Top all-time · #4216
Oleg Andreev
Personal blog · blog.oleganza.comeconomicssecurityprogramming
Oleg Andreev writes Tumblr, a personal blog at blog.oleganza.com about economics, security and programming. Since 2011, 18 different Hacker News readers have linked it 101 times, most often “Contracts(arbitration) without trust or third parties”. The last post was in 2017, but the archive is still widely read.
Too few sampled comments (8) to say how often HN recommends it.?
Why HN links it
HN readers link Oleg Andreev's blog for Bitcoin and economics writing, especially its case that deflation is not harmful, and for posts on trustless contracts and crypto-anarchy.
Summarised by Claude from a sample of 8 HN comments that link here. Each comment is marked recommending, critical or neutral (citing without judging); how this works.
Software designer with focus on user experience and security. New blog is here: oleganza.com.
Most-linked posts?
- Contracts(arbitration) without trust or third parties4 people · 11 mentions · first linked 2013-08-18
- Direct use value of Bitcoin3 people · 6 mentions · first linked 2013-02-04
- Crypto-anarchy does not require anonymity2 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2013-12-28
- Gitbox is 1 year old: status report2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2011-12-02
- Transactional currency and store of value2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2013-11-27
- /post/66215430631/deflationary-spiral2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2013-11-09
- Bitcoin is like…2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2014-05-09
What Hacker News says?
> so higher miner fees would not be a viable incentive? Miner fees are irrelevant if one does not have the coins to begin with. The chain will be maintained by competing miners only if they are incentivized with initial distribution of a limited supply of units. If all units belong to just one guy, then why anyone should mine anything? If you need coins, you can just buy them from him. But why would they have any va…
Comment linking /post/43849158813/this-is-how-block-size-limit-will-be-raised
on “Minimum Viable Block Chain”Submitted How to launder Bitcoins as a story · 175 points
HN discussionNote that blockchain is more than a currency, but it must contain a collectible within itself in order to be. New blocks will appear and will be backed by the maximum computing power only if miners are competing for the rare collectible that exists within the blockchain. Such collectible must tend to become a universally accepted money (i.e. most marketable commodity) to guarantee maximum amount of CPU time. If that…
Comment linking /post/54121516413/the-universe-wants-one-money
on “Minimum Viable Block Chain”Submitted Not a protocol fault: MtGox and transaction malleability as a story · 146 points
HN discussionSimply publish your fingerprint somewhere - then if anyone uses it to impersonate you, it won't matter. It's not quite the same with private keys because you can always generate some new keys and publicly revoke your key if it could have been compromised. Since you cannot regenerate your fingerprints and could have already lost them, simply revoke them up front. Edit: expanded on this in my blog: http://blog.oleganz…
Comment linking /post/60865284958/key-revocation-and-fingerprints
on “Apple Unveils The iPhone 5S”Submitted Direct use value of Bitcoin as a story · 90 points
HN discussion1. What exactly does MtGox prevent? I never used it, never relied on it and almost all of my friends don't care about MtGox. Yet all of us were able to buy, sell, trade and write software for Bitcoin without a problem. 2. Free market for me is about protection, not aggression. Bitcoin network is a free market in a sense that everyone's property is very cheap to protect and very expensive to extract. No matter what I…
Comment linking /post/71410377996/crypto-anarchy-does-not-require-anonymity
on “Why Mt. Gox is full of shit”Submitted Gitbox is 1 year old: status report as a story · 88 points
HN discussion"Money is a medium of exchange for wealth, it is not a store of wealth." Disagree. To be a medium of exchange, money must have "holding" value (because money does not circulate, but simply switches holders: http://blog.oleganza.com/post/43378777734/on-circulation-of-... ). The liquidity of money is in how many people want to hold it in their cash balances. The more people want it - the bigger value of the total supp…
Comment linking /post/43378777734/on-circulation-of-money
on “Money and wealth”Submitted Blind signatures for Bitcoin to secure BTC storage as a story · 66 points
HN discussionAll these arguments apply equally to gold. Also, gold was becoming a money slower because millions of market participants were not one click away from each other to figure out why is this new metal is any good and whether they should make a bet that it will become more and more useful as money. The truth about USD vs Bitcoin is that Bitcoins you can own and USD you cannot. http://blog.oleganza.com/post/67362431718/y…
Comment linking /post/67362431718/you-can-own-bitcoin-you-cant-own-your-dollars
