If you have been redirected here from the movie thread this is the rest of the post. If not, then this was a reaction to the documentary 'Banking on Bitcoin' which is on Netflix right now that I just finished. This could also be a cross post with the pit thread self-consciousness.
There are few things that you cross in life that immediately grab and hold your attention. Some have that more than others, and the subjects are different for everyone. Blockchain technology and Bitcoin(all cryptos) are one of those topics for me. I had heard about Bitcoin in the past, but the mindset and my priorities were in a different place. I have stated this on several occasions but Blockchain technology will change the world. I watched some Bitcoin core announcement stuff also tonight, but I just finished the doc 'Banking on Bitcoin'. Probably the most interesting and inspiring doc I have ever watched.
Some would say(maybe rightfully so) that I have pretty much become obsessed with crypto currencies. I mean I started a thread about it and jokingly used crypto terms describing I hard forked a thread. Crazy right? Actually probably not, I just see the potential more than others. What I already knew before the two crypto things I watched tonight were, that Bitcoin and others are becoming more and more mainstream, and that MANY others have caught the same interest and desire to learn more about cryptos. This interest or obsession is not isolated, it's spreading, just like the networks that support these currencies.
This doc had many interviews and was going through timelines of when things happened. The time frame when most of this very early development and expansion was going on was during a very unstable part of my life. If I had the money or resources back then that I do now, and actually knew about it, I would be a very well off person. However that is not the case and I can't beat myself up over that fact. Maybe it was for the best, and maybe not, certainly it was a great time for a lot of the early investors and Silk Road people. Good thing I wasn't into drugs or this could have ended me.
I have talked almost exclusively in these threads about monetary gain, which does have its place, sure. I wouldn't have interested as many people to invest in LTC as I have, and those people wouldn't have made any money either. The real value(outside of straight cash homie) is that of freedom to send and receive yours and other peoples money without a 3rd party controlling it. We are a long way from mass adoption, but think about the entire world using something like BTC or LTC. You can travel across any border in the world and have an accepted currency. There is no central bank issuing or denying that your currency has any value or is acceptable. The argument can be made that you have to have internet connection to accept something like BTC or LTC. That is a valid point, however, all of the worlds used phones are going to third world countries, which are getting internet access. Application layers like Lightning Network(LN) allow for off chain transactions, which apply SPV(Simple Payment Verifications) which don't require having a node with the full blockchain to confirm the transaction. This enables scale ability and expansion that is currently not possible.
I may talk more about BTC and LTC to my IRL friends than I probably should. I also probably bring up the fact I told them to invest in them when they were still cheap when they didn't. I also may have some friends that when I bring this up say that I was too vague and question how they can even buy something like this. However I know what I know, and that is that this isn't just some fad. This isn't just some geeks creating fake wealth. This isn't just a speculative market and dream that will never go mainstream. This is something real, this is something that will change the world, this is something that will become mainstream. When it does go mainstream nobody will care what the code looks like or what the backend does, just like nobody cares how HTTPS and TCP/IP works. For the ones that do know tho, and the ones who build it, this is a game changer.
TLDNR:
I watched a bitcoin doc and had a reaction.