Chatter Report: Luke Says Segwit Harmful to BTC, Baker Explains Stablecoin Regulation

In today’s roundup of crypto chatter, Luke Dash Jr. voices concerns that segwit is bad for BTC because it leads to centralization. Also, Brad Mills shares his insight after using Cointext. Lastly, Lawson Baker, Blake Moore and Andreas Brekken discuss how regulation affects stablecoins.

Also read: Bitcoin and Market-Related Headlines Dominated Crypto News Coverage in 2018

Luke Dash Jr. Reminds Users Not to Use Segwit

Bitcoin Core developer Luke Dash Jr. took to Twitter recently to remind users not to use segwit for non-lightning wallets. Luke argued that segwit adds to the growing centralization of BTC because it enables larger blocks.

As a reminder, you should NOT use #Segwit for non-Lightning wallets. It is harmful to #Bitcoin by enabling larger blocks and increasing the growing rate of centralisation. (This *includes* Bech32 addresses! Try to use 1xxx or 3xxx addresses you're sure are not Segwit)

— Luke Dashjr (@LukeDashjr) January 17, 2019

However, he did say users who have their long-term savings in BTC can use segwit in a couple of years because it will probably be on lightning. Also in the same thread, Luke explained that segwit is dangerous because of sync times, and not because of the possibility of theft.

Brad Mills Shares Insights on Cointext

BTC maximalist Brad Mills recently posted his thoughts on the crypto sms service provider Cointext. Mills had a positive user experience of sending his own grandmother $5 in BTC using Cointext.

1/ The only interesting service to come out of bcash was @CoinText

This SMS crypto payment service was so good it got me to use BCH multiple times.

After a year of pleading, they now support Bitcoin

I texted my grandmother $5 in BTC

This is a great marketing tool pic.twitter.com/yVA01Z95wJ

— Brad Mills [Feb/3] (@bradmillscan) January 17, 2019

Since Mill’s Cointext transaction had cost $0.04 in fees, he argued that BTC can now compete with BCH as a method of payment again. However, Mills did point out that BTC transaction fees will eventually rise and make it difficult to use BTC on Cointext. Thus, users should only keep small amounts of BTC on Cointext.

Mills also pointed out additional dangers associated with Cointext, like Cointext losing their sms gateway relationships and sim swapping. The former situation will make it difficult for Cointext users to withdraw their BTC, while the latter means users will lose their funds.

Lawson Baker, Blake Moore and Andreas Brekken Discuss Stablecoins

Tokensoft’s head of special projects Lawson Baker, Bitcoin.com e-commerce manager Blake Moore and Shitcoin.com CEO Andreas Brekken recently had a thorough discussion on stablecoins. Their discussion was posted as a two part video series on the Shitcoin.com Youtube channel.

One of the interesting points they touched on, was the way regulations work for stablecoins like USDT or USDC. Baker explained that the entities that design stablecoins backed by U.S. dollars need to follow the laws and jurisdiction of the U.S. federal government, Fincen and the Treasury. Thus, the companies that design stablecoins have to make sure their users can’t send money to certain countries or certain people in these countries and they are supposed to know where their stablecoins are at all times.

What do you think of Luke’s advice to not use segwit? Let us know in the comments below.

Images courtesy of Shutterstock.

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