Re: What is the 'purpose' and 'nature' of Bitcoin? Some questions.
What does Bitcoin actually do that other monetary systems do not do? For example, how would you explain Bitcoin to the millions of M-pesa users in Tanzania and Kenya. In what way would switching to Bitcoin better their situation, bearing in mind: a) the fact that many people do not have regular or reliable access to electricity and charge old mobile phones (held together with duct tape) from a central source,
you keep naming these third world places like Tanzanian,... but you forget that bitcoin is a new technology and like any other new technology it takes time for it to reach everywhere. specially third world countries. it is the same as electricity, cars, water in pipeline instead of taking it from the well each day
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b) the cost of 'mining' bitcoin, and c) the fact that these people (and billions like them) will never, ever be able to afford to 'mine' so much as a single bitcoin?
mining has nothing to do with using bitcoin. we are all using bitcoin and none of us are mining it and some of us doesn't even know what mining is or how it works.
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With the above in mind, is there any fundamental difference between a 'bitcoin miner' and a bank?
a bank is holding your money
a bank can decide who they want to give services to and who they don't
a bank needs your identification to give those services to you.
a bitcoin miner is only seeing an anonymous txid and has no way of making sure where it came from. and as long as it is standard with right amount of fees it treats all txids the same way.
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-link to a game-
if you want to find out more about mining you can read so many available resources about it. just google it and you will find many good ones.
-rant-
everything about you reminds of this: https://99bitcoins.com/bitcoinobituaries/
