Newbies impression of The Bitcoin News Show Debate on LN 4-29-2018
In listening to the show and everyone's perspective and understanding probably 50% of the technical aspect of the conversation, I thought it would be useful for the people who are developing the echo system to hear my thoughts and feed back.
First I hope anyone reading this does not hold against me nor disparage me because I am new to the echo system, the lion share of the people in this world are No-coiners and haven't even entered this echo system and I believe you are all developing this system for them or scaling would not even be an issue of discussion.
I am an American citizen so the economic calculation of using crypto or LN for payments does not make sense. The reasons are a) its a taxable event and b) the payment channels we have with Apple Pay using our different credit cards and all their various rewards systems is very convenient and rewarding.
I can understand that maybe payments, especially micro transactions may not be important to me but there is rest of the planet to consider and we all have our own laws, needs and current payment infrastructure.
My need is to have a convenient store of value outside the fiat system.
I have a special needs adult child, who has income, I manage her funds. She has limitations but needs to interact in society and make payments, she needs access to her money on a daily basis for her needs. We don't give her a wallet of cash to manage because it would be a burden for her and a mystery to us of where the money went during the course of the day she is out on her own. We decided to simply divide her funds in 4 buckets. We have 1 bucket where we keep her savings for long term needs that can grow tax free(Roth IRA). 2nd bucket is for any long term funds in excess of the tax free threshold of $5,500 per year. 3rd bucket is short term savings and the 4th bucket is a debt card that she can only spend what we transfer over from bucket 3 on an as needed basis.
All 4 buckets are US$, they may be in different places at different times with different institutions but they are all dollars, they have the same value.
Although technically different, I view the LN as bucket # 4 similar to her debt card. I like the idea that it is a separate wallet that isolates funds from other buckets you may have ear marked for different uses. For instance, personally I am accumulating Bitcoin, I don't keep all my BTC in my desktop core wallet. I may have some in a mobile wallet on my cell phone and may have some on a hardware wallet in a safe. Regardless of where I keep it, it is all Bitcoin.
I think it is a shame that the community's characters/personalities could not agree on block size and they had to diverge. From the research that I have done, I have made the economic decision to support BTC. I appreciate the fact that they are true to the protocol and would not allow the chain to be changed in a way that could make someone who is accumulating value be harmed or short changed. I like the fact, I can run a full node and verify my transactions because the block size is smaller making the space more valuable. I view it as a single family home on beach front property. Yes a developer can come along and put up a high rise that can house multiple units but its not like walking out your back door right onto the sand. That is not to say a developer can't buy a plot on the beach and put up a high rise next to me so more people can have the same experience.
I view all Alt coins as inland property, they may have value but its not beach front. I believe both alt coins and Bitcoin can survive.
Imagine you owned a double deep beach front lot and you sold off the back part of the lot to someone. Imagine if the buyer of that lot developed it and part of his marketing scheme was to illustrate to prospective buyers how it was better to be further from the ocean and became contentious and disparaging towards your property? That is how I feel about Bcash.
I know this scenario is way different but I wanted to illustrate a feeling.
I think if the Bcash's central characters were smart, they would have embraced the BTC holder rather than be contentious. The most important network effect they had was the fork, they should have convinced the BTC holder to HODL their BTC and spend their Bcash. I believe if they did that, they could have increased their market cap and volume while the LN was being developed and then would have had their own Network. It seems they decided to fight over their slice of the pie during the pie's infancy. Just doesn't sound like good business to me.
Vortex and WCN, I appreciate the broadcast and the information you offer daily. I think the panel was excellent and it was great to hear different perspectives.
Excuse my grammar or spelling, I am not a writer, just a free thinking insomniac
-Kent Roccas