
Debunking “But Bitcoin is like the early Internet” - rxever
https://davidgerard.co.uk/blockchain/2018/04/05/debunking-but-bitcoin-is-like-the-early-internet/
======
liamcardenas
There are a lot of points here — many of which have been rebutted elsewhere

But I would like to point out that this article fails in the beginning, by
mischaracterizing the Bitcoin-Internet comparison.

People comparing Bitcoin to the Internet are not saying “the internet was big
and so will be bitcoin”.

The internet comparison is most commonly a counter-argument to people saying
“bitcoin is technically confusing and hard to use, so it will never gain
mainstream adoption”. If one can point to an example of another technology
that wasn’t always easy to use and understand, that now everyone uses, that
demonstrates bitcoin _could_ still succeed.

~~~
ggg9990
The thing that made the Internet adoptable by the masses was centralization:
first onto the single protocol of HTTP, then onto the single search engine of
Google, and then onto the handful of Web giants today. If Bitcoin follows the
same path it will be abdicating it’s very _raison d’etre_.

~~~
hndamien
HTTP is standardization - eg LN/BTC. Google is centralized service on an open
network, ala Coinbase.

------
karmakaze
The article does point out one use case: (updated flow)

    
    
      [Do I need blockchain?]
                 |
      <Do you buy illicit goods on Tor?>

