{"slug": "bitcoin", "name": "Bitcoin", "category": "other", "category_name": "Other software", "description": "", "recommenders": 3, "commenters": 27, "warners": 11, "score": -4.441, "rising": 0.35, "first": "2025-11-16", "latest": "2026-09-02", "why": "Bitcoin has been running since 2009 with plenty of incentive for hackers to find flaws in it and they haven't found any.", "why_is_quote": true, "has_verdict": false, "sentiment": {"recommend": 3, "neutral": 2, "compare": 11, "warn": 13}, "spark": [0, 0, 1, 0, 0, 1, 0, 0, 0, 1, 0, 0], "listed": true, "loved": [], "caveat": "", "short_quote": "Bitcoin has been running since 2009 with plenty of incentive for hackers to find flaws in it and they haven't found any.", "kind": "", "icon": false, "domain": null, "github_repo": null, "official_url": "https://bitcoin.org", "pricing": "", "aliases": ["Bitcoin"], "verdict": null, "praise": [{"label": "", "summary": "", "quotes": [{"id": 788011296, "item_id": 49250706, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49250706", "by": "wbnns", "date": "2026-08-10", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "help a bunch of new people all around the world learn about and get starting using bitcoin", "excerpt": "I had the opportunity to maintain https://bitcoin.org/ for a few years. I'm proud that in that time I was able to help a bunch of new people all around the world learn about and get starting using bitcoin. At the same time, it was difficult working with the domain owners behind it who at times were self-serving and very ad-hoc with respect to wanting to push their own agendas. So definitely one of my most proud proje", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: What Project are you the most proud of?"}, {"id": 764005457, "item_id": 47750341, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47750341", "by": "kokkis", "date": "2026-04-13", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Bitcoin can be used to resist such financial censorship", "excerpt": "I'm building a financial censorship monitor at https://nofunds.org/, that tells a story of how money has been turned into a political weapon to silence journalists, activists, and civil society by freezing assets, blocking accounts, sanctioning, and banning payments. It's part of my master's thesis https://www.doria.fi/handle/10024/187407 and also https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36430596, but now I wanted to mak", "context": "", "use_case": "Resisting financial censorship", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: What Are You Working On? (April 2026)"}, {"id": 747131056, "item_id": 46695691, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46695691", "by": "krupan", "date": "2026-01-20", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Bitcoin has been running since 2009 with plenty of incentive for hackers to find flaws in it and they haven't found any.", "excerpt": "Bitcoin has been running since 2009 with plenty of incentive for hackers to find flaws in it and they haven't found any. It uses standard cryptography that is used by all our computer systems. If a flaw exists it's not just bitcoin that will be damaged but everything we use.", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "De-dollarization: Is the US dollar losing its dominance?"}]}], "caveats": [{"label": "", "summary": "", "quotes": [{"id": 784487616, "item_id": 49030476, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49030476", "by": "pooploop64", "date": "2026-07-23", "stance": "warn", "quote": "distaste for bitcoins many showstopping flaws absolutely made crypto in total go away.", "excerpt": "We're talking about two different things. I've never doubted that there will always be some people out there pumping and dumping their meme asset until we're all dead. There's still people trying to rally the gamestop thing. But I wanted a currency man. I wanted to buy stuff from artists and tradespeople without christian fundamentalists at some credit card company having to like it. I wanted to truly own my money. A", "context": "", "use_case": "currency", "switched_from": "", "story": "OpenNode \u2013 Bitcoin Payment Processor"}, {"id": 776920528, "item_id": 48557533, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48557533", "by": "ben_w", "date": "2026-06-16", "stance": "warn", "quote": "BTC doesn't have enough throughput to balance all the banks in the world", "excerpt": "\"Can\" != \"does\". The current actual throughput of the Lightning Network is estimated at around 300 TPS: https://www.spark.money/tools/lightning-vs-visa Also, everything on level 2 needs to be ultimately balanced on level 1; BTC doesn't have enough throughput to balance all the banks in the world, and lo Lightning appears to be consolidating into fewer nodes. Also also, everything level 2 (including Lightning) necessa", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "SpaceX Is Buying Cursor"}, {"id": 774391105, "item_id": 48399444, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48399444", "by": "_glass", "date": "2026-06-04", "stance": "warn", "quote": "for