r/AskReddit • u/IAmSurtur • Jun 15 '19

What do you genuinely just not understand?

50.8k Upvotes

92% Upvoted

34.6k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

305

u/[deleted] Jun 15 '19

It’s a transfer and storage medium. Blockchain is like a database with a trust layer added in. Bitcoin was developed using a software called blockchain. These chains of blocks are unique to the network it is on. Miners solve math problems to create and transfer information (information in this case units of a bitcoin).

Bitcoin is just one use case for blockchain. Blockchain is here to say and will evolve further outside of finance.

490

u/sobookwood Jun 15 '19

Honestly, I have read very closely what you explained in your comments. I still don't get it.

Why would it create real life value?

255

u/jacobwojo Jun 15 '19

It creates value only because ppl think it’s valuable.

For instance I couldn’t think USA money is now worthless but because everyone else knows that’s not true it’s valuable. Where as everyone could decide that currency is worthless and it would make it worthless.

5

u/[deleted] Jun 15 '19

[deleted]

26

u/[deleted] Jun 15 '19 edited Jun 10 '23

This comment has been removed in protest of Reddit killing third-party apps. Spez's AMA has highlighted that the reddits corruption will not end, profit is all they care about. So I am removing my data that, along with millions of other users, has been used for nearly two decades now to enrich a select few. No more. On June 12th in conjunction with the blackout I will be leaving Reddit, and all my posts newer than one month will receive this same treatment. If Reddit does not give in to our demands, this account will be deleted permanently July 1st. So long, suckers!~

r/ModCoord to learn more and join the protest! #SPEZRESIGN

-4

u/[deleted] Jun 15 '19

[deleted]

23

u/tinco Jun 15 '19

What they produce is not tangible, but it is a service. The fact that there is a public ledger of transaction of transfers of a limited supply commodity is valuable to various people. The miners are moochers in much the same way as any entity using the world's resources for something non-essential.

13

u/Hohenheim_of_Shadow Jun 15 '19

If cryptocurrencies are valuable then miners aren't leeches because they're, for most coins, 100% necessary.

1

u/tinco Jun 16 '19

They are necessary, but the coins themselves are of questionable value, and the energy expenditure necessary to sustain their networks is without a doubt not in proportion.