it doesn't. it's the exact same product. i just think that passionate and organized leadership will outperform a shadowy and disorganized (or non-existent) leadership every time.

ultimately, i don't think anything "decentralized" will work or even really exist. someone always has some skin in the game, or they won't bother building the thing. and once it's built, people find a way of taking over. they always do. that's how people roll.

if BCH wins it will be due to correctly marketing and advertising and nothing else.

don't know what conspiracy you are talking about. i don't use reddit at all.

don't really care who's paying the coders or their individual motivations. how many are there? 10-15?

how many people control the mining? 6?

which way is the wind blowing? are more people contributing over time, or fewer? is the mining power being controlled by an increasing number of people, or fewer?

There are 100s of people developing btc and its side chains. Granted the number of miners is less than 10 but miners are just one part of the ecosystem and they don't have as much power as people make out. If they did, 2x would be the main chain.

hundreds? you sure?

https://github.com/bitcoin/bitcoin

you guys better find a way to get rid of augie. Permanently. Or this thread will find a new low every day.

and who the f.uck are you?

out of the 493 contributors, in your estimation, how many are working full time on bitcoin today?

oi vey

Literally one week ago there were people on here declaring BTC was going to shoot through 20k within days, and today at 30% off the high it's like the party's over and suddenly altcoin is the hot girl in the room?

Holy short-term mentality, Batman.

HODL everyone, lightning network is coming to save the day. I'm still Bullish on Bitcoin. We are still 33.52% up from a month ago. That Bull run was crazy. People were debating on whether Bitcoin would make it above 10k before the end of the year and wow. Even now 10k seems low.

Yeah Ripple and other coins are trying and Bitcoin may not last, but lightning network will be introduced in 2018. Hopefully in January and also hopefully not too late before people adopt something else in stead.

We are all feeling a little bit glum at the moment because Bitcoin was at 19kish and now it is at 13kish. Remain strong folks. It is most important to stay strong in the toughest moments. It is easy to be that way when things are going good, it is tough when it is going badly. Hang in there and HODL.

Lightning network is interesting but the percentage of transactions currently done on the main chain that will move to the lightning network is really low so it won't really solve anything. The narrative BCH and alt coins use to attack BTC will continue to be valid and LN will work just as well on an altcoin.

Do you have a thesis about why the Lightning Network isn't sufficiently baked into the current Bitcoin price or did you just want to lead a group therapy session in an investing forum?

It probably is factored into the price somewhat, but probably not all the way. People are still upset with slow transactions and high fees. When the actual results start coming in this will increase Bitcoin's price and utility.

I sort of did offer a little therapy for those in distress. All us Bitcoin HODLers like to hear it from time to time.

It comes down to a fundamental inability to value cryptocrap. I briefly thought about buying 10k of ripple at 22 cents and it's at 2.50 now. No regrets. Hindsight is 20/20. Could be worth nothing or 50k a year from now and no one knows why. It's a bad investment.

The lightning network will never work for a variety of reasons. That's why it's been 18 months away for the last 2+ years.

It can be made to work in a very limited fashion, but will never work the way it was advertised.

Feels like people are down itt, so for some prescriptive here is bitcoins last month:

when is lightning expected? who will put it out first? and it wont make a difference for simple person to person transfers but an exchange or merchant can open a channel for their customers to run a bunch of transactions without the fees or processing time right?

I agree. I think it has been obvious since august that the only way this could play out is that eventually there will be a large drop from ATH, and a long bear market that will weed out all investments that don't truly believe in the fundamentals long term.

If the market can stay hyped until lightning network gets use, and progress is made towards sidechains, then maybe we only see a partial dip before another hype. But within a few years there will be a huge loss of confidence in crypto, the "market cap" will take a huge hit, and Bitcoin will stand up much stronger than the crap coins when the **** hits the fan.

that was just a chatlog with a respected trader/friend i have.


Listen, I'm not "calling" for down in the sense that I have bets in that direction. I'm completely flat/neutral here and have been since 16k. A lot of this is chop now and I'd rather sit back with my realized profits and let the market decide which way it wants to go. 5k? 8k? doesnt bother me and I'm ready to buy when fomo kids capitulate. retest ATH after 2 months of consolidation between 8-12k? doesnt bother me because I sold above 16k.

With so many countries closing bank accounts with who ever deals in bitcoin the price is just going to keep falling until banks change their ways, and all the other Bitcoin nuisances like high fees, slow transaction times, sell imo.

It is interesting to see Cobra breaking the Party line and advocating for a temporary block size increase. This is the owner of Bitcoin.org and a lifetime diehard Core supporter: https://medium.com/@CobraBitcoin/tho...r-c40cc1415815

When small buyers can no longer buy Bitcoin and withdraw into cold storage without losing $15 in fees, they will turn to other coins for crypto exposure. That in turn leads to loss of confidence in the network.

The altcoin exchanges will inevitably list a different trading pair if nothing is done, because people do not want to settle trades in BTC due to fees incurred on withdrawal.

I really do not understand why Core is so adamantly against even a temporary block size increase. Even a fully functional lightning network implemented right now would require a block size increase to service the current userbase.

You can't just increase the block size. Hard forks are super risky for several reasons. A temporary increase just makes no sense.

Makes no sense? The network is a clogged toilet and no L2 solutions are in sight. Fees are so high that a significant portion of the market is unwilling to buy or transact in Bitcoin. LN was promised 2 years ago and now it is likely another two years ago if it works at all.

And even if LN works, it requires a block size increase anyway...