I was heavily involved with Bitcoin back when the spot price was in the single digits and the goto attack against it was "Only drug addicts and pedos use it!" My day to day involvement dropped off around the time that Wall Street started opening crypto trading desks and agitating for moating regulation - which was predictable but still sad to see... having written forex related software it was mind-blowing to see unregulated exchanges dumping full order book depth over websocket. So I've got a pretty long view on the whole thing, and it has always been my opinion that 99% of all the alt-coins were greed-fueled cash grabs targeting an even greedier and less-intelligent class of people who felt they "missed the boat" at $150, and then $300, $1k, etc. I was actually happy to ignore them for the longest time, until the Bcash airdrop started getting a lot of speculation with regard to the question of it being a taxable event or not. Anyway, a +10 year scam kinda stretches credulity... so no, the broader concept is not a scam. But that said, unless your employer is actually bringing something to the table besides a hard fork of the bitcoin reference source and fancy slide deck - you probably are involved in a destined-to-fail cash grab.
Ask HN: Does Anyone else working in a crypto company feel this is all a scam?
81–90 of 198 posts
Re: Ask HN: Does Anyone else working in a crypto company feel this is all a scam?
#82you don't think coins that are not used by anyone are increasing 1000x every year in value is justified? or that a reference to jpeg of a monkey hosted on centralized servers is not worth 10 million USD? Good Lord, such a boomer mindset!
Re: Ask HN: Does Anyone else working in a crypto company feel this is all a scam?
#83Genuine question, have you worked for any other startup over the last decade? The entire last decade was filled with the same questions, without the adjectives cryptocurrency or blockchain involved. It's all about excess liquidity, and of course it does laser focus on some industries. Good luck calling the top.
That is not true at all. Crypto stands alone in its ratio of effort and money invested to value produced. It has been around for so long, and almost nothing of actual use to society has come out of it. Other tech fads do not have this characteristic.
Re: Ask HN: Does Anyone else working in a crypto company feel this is all a scam?
#84Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm not biting the whole "thrive on what you like" SV mentra. The money is good, I dug my hole, and I'm fine. Just like with 2008, the problem wasn't CDO dogshit, but people with subprime credit rating buying large house with variable mortgage rate.
(1) You having money and being fine means you have the power to leave. (2) You cannot explain away 2008 as being the fault of the people who couldn't pay their mortgage. WTAF dude. What I'm getting from this is that you have wrapped yourself up in a nice blanket of ignorance and a nice comfy salary, and while you have come to the conclusion that the business you're engaging in is fraudulent, you've convinced yourself…
> you have come to the conclusion that the business you're engaging in is fraudulent [...] then you don't deserve any work in tech
I do believe the whole tech industry is nothing but a giant scam, selling snake oil at a premium. You are as much the problem as I am.
We very much live in a world where you are either the sheep or the wolf, and I ain't gonna be a sheep. I won't back down to bullies of your kind.
> I for one would never hire you.
At least, I don't pretend I'm gonna save the world from itself.
Re: Ask HN: Does Anyone else working in a crypto company feel this is all a scam?
#85I worked for one in DeFi on the Cardano ecosystem and I can say it is definitely a scam. But due to some paperwork I signed I can't (for now) tell who or which startup this is. They have been pulling all kinds of dirty marketing tricks while spending no time developing any actual product. I just look at the crowd that support this project and I am so so teribly disappointed and pitiful for them.
That's sad to hear. I actually worked on Cardano at IOHK and thought the community was great from my interaction with them.
So this is ironic, but from what I've seen, IOHK or Charles and this company went from liking each other to hating each other now. But Charles himself cannot call out the company.
Re: Ask HN: Does Anyone else working in a crypto company feel this is all a scam?
#86This is what it's like when a new investment sector starts up. The dotcom's start was very much the same. People were paid top dollar for simple web pages. And companies where promising that web pages were the solution to the world's problems. There were a lot of scams, a lot of speculation and eventually everything crashed and eventually there were a few profitable companies that delivered on their promises.
Yes, most crypto is speculative smoke and mirrors. Most companies will crash and burn but at some point something useful will survive.
My guess is that by 2028 most of the speculation will be over and the useful companies will be up and running. But who knows what those will be.
Re: Ask HN: Does Anyone else working in a crypto company feel this is all a scam?
#87Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm not biting the whole "thrive on what you like" SV mentra. The money is good, I dug my hole, and I'm fine. Just like with 2008, the problem wasn't CDO dogshit, but people with subprime credit rating buying large house with variable mortgage rate.
(1) You having money and being fine means you have the power to leave. (2) You cannot explain away 2008 as being the fault of the people who couldn't pay their mortgage. WTAF dude. What I'm getting from this is that you have wrapped yourself up in a nice blanket of ignorance and a nice comfy salary, and while you have come to the conclusion that the business you're engaging in is fraudulent, you've convinced yourself…
> (2) You cannot explain away 2008 as being the fault of the people who couldn't pay their mortgage. WTAF dude.
When you are subprime rated, you would have to be a complete moron to take a variable loan on you life. But sure, poor them, it's not their fault, it's the mean evil banker who gave them a tool to shoot themselves with ...
That the difference between you and me. I'm gonna give people the freedom to shoot themselves. You, well, you know better how each and every of them shall live there lives.
Remind me of ESR writing... http://www.catb.org/~esr/guns/gun-ethics.html
Do you even realize your own mentality ?
Re: Ask HN: Does Anyone else working in a crypto company feel this is all a scam?
#88Earlier quoted context omitted.
You don't list any so I'll bite, I guess. What "cryptocurrency" company isn't a "scam" as basically defined in the post?
How about AAVE and their Arc product specifically? https://www.fireblocks.com/blog/permissioned-defi-goes-live-... You've got a fully compliant (in terms of anti money laundering), whitelisted counterparties only, decentralized lending and borrowing platform that completely eliminates the friction of a typical corporate treasury banking experience. You deposit dollars, you earn yield in dollars. If you want exposure…
I see crypto as a guy had this beautiful idea that the little guy could topple big powerful banks, and then all that happened is powerful people will find a way to exploit it for more power.
Crypto is neither good nor bad, but people are.
Re: Ask HN: Does Anyone else working in a crypto company feel this is all a scam?
#89May I ask what kind of crypto company are you working for?
They do crypto-analytics. So we're not directly making/offering currencies or NFTs, but we profit off of companies that do. B2B.
Re: Ask HN: Does Anyone else working in a crypto company feel this is all a scam?
#90Genuine question, have you worked for any other startup over the last decade? The entire last decade was filled with the same questions, without the adjectives cryptocurrency or blockchain involved. It's all about excess liquidity, and of course it does laser focus on some industries. Good luck calling the top.
That is not true at all. Crypto stands alone in its ratio of effort and money invested to value produced. It has been around for so long, and almost nothing of actual use to society has come out of it. Other tech fads do not have this characteristic.
What exactly are you refuting?
Are you … assuming I’m going to make a strawman argument and discrediting it before it occurs? Strawception? Is that where these comments are coming from?