Comments on Marc Andreessen Thinks Bitcoin is Gaining Adoption Even Without User Growth - We Once Said That of Second Life TooTypePad2014-01-21T23:37:38ZSLHamlethttps://nwn.blogs.com/nwn/tag:typepad.com,2003:https://nwn.blogs.com/nwn/2014/01/marc-andreessen-bitcoin-second-life/comments/atom.xml/Bartholomew Gallacher commented on 'Marc Andreessen Thinks Bitcoin is Gaining Adoption Even Without User Growth - We Once Said That of Second Life Too'tag:typepad.com,2003:6a00d8341bf74053ef01a73d5fd2ca970d2014-01-24T09:47:48Z2014-01-24T09:47:48ZBartholomew GallacherFirst you need to keep in mind, that Bitcoin really is two things rolled into one program, namely: a cryptocurrency...<p>First you need to keep in mind, that Bitcoin really is two things rolled into one program, namely: a cryptocurrency and a distributed financial transaction protocol. </p>
<p>The number of total Bitcoins is limited, meaning that early adopters had it easy to gain a nice amount and can now sell it like crazy. </p>
<p>Bitcoins can be lost irretrievably. If your hard disk crashs and you got no backup of your Wallet, they are gone for good, never to return. </p>
<p>Bitcoin shows, that there's a certain place and niche for a transaction protocol. </p>
<p>It also shows, that Bitcoin as a currency is a nice thing, getting the early adopters rich. It is a ponzi scheme. </p>
<p>And nearly no one uses Bitcoins as what it was meant to be, a currency at all. Most people use it as a speculating object, nothing more, nothing less. </p>
<p>It is a nice experiment and it was the first "currency" to get wide spread adoption, but that's about it. </p>Pathfinder commented on 'Marc Andreessen Thinks Bitcoin is Gaining Adoption Even Without User Growth - We Once Said That of Second Life Too'tag:typepad.com,2003:6a00d8341bf74053ef01a3fc95cc9c970b2014-01-22T16:42:53Z2014-01-22T16:42:53ZPathfinderhttp://about.me/pathfinderI think it's great you're exploring these parallels between the evolution of SL and BTC. Thanks for reminding us that...<p>I think it's great you're exploring these parallels between the evolution of SL and BTC. Thanks for reminding us that future events often cast their shadows before.</p>
<p>I've been dabbling in cryptocurrency a lot lately (trading, mining, etc.) Fascinating stuff across economic, political and technical perspectives. One great thing is the existence of the BTC blockchain, a public ledger of all balances and transactions across the Bitcoin network since day 1. That means everyone has full access to a great supply of hard data to analyze exactly what the heck is going on. While I remain guardedly optimistic about the future of Bitcoin, I must say this particular analysis of data from the blockchain rings true to me in many ways: <a href="http://ordinary-gentlemen.com/blog/2013/12/12/these-three-graphs-prove-that-bitcoin-is-a-speculative-bubble" rel="nofollow">http://ordinary-gentlemen.com/blog/2013/12/12/these-three-graphs-prove-that-bitcoin-is-a-speculative-bubble</a></p>
<p>It's also amazing (and a bit hilarious) to see all the other cryptocurrencies popping up. The vast majority of them are going to go nowhere, but some of them bring some very interesting "cryptocurrency 2.0" ideas to the table (NextCoin in particular, in my opinion...) </p>
<p>The Big Question: As a first-mover, will Bitcoin be the MySpace or Amazon of cryptocurrencies? Only time will tell.<br />
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