This page has been archived and commenting is disabled.
Bitcoin Battered After "Governance Coup"
Naysyers are warning that the recent plunge in Bitcoin prices - from almost $318 at its peak during the Greek crisis, to $221 yesterday - is due to growing power struggle over the future of the cryptocurrency that is dividing its lead developers. On Saturday, a rival version of the current software was released by two bitcoin big guns. As Reuters reports, Bitcoin XT would increase the block size to 8 megabytes enabling more transactions to be processed every second. Those who oppose Bitcoin XT say the bigger block size jeopardizes the vision of a decentralized payments system that bitcoin is built on with some believing the split could spell the end of bitcoin. However, the turmoil in the price also coincides with some rather notable global macro events from Asia (where Bitcoin is extremely popular).
So while the price action is serious - we have roundtripped from the beginning of the peak of the Greek crisis. However, as Reuters reports, the split in cryptocurrency developers could spell the end of Bitcoin...
On Saturday, a rival version of the current software was released by two bitcoin big guns: Gavin Andresen, who was chosen by the currency's elusive creator, Satoshi Nakamoto, as his successor when he stepped aside in 2011, and Mike Hearn, who along with Andresen is one of five senior developers.
For months Andresen and Hearn have been locked in an argument with the other three lead programmers over whether the "blocks" in which bitcoin transactions are processed should be enlarged from their current 1 megabyte, so as to enable more than three payments to be processed per second.
The new version, which calls itself Bitcoin XT, would increase the block size to 8 megabytes, which would allow up to 24 transactions to be processed every second. That is still a fraction of the 20,000 or so that VISA can process, but would increase every year, so that bitcoin could continue to grow.
Those who oppose Bitcoin XT say the bigger block size jeopardizes the vision of a decentralized payments system that bitcoin is built on, as the extra computer memory needed would shut out many of the thousands of individual "nodes" that currently power the network.
Some reckon the split could spell the end of bitcoin. But Hearn, speaking to Reuters on Tuesday, said that whether or not Bitcoin XT was adopted, the crypocurrency would live on.
Andresen and Hearn argue that it was Nakamoto's intention for bitcoin to be scaled up as technology developed so that it could widen its reach. But opponents argue that bitcoin was never intended as a rival to traditional payments systems.
"I have followed this from the beginning & I agree that it is an attempted governance coup," tweeted Jon Matonis, founding director of the Washington, D.C.-based Bitcoin Foundation, of which Andresen himself is chief scientist.
"Bitcoin was designed to be protected from the influence of charismatic leaders, even if their name is Gavin Andresen, Barack Obama, or Satoshi Nakamoto," the user wrote.
We leave it to the reader to decide which is more responsible for the recent crash as one lead developer noted,
"If we thought it might be the end of bitcoin, we wouldn't do it,"
* * *
Finally, we note that add that the biggest winner from this is gold
The flight to central bank loss of control safety "pet rock" will never have governance problems.
»
- 27567 reads
- Printer-friendly version
- Send to friend
- advertisements -
Weak minds and powerful lies. Same old.
Paging all the BTC haters. You will all laugh together about price again...... Except youve all including me, have been buying PM's since 2010 getting slayed over and over agin. Maybe its misplaced anger. Funny thing is bitcoin wont die and it will go up again, so will PM's. Your laughing is just a snapshot in time, its irrelevant. Also by the way this price decrease isnt China its a bunch of mis-allocated trades on Bitfinex exchange. Im buying the dip, you should too ;)
"Except youve all including me, have been buying PM's since 2010 getting slayed over and over agin"
I suspect there are quite a few here who haven't been buying from 2010, they already recognized the opportunity in 2002 and before that even...
I've used Bitcoin in the past. But as I learn more about it, I see how so many things could destroy Bitcoin. A few guys have control over it? Really? And their squabbles could destroy it? Forget it!
That's the thing that is being tested now. Do they really have control over it?
I don't think it will be destroyed like that, but there may be some uncertainty for some time.
the only thing electronically that is safe is the codes and hardware locked in a sealed box and dropped to the bottom of the ocean....
wonder if that means you need to own physical gold and silver? Been good for 6000 years and man has not changed...Gotten dumber though if you use the Fed...hope those guys dont breed.....
The miners will be the one that have the final vote. Also with the Lightening Network project, Bitcoin XT fork may prove to be unnecessary . Oh....also and this won't be the last Bitcoin fork that we see...unfortunately
DISHONESTY is the End of BitCoin.
It always was.
What is the whole point of a currency? Money is a store of wealth. This only works if the currency CANNOT be counterfeited. People will always find a way to counterfeit BitCoins.
DID computer geeks really think that they could re-invent the world? Seriously? I guess that there must be "more to life" that just sitting in a few classes of Computer Sci and Physics 101.
It's impossible to counterfeit bitcoin. Period.
It's not impossible to counterfeit gold
Indeed. Just like the hundreds of other similar alt currencies you could use. Why not try them all!
Because most of them don't have any merit? The ability to appreciate things is something every person needs to have, in general.
Like "does the older, original designer-created, more widely used and more strongly secured thing have more or less merit than the new copycat that adds nothing new yet and that will have to compete for the exact same users?" - at least a relative appreciation like that, if nothing more.
You're the first alchemist in all of history that has been able to create gold. This is huge news! "Congratulations" doesn't do it justice. I'm speechless!
ummmmm, you might want to check into the fact that we can create gold by bombarding other elements with nuclear particles......it's not anywhere near cost effective though.
