Bitcoin seems like the kind of early 2000s Internet thing
929 sats \ 14 comments \ @kilianbuhn 24 Jun bitcoin_beginners
You ever think of how the vibes of Bitcoins infrastructure feels like the kind of thing that started in 2004? Like early internet. When the internet was wild and lawless. With p2p piracy and MMO games and unrelated forums.
I guess 2008 2009 wasnt that much later and other decentralized ideas were already floating around earlier.
From this perspective it's kinda weird how volatile BTC/USD still is and how few shops accept it. I guess that could be because Lightning came way too late.
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412 sats \ 2 replies \ @nullcount 24 Jun
I love finding parallel analogies between BTC and TCP/IP.
There are many areas in the USA that did not have access to high speed broadband until after 2020, many areas still do not have fiber infrastructure and use Starlink or 4G instead. It will take a similar scale of infrastructure building for a new payment system to go mainstream.
Early internet used HTTP for everything, sending passwords in cleartext over the wire. BTC hasn't had its HTTPS moment yet. Maybe something like confidential txns added to base layer, or coinjoin becoming economically cheaper than non-collaborative txns will be the HTTPS moment.
Scaling IPv4 required subnets on top of subnets, making P2P connections a NAT/firewall configuration nightmare. Scaling BTC's UTXOs requires layers on top of layers, makes self custody of small amounts a force-closed channel nightmare.
I also like to draw parallels between the personal computer revolution and AI.
Computers used to be room-sized mainframes. LLMs require entire datacenters to train and run. There's only a handful of flagship models and those models are trying to be as generalized as possible.
Computers today are tiny and highly specialized. A toothbrush today might have a computer inside, it might not be a general computer, but its a highly specialized one that makes the toothbrushing experience better in some way.
Likewise, AI models of the future might be running everywhere, not just in data centers. Highly specialized models integrated into tiny packages that make the tool better in some way.
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10 sats \ 0 replies \ @kilianbuhn OP 24 Jun
So maybe in 20 years we will feel about today like its early.
We're simultaneously already in the future and still in the stone age
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0 sats \ 0 replies \ @ways_wilderness 24 Jun
Yep, totally valid parallels that!
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0 sats \ 0 replies \ @SatsMate 25 Jun
This is a part of bitcoin I'm fascinated by. There are alot of meetups, venues that are all signal right now - developing and building things that may change the world.
I do think it is much more mainstream now than ever before, but only from the ETF angle.
All those buying real bitcoin seem to be building subcultures around the world - and I think this is positively propelling things forward. Exciting to see certain layer 2s and above take off by solving real world problems.
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0 sats \ 0 replies \ @160ed04091 24 Jun
During the early days of the internet, there was a lot of uncertainty about how it would be regulated, similar to the current situation with Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies
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0 sats \ 1 reply \ @cristaiji 24 Jun
It might be that people will need a real push to use Bitcoin for example high inflation in their country or a CBDC or something else that makes them incredibly uncomfortable.
Once they try it out and realise it’s not as complicated as they thought they will use it simply because of it’s incentives.
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0 sats \ 0 replies \ @kilianbuhn OP 24 Jun
That seems really pessimistic to me. I want Bitcoin to become mainstream in the underground (the wording makes no sense but I hope you get the point - like bars and p2p payments with friends and craigslist) no matter if dystopian cbdc comes or not. Because my gut feeling is that that will never come.
Pessimism like that feels like a cognitive bias to me. Like a brain glitch were human thoughts slip to when you're lazy - that's a wording I have read here on Stacker News I think which hits it perfectly
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0 sats \ 4 replies \ @ways_wilderness 24 Jun
2004 was early??
But yeah, it was still wild and free even that late :-)
One thing that has always irked me is that I was too late btw, did my first, super weird website in 98... Then the first paid one in 2000, well before any CMS-es.
The years ~2005 were interesting, with CMS-es up to the job for so many even small customers things started accelerating, all along with emerging social media of course!
So there is that parallel for sure. Now, when do we get that phase that we had when everyone and their dog got a cell phone? Remember that summer when absolutely anyone who made a call just had to ask "where are you?" hehe
That kinda phase is yet to come for Bitcoin!
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0 sats \ 3 replies \ @kilianbuhn OP 24 Jun
I said 2004 because of MySpace. The vibes of a free currency seem to me much more connected like early MySpace.
I mean, even earlier forums in 98 have a similar vibe. But the forums still seemed like anonymous hidden niches. MySpace was the first time the internet feeled from the vibes like being in public.
I can't describe it better
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0 sats \ 0 replies \ @ways_wilderness 25 Jun
Yeah, actually there was a very active site in my native language from around then until it was taken down some years later. So most used that instead of Mysepace, it was even a real contender to FB while it lasted...
Can't remember the details now, but there was something murky about the way it was nuked, might have included bribing and/or putting pressure on the lead developer.
There is still another site for wild freaks, that was really something for years, but now it scary to see how drugged out, stressed out and scared the new, young users there are...
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0 sats \ 1 reply \ @eduardopro 25 Jun
MySpace and social media in general are centralizing forces.
The Internet used to be decentralized and much cooler before.
Way way cooler.
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0 sats \ 0 replies \ @kilianbuhn OP 25 Jun
nobody thought about that yet in 2004
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0 sats \ 1 reply \ @flat24 24 Jun
I think all of this has simply been part of Bitcoin's own maturation period! and I don't think that these solutions have arrived late, on the contrary LN is an example of the work and development that is being done on Bitcoin, as it progresses over time!
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0 sats \ 0 replies \ @kilianbuhn OP 24 Jun
I think the idea of the technology was there way earlier. And it didn't even become mainstream in Bitcoiners circles until maybe 2 years ago.
Many Bitcoin accepted here places are still onchain only. Like darkweb shops. Or donations to Tor foundation etc. Only onchain.
Should be 2015 instead of 2024 now.
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