Why I don't believe in Bitcoin in 2 minutes or less (No tech just logic) ---> Problems, faults and a brief discussion about the lightning network

in #bitcoin6 years ago (edited)

My point simply: Bitcoin began as a currency a way to buy something from one person using digital money. It was able to do this because at the beginning the fees were negligible. As time has moved on and the value of Bitcoin has increased so have the fees and transaction times.

Transaction fees have increased because the network can only handle so many transactions at once. So if there are 10 people a minute using Bitcoin to buy stuff we are fine, but if there are millions of people we are not. Likewise as Bitcoins price increases so to do the fees. If a Bitcoin rises in price to $1 million then the fees per transaction will increase at the same rate.

This is partly why people call it "gold" because it can no longer feasibly be used as a currency but more as something that just has value. And to me it just having value is not enough. Gold is actually limited no one could create more gold, you and I could just copy paste the Bitcoin software and create Bitcoin 2 and it would be the exact same for all intents and purposes. Except it would have less value because it would be on a different network. We in no way could create more gold, if we could though that gold would join the same network, the world, and be equal in value to all other gold out there.

This is why the lightning network was created, to solve this issue. The issue of high fees and slow transaction times, it can take up to 30 minutes to process a single transaction which is useless if you want to use Bitcoin at a store. But the lightning network has problems too, some being it makes the coin no longer decentralized while on the network, someone is going to have control which goes against what crypto stands for. The other being as more people use this network fees will have to increase as well, not as much as Bitcoin but still fees. And finally the lighting network is more susceptible to theft and hacking which is Bitcoins main feature security. I am not a tech guy but will post some articles I found relevant on the Lightning Network below.

All that being said litecoin is better than Bitcoin but worse than other altcoins. There are altcoins that are faster, have lower fees, and require much less energy (another factor in the cost Bitcoin takes.)

Some people claim that Bitcoin has value because it costs money to mine it, whereas I do not believe that something costing money means it has value. I could work all day with a pick axe along with 100 people and never find any gold. It would cost us time and effort but the rocks we came out with would not have the value of gold, but the value of rocks.

I guess that is the point I was trying to make and I hope was understandable. And also this is my personal opinion and I am by no means an expert on investing or technology, it is just what I see.

https://www.investopedia.com/tech/bitcoin-lightning-network-problems/
https://medium.com/@jonaldfyookball/mathematical-proof-that-the-lightning-network-cannot-be-a-decentralized-bitcoin-scaling-solution-1b8147650800
https://thenextweb.com/hardfork/2018/06/26/lighting-network-transactions/

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Bitcoin always struck me as more a proof-of-concept than a legitimate attempt at replacing fiat currencies. In the earlier days of Bitcoin, I seem to remember a general feeling that whatever came next would be the game-changing innovation.

It was but now there is too much hype around it be "gold" and litecoin being "silver" which I think was popularized by Charlie Lee.

Anyway this is why you and me gravitated towards NANO, and if they fix their security/network issues I fail to see any faults standing in their way.

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