bajillion? Or do you just follow maybe gold and silver, or do you only follow fiat, and not even invest it?
Edit: Since you down voted all of my discussion, I returned the favor.
I didn’t downvote anything. That’s a silly lie.
Monero (which is actually private like cash - sender, receiver, and amount aren’t known to anyone viewing the blockchain) has transaction fees of a penny or two. It works by mixing every real transaction with 16 decoy transactions. Currently there are supposedly ways to track a small percentage of transactions but it’s so secretive that only approved western government organizations are allowed access, but it doesn’t work well and it only gives a statistical probability. And it’s one of the wider used currencies current at $145 per coin.
The government hates not being able to track you.
Also BTC fees do suck but they vary. Most days they’re around $1-$1.50 which isn’t that far off from the $.50 charged (to businesses) by credit card processors.