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Ask HN: Feel bad about working in crypto, what to do?

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Re: Ask HN: Feel bad about working in crypto, what to do?

#331

Post by bratwurst3000 »

charcircuit wrote: post #297
bratwurst3000 wrote: post #238

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If the people who work there have the power to make it good … why didnt they do it the last 20 Years. Insted the collectivly build one of the worst side of internet

Can you describe what makes you think it's one of the worst sides of the internet? I get immense utility from Google's services using mostly free services. All of these free awesome stuff makes it one of the best sides of the internet for me.

It was more facebook. But google sucks also. You are just selling your data for a service that would cost you 10 bucks a month. And google is pushing there internet standard instead of gnu or free ones. And google has also a adnetwork that has the same harm potential as facebook … only a little less worse

Edit: youtube is a win for me and i use it a lot … but its the same. I give data away that I dont want to share. I would rather pay for services than pay with data

Re: Ask HN: Feel bad about working in crypto, what to do?

#332

Post by jagtesh »

giaour wrote: post #261
jagtesh wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The above commentator didn’t pretend to know anything. It’s an honest question and they asked with utmost humility. Here’s the question: what’s stopping a significant adoption of blockchain technology from a _business perspective_. I have my own take on this. It could be the increasing cost of transactions (in practice). Not indifferent from your current day financial systems, as we have inflation that causes costs t…

> I’ve heard about governments considering using blockchain based tech to thwart internal corruption (immutable public records FTW). During my time in government, shady contractors pitching blockchain to solve literally every problem was so common and so preposterous that it quickly became a meme. "Immuatble public records" was a common claim, but "blockchain" isn't fundamentally different from a git repository in th…

You’re on point except for one big difference: a block chain is distributed.

I don’t think it is foolproof, as no tech really is. But the concept seems to significantly raise the cost and complexity of an attack to compromise it.

The simplest way I can imagine doing it is - spoofing network requests from the party trying to verify something, or routing that request to a compromised node. I will make a guess that networking equipment in a govt. setting can protect against a low level attack.

Disclaimer: I take a passive interest in this space but have never studied or implemented a block-chain application.

Re: Ask HN: Feel bad about working in crypto, what to do?

#333

Post by tgv »

charcircuit wrote: post #294
tgv wrote: post #204

Earlier quoted context omitted.

“If there was no positive impact people would simply abandon meth.”

Yes, if there was no positive impact then basically no one new would start using meth and the meth user population would eventually die out. If you had an addictive drug and all it did was make all your teeth fall out with no extra side effects almost no one would take it. While yes, Meth is dangerous and addictive I don't think what Google and Facebook are doing is bad. How is Google giving people access to the worl…

> If you had an addictive drug and all it did was make all your teeth fall out with no extra side effects almost no one would take it.

I can't help but notice that you dropped "positive" here, and I can only assume it's on purpose, as otherwise your argument would like quite silly. People using something does not mean it's positive. The list doesn't really stop at meth.

Re: Ask HN: Feel bad about working in crypto, what to do?

#334

Post by 2rsf »

wild-eep wrote: post #31

I left earlier this year, and worked in the space for a couple of years. I started with a neutral position on crypto, I didn't even think about it much. More like, its easy and pays well. But if people want to waste their money on tokens, go for it, but its not my cup of tea. Then I started to recognize that its predatory and actually not benign or harmless. It is taking advantage of people. It started to become gros…

> It is taking advantage of people

I also don't find crypto very useful but how does it take advantage of people? do companies developing for crypto gain from someone using their services?

Re: Ask HN: Feel bad about working in crypto, what to do?

#335

Post by 2rsf »

jsiepkes wrote: post #152
Simon_O_Rourke wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Had similar experience when I was out working in Berlin. I had a gym membership in one part of the city (paid up 12 months in advance in cash). Moved to a different part of the city and didn't go back. Fast forward about six months, two bald headed goons came knocking at my old address looking for me, with a 1850 euro bill. Gym membership for the next year plus a 900 euro service charge because I hadn't written a let…

> if I'd given them a bank account the full amount would have been charged straight away, with no comeback Can they do that in Germany? In the Netherlands you can revert such "charge" transactions ("incasso") up to 13 months after they happen. Also, over here every subscription becomes monthly cancelable after the first year.

> you can revert such "charge" transactions ("incasso") up to 13 months after they happen.

You probably need a reason to revert them?

Re: Ask HN: Feel bad about working in crypto, what to do?

