Re: Wall Observer BTC/USD - Bitcoin price movement tracking & discussion
I agree with Hairy on this (as is often the case). This is a derivative backed by real btc reserves - maybe that's why it has such a short expiry (daily). I guess it will have optional automatic rollover.
Starbucks, Microsoft and others backing the project won't win any popularity with older bitcoiners, such as the people participating in this discussion, but they could do much for those who know little or nothing about cryptocurrencies. Adoption can only increase.
And once the cat is out of the bag, it won't take long for some of the smarter ones to wise up and understand the simple concept "private keys in my own hands or it's not my own money". Which in turn will debunk the greasy talk about "necessary trust" spread by some of those weasels.
It's all for the best.
Good grief. What soccer mom wanting to score a chai latte with two shots of vanilla is going to give a shit about cryptocurrencies? Furthermore, is Microsoft going to notice that I am running my Electrum wallet and start giving me notices to start using their shit wallet?
You are always on the pessimist (realist?) side, Bones!
Not all soccer moms are that dumb. Let some of them have their "starbucks bucks" hindered from movement once, and some of them at least will see - and spread the word. When it's about our own money, I think it's much easier to spend the necessary mental energy to make ourselves more educated. I trust human nature about this at least.
As for Microsoft pushing you to leave Electrum for Microsoft SafeLocker, it's an unavoidable part of the deal, but relatively harmless in my opinion. It could even force Microsoft to provide better software to face competition. As a parallel, consider Internet Explorer: it had an easy game at the start, with all the apes adopting it out of sheer ignorance, but it was eventually pushed into irrelevance by the likes of Mozilla and Google, to the point where they recently had to rebrand it with a new name - while improving it at least a little along the way.
I remain optimistic about this issue, if it actually goes on without breaking.