If someone buys BTC thinking it is "Bitcoin, a peer to peer electronic cash system" they are being scammed.
Serious question: Have you ever read "
A Cypherpunk's Manifesto? Please read it, it will only take you a few minutes. It explains perfectly what is meant by 'electronic cash'. It has nothing to do with (unsafe) 0-confirmation transactions or low transaction fees.
Quoting myself, would love to hear Roger answer.
I originally read it in the late 90's, and read it again just now.
It has everything to do with safe 0-conf transactions and things like the Silk Road.
The very things I've been very supportive from day one. I even helped fund and implement the very first wide spread privacy tool for BTC (Cash Shuffle inside the blockchain.info wallet that was eventually destroyed by the full blocks), and that's why I'm now busy funding and implementing things like
cashshuffle.com for BCH today.
There is no such thing as safe 0-conf transactions. Satoshi made that clear from the beginning:
Instantant non-repudiability is not a feature, but it's still much faster than existing systems. Paper cheques can bounce up to a week or two later. Credit card transactions can be contested up to 60 to 180 days later. Bitcoin transactions can be sufficiently irreversible in an hour or two. (
source[/url)Merchants can still choose to accept 0-conf transactions with Bitcoin if they want to. As you are well aware of, there a plenty of double-spends happening on the BCH chain:
https://doublespend.cashI really don't understand why you are so against having multiple layers. How can you expect to replace an entire monetary system on a single layer? Even Hal seemed to understand that 9 years ago:
Bitcoin itself cannot scale to have every single financial transaction in the world be broadcast to everyone and included in the block chain. There needs to be a secondary level of payment systems which is lighter weight and more efficient. Likewise, the time needed for Bitcoin transactions to finalize will be impractical for medium to large value purchases.
I know that block size is a delicate subject for BCH users but you are making serious trade-offs by increasing it. Everybody should be able to run their own node. Not just 'to help the network' but to be able to verify your own transactions (instead of depending on a third party explorer), increase your personal privacy and giving you a choice when it comes to development updates. You continuously mention how much you value economic freedom and yet you are completely missing the bigger picture by merely focussing on fast and cheap payments. There are dozen of altcoins that are faster and cheaper than Bitcoin (and BCH) yet they are hardly being used. They are (including BCH) all lacking the components that truly matter.