#336

Post by 2rsf »

Simon_O_Rourke wrote: post #116
latchkey wrote: post #63

I've been in crypto since 2014. I just had the California Franchise Tax Board literally steal money out of a bank account of mine without any warning or notice. They left $0.01 in there and charged a $125 fee. I found out today they are claiming I owe taxes from when I wasn't even living in the country (and I was paying taxes then too!). In 2021/2022, I paid more taxes than I ever have in my life. I even over paid ju…

Had similar experience when I was out working in Berlin. I had a gym membership in one part of the city (paid up 12 months in advance in cash). Moved to a different part of the city and didn't go back. Fast forward about six months, two bald headed goons came knocking at my old address looking for me, with a 1850 euro bill. Gym membership for the next year plus a 900 euro service charge because I hadn't written a let…

> because I hadn't written a letter starting my intention not to renew by 90 days of the time of an automatic roll over.

No, it's because you signed a contract (scammy or not) and didn't follow its terms. You wouldn't want someone to do that to a service you provide.

Re: Ask HN: Feel bad about working in crypto, what to do?

#337

Post by 2rsf »

olalonde wrote: post #72
latchkey wrote: post #63

I've been in crypto since 2014. I just had the California Franchise Tax Board literally steal money out of a bank account of mine without any warning or notice. They left $0.01 in there and charged a $125 fee. I found out today they are claiming I owe taxes from when I wasn't even living in the country (and I was paying taxes then too!). In 2021/2022, I paid more taxes than I ever have in my life. I even over paid ju…

There are a lot of stories like this. There are also a lot of unbanked people (1.7 billion worldwide). People who fail to see the value in Bitcoin/crypto often are not aware of those very real problems people are facing. Traditional banking is great so long as you are on the happy path.

1.7 billion unbanked people for what reason? a software engineer in Sweden is not the same as a farmer in Bangladesh or a goldsmith in Syria.

Crypto is also great as long as it is great...

Re: Ask HN: Feel bad about working in crypto, what to do?

#338

Post by mancerayder »

isbvhodnvemrwvn wrote: post #288
mancerayder wrote: post #265

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Nah. This line of reasoning excuses any activity one might be involved with because "it's just my job". This comes off as financially entitled, like there aren't pressures around rent and life expenses that take precedence in decisions around employment. Either you've taken a vow of not caring about money, or you already have enough (and assets) not to care, or you're naive about a uniquely lucky time we lived in wh…

Software engineering jobs are extremely cushy. You are not working in an Amazon warehouse to make the ends meet.

They are when you're 30 years old in a boom market. The fact that people act like unemployment is impossible suggests no one was an adult during 2001-3. That means you know neither age discrimination nor recession.

Ah, the idealism of youth.

Re: Ask HN: Feel bad about working in crypto, what to do?

#339

Post by ahahahahah »

latchkey wrote: post #84
olalonde wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are a lot of stories like this. There are also a lot of unbanked people (1.7 billion worldwide). People who fail to see the value in Bitcoin/crypto often are not aware of those very real problems people are facing. Traditional banking is great so long as you are on the happy path.

In northern Vietnam, where I've done extensive travel, to this day, women store their meager wealth in gold fillings because that is the only place where they can put it and not have it stolen from them. There is no bank where they can deposit funds and even if there was, the Vietnam govt's version of FDIC is like $2k. Amazingly, they also have smart phones and the government has put 4G towers through the whole count…

> the Vietnam govt's version of FDIC is like $2k.

So, like 8 years salary? That's significantly better than in the USA, I don't think it's making the point that you think it is.

Re: Ask HN: Feel bad about working in crypto, what to do?

#340

Post by pyinstallwoes »

lilsoso wrote: post #315
pyinstallwoes wrote: post #295

Earlier quoted context omitted.

All of those things are contingent on perfect scenarios. As in, bug free contracts; which not to even mention the human willful engineering part of manipulating trust. Many people confuse permission and trust. The things you outline are optimistic visions for what cryptocurrencies can offer as an alternative to the "root" financial system; however it is certainly not better in every case, and only maybe better in som…

You've essentially responded with the statement that all software has bugs: "every piece of software ever written and every piece of hardware ever built has bugs and has been hacked". The person you're responding to provided a number of cogent points. To take the bad faith interpretation of your argument we'd never use computers or online banking.

They break. Humans fix it. Nobody can fix broken hacked contracts and act as intermediaries to solve issue. 3 party responsibility is key for stability.
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