What is your ideal level of decentralization for Bitcoin?

Mon Jul 11, 2016 4:39 pm

Special thanks to Jerry David's article for inspiring me to make this poll.
To me, it seems very clear that Bitcoin isn't very interesting if only a small number of people are using it, but we don't need 100% of the users to be running full nodes either.
I want to build a currency that rivals the Dollar, the Euro, and the Yen.
To do that, it's clear that not everyone can be required to run a full node on a Raspberry Pi or their cell phone.
I think a $1000 computing device is a low enough hurdle to be expected to be required to run a full node.
What do you think, and why?

iFixBTCmemoryIssues · Mon Jul 11, 2016 6:18 pm

Special thanks to Jerry David's article for inspiring me to make this poll.
To me, it seems very clear that Bitcoin isn't very interesting if only a small number of people are using it, but we don't need 100% of the users to be running full nodes either.
I want to build a currency that rivals the Dollar, the Euro, and the Yen.
To do that, it's clear that not everyone can be required to run a full node on a Raspberry Pi or their cell phone.
I think a $1000 computing device is a low enough hurdle to be expected to be required to run a full node.
What do you think, and why?

If you are a business that processes Bitcoin, it is in your best interest to run a node.

How I see this is similar to leasing payment gateway hardware, although much cheaper. This is also how I explain it to clients and I've never had a complaint.

In a high-risk business, I was losing on average $5,000 US a day from chargebacks. Banks were charging a fee of $60 to $90 on-top of the chargeback amount.

With Bitcoin, that loss is zero.

Bitcoin rivals any merchant bank credit card processing system I have ever used

freetrader · Mon Jul 11, 2016 6:20 pm

In an ideal world I wouldn't have to worry about running a node and the expenses that come with it.
So I'm in the 'go big or go home' camp.
But Bitcoin has a journey to get there - it must walk before it can run.
So we had better all run nodes and not just think the other guy is going to do it so we don't have to!
I am hopeful we could see 10,000 nodes within a year if Bitcoin is unchained from its current small-block shackles.

JalToorey · Tue Jul 12, 2016 7:24 am

im censored from participating in r/btc, but I'd like to ask what you mean by a currency that rivals the other majors fiats. Please be explicate. What I mean is give me every angle you are thinking about because I am quite interested in what the means to you other than just a blanket answer such as "More people use it" or "it has more utility".

Thx!

The reason I ask is because I think that there are implications in regard to what a currency must have in order to rival these other currencies, but also depending on what categories we are trying to beat fiat in.

Tue Jul 12, 2016 8:07 am

No body is censored from participating in /r/BTC
I would like to see more people using Bitcoin, for more transactions, than people using USD, Euros, or Yen.
I would like to see more people's wealth stored in Bitcoin, than in USD, Euros, or Yen.

We have a long way to go, but this is not an impossible task.

iFixBTCmemoryIssues · Tue Jul 12, 2016 7:54 pm

No body is censored from participating in /r/BTC
I would like to see more people using Bitcoin, for more transactions, than people using USD, Euros, or Yen.
I would like to see more people's wealth stored in Bitcoin, than in USD, Euros, or Yen.

We have a long way to go, but this is not an impossible task.

Time and patience!