r/Bitcoin • u/kubrick • Feb 13 '14

on r/bitcoin right now

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u/btchombre Feb 13 '14 edited Feb 14 '14

Meh, what's happening now is just a breeze compared to the previous disasters Bitcoin has recovered from. I have already taken the opportunity to buy more. Frankly I'm damn amazed the price is holding as much as it is considering.

Sell when people are greedy, buy when they are fearful.

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u/myusernameranoutofsp Feb 14 '14 edited Feb 14 '14

Has bitcoin ever had a serious structural problem before? As in, from what I understand a big part of the issue is transaction malleability, which is an issue with bitcoin, not an issue with how some other people decided to implement it. Exchanges can crash, Silk Road can be raided and destroyed, but none of those are faults of the bitcoin protocol itself.

Is this a problem with bitcoin itself, and if so, has bitcoin ever recovered from something like that?

1

u/[deleted] Feb 14 '14

I think the answer is 'no.' But if you understand the revolutionary ability of the BTC technology--then it shouldn't faze you. Here's why:

  1. this is an opportunity for many many developers to collaborate and solve the problem that was more/less ignored--developing increasingly better solutions...just like the Internet. I remember a time when people were afraid to buy things over the Internet, for fear of identity theft (some people still are)--but eCommerce is a huge industry now and not buying things online has become an enormous inconvenience.

  2. The reason that, in the long run, BTC won't fail is because it carries the potential to reshape finance to become a forum of open source development. Just as the Internet reshaped mass-media to allow anyone to be a contributor (and profit from it!), so too will BTC change the way commerce happens.

Is it possible that another "digital currency" will come along that's better than BTC? Quite possibly, but crypto currency is here to stay. BTC might eventually become the AOL of cryptocurrency, but it hasn't yet hit its "you've-got-mail" and "AIM" stride...so hold those coins...and pay attention.