Bitcoin in the longterm it is a massive risk psychologically", "excerpt": "You could look at only two niche blockchains, QRL and ABEL, and they are both affected. Algorand is the most established L1 with a quite developed migration plan (https://algorand.co/technology/post-quantum) but also not really thriving. I think for Bitcoin in the longterm it is a massive risk psychologically, because what to do with all of the locked in value, that cannot be migrated. My guess is that the market pan", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Bitcoin Has Longest Losing Streak Since August in Bruising Week"}, {"id": 768233057, "item_id": 48014566, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48014566", "by": "nunobrito", "date": "2026-05-04", "stance": "warn", "quote": "transactions on that old tech are transparent (no privacy whatsover)", "excerpt": "That is obviously ignoring that transactions on that old tech are transparent (no privacy whatsover) and governments will persecute whomever donates to inconvenient causes: https://usethebitcoin.com/news/canadian-court-rules-against-governments-freeze-of-crypto-donations-in-trucker-protest/ The reason why cryptocurrencies exist is precisely to detach money from governments, reason why Monero is persecuted by every si", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "How Monero's proof of work works"}]}], "who": [], "tags": [], "use_cases": ["currency", "resisting financial censorship"], "compared": [{"slug": "monero", "name": "Monero", "co": 8, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}, {"slug": "ethereum", "name": "Ethereum", "co": 6, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}, {"slug": "lightning-network", "name": "Lightning Network", "co": 2, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}, {"slug": "solana", "name": "Solana", "co": 2, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}, {"slug": "claude", "name": "Claude", "co": 2, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}], "makers": [], "threads": [{"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47841149", "title": "Monero Community Crowdfunding System", "mentions": 4}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46181371", "title": "I wasted years of my life in crypto", "mentions": 3}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47662234", "title": "A Cryptography Engineer's Perspective on Quantum Computing Timelines", "mentions": 2}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49535526", "title": "Dutch central bank moves share of gold from U.S., Canada to London", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49237715", "title": "Ask HN: What Project are you the most proud of?", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49007524", "title": "OpenNode \u2013 Bitcoin Payment Processor", "mentions": 1}], "sentiment_by_month": {"2025-11": {"warn": 1}, "2025-12": {"warn": 3, "compare": 2}, "2026-01": {"warn": 2, "recommend": 1}, "2026-02": {"warn": 1}, "2026-03": {"warn": 1}, "2026-04": {"neutral": 2, "recommend": 1, "compare": 6}, "2026-05": {"warn": 1, "compare": 1}, "2026-06": {"compare": 1, "warn": 3}, "2026-07": {"warn": 1}, "2026-08": {"recommend": 1}, "2026-09": {"compare": 1}, "2026-10": {}}, "quotes": [{"id": 792613200, "item_id": 49538325, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49538325", "by": "lotsofpulp", "date": "2026-09-02", "stance": "compare", "quote": "Perhaps bitcoin satisfies many of these properties", "excerpt": "That is the non idiotic thing about gold, since it is not fiat, is not easy to produce, and it is easy to verify, it can be used as a currency in less stable times/places. It\u2019s a redundancy. Perhaps bitcoin satisfies many of these properties without the high costs to secure and move gold, but it needs electricity and a network? https://www.macrotrends.net/1335/dollar-vs-gold-comparison-last-ten-years", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Dutch central bank moves share of gold from U.S., Canada to London"}, {"id": 788011296, "item_id": 49250706, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49250706", "by": "wbnns", "date": "2026-08-10", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "help a bunch of new people all around the world learn about and get starting using bitcoin", "excerpt": "I had the opportunity to maintain https://bitcoin.org/ for a few years. I'm proud that in that time I was able to help a bunch of new people all around the world learn about and get starting using bitcoin. At the same time, it was difficult working with the domain owners behind it who at times were self-serving and very ad-hoc with respect to wanting to push their own agendas. So definitely one of my most proud proje", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: What Project are you the most proud of?"