0 sats \ 1 reply \ @AJ1992 2h \ parent \ on: Bitcoin, as a bitcoiner, is a really lonely place sometimes bitcoin
You missed the point or you're truly immersed in the Darth coin cult. Bitcoin IS NOT PERFECT. Thinking it's perfect and acting like it is #1 is a disservice and #2 turns people off when you're trying to orange pill them. There's always room to improve. Why would people want to pay an always changing, high (in comparison to other payment methods or cryptos) fees to transact when they can transact with fiat for free? Why would they want to wait who knows how long or if ever their tx will be confirmed when with other payment methods or cryptos it is confirmed instantly or almost instantly? And don't say lightning solves these issues because lightning has its own issues. Genuine questions.
'Other blockchains' with very few exceptions (maybe monero but I'm not even sure about that) go to zero. There is zero reason for them to exist as Bitcoin communicates, sends, receives and stores money already. Blockchains that are proof of stake (most of them) cannot compete with proof of work because it's 'value out of thin air'. There is no energy or material cost to creating their value or network. Look at how ethereum has fared since the 'merge' ie transition to proof of stake. It has been a downward slope, exchange-rate wise relative to Bitcoin ever since.
And yes you are correct Bitcoin is not perfect. But it is by-far-no-comparison the best blockchain. Most security, most decentralization, best transaction finality, best hardware and software wallet support, best price performance (by far), best name brand appeal best regulatory status and clarity everything really of all the PoW (necessary) offerings.
Again Bitcoin is NOT perfect it takes education to use currently with the current UI, the fee rate is variable (as it will be inevitably) but it is the digitization of sound money and nothing comes anywhere close to its network effects.
By using Stacker News you are essentially using lightning. Custodial lightning, non-custodial, semi-custodial (like via Phoenix Wallet which I really like) it's still all lightning. Lightning is REALLY fast and REALLY cheap to use even when on-chain fees are high. For example some stacker very graciously zapped me 10000 sats for this post (for which I'm extremely grateful)... and I withdrew 5000 of those sats for a fee of less than 7 sats? (Which is like half a penny currently).
A friend reached out to me a few moments ago who is trying to fund a lightning channel, get it set up. Sent those same sats to him for a fee of... .47 Sats yes that's half a sat. That's through my OWN lightning node, non-custodial, using a node-out-of-the-box and I am not a technical user.
No other blockchain has those same balance of characteristics and network effects... saying that the others 'compare' in my opinion is intellectually dishonest. This way Bitcoin can be for everyone.
Peer to peer money? Check
Long term savings? Check
Anonymity (albeit with privacy tools like coinjoins) Very doable
Money for wallstreet and the suits? Definitely
Good for 'stranded energy' and the economizing of the energy infrastructure? Sure
Open source with tons of code review/good developers? Yes also.
What's missing from Bitcoin imo is the education... as to what it is and what real-world problems it solves (monetary debasement and repression) and finally the capitulation from all the other 'cryptos'. I believe they go to zero over the long term because who wants to use the 'second-best' given the choice? Lightning, with education, is crazy fast and can be used crazy-cheap while on-chain is secure enough for billion-dollar hedge funds. It works for everyone.
The 'maximalism' sometimes isn't really well articulated and there's a ton of noise on places like Twitter (stay off it) but there are really meaningful reasons why Bitcoin is the best at what it does. Money for everyone separate from the state for the long term. This was a really long response but you asked for one and I take those responses seriously.
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