Ask HN: Where is there so much cryptocurrency skepticism on HN? • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: Where is there so much cryptocurrency skepticism on HN?

#11

Post by Someone » Wed, Aug 23, 2017, 1:27 PM UTC

rloomba wrote: post #10

Nokinside wrote: post #4

There in nothing wrong with block-chain technology. It's good idea that will find uses. The reason why I would came out at skeptic is because its proponents are full of shit, political and naive to the extreme and they are against government by default. Alternatively they are cynical businessmen riding with hype. Proponents can't distinguish different roles of money. They have never heard of basic things like: optima…

These are the types of comments I'm referring to, why all the hate and assuming proponents of blockchain are full of shit? Were people this skeptical in the late 90's when the internet was coming to fruition? >Proponents can't distinguish different roles of money I'm pretty naive to this stuff, but you just listed a bunch of terms I easily googled in 2 minutes and now have a rudimentary understanding of. Sure there a…

I think/guess he means that many vocal blockchain proponents are naive w.r.t. the 'decentralized' part, implying it would mean 'no government intervention'.

Gold is extremely decentralized. You can't know how much I own of it. Yet, governments started taxing it, so they had to track ownership (however crudely).

Paper money started out decentralized as bank notes (basically IOUs stating 'this piece of paper can be exchanged for G grams of gold at bank B'). Yet, governments started taxing it, so they had to track ownership, in the end making centralized institutions that govern how much paper money is made.

I don't see any reason why blockchain wouldn't go the same way (income in bitcoin already is taxed in quite a few countries, AFAIK; it just is hard to track)

Quite a few vocal proponents advocated the idea that bitcoin could solve (¿perceived or real?) social problems with technology. That's naive.

Re: Ask HN: Where is there so much cryptocurrency skepticism on HN?

#12

Post by wu-ikkyu » Wed, Aug 23, 2017, 1:29 PM UTC

rloomba wrote: post #10

Nokinside wrote: post #4

There in nothing wrong with block-chain technology. It's good idea that will find uses. The reason why I would came out at skeptic is because its proponents are full of shit, political and naive to the extreme and they are against government by default. Alternatively they are cynical businessmen riding with hype. Proponents can't distinguish different roles of money. They have never heard of basic things like: optima…

These are the types of comments I'm referring to, why all the hate and assuming proponents of blockchain are full of shit? Were people this skeptical in the late 90's when the internet was coming to fruition? >Proponents can't distinguish different roles of money I'm pretty naive to this stuff, but you just listed a bunch of terms I easily googled in 2 minutes and now have a rudimentary understanding of. Sure there a…

Perhaps it is the anti-authoritarian ideological foundations of Bitcoin that triggers much of the animosity, as GP evidences:

>its proponents are full of shit, political and naive to the extreme and they are against government by default.

It is the "faith" or confidence that many people have in their government which gives psychological stability to their respective fiat currency, and Bitcoin threatens that faith

Re: Ask HN: Where is there so much cryptocurrency skepticism on HN?

#13

Post by impendia » Wed, Aug 23, 2017, 1:45 PM UTC

I don't describe cryptocurrency as a "scam" or "greed". Indeed, I find the whole subject fascinating.

But, as to where skepticism comes from -- these so-called "coins" have been conjured out of thin air, are not backed up by anything or anyone, and have no intrinsic value. And yet somehow they have become worth over $100 billion.

Perhaps one or more cryptocurrencies will indeed emerge as a long-term store of value. But I think that skepticism is a quite natural reaction.

Re: Ask HN: Where is there so much cryptocurrency skepticism on HN?

#14

Post by rloomba » Wed, Aug 23, 2017, 4:34 PM UTC

wu-ikkyu wrote: post #12

rloomba wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

These are the types of comments I'm referring to, why all the hate and assuming proponents of blockchain are full of shit? Were people this skeptical in the late 90's when the internet was coming to fruition? >Proponents can't distinguish different roles of money I'm pretty naive to this stuff, but you just listed a bunch of terms I easily googled in 2 minutes and now have a rudimentary understanding of. Sure there a…

Perhaps it is the anti-authoritarian ideological foundations of Bitcoin that triggers much of the animosity, as GP evidences: >its proponents are full of shit, political and naive to the extreme and they are against government by default. It is the "faith" or confidence that many people have in their government which gives psychological stability to their respective fiat currency, and Bitcoin threatens that faith

>It is the "faith" or confidence that many people have in their government which gives psychological stability to their respective fiat currency, and Bitcoin threatens that faith

Appreciate that comment, I think a lot of this crypto does threaten the status quo, which makes people a bit uncomfortable.

Re: Ask HN: Where is there so much cryptocurrency skepticism on HN?

#15

Post by SirLJ » Wed, Aug 23, 2017, 4:56 PM UTC

Some people lived trough the dot com bubble...

And the dotcom bubble was better, because at least the stocks had liquidity and were traded on established stock markets...

Missing on bitcoin is equal on missing on the power ball for me...

Basically I don't see anything in the crypto world yet, one day maybe when the technology is mature and real shares are traded on real stock exchanges, but right now, no thanks!

Re: Ask HN: Where is there so much cryptocurrency skepticism on HN?

#16

Post by ccdev » Thu, Aug 24, 2017, 11:00 PM UTC

PaulHoule wrote: post #3

A little more than a year ago I went to a conference on blockchains. [it makes my blood boil how IBM has gotten people to say "cloud", "blockchain", etc. Even people who think IBM is pants will still talk like babies when these subjects come around] One clear thing to me was that Ethereum had no security story. Well, it has a story for the security of the base challenge, an actually interesting story that if you have…

I believe Bitcoin can't reach a critical mass in adoption unless a ton of companies offer it as a compensation option to their employees. That is the most effective way to get Bitcoin into the hands of many people. If it is a currency, it should become more straightforward to work for. Right now, most "get paid in Bitcoin" jobs are for short-term freelance gigs. There are a some companies that do offer Bitcoin as an option, but they are still very far and few.