> There are fees with bitcoin - the transactions that leave higher fees for the miners get processed quicker. If you don't include fees with your transaction it could take hours to be bundled into a verified block.
As I said, the fee issue is being worked on (scaling, layer 2 networks) but that's a potential of the technology.
> People, myself included, jump to the criminal aspects because those are the only real world applications that are currently creating value for Bitcoin "users"
I simply disagree, if you want me to enumerate all the use cases that aren't criminal I can, but google can help.
> The rest of the things you listed such as "highest density of wealth storage every invented" and "completely different threat model" are not use cases, and are not inherently good/bad, just different (and actually usually bad when optimizing for verification speed/efficiency and transaction clearance over chargebacks/fraud)
Yes, it is a different sort of tradeoff, that may be useful in some cases. It's novel.
> PS did you get hired into the crypto/blockchain world, or just more optimistic after doing research? I remember us being in agreement / you being skeptical about it before
I have posted a lot on cryptocurrency, I have been in the industry for a while, but I am not universally optimistic about all things crypto. But overall I am bullish.
>if you want me to enumerate all the use cases that aren't criminal I can.
Could you start with one? And I mean one that is obviously superior to centralized solutions? What are the measures that make blockchain superior in this use case and why a centralized solution can't achieve those measures? Why the tradeoffs in other measures are insignificant? Let's further assume that decentralization itself is not an acceptable measure.
Do you not see the value of censorship resistance?
There are billions of people in the world currently living under repressive governments. The world does not revolve around the western world with all of our privileged freedoms.
I already accepted that blockchain offers value in criminal money transfers. Obviously censorship resistance is criminal in repressive regimes. It just is a bit difficult in western world to sell a product whose only actual value proposition is criminal money transfer.
I think if you were the target (or initiator) of legal actions that don't involve criminality on your end but do involve discovery, you would think a lot differently about pseudonymous payments, and potentially encrypted communications. Speaking as someone involved in three active civil lawsuits, trust me when I say criminality is not the only reason to hide things. Being subjected to the discovery process where adversaries can uncover things about your personal life is an experience that will change most peoples' feelings about all things privacy.
As I said, the fee issue is being worked on (scaling, layer 2 networks) but that's a potential of the technology.
> People, myself included, jump to the criminal aspects because those are the only real world applications that are currently creating value for Bitcoin "users"
I simply disagree, if you want me to enumerate all the use cases that aren't criminal I can, but google can help.
> The rest of the things you listed such as "highest density of wealth storage every invented" and "completely different threat model" are not use cases, and are not inherently good/bad, just different (and actually usually bad when optimizing for verification speed/efficiency and transaction clearance over chargebacks/fraud)
Yes, it is a different sort of tradeoff, that may be useful in some cases. It's novel.
> PS did you get hired into the crypto/blockchain world, or just more optimistic after doing research? I remember us being in agreement / you being skeptical about it before
I have posted a lot on cryptocurrency, I have been in the industry for a while, but I am not universally optimistic about all things crypto. But overall I am bullish.