}, {"id": 784487616, "item_id": 49030476, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49030476", "by": "pooploop64", "date": "2026-07-23", "stance": "warn", "quote": "distaste for bitcoins many showstopping flaws absolutely made crypto in total go away.", "excerpt": "We're talking about two different things. I've never doubted that there will always be some people out there pumping and dumping their meme asset until we're all dead. There's still people trying to rally the gamestop thing. But I wanted a currency man. I wanted to buy stuff from artists and tradespeople without christian fundamentalists at some credit card company having to like it. I wanted to truly own my money. A", "context": "", "use_case": "currency", "switched_from": "", "story": "OpenNode \u2013 Bitcoin Payment Processor"}, {"id": 778290032, "item_id": 48643127, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48643127", "by": "rvz", "date": "2026-06-23", "stance": "warn", "quote": "", "excerpt": "I think we have a clear idea on what sort of crypto is useful (stablecoins) and which ones are not (memecoins, Bitcoin). As we have seen with Stripe [0], Shopify [1], PayPal [2], have all figured out its utility is in stablecoins, which you can send them worldwide, same day, 24/7 in seconds close to $0 with no room for speculation and pay for things and soon agents will do the same. [1] We get that the author is stil", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Crypto in 2026: Oh, This Is the Bad Place"}, {"id": 776920528, "item_id": 48557533, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48557533", "by": "ben_w", "date": "2026-06-16", "stance": "warn", "quote": "BTC doesn't have enough throughput to balance all the banks in the world", "excerpt": "\"Can\" != \"does\". The current actual throughput of the Lightning Network is estimated at around 300 TPS: https://www.spark.money/tools/lightning-vs-visa Also, everything on level 2 needs to be ultimately balanced on level 1; BTC doesn't have enough throughput to balance all the banks in the world, and lo Lightning appears to be consolidating into fewer nodes. Also also, everything level 2 (including Lightning) necessa", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "SpaceX Is Buying Cursor"}, {"id": 774391105, "item_id": 48399444, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48399444", "by": "_glass", "date": "2026-06-04", "stance": "warn", "quote": "for Bitcoin in the longterm it is a massive risk psychologically", "excerpt": "You could look at only two niche blockchains, QRL and ABEL, and they are both affected. Algorand is the most established L1 with a quite developed migration plan (https://algorand.co/technology/post-quantum) but also not really thriving. I think for Bitcoin in the longterm it is a massive risk psychologically, because what to do with all of the locked in value, that cannot be migrated. My guess is that the market pan", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Bitcoin Has Longest Losing Streak Since August in Bruising Week"}, {"id": 773871985, "item_id": 48366999, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48366999", "by": "Cider9986", "date": "2026-06-02", "stance": "compare", "quote": "It's like Bitcoin but actually usable for purchases.", "excerpt": "You might want to check out Monero. It's like Bitcoin but actually usable for purchases. And it's private.", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Squillions \u2013 two books about money-laundering"}, {"id": 770996480, "item_id": 48187280, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48187280", "by": "EGreg", "date": "2026-05-18", "stance": "compare", "quote": "punted on being a \"peer to peer payment system\"", "excerpt": "No. Bitcoin is one coin for everyone. The attempts to create \"colored coins\" back in 2013 fell flat, then it became a \"store of value\", and punted on being a \"peer to peer payment system\". https://avc.com/2017/08/store-of-value-vs-payment-system/ I started Intercoin in 2018 to try to fix this. Let every community have its own coin, and Intercoin acts like the internet of coins... interconnecting them. We raised about", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Who will buy your services if you fire us all?"}, {"id": 768233057, "item_id": 48014566, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48014566", "by": "nunobrito", "date": "2026-05-04", "stance": "warn", "quote": "transactions on that old tech are transparent (no privacy whatsover)", "excerpt": "That is obviously ignoring that transactions on that old tech are transparent (no privacy whatsover) and governments will persecute whomever donates to inconvenient causes: https://usethebitcoin.com/news/canadian-court-rules-against-governments-freeze-of-crypto-donations-in-trucker-protest/ The reason why cryptocurrencies exist is precisely to detach money from governments, reason why Monero is persecuted by every si", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "How Monero's proof of work works"}, {"id": 765589073, "item_id": 47849317, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47849317", "by": "mothballed", "date": "2026-04-21", "stance": "compare", "quote": "BTC for example is non-fungible because there are tainted and non-tainted coins", "excerpt": "Most