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Sleeping beauty Bitcoin wallets wake up after 14 years to the tune of $2B

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213 points aorloff | 1 comments | 04 Jul 25 18:41 UTC | HN request time: 0.202s | source
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Synaesthesia ◴[05 Jul 25 05:50 UTC] No.44470362[source]▶
I was also around when bitcoin just started out. Many people wanted it to be a global revolution in finance.

But instead it turned into a game of "hodl" to get rich.

Scams were openly perpetrated in the forums.

I became completely disillusioned. What exactly does bitcoin offer the world today?

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hx8 ◴[05 Jul 25 07:05 UTC] No.44470672[source]▶
> What exactly does bitcoin offer the world today?

Aside from perhaps gold, bitcoin is the most successful currency in the world not associated with a central bank and state.

It's the most liquid asset that is not issued by a central bank. At any point you can issue a transaction to anyone else in the world, without the possibility of a third party intervention. I've had issues pulling cash out of banks, or limited sizes available for money orders, or having debt/credit card transactions incorrectly flagged as fraudulent and blocked.

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raggles ◴[05 Jul 25 08:16 UTC] No.44471010[source]▶
I don't really follow bitcoin, but last I checked over 75% of block confirmations came from the top 3-5 mining pools. That seems a hell of a lot more centralized than the traditional finance system.
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diggan ◴[05 Jul 25 11:59 UTC] No.44472156[source]▶
> That seems a hell of a lot more centralized than the traditional finance system

Most countries/systems have one central bank, even if we assume there are only 2 mining pools and they "control the network", wouldn't a central bank still be more centralized?

Besides, the mining pools don't "own" the network, anyone can participate, which kind of makes the whole "more centralized than a central bank" argument kind of weak.

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raggles ◴[05 Jul 25 19:43 UTC] No.44475016[source]▶
Right, but bitcoin is global, not just for one country. And while anyone can participate in theory, in practice the big mining pools always get their first. And if a quorum of mining pools gets together, they can fork the blockchain or do all sorts of other shit. Without those mining pools confirming transactions you can't even spend your bitcoin. As a functional currency, I just can't see how this is any better, like in any way. Probably why it hasn't actually become a functional currency and is just a traded commodity that everyone is hoping like hell won't crash and burn one day.
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1. rlpb ◴[06 Jul 25 09:34 UTC] No.44479177[source]▶
> And if a quorum of mining pools gets together, they can fork the blockchain or do all sorts of other shit.

This is a common misunderstanding. Miners do not have power in the system. Anyone can fork Bitcoin, but when people want payment in Bitcoin, they won't accept ForkedBitcoin regardless of the number of miners shilling it. Meanwhile mining money will be left on the table for anyone who wants to enter mining of the original Bitcoin and at greater mining profit.