A wise man told me that ANY change to the tax code to help the "average" guy always results in his paying increased taxes. The adoption of cryptocurrency to help the "average" guy is governed by the same principle.
Ask HN: What real world problem does cryptocurrency solve?
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Re: Ask HN: What real world problem does cryptocurrency solve?
#12Early(ish) adopter here(circa 2013): initially it was a way for nerds who didn’t have street connections to buy drugs. Then it morphed into the biggest, most decentralized multi-level marketing speculative asset class in the history of the world. The narrative behind crypto reminds me a lot of gold bugs who rave on and on and on about how defective the existing fiat monetary system is , in hopes to push up the fiat p…
> Early(ish) adopter here(circa 2013): initially it was a way for nerds who didn’t have street connections to buy drugs.
You are making assumptions.
It might have been your motivation back then.
It most certainly wasn't the motivation for many people I know in the space.
I was introduced to bitcoin by someone who was also promoting this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2nBPN-MKefA
and the interest I developed for it was both because the tech. was interesting and new and it resonated with my political sensibilities.
Strictly nothing to do with drugs.
Re: Ask HN: What real world problem does cryptocurrency solve?
#13The mining process for money used to be digging $Symbol out the ground: gold, silver, oil.
Towards the end of the last millennium we ditched that standard and let central banks juggle the pools from which money is derived.
I always liked how Bitcoin went back to the mining principle: a scarce resource that is hard to produce being used as an intermediary for the exchange of goods.
The ultimate reduction of this, for me, is to base mining purely off of time. Every citizen is given a certain number of tokens per day — the same for everyone — because in the end, time is all we have in the mortal world.
I don’t know how to square that off with cryptocurrency in its current form (the rich get richer — those with lots of electricity run the mines.) Maybe there’s a future for my proof of life coin?
It’s abstract, but the usefulness in the current cryptocurrency whirl is in making me even think this might be possible. If Bitcoin is Perl 4, then what instruments will be the equivalent of Go?
Re: Ask HN: What real world problem does cryptocurrency solve?
#14Have you ever been through a contentious divorce? Specifically one where the other party is laying claim to assets you earned? In these type situations, an asset that: 1) no one knows you own 2) even if people know you own them, can't be seized short of torturing you to regurgitate the password 3) can be transferred to any person of your choosing and in any jurisdiction of your choosing in a matter of minutes. seems…
For all practical purposes crypto is just another asset class, that gets taxed on capital gains and is registered with centralised exchanges - so 1. Just doesn’t exist for pretty much all practical purposes
Re: Ask HN: What real world problem does cryptocurrency solve?
#15A decentralized ledger that does not require government input. No government can mint more crypto due to awful monetary policy. Also, no, money laundering is not possible on most chains since all transactions are public.
> Also, no, money laundering is not possible on most chains since all transactions are public.
Citation needed — as far as I know there are cryptocurrencies where this is not the stated goal. Also public does not equal no money laundering, because the transactions are at least pseudonymized.
Dubious sales on the darknet were literally the real world problem that made cryptocurrencies what they are today.
Re: Ask HN: What real world problem does cryptocurrency solve?
#16- The currency of my country is collapsing, I need to buy something which has a value unconnected to my country.
- My country imposes export controls on foreign currency. I want to move my money out of my country.
- I am unbanked and want to buy a good or service on the internet.
- I do not trust the counterparty that I am dealing with on the internet. Using cryptocurrency means that my maximum loss is the vavlu of the transaction (I don't have to give credit card or banking info)
- My government wants to seize my assets, I want to make it difficult.
- I want to send money back home to my family. Currently the only option is Western Union which is charging 20% commission. Cryptocurrency results in less than 1% commission.
- I've lost my phone and wallet, I can still get cash from a bitoin ATM using the crypto I'm storing in my brain.
Re: Ask HN: What real world problem does cryptocurrency solve?
#17Bitcoin today is mainly seen by its investors as a store of value. The closest real-world asset would be gold, which is arguably even less ecologically friendly.
Re: Ask HN: What real world problem does cryptocurrency solve?
#18Bitcoin eliminates the need for trust during monetary transactions while backstopping central bank monetary policy. Is a big deal.
Re: Ask HN: What real world problem does cryptocurrency solve?
#19No post body was provided.
Re: Ask HN: What real world problem does cryptocurrency solve?
#20Early(ish) adopter here(circa 2013): initially it was a way for nerds who didn’t have street connections to buy drugs. Then it morphed into the biggest, most decentralized multi-level marketing speculative asset class in the history of the world. The narrative behind crypto reminds me a lot of gold bugs who rave on and on and on about how defective the existing fiat monetary system is , in hopes to push up the fiat p…
> Early(ish) adopter here(circa 2013): initially it was a way for nerds who didn’t have street connections to buy drugs. You are making assumptions. It might have been your motivation back then. It most certainly wasn't the motivation for many people I know in the space. I was introduced to bitcoin by someone who was also promoting this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2nBPN-MKefA and the interest I developed for it…
I’ve actually outlined both réal-life use cases: 1- initially anonymous online payment (we all know how that went), and 2- fringe -let’s - change - this - corrupt - system types who also would like to get rich doing it (by definition if you want to change a political economy system it’s for you to come out on top on the other end).
What other real world use case has there been for crypto so far that’s actually 1-useful and 2-adoptable ?