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Ask HN: A good primer on cryptocurrencies?

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Re: Ask HN: A good primer on cryptocurrencies?

#61

Post by [deleted] »

haburka wrote: post #59
fzaninotto wrote: post #36

I wrote a three-part study on the Blockchain phenomenon a year ago, based on real experience with Ethereum. It's intended for web developers. It ends with an unusual conclusion. - https://marmelab.com/blog/2016/04/28/blockchain-for-web-deve... - https://marmelab.com/blog/2016/05/20/blockchain-for-web-deve... - https://marmelab.com/blog/2016/06/14/blockchain-for-web-deve...

Just read that whole series. I appreciate the time and effort you into writing that up. I feel like most of your complaints were valid and boiled down to, "Etherium is too new" and "as a honest person, I get no benefit to using it". Block chain is set up to be no trust so unless you're working with people who you can't trust, you shouldn't use it. The other main reason is that you want to avoid banks and government,…

[deleted]

Re: Ask HN: A good primer on cryptocurrencies?

#63

Post by haburka »

thedarkproject wrote: post #60
haburka wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just read that whole series. I appreciate the time and effort you into writing that up. I feel like most of your complaints were valid and boiled down to, "Etherium is too new" and "as a honest person, I get no benefit to using it". Block chain is set up to be no trust so unless you're working with people who you can't trust, you shouldn't use it. The other main reason is that you want to avoid banks and government,…

> The other main reason is that you want to avoid banks and government, which is certainly a smell that you may be a criminal. These benefits aren't for people who are honest. It is saddening that this argument is used even on HN. That's equivalent to the old "You don't need privacy if you got nothing to hide". Examples as in Cyprus [1] prove that you should always be careful when trusting banks or any centralized sy…

It's not at all like "you don't need privacy if you've got nothing to hide."

It's more like "don't install that library, we can just write a 10 line function." Someone who doesn't want to avoid the law is not going to get any of the benefits of using a cryptocurrency. It's a solution where the main use case is enabling people to make currency transactions outside the jurisdiction of banks.

I think there are some good use cases for it, like if a currency is unreliable due to corrupt government or inflation. However, the people who get the most use out of it is certainly ransom ware coders, people who distribute illicit goods like drugs and child pornography and finally libertarians that want to make themselves sound clever at a party.

Re: Ask HN: A good primer on cryptocurrencies?

#64

Post by rboyd »

haburka wrote: post #59
fzaninotto wrote: post #36

I wrote a three-part study on the Blockchain phenomenon a year ago, based on real experience with Ethereum. It's intended for web developers. It ends with an unusual conclusion. - https://marmelab.com/blog/2016/04/28/blockchain-for-web-deve... - https://marmelab.com/blog/2016/05/20/blockchain-for-web-deve... - https://marmelab.com/blog/2016/06/14/blockchain-for-web-deve...

Just read that whole series. I appreciate the time and effort you into writing that up. I feel like most of your complaints were valid and boiled down to, "Etherium is too new" and "as a honest person, I get no benefit to using it". Block chain is set up to be no trust so unless you're working with people who you can't trust, you shouldn't use it. The other main reason is that you want to avoid banks and government,…

let's think deeper. trustless processes can be hugely beneficial. ever buy a domain name on aftermarket? you either have to trust the seller or a counterparty/escrow service. ENS is live today and a deed can be sold under smart contract.

also see numerai's pure business model for incentivizing an entire organization.

or defeat tyrannical censorship by proving knowledge/hashing content with a timestamp. no more re-writing history.

HN I am disappoint.

Re: Ask HN: A good primer on cryptocurrencies?

#65

Post by sunshiney »

haburka wrote: post #63
thedarkproject wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The other main reason is that you want to avoid banks and government, which is certainly a smell that you may be a criminal. These benefits aren't for people who are honest. It is saddening that this argument is used even on HN. That's equivalent to the old "You don't need privacy if you got nothing to hide". Examples as in Cyprus [1] prove that you should always be careful when trusting banks or any centralized sy…

It's not at all like "you don't need privacy if you've got nothing to hide." It's more like "don't install that library, we can just write a 10 line function." Someone who doesn't want to avoid the law is not going to get any of the benefits of using a cryptocurrency. It's a solution where the main use case is enabling people to make currency transactions outside the jurisdiction of banks. I think there are some good…

Do you own a business? Or..have you? Are you familiar with the advantages for legal and ethical businesses from blockchain?

Re: Ask HN: A good primer on cryptocurrencies?

#67

Post by Rmilb »

ktta wrote: post #39

To really understand cryptocurrencies, you must understand Bitcoin. Not just its inner workings but where it came from and how it became what it is today. The rest of the cryptocurrencies are only hoping to gain Bitcoin's popularity (which Ethereum is getting close to) that it maintained for nearly a decade. Back in the day the following links helped me understand bitcoin: http://www.michaelnielsen.org/ddi/how-the-bi…

Don't forget that it is not just the technical details that give it value, also the cryptoeconomic incentives that make it possible for a group of self interested miners to provide a network users can trust.

Re: Ask HN: A good primer on cryptocurrencies?

#69

Post by abglassman »

corv wrote: post #24

Andreas Antonopoulos' 'Mastering Bitcoin' book. In my opinion the best technical resource on Bitcoin. https://www.bitcoinbook.info His book on Ethereum is still work-in-progress.

Seconded, big time. Blockchain was a hand-wavy haze for me until I got my hands on this book. As a programmer it's frustrating to read most high-level summaries of cryptocurrency/blockchain because they are often geared to a general audience and raise more technical questions than they answer - not so in "Mastering Bitcoin." The author does an impressive job of creating motivating scenarios before diving into concrete details. The chapters are well-sequenced but they stand up well to a bit of jumping around as your curiosity takes you in different directions. I thought this book was a real pedagogical achievement.

I'm looking forward to his book on Ethereum. In the meantime, Chris Dannen's "Introducing Ethereum and Solidity" is helping me to get a good grasp.

Re: Ask HN: A good primer on cryptocurrencies?

#70

Post by tbugrara »

haburka wrote: post #63
thedarkproject wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The other main reason is that you want to avoid banks and government, which is certainly a smell that you may be a criminal. These benefits aren't for people who are honest. It is saddening that this argument is used even on HN. That's equivalent to the old "You don't need privacy if you got nothing to hide". Examples as in Cyprus [1] prove that you should always be careful when trusting banks or any centralized sy…

It's not at all like "you don't need privacy if you've got nothing to hide." It's more like "don't install that library, we can just write a 10 line function." Someone who doesn't want to avoid the law is not going to get any of the benefits of using a cryptocurrency. It's a solution where the main use case is enabling people to make currency transactions outside the jurisdiction of banks. I think there are some good…

The biggest benefit is precisely to make transactions outside of banks and governments because although they may be trusted now, there is no guarantee they will be in the future. And we collect money just to prepare for the future. Yes, if I was honest, governments were honest, banks were honest, and thieves were honest, decentralized currencies wouldn't be important.

> and finally libertarians that want to make themselves sound clever at a party

Even mentioning something like this gives me the impression you just sound bitter about cryptocurrencies in general

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