You sound frightfully bitter about Bitcoin in this and your other recent posts. Bitcoin really is a remarkable feat of technical engineering and design. We're living through the adoption and growth of the world's first significant cryptocurrency. We never got flying cars but this is what the future should feel like. Bitcoin might very well crash and burn but cryptocurrencies here to stay.

If you can't marvel or at the very least appreciate such impressive new technologies this might indeed not be the place for you.

Sure the technology is great. Happy?

But appreciating the technological wonder of Bitcoin is so double-edged. It's like witnessing the advent of fire but seeing that that the first thing people do with it is to burn down each others houses.

The only reason I've bothered with these discussions is because I think it's interesting and happen to be present to watch its usefulness get perverted. I'm trying to mentally divorce it from the scheme aspect and figure out a way in which it might actually work. Part of that is acknowledging the flaws in the current system & understanding why proponents believe they're actually a boon (cuz from what I've gathered through these discussions Bitcoiners won't admit its anything less than perfect). Is it really theoretically sound or is it just hype? If you go through my arguments a lot of the discussions begin with people defending Bitcoin but ending with why they think it's a viable trading market. But they try to blind people of those intentions at first giving some buzzword speech about the perfection of this technological marvel.

Why should we respect a scheme just because it employs clever technology? I think this is the biggest mistake in the tech community, we love the means & don't care about the end. Or why is the scheme subject to any less scrutiny than the code? In the case of a new currency I would say the dispersement plan and market stabilization tactics are perhaps an even more important technologies than transfer/storage methods.

Plus the buzz around Bitcoin isn't people marvelling at the tech, it's just $$ sign linkbait. If the discussions were instead about how to implement a proper cryptocurrency, I'd be much more intrigued.

It probably seems like I'm bitter but it's actually part of the struggle to understand what this is all about. Somebody needs to call bullshit now & then. It's like having a tech discussion with too many metaphors instead of "Let's go from A to B intelligently" tech plans/specs. I feel like a lot of the Bitcoiners I've argued with obfuscate the logic on purpose & use a lot of concepts borrowed from Wall Street trading but not proven to be in play. Bitcoin is not a stock. But they discuss it like a stock when it's convenient, at other times they deny.

I've learned a lot through these arguments but yeah it's getting boring. Nobody wants to implement a proper cryptocurrency. I have an idea for one but I doubt I'll bother other than a blog post because I don't think the shadow Wall Street is the place for me

And yes HN is probably not the place for me either. It's becoming more like a money/business forum for non-technical startup types. They have some good tech articles now and then but I'm sure there is a more focused forum elsewhere.

So far I've bought domain renewals at Namecheap and a few rounds at the pub. Both faster and easier than paying by card. I intend to buy my next flights at btctrip.com.

I'm aware BTC's appreciating value so I periodically top up to offset spending.