Ask HN: How many of you changed your mind about Bitcoin?

First i thought it is a promising idea and a cool new technology. But after some research and usage in an university project i really changed my mind. Most "use"-cases that come to mind are better served with classical "money". And what really gets me furious is the fact, that everyone tries to use the solution blockchain for their problem. When really it is ONE solution for a specific kind of problems. So that's my changing thoughts on the topic blockchain. Would really appreciate informative links that don't praise it as an asset in the end.

I haven't changed my mind on Bitcoin. Ever since I learned about this scarce digital good with an automated central bank inflation policy that cannot be manipulated by any politician, company or government, I was on the bus.

Now that we are in inflationary times with seemingly no limits to the fiscal stimulus and endless money printing, Bitcoin is more relevant than ever.

I would love to understand how those who are anti-Bitcoin think about inflation and stimulus and the debasement of the fiat money supply.

Still think it's a worthless waste of time that's now contributing to global warming by incentivizing things like reactivating dormant coal power plants.

More broadly, blockchain technology will forever be my go-to example of a (bad) solution in search of a problem.

But I also have a small percentage of my portfolio allocated to an ETF indexed to the price of Bitcoin because the last ten years have proven that, in the crypto market, there's apparently always a greater fool willing to participate in this multi-billion dollar Keynesian beauty contest.

Personally, I have not.

I saw the use of blockchain as wildly inefficient, and now that bitcoin processing is using up more energy than some countries, I think that has born out.

And I still don't see the inherent value of bitcoin. People like to rail against "fiat currency," but bitcoin is also fiat currency; its value simply comes from the decree of a different group of people. I trust the full faith and credit of the US government more than I trust the folks on /r/crypto.

I never really changed my mind about Bitcoin.

I always thought that Bitcoin is an interesting and novel technology, and risky speculative asset.

I’ve also always thought that most of the crypto ecosystem is fraudulent schemes designed to separate people from their dollars, and that this unforgiving nature and lack of institutional and state control will likely preclude mass adoption as an actual currency.

So no, not much has changed, though the second point has gotten much, much worse.

I was pro bitcoin when it first started. It seemed exciting and I was just getting my feet wet in programming as a hobbyist. When I started my CS degree I sold all my bitcoin(funded a lot of my education). My current sentiment is that bitcoin is an awful way to store money. It is too volatile. Contrary to the popular belief that it is completely untraceable, it is actually more traceable than using cash. It is too easy to get scammed or lose all your bitcoin. There is 0 oversight and regulation. Mt.Gox is a perfect example.

My bank account is FDIC insured up to $250k. My investments are in stable index funds. I feel much better now, I woke up several times to watch my money lose half of its value overnight with bitcoin.

I've changed, but not in my overall opinion.

At first, I didn't like bitcoin because of its energy use and lack of regulation (which protects end users, believe it or not).

Now, I don't like it because it's become this bizarre quasi-legal gambling addiction predating upon an entire generation of tech-forward but economically downtrodden youth. I see ads on 4chan that shill shitcoins, for heavens' sake.

Was very excited about it back in 2012-2014ish, when it looked like a global currency rather than infinitely fractalizing pyramid scheme.

I was pro, now against. Energy usage being one, utility and transaction speed being another. There are other crypto projects that serve multiple purposes (other than being a volatile "store of value" with faster transaction times and limited energy usage.

Outside of the lightning network, which I haven't seen become mainstream yet, I don't see bitcoin evolving to compete with the other coins out there that do a much better job.

I love it. Nothing changed my mind, ever -- from the moment I bought from MtGox many years ago, I knew this was the most valuable asset on the planet.

I knew those keys would have to be protected with my life. I loved the fact that it is ultimately the responsibility of the individual. Life is too 'safe', living on the edge where one mistake can mean bankruptcy builds character. No man nor state could take this from me, at least without direct, physical violence (and this can be mitigated through things like time lock contracts and physical security).

I knew one day people would hate for me for it, and would create a thousand excuses on why energy is bad, why money is bad, why Bitcoin is bad.. blah blah blah

I am even more bullish today than when I started! I only wish I had more!

