Debunking “But Bitcoin is like the early Internet”

Debunking “But Bitcoin is like the early Internet”(davidgerard.co.uk)

26 points by rxever 7 years ago | 7 comments

There are a lot of points here — many of which have been rebutted elsewhere

But I would like to point out that this article fails in the beginning, by mischaracterizing the Bitcoin-Internet comparison.

People comparing Bitcoin to the Internet are not saying “the internet was big and so will be bitcoin”.

The internet comparison is most commonly a counter-argument to people saying “bitcoin is technically confusing and hard to use, so it will never gain mainstream adoption”. If one can point to an example of another technology that wasn’t always easy to use and understand, that now everyone uses, that demonstrates bitcoin could still succeed.

davidgerard 7 years ago | |

> There are a lot of points here — many of which have been rebutted elsewhere

I eagerly await your citations.

> People comparing Bitcoin to the Internet are not saying “the internet was big and so will be bitcoin”. The internet comparison is most commonly a counter-argument to people saying “bitcoin is technically confusing and hard to use, so it will never gain mainstream adoption”.

I know of zero cases of such. In every frickin' case, they're saying "the internet was big and so will be bitcoin". Their argument really is that simplistic and bad.

not_kurt_godel 7 years ago | |

> People comparing Bitcoin to the Internet are not saying “the internet was big and so will be bitcoin”.

Lol, what? That is exactly what the most visible Bitcoin proponents are shouting from the rooftops every chance they get:

> Bitcoin could be as "big as the Internet" in reshaping the world and spurring economic growth, said a venture capitalist and well-known booster of the virtual currency.

https://www.cnbc.com/2014/01/28/bitcoin-transformative-as-th...

> "[Bitcoin] is bigger than the internet," [Venture capitalist Tim Draper] says.

https://www.cnbc.com/2018/04/23/early-tech-investor-says-bit...

> 'Bitcoin is the next Internet' has been a useful slogan to gain mainstream attention...Rather than the next Internet, bitcoin can become the next killer app for the Internet, much like the web before it.

https://www.coindesk.com/bitcoin-really-next-internet/

ggg9990 7 years ago | |

The thing that made the Internet adoptable by the masses was centralization: first onto the single protocol of HTTP, then onto the single search engine of Google, and then onto the handful of Web giants today. If Bitcoin follows the same path it will be abdicating it’s very raison d’etre.

hndamien 7 years ago | | |

HTTP is standardization - eg LN/BTC. Google is centralized service on an open network, ala Coinbase.

rboyd 7 years ago | | |

BitTorrent?

karmakaze 7 years ago |

The article does point out one use case: (updated flow)

  [Do I need blockchain?]
             |
  <Do you buy illicit goods on Tor?>