Quote from: nanobrain on December 11, 2013, 12:32:51 PM

Quote from: emanymton on December 11, 2013, 07:49:06 AM

Quote from: nanobrain on December 11, 2013, 07:43:37 AM

Quote from: tHash on December 11, 2013, 07:25:19 AM

Quote from: nanobrain on December 11, 2013, 07:03:21 AM

I'm getting more and more concerned that no-one here seems to want to explore or even counter the 'negative' arguments around bitcoin or crypto...I don't mind reading erudite or informed denunciations of such arguments but everyone seems awful keen to dismiss any naysayers as idiots/fools without actually making a cogent defence.

Did you have a specific concern you want addressed? Most of us here can see right away that there is not one piece of intelligent thought put into an article like that, so dismiss it. If there is something you have a question about, ask! We are then more than happy to share wisdom Grin

I'm having a similar but more specific exchange with Marcus_of_Augustus o this thread
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=365730.new#new

My concerns are that forum members tend to dismiss negative arguments rather than take the time to counter them. I've spent a bit of time in real world convincing friends that BTC has a future but I imagine if they came here and saw the responses from members they wouldn't be that convinced.

Every negative article tends to generate a series of ad hom attacks: now, if you were a newcomer/visitor and you saw a respected economist/author (whatever) put their argument and the counter was "he's an idiot' from an anonymous forum member, who would you tend to believe?

There are a lot of intelligent people here but BTC's future tends to be more of an article of faith these days than solid, developing postulations.

If you've been around here you for a while you would see that people have been intelligently postulating since the beginning.
Pretty much at this stage I think the general consensus is that those arguments have been countered to death and there's no point repeating over and over.

That is Marcus's stance too and I think it is a worrying development for the following reasons:

1. Theoretical arguments exist only in contemporary environments - BTC exists within a social, economic, technological and geo-political world different to that of 12 months, two years, three years ago. Not revisiting and reviewing arguments in any other field would be considered lazy and arrogant - why is BTC different?

2. This is a public forum and the casual visitor should be seeing cogent arguments rather than blase dismissals. I've been visiting since late 2011 and the forum content has, with broader adoption, moved tone to one that shares many of the tendencies similar to those of a cult: unreasoned faith, multiplication of adherence, attacks on critics.

3. General apathy ("we can't be bothered disputing this") is often the beginning of the end of the exploration of ideas, especially risk assessment...it smacks of arrogance and usually doesn't end well.

Just saying :/

I disagree, I see pretty strong counter-arguments like: choo choo, to da moon, thank you for the cheap coins... Cheesy