Initially didn't care about Bitcoin, thought it would just get banned by the government.

Then the price went volatile and I thought more about it. I did the MIT Blockchain course, and it just seemed so clever.

Then I learned more about monetary policy and how central banks just create money at will. Combining all this with my economics background, it makes sense that Bitcoin could replace gold and have a real function in the world.

Most people on HN understand the technology, but they don't understand money. Gold is a $12tr market. The US bond market is ~$46tr. Capital needs a way to preserve its own value, but the dynamics of money creation throw that into whack over time.

What changed my mind was that bitcoin is truly decentralized. There is no known founder, it has free market incentives. Technologically, it is some what exciting. But what makes it great is the macro economic side of things. Proof of work, encouraging renewable energy(people on grid don't make money). It encourages people to save due to monetary policy and has made me a conscious consumer.

I think it’s cool but I’d rather have functioning governments and less people who want society to collapse.

I know it must suck if you’re not in a developed western country (coming from a 3rd world I know) but now that I’m in America it’s almost like people want the financial systems to completely collapse.

I want to see practical daily life applications that many people will immediately benefit from. I feel like the power players have already been forming and if I’m honest I think some of the crypto rich folks are 10x worse morally and ethically compared to anyone else I’ve met before. Very few have genuine interest in furthering the concept of decentralization. Most just seem to want to get rich by converting to USD ASAP and buying properties or something else.

I could be totally wrong and possibly just getting the wrong message about people in the crypto world. Just my observation though.

The ubiquity of social media has made me more reserved with the embrace of new technologies. The promise of social media was that by having everyone in the world connected, it would develop increased understanding, compassion, and empathy for each other. It seems the very opposite is happening. It seems to amplify anger and hatred. It is driving polarization. After observing this hard-learned lesson, one of which we are still in the midsts of resolving, I now have a different attitude when a new technology is proposed to transform society. We nerds/geeks love technology. We are excited about the potentials for improvement they can bring to our society. But we are often overly optimistic. We neglect all the ways in which things can also go wrong. Instead, we should have a nuanced discussion about the pros and cons of a potential technology before we adopt it. We should decide if the benefits outweigh the potential risks. Bitcoin and cryptocurrency in general promises the benefits of decentralization: privacy, anonymity, access to the global economy, immune to seizure, transparency, etc. But there are also potential pitfalls that can be catastrophic to society if they were to occur. I am not a bitcoin/crypto expert. But we have plenty of smart people here that are. My question to you is, of all the things that can go wrong with the adoption of crypto, where it to happen at a national or global scale, would it be worth it compared to the existing model? And are you certain that you have thought of all possible things that can go wrong? We likely don’t know what we don’t know until we adopt it. Our existing model of handling money has had its ups and downs through the course of the past several hundred years, but at least it is a system that we know works and has brought about great prosperity to the world. We’ve implemented safeguards (laws, regulations, policy) along the way as we come to discover pitfalls with the model, slowly improving it with time. Are we certain that our existing model is so poor as to justify an adoption of a radically new system?

I went from pro to neutral-leaning-against as I learned about the environmental effects of blockchain, to further against as I saw it impact the supply chain for parts, to entirely against as I saw free CI services have to shutter because they were being abused to mine.

Never really changed my idea. When it was the only thing around I hyped it to my friends tho. I think it’s a clever solution to freely transact illegal goods - any scarce resource that people want it’s good against inflation or gov’s mishaps. Obviously wood or lithium is not as easily stored or sold as bitcoin, but at least you know the price won’t plummet in 12months.

As for speculation I came to think that if you wanna buy crypto, you might as well buy exchange tokens since they have Some intrinsic value and are still somewhat correlated to bitcoin’s ups and downs.

Obviously if you’re looking to x100 just buy Small projects that might become very well regarded within the community

This thread is what, 90% "no, I have not", which doesn't answer the question at all.

So to chip in on that: I changed my mind from "this is stupid" to "this is stupid and evil".

Reason: Energy consumption, plus the greed.

Christopher Hitchens said that religion is the only way that a good person can do absolutely heinous evil acts. But he was wrong. Greed can, too.