basic economics academic reviews show a few main qualities of cash[0][1]. (1)durability (2)portability (3)divisibility (4) uniformity (5) acceptability (6) limited supply Monero beats plaintext chain coins at uniformity, as BTC for example is non-fungible because there are tainted and non-tainted coins. Monero is truly fungible. It loses to even similar weight class coin at acceptability. I suppose you can argue", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Monero Community Crowdfunding System"}, {"id": 765584577, "item_id": 47849036, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47849036", "by": "rationalist", "date": "2026-04-21", "stance": "compare", "quote": "", "excerpt": "> paying a high price Monero's transaction fees are less than Bitcoin's: https://bitinfocharts.com/comparison/transactionfees-btc-xmr.html#log&3y And Monero's fees decrease with larger block sizes (Monero has dynamic block sizes) whereas Bitcoin has a fixed block size and fees must increase to compete to be included in the block.", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Monero Community Crowdfunding System"}, {"id": 765570401, "item_id": 47848150, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47848150", "by": "rglullis", "date": "2026-04-21", "stance": "compare", "quote": "there is no inherent advantage to Bitcoin here", "excerpt": "Payment channels are possible on other networks as well. Once again, there is no inherent advantage to Bitcoin here. I know because I worked on one (https://raiden.network/). I also dealt with many of its failure modes: - insufficient liquidity on intemediate nodes - network partitions - uncooperative nodes - nodes that were liquidity sinks and forced other participants to bear the costs of deposits - insufficient ma", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Monero Community Crowdfunding System"}, {"id": 765543233, "item_id": 47846452, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47846452", "by": "resonious", "date": "2026-04-21", "stance": "compare", "quote": "it has all of the benefits of Bitcoin + actual privacy", "excerpt": "I'll echo the sentiment that Monero seems like the \"best\" cryptocurrency in that it has all of the benefits of Bitcoin + actual privacy. And interestingly, it's one of the least-used least-hyped options. It's as though we didn't actually want privacy in our money system. I think a hint into this is actually in one of these posted features: https://repo.getmonero.org/monero-project/ccs-proposals/-/merge_requests/651 O", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Monero Community Crowdfunding System"}, {"id": 765533312, "item_id": 47845832, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47845832", "by": "tromp", "date": "2026-04-21", "stance": "compare", "quote": "Bitcoin could have achieved A) through D) by simply doing away with the capped supply", "excerpt": "Bitcoin could have achieved A) through D) by simply doing away with the capped supply and the accompanying subsidy halving needed to achieve it. Just a pure linear emission [1]. That would avoid the extreme concentration of wealth on early adopters, and make it much less attractive for speculation. To really deter speculation, one would need to actually increase subsidy over time, but that would make the emission bot", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Two Paradoxes Blocking Bitcoin"}, {"id": 765412448, "item_id": 47838278, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47838278", "by": "EthanHeilman", "date": "2026-04-20", "stance": "compare", "quote": "This proposed Bitcoin roadmap is conservative and focused.", "excerpt": "r/K selection theory but for protocols? This unofficial Bitcoin roadmap and the official ETH (Ethereum) PQ roadmap present two very different philosophies. * As one would expect the ETH PQ roadmap is ambitious bordering on hubristic. It proposes a very short timeline and aims to deploy protocols that will to push the frontiers of current technology. * This proposed Bitcoin roadmap is conservative and focused. It is d", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Bitcoin and Quantum Computing: A Roadmap"}, {"id": 764005457, "item_id": 47750341, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47750341", "by": "kokkis", "date": "2026-04-13", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Bitcoin can be used to resist such financial censorship", "excerpt": "I'm building a financial censorship monitor at https://nofunds.org/, that tells a story of how money has been turned into a political weapon to silence journalists, activists, and civil society by freezing assets, blocking accounts, sanctioning, and banning payments. It's part of my master's thesis https://www.doria.fi/handle/10024/187407 and also https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36430596, but now I wanted to mak", "context": "", "use_case": "Resisting financial censorship", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: What Are You Working On? (April 2026)"}, {"id": 762668048, "item_id": 