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If you had to pick one aspect of Bitcoin that was your favorite, what would it be?
Your answer need not be technical, but I find the mempool/p2p stuff to be my favorite. I think this is mostly because my brain is anticipating decentralizing SN, because there are obviously more novel parts to Bitcoin.
Currency as a protocol or data structure that exists in the same world as code and applications.
Especially with lightning transactions, you can treat money like a value in a redis cache but it's on a consensus layer that exists beyond your application and not a third-party service that could be shut down or have its prices/api changed.
For example if I have some program that generates some GAN image based on parameters sent by a user, my application could create an invoice that would need to be fulfilled for the user to get a result. If you aren't using bitcoin, you need to go through something like stripe or paypal and need to consider certain regulations, apis, and user payment friction. But if the application logic is just "server generates invoice > user pays invoice and POSTs parameters > server computes > server sends results" this can happen entirely without needing to pay some payment SaaS or considering what country someone is in or what currency they have or payment providers they have access to.
Another example could be a community minecraft server. You could set up your server hosting provider to get payments via generated invoices from a bitcoin address. When the address has less money than the monthly payment, it could broadcast a message to users that the server will shut down X days unless the address gets enough funds. Players can send money to the address until it reaches the quota. Especially with more normie-friendly apps like Cashapp allowing bitcoin/lightning transactions, it's becoming more and more user-friendly. This can all be programmed in some java plugin on the server and the server operator doesn't really need to consider payments since the users are using the service and should be paying for it.
Things obviously get more complicated if you have enterprise SLAs, if you are a business with strict GAAP and tax requirements, do business with many actors in b2b or high-regulatory environment, have users in countries where crypto is outlawed.... but I think bitcoin/lightning shines with small internet utilities like bots, web services, or game servers.
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My favourite part is over there. Wait, it's over here. Damn it's sooo decentralized!
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It has a clear set of rules, not like Lightning Network where everyone can play their own central bank and write their own implementation which would send the highest fee (instead of waiting 8 hours and sending the on-chain transaction then).
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i think the difficulty adjustment is a pretty huge deal. something that allows a network to basically breathe, allows it to be dynamic as the resources enter or leave the network.
i think besides the fact that bitcoin is decentralized enough(a whole other discussion), the difficulty adjustment is what has led the protocol to succeed where others failed.
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Easy. The community!
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it's the world's most valuable, decentralized, and trustworthy DPKI implementation and has the potential to be the root of so many other forms of digital sovereignty
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Last chance to save the world from American debt slavery. While Americans lived privileged lives the rest of the world suffered. I’m excited to see an apolitical base Money Rule the land and end global wars.
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