That was a good video. I knew about 80% of it but one thing that I did not
know until now was that the hash of a block is included as the header of the
next block. That makes it pretty danged secure.
-----Original Message-----
From: Chris Wright
Sent: Friday, November 17, 2017 12:28 PM
To: af@afmug.com
Subject: Re: [AFMUG] BTC
Many of the negative things you say here about BTC are questions I had when
I was still learning. Let me clear some things up.
Coinbase charges for when you want to buy BTC with fiat (USD). They have a
business to run. Everyone here knows that processing debit/ACH payments is
NOT free. Onboarding your US dollars to crypto currency will require a
gateway, and every gate requires a gatekeeper, and every gatekeeper has
mouths to feed.
Sending BTC from wallet to wallet is not free. Current transaction fees on
Bitcoin are ~$10 USD at the time I'm writing this. Other crypto currencies
like Ethereum are more robust in this area (~$0.30 currently). Every
transaction needs to be written to the blockchain, which requires mining
time, electricity, and processing.
Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are doing what the banks have been doing
for years... it's an electronic ledger. What's a bank statement worth? It's
only a piece of printed paper or numbers on a screen that show how much
currency to which one is entitled. It has no value in and of itself. A US
dollar bill is simply paper; its value is whatever we all agree it is. The
*big* thing cryptocurrencies bring to the table is that your "bank account"
is no longer controlled by one central building. Your account, or "digital
wallet" is controlled by thousands of computers, each checking themselves
against the other.
The only way someone can hijack the blockchain would be if they controlled
more than 50% of the compute power in the mining world. Think about how many
vectors of attack from which our traditional banks are vulnerable.
This video answered even more questions I didn't even think to ask... I
highly recommend giving it your time.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bBC-nXj3Ng4
Chris Wright
Network Administrator
-----Original Message-----
From: Af [mailto:af-boun...@afmug.com] On Behalf Of Travis Johnson
Sent: Thursday, November 16, 2017 1:42 PM
To: af@afmug.com
Subject: [AFMUG] BTC
Hi,
The entire idea and goal of bitcoin was to take away the financial
institutions from having "control" and charging fees to handle money. In
exchange for no fees (sending or receiving BTC is free), you also have no
security. Once it's sent, it's gone.
However, now the banks have just been replaced with places like Coinbase...
bitcoin "exchanges" that charge roughly 1.5% for every buy/sell
transaction... and they take 7-10 business days to convert btc to cash or
visa versa.
I don't see how this is a long term thing? Once all the "mining" is being
done by huge datacenters (for another 3-4 years is all), then I don't see it
becoming the new money standard like everyone thinks. You will still have to
pay fees, and someone else is still in control of your money. :(
Travis