47666753, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47666753", "by": "nullc", "date": "2026-04-06", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "Adding new signature schemes to bitcoin is relatively trivial", "excerpt": "Adding new signature schemes to bitcoin is relatively trivial and has been done previously (today Bitcoin supports both schnorr and ecdsa signatures). Existing PQ standards have signatures with the wrong efficiency tradeoffs for usage in Bitcoin-- large signatures that are durable against a lot of use and supports fast signing, while for Bitcoin signature+key size is critical, keys should be close to single use, and ", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "A Cryptography Engineer's Perspective on Quantum Computing Timelines"}, {"id": 762643952, "item_id": 47665247, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47665247", "by": "sunshine-o", "date": "2026-04-06", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "", "excerpt": "Yep, I was looking into it and from what I understand: - There is a dark outlook on Bitcoin as the community and devs can't seem to coordinate. Especially on what to do with the \"Satoshi coins\" - Ethereum has a hard but clear path (pretty much full rewrite) with a roadmap [0] - The highly optimized \"fast chains\" (Solana & co) are in a lot of trouble too. It would be funny if Bitcoin the asset end up migrating to Ethe", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "A Cryptography Engineer's Perspective on Quantum Computing Timelines"}, {"id": 759386321, "item_id": 47461645, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47461645", "by": "kkfx", "date": "2026-03-20", "stance": "warn", "quote": "there are MANY problems starting with BTC", "excerpt": "Honestly, those who lost money did so because they were aiming for profits, not for The Network State, or for having non-seizable money etc. On the other hand, for those who got in early because they were online and curious at the time, with a small amount of money back then has made them billionaires today, an extremely low risk. If they arrived a bit later, millionaires, still with a really soft risk. Then of cours", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "I'm OK being left behind, thanks"}, {"id": 749885200, "item_id": 46867825, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46867825", "by": "AnthonyMouse", "date": "2026-02-02", "stance": "warn", "quote": "Kind of sad that we're stuck with the one that heats the Earth", "excerpt": "I opened the first of these at random: http://128.237.157.9/pub/core-mp3s/ http://128.237.157.9/pub/core-mp3s/core-2000-02-25.mp3 Turned out to be an interesting historical snapshot in light of the current metal prices. A pre-9/11 discussion about the then-growing, now-defunct eGold. The thing that was trying to be Bitcoin before Bitcoin. Kind of sad that we're stuck with the one that heats the Earth because Bush/Che", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Carnegie Mellon Unversity Computer Club FTP Server"}, {"id": 749490000, "item_id": 46843125, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46843125", "by": "noosphr", "date": "2026-01-31", "stance": "warn", "quote": "Bitcoin manages to consume more power than all the AI systems were wringing our hands over", "excerpt": "Bitcoin manages to consume more power than all the AI systems were wringing our hands over: https://digiconomist.net/bitcoin-energy-consumption And provides approximately none of the scant benefits of asking Claude to fix my spelling.", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "The Saddest Moment (2013) [pdf]"}, {"id": 747131056, "item_id": 46695691, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46695691", "by": "krupan", "date": "2026-01-20", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Bitcoin has been running since 2009 with plenty of incentive for hackers to find flaws in it and they haven't found any.", "excerpt": "Bitcoin has been running since 2009 with plenty of incentive for hackers to find flaws in it and they haven't found any. It uses standard cryptography that is used by all our computer systems. If a flaw exists it's not just bitcoin that will be damaged but everything we use.", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "De-dollarization: Is the US dollar losing its dominance?"