Additionally, the gold produced by particle accelerators is highly radioactive.
.
Oh I think you're wrong there Al.....
It's an element, not a compound of elements. Can you make me some oxygen? I know I can, but only by disassociating it from a compound (water) with an electric current.
Maybe I could melt some Bitcoin down and cast it into a nice ring. A 24k Bitcoin ring should make for some nice bling.
Money isn't a store of wealth, it's a medium of exchange.
UFC.... UnicornFartCoin will be far BIGGER than BITCOIN
Unicorn farts have mass.. So they got that goin for them.
Bitcoin? I like the concept, but no thanx. I would rather keep X amount USD cash in hand than the equivalent in bitcoins. Maybe I will miss a great opportunity, so be it. I rather lose rare rocks in a tragic boating accident.
BitGold seems to be a good way to buy money and if you decide you want yoar money, they will ship it to you. Yoar money is stored in a secure vault not with a bank. It's not imaginary money, it's real physical.
There will be debit cards so you can withdraw local currency.
Nice idea but then there's that third party risk again. It's like Indians now depositing their gold in banks to "earn interest". All of a sudden gold pays interest?
Bitcoin, the ultimate fiat, backed by nothing.
Since it's backed by nothing, it means it also a huge Ponzi scheme. It has almost no liquidity, since the only hard currency coming into the system is sales of Bitcoins for hard currency. That currency coming in is used to pay off the people cashing out.
If even a few more people want to cash out compared to those wanting to buy, the system will collapse.
Something something... fuck gold and silver and us gubmint
Oh yeah say that to my harem of cyperpunk bitchez
I'll take pizza for supper mom!
Jennifer lawrence is so hot gawd but it's wrong to look at her nudies
teehee
Here in S.F. the BTC excitement reached its peak around the $1,000 level. That's when I had a cab driver in the Mission pitch me on BTC. Artisan chocolateers at the Ferry Building were displaying their 'Bitcoin Accepted!' placards.
True to form, amateur enthusiasm reaches its crescendo at the top; then it reverses and everyone despises it. BTC is a brilliant idea but this particular iteration of it is going to zer0.00 ...
Could always save fees tipping the cabbie with bitcoin. Just try not to puke your guts out when it stinks like a squishy pakki armpit while the payment clears the blockchain.
But there's always the scintillating conversation:
"My girlfriend, she won't fuck me. Why? Why?"
Mintcoin is better. Minting is the future. Stay fresh!
The cheese in the rat trap always looks and smells good before the bar is released and your neck is broken.
Are you a free man or a rat?
this is a perfect example why gold is trusted . It is an element with very unusual characteristics . It is finite and impossible to manufacture. What's in the ground or previously mined is all there will ever be.
If there are platinum asteroids there are gold asteroids. And don't forget, the Ottoman Empire's decline was appreciably hastened by their miscalculation with respect to how much gold the Spaniards had gotten their hands on.
But becasue it's never "used" it just sits there doing nothing. Since so little is mined each year, compared to the total amount already stockpiled, it means the price is entirely dependent on desire, nothing more.
And as for more gold being manufactured? They couldn't manufacture diamonds 50 years ago, and aluminum was a rare metal. The total amount of aluminum produced in the US in 1884, when the Washington Monument was capped in aluminum, was a bit over 100 lbs and it's cost was double that of silver.
Never say never.
Which leaves the favorite: PAPER!
anyone who says the ultimate collateral "just sits there doing nothing" is an uneducated fool.
You mean like a house, that costs taxes, mortgage, and maintenance as opposed to gold or silver?
I don't recall "risk of governance coup" being listed in the BTC promotional materials...
So many things can take down Bitcoin. Forget it!
Are they going to put a woman's picture on the ten bitcoin notes?
Sure it wasn't Fonestar dumping his at the top?
Bitcoin will be back. Sooner than you think.
https://bitcoinmagazine.com/21613/growing-population-china-views-bitcoin...
So will Beanie Babies.
Bitcoin is supposed to be a currency, not a stock. So here's your third party risk, in your face. I don't think gold would fall in value if a group of miners had an argument about how to get it out of the ground.
"YOU WILL TRUST BITCOIN"
Any guesses on who said that the other day?
Foamstar?
Bitcoin is the new tyranny and bankster control and plunder trap.
It is the embodiment of that little parable of how one catches wild pigs--a little feed each night, and a new fence piece each week.
Zion is a scheme, not an ethnicity.
Bitcoin, and other so-called crypto-currencies utilize a distributed CENTRALIZED "blockchain," ledger, but the blockchain will NEED to be made undistributed in the future for the system to continue to work--the last fence piece put up.
Bitchain. Once you attempt to take out competing interest, your business goes next. FX trading is a good example. The floor mop washing Federal Reserve is the second example. Janet Yellen is a shoe shine buffing wheel.
Yesterdays news, today!
Annnnnd... its gone.
If the Bitcoin developers had half a brain they would peg it to GOLD.
just sayin...
I'm looking to buy soon if it stays the same. If it becomes centralized I'm out. Bitcoin Last Price $227.
Bitcoin is only good for transferring money from here to there.
But dont buy bitcoin, its only a number, easy to hack billions in a flash.
NSA is full of surprises. Instead of an argument over technical details, I thought it'd kill it's baby with something more flamboyant.