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Easiest Path to Riches on the Web? An Initial Coin Offering

nytimes.com

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Re: Easiest Path to Riches on the Web? An Initial Coin Offering

#61

Post by xyzzy_plugh »

ransom1538 wrote: post #58

I have a fetish for watching complicated court cases play through. What you realize is a judge in a courtroom has a lot of power. They can take your money, freedom or even kids. However, if I had few hundred thousand in Ethereum encrypted placed into a few random anonymous git hub repros, well, the government can't take it. It is truly yours. No one can take it. That must be horrifying proposition for (some) governme…

And if you go hide a few million bucks in cash in the middle of a desert, they can't take it either.

The hard part has always been getting it out and not getting caught.

Nothing is truly yours.

Re: Easiest Path to Riches on the Web? An Initial Coin Offering

#62

Post by douche »

Alex3917 wrote: post #33
nodesocket wrote: post #4

I'm sorry but this is so absurd. They are doing the equivalent of printing their own monopoly money in the garage and then selling it for real currency... dollars.

Blockchain is perhaps the most economically important invention of the last 500 years. Right now the whole space is worth less than $100B, and it's going to be worth tens or hundreds of trillions of dollars. Obviously valuations have far outpaced the present usefulness of these technologies, but because the pie is so enormous it would be irrational not to overpay. Right now prices are too out-of-whack with reality so…

Blockchain is just another square on the enterprise bingo game. You know something has jumped the shark when IBM global services starts pushing it.

Re: Easiest Path to Riches on the Web? An Initial Coin Offering

#63

Post by douche »

35bge57dtjku wrote: post #60
nodesocket wrote: post #4

I'm sorry but this is so absurd. They are doing the equivalent of printing their own monopoly money in the garage and then selling it for real currency... dollars.

Anyone can make their own coupons. :)

It works for a while, until it crashes down, ala groupon

Re: Easiest Path to Riches on the Web? An Initial Coin Offering

#64

Post by RexetBlell »

mathieuuu wrote: post #38

I am amazed that in 2017, there is still people qualifying Bitcoin or Ethereum of ponzi schemes. Crypto currencies have a lot of problