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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?

#341

Post by jsiepkes »

2rsf wrote: post #335
jsiepkes wrote: post #152

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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?

Up til 8 weeks the bank will just carry out the reversal without asking any questions. This is done by just pressing a button in your banking app.

After 8 weeks have passed you will indeed need to supply a reason.

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

#342

Post by giaour »

jagtesh wrote: post #332
giaour wrote: post #261

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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 netw…

In practice, blockchains tend to be extremely centralized without a deliberate effort to prevent them from becoming so. (Cf https://www.nber.org/papers/w29396) You can get around this in a permissioned blockchain with a minimum quorum size, but at that point, you're basically running a fancy git repository with a number of mirrors.

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

#343

Post by 2rsf »

jsiepkes wrote: post #341
2rsf wrote: post #335

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> you can revert such "charge" transactions ("incasso") up to 13 months after they happen. You probably need a reason to revert them?

Up til 8 weeks the bank will just carry out the reversal without asking any questions. This is done by just pressing a button in your banking app. After 8 weeks have passed you will indeed need to supply a reason.

but that won't save you from anything- you will get sued or dragged to debt collection

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

#344

Post by papito »

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…

Good man/woman :)

I understand that some people just need a job to pay rent, and we all need to be a little selfish, making decisions that are right for us, but tech employees have a choice.

You can afford to not work for a sector of tech that is involved in predation on the gullible, or harvesting and selling personal data for profit, or trying to "hack" your brain by developing "addictive" technologies.

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

#345

Post by papito »

bko wrote: post #207
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…

> Then I started to recognize that its predatory and actually not benign or harmless. It is taking advantage of people. Can't this be applied for most jobs in social media, advertising, lending and discretionary spending?

Absolutely. I vowed over a decade ago to never work for social media. The data is coming in, and boy, was that the right decision. I've read in the last year:

* An Ugly Truth

* The Coddling of the American Mind

* Stolen Focus

It is horrifying what this does to us.

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