Re: <nettime> de Jong, Lovink, and Riemens: 10 Bitcoin Myths

[Rob Myers <rob@robmyers.org>]

On 2015-11-30 11:06, nettime's_forgotten_password wrote:

>1. "Bitcoin is a peer-to-peer system."

It is. Anyone can (and should) run a full node. Doubly so if they're 
concerned about centralisation.

>2. "Bitcoin does away with intermediaries and fees."

There are no necessary intermediaries in transactions.

You can submit transactions with no fees.

>3. "Bitcoin is an alternative currency."

Speculation and use as a wire currency do not alter the status of a 
currency, otherwise there would be no such thing as the US dollar.

>4. "Bitcoin is not a fiat currency."

As it is not created by state or any other fiat.

>5. "Bitcoin is anonymous."

No legal or social identities are involved in transactions.

But if it helps, we can say that it's pseudonymous.

>6. "Bitcoin is secure and cannot be hacked."

As far as we know at this time.

Forgetting keys is a separate issue that is addressed by multisig, 
hardware wallets, or writing down your passphrase and putting it with 
your birth certificate and insurance details.

>7. "Bitcoin operates without trust."

Between people at the level of transactions.

>8. "Bitcoin is politically neutral."

It cannot be used at the protocol level to enforce state or social 
political objectives.

>9. "Bitcoin is a sustainable system."

Block size increases, sidechains and other developments address energy 
usage...

>10. "Bitcoin can scale to world size."

... and scalability.


1, 2, 5, 6, and 10 are *technical* critiques that have been made and 
addressed internally by the Bitcoin community.

7 is philosophically interesting, 8 is politically interesting. Nick 
Land on both is fun.

- Rob.


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