}, {"id": 745443777, "item_id": 46590236, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46590236", "by": "PrimalOrigins", "date": "2026-01-12", "stance": "warn", "quote": "Bitcoin forks constantly over ideology", "excerpt": "I spent months on this because I got frustrated with \"code is law\" being a lie. Every blockchain claims immutability until something goes wrong. Then they fork. - Ethereum forked after the DAO hack - Bitcoin forks constantly over ideology - Smart contracts get \"upgraded\" So I asked: what if you literally couldn't change the rules? Not \"we promise not to\" \u2014 actually physically impossible. I designed a chip where the t", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "I put Economic rules within silicon"}, {"id": 745234705, "item_id": 46577169, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46577169", "by": "PrimalOrigins", "date": "2026-01-11", "stance": "warn", "quote": "Bitcoin forks constantly over ideology", "excerpt": "I spent months on this because I got frustrated with \"code is law\" being a lie. Every blockchain claims immutability until something goes wrong. Then they fork. - Ethereum forked after the DAO hack - Bitcoin forks constantly over ideology - Smart contracts get \"upgraded\" So I asked: what if you literally couldn't change the rules? Not \"we promise not to\" \u2014 actually physically impossible. I designed a chip where the t", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Show HN: I put economic rules in silicon that can't be changed by software"}, {"id": 743037072, "item_id": 46439817, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46439817", "by": "OutOfHere", "date": "2025-12-30", "stance": "compare", "quote": "For a pool size of 30%, at least 24 confirmations should be required in Bitcoin, but 49 in Monero with its stricter \u03b5=1e-6.", "excerpt": "The answer to this problem is in the original Bitcoin whitepaper itself. It gives the formula for the required number of confirmations. The Monero PoW community has had to deal with such nonsense, as have other smaller PoW coins. With \u03b5=1e-3, the expected number of 6 confirmations works only so long as the largest pool size does not exceed 12%. For a pool size of 30%, at least 24 confirmations should be required in B", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Sabotaging Bitcoin"}, {"id": 741183072, "item_id": 46323942, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46323942", "by": "tromp", "date": "2025-12-19", "stance": "warn", "quote": "One could argue that Bitcoin's capped supply sacrifices long-term economic incentives", "excerpt": "> better privacy, or easier scaling You can get both [1] without trading away anything except trusting Pedersen commitments to actually commit to their values (i.e. no-one ever able to compute one particular EC discrete log). > they often sacrifice decentralization or long-term economic incentives. One could argue that Bitcoin's capped supply sacrifices long-term economic incentives as its shrinking security budget t", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Aaron Van Wirdum predicts the future of crypto"}, {"id": 739147168, "item_id": 46196698, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46196698", "by": "kyle-rb", "date": "2025-12-08", "stance": "compare", "quote": "", "excerpt": "Web3 is dead, because the VC valuation multiplier switched from \"blockchain-native\" to having an \"AI story\", so startups don't have to pretend to care about data-sovereignty anymore. Developers want to use Postgres, not a distributed ledger. And most end users don't really care about data-sovereignty. If I thought a significant percentage of my app's users did, I would much rather rewrite to conform to ATProto than t", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "I wasted years of my life in crypto"}, {"id": 739126848, "item_id": 46195428, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46195428", "by": "akrymski", "date": "2025-12-08", "stance": "warn", "quote": "BTC is not really digital cash either", "excerpt": "Distributed ledgers were not a Bitcoin invention. Proof of Work was - largely a waste of electricity. There's no reason why SWIFT or any other institution can't have far more efficient real-time payments. It's already the case in most countries (UK & EU). Distributed technologies have largely been useful to actors that wish to remain anonymous (Napster, Tor). Money transmission probably shouldn't be (if we want to av", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "I wasted years of my life in crypto"}, {"id": 738914897, "item_id": 46182181, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46182181", "by": "kkfx", "date": "2025-12-07", "stance": "warn", "quote": "not for Bitcoin, therefore, but for example, Solana is already adequate", "excerpt": "The blockchain is an excellent distributed storage system for anything that should be immutable, such as contract hashes like notarial deeds, vehicle sales, and digital identities, which are not controlled by any central authority (if the blockchain is truly distributed) and are verifiable and tamper-proof. NFTs are the toy experiment that demonstrates this path. It is therefore also usable as a currency, with fungib", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "I wasted years of my life in crypto"}, {"id": 735180000, "item_id": 45948750, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45948750", "by": "arcanemachiner", "date": "2025-11-16", "stance": "warn", "quote": "It's been a while, but it has happened", "excerpt": "It's been a while, but it has happened: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2010-5139", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "I have recordings proving Coinbase knew about breach months before disclosure"}]}