on “Bitcoins: The Second Biggest Ponzi Scheme in History”Submitted Bitcoin Non-Technical FAQ as a story · 60 points
HN discussionYour last statement is circular. "Network effect in value transfer" exists only when there is "network effect in seeing value in BTC units". You can't transfer value before something has value. Also, act of transferring or fees does not generate value either. Bitcoin units are rare collectibles. Like gold coins or USD paper bills. They are scarce, hard to counterfeit and they are portable and fungible. They are easy…
Comment linking /post/54121516413/the-universe-wants-one-money
on “TorCoin”Submitted Crypto-anarchy does not require anonymity as a story · 43 points
HN discussionEveryone asks the same question. It does not matter if Coinbase or Expedia "sits" on BTC they receive. As long as there are people willing to sit on them, the price is going to stay the same. The price/liquidity of BTC depends not on who exactly sits on BTC, but on number of hands that own it. More hands -> more demand -> higher price and liquidity. See also this quote from Rothbard: http://blog.oleganza.com/post/43…
Comment linking /post/43378777734/on-circulation-of-money
on “Expedia Starts Accepting Bitcoin for Hotel Bookings”Submitted Bitcoin and Gold as a story · 41 points
HN discussionI have clarified my point in another comment already. It's not about who's better. It's about who's trying to experiment and rethink things. In developer tools team of the top-10 tech company you have a great combo: best hard-core engineers on the planet + little need to maintain cruft and worry about competition. Why not experiment and try to be better at what you do? Xcode 4 is this radical attempt to improve old…
Comment linking /post/18156593863/why-apple-products-are-well-designed-and-buggy
on “Visual Studio '11' Announced”Submitted Bitcoin vs. Gold as a story · 34 points
HN discussionIt is really a sad state of things that people misunderstand deflation. They have this idea that no one will spend, but it doesn't stand any scrutiny, really. Please read these articles, we made a real effort here to explain why deflation wouldn't be a bad thing: http://blog.oleganza.com/post/66215430631/deflationary-spira... http://snitko.ru/blog/the-beauty-of-deflation.html
Comment linking /post/66215430631/deflationary-spiral
on “Shopify accepts Bitcoin”Submitted You have no rights as a story · 18 points
HN discussionSo Nintendo was losing money why exactly? Because Japan was not printing money as fast as US? Maybe the problem is in printing money at all? Do you see a symmetry of products vs. money? Both are assets that some people need and some other want to give. If one is in deflation, then another is in inflation to another. Why don't you buy MacBook 2 years from now, when it'll cost the same, but will be more awesome? Becau…
Comment linking /post/66215430631/deflationary-spiral
on “Bitcoin Reaches 1000 USD”Submitted Original vision of Bitcoin as a story · 13 points
HN discussionMost of modern economics are bullshit promoting government meddling with money supply. No wonder "economic analysis" says Bitcoin is ridiculous. When you dismiss Bitcoin by saying it's only there while "people are still willing to buy/trade" you are missing important point. Ask yourself: why people are willing to hold it. Why people are willing to have any money at all: USD, gold, seashells. Are they stupid? Or mone…
Comment linking /post/43378777734/on-circulation-of-money
on “Bitcoin Reaches 1000 USD”Submitted Real crypto-anarchy as a story · 11 points
HN discussionFirst, it's you, not me who is talking big. I suggested (to another guy) fixed amounts to bet while you bet your unborn children. Second, who said Bitcoin must get some official stamp of approval from any government? People will use Bitcoin wether governments want it or not. And government will have to milk bitcoin economy, not USD economy. Third, Bitcoin is valuable precisely because there's "no escrow to trust mon…
Comment linking /
on “Bitcoin Reaches 1000 USD”Submitted Segregated witness VS block size increase as a story · 7 points
HN discussionNational currencies, gold, silver and other commodities used to hedge against USD, EUR, banks etc. Our whole global economy and lifestyle enjoyed by billions of people needs computers and electricity, otherwise we go back to middle ages. People want one money - most liquid, most used one. Gold does not fly, USD is politically controlled and restricted. Bitcoin weights zero and unrestricted by design. http://blog.ole…
Comment linking /post/54121516413/the-universe-wants-one-money
on “Bitcoin Reaches 1000 USD”Submitted Bitcoin is not compatible with the State as a story · 5 points
HN discussionMoney is valuable for "reservation demand". The more people want to hold it, the more useful it is to everyone. Only this way it can become a currency. You can't have currency without value and can't have value without holding and having many hands to hold. http://blog.oleganza.com/post/66953255676/transactional-curr... http://blog.oleganza.com/post/43378777734/on-circulation-of-...
Comment linking /post/43378777734/on-circulation-of-money
on “Bitcoin Reaches 1000 USD”Submitted Bitcoin ideas worth pursuing as a story · 4 points
HN discussion
