I think it's a great experiment, and it's been fun to watch, but when I hear non-tech friends talk about "investing in Bitcoin" it makes me cringe.
Agreed. I've been following bitcoin for a couple of years, and this year when my friends/family started talking like that I was a bit disheartened. To be fair, If I heard something along the lines of "using bitcoin to obtain resources that are hard/ more insecure using traditional means/trust models", my eyes would have lit up.
It seems like all the voices around speculating price points in fiat have been drowning out those of utility (of course, this is not limited to just bitcoins), though those who find it's utility still trudge on.
Right now, I'm interested in the interactions around the exchange process because I think that's where the trust model applauded by many (myself included), is at its weakest. It would be pretty cool if there were some kind of platform built into/on top of a bitcoin client that allowed for a peer to peer exchange where maybe using the current banking system in some way, users could escrow/deposit/withdraw fiat into the network (using the network as a ledger that associates fiat amounts with addresses maybe with something like prepaid debit cards). I guess if I were to simplify that rambling a bit, I would like to see the exchange process built into a protocol and not a service it is today.
Agreed. I've been following bitcoin for a couple of years, and this year when my friends/family started talking like that I was a bit disheartened. To be fair, If I heard something along the lines of "using bitcoin to obtain resources that are hard/ more insecure using traditional means/trust models", my eyes would have lit up.
It seems like all the voices around speculating price points in fiat have been drowning out those of utility (of course, this is not limited to just bitcoins), though those who find it's utility still trudge on.
Right now, I'm interested in the interactions around the exchange process because I think that's where the trust model applauded by many (myself included), is at its weakest. It would be pretty cool if there were some kind of platform built into/on top of a bitcoin client that allowed for a peer to peer exchange where maybe using the current banking system in some way, users could escrow/deposit/withdraw fiat into the network (using the network as a ledger that associates fiat amounts with addresses maybe with something like prepaid debit cards). I guess if I were to simplify that rambling a bit, I would like to see the exchange process built into a protocol and not a service it is today.