The number of bodies otherwise good people have crawled over in the name of bitcoin greed, while yelling "IT'LL BE A UTOPIA IN THE END (and by the way in the meantime I'm getting rich yo, but that's a coincidence)!" is sickening.

Huge amounts of institutional investment, and disproportionate control by the very wealthy makes BTC markets unattractive as they start to resemble the traditional markets BTC was supposed to free us from.

I thought Bitcoin was interesting, and was sad because the bitcoin fountain had been drained before I got there, so I didn't get 5 bitcoin to play with. 8(

I spent money, got a video card, did some mining, and lost it all in MtGox. 8(

I'm now of the opinion that it's a speculative investment, subject, subject to the whims of governments who might have large pools of bitcoins in dark wallets.

The current boom in value is highly dependent on Tether, there's likely to be a 90% correction when that implodes.

Once that happens, far less electricity will be wasted on it.

It is useful transferring money around while bypassing restrictive laws or taxes. You can use your money without ever being tracked. For example in Argentina it is used to mostly for that, I am sure in other countries as well. So it will stay around I suppose.

It's still has underwritten assets or value as a currency given it's rising price vs USD. It'll need to stabilize and maybe even see inflation like USD before used as a currency.

I was hopeful that the tx rate would have improved significantly by now. Now I treat it as what it is now (without expectations of better)--of use to few and a waste to many.

My opinion has changed somewhat in recent years. I was a cryptocurrency skeptic, and I still am, but perhaps less so.

Bitcoin always seemed like a solution in search of a problem. The supposed need to replace fiat currencies never resonated with me, and the demand to get around government currency controls seemed real but overblown. I disliked the pump-and-dump rhetoric and the breathless hype from its early adopters that reminded me of the real estate and tech bubbles. As for the energy consumption, it's an unforgivable flaw.

I've also always deeply mistrusted the markets. Not just because of the scammers and theft, but because bitcoin trading platforms lacked the protections against wash sales that arise if you're not actively monitoring against it. What assurances did we have that most of the trading volume wasn't actually being done by a few key players/miners trading between their own accounts to make it look like there was actual volume, occasionally skimming off of unsuspecting people who were drawn by the price increases they manufactured?

I think we're past the point that bitcoin is merely a pump-and-dump scheme though. It is already a historic economic phenomenon. It's been over 4 years since bitcoin passed the $1,000 threshold. It's become a brand and a cultural idea, and due to its strictly limited inelastic supply, small increases in demand have resulted in large and sustained price increases. If I had to bet whether bitcoin will be higher or lower than it is now in ten years I still think it'll be substantially lower, but I am less certain now.

Another thing that's changed for me is that I think there really is a potential market for the creation and frictionless transfer of unique digital goods. The NFT market is even more scammy and absurd than cryptocurrencies, but there seems to be a kernel of truly useful innovation in the ethereum and cardano networks. I could see a world where I connect a metamask wallet to an online game, trade an item I make in it for digital currency that can be used to pay for a subscription or donate to a content creator, all from my browser. Or perhaps I can rent my processing power. I don't think bitcoin will be the platform for this, but it's helped drive demand and resources to it.

Bitcoin has other consequences that will resonate. It's made a lot of people wealthy, and it's a special, unusual group of people -- , irrational risk-takers, young, tech-adjacent, global and often from low-income countries, and often disillusioned with the traditional paths to wealth and power in our capitalist system. Their spending and investment of their newfound wealth will be impactful over the next few years. Much of it will be misspent I am sure, and we'll end up overfunding ethical AI non-profits and building ghost cities in Central America, but our boom-and-bust system misallocates capital all the time too. It's kind of like a global R&D account for wild ideas.

I was always pro-crypto, but Bitcoin is a first generation cryptocurrency. It is still a work of a genius, but it is a first generation cryptocurrency developed 12 years ago. The world has moved on to more efficient and exciting things, like Solana, or Polkadot, or other 3G projects. And what gets me even more excited, this is just the beginning, we have barely scratched the surface of what’s possible to do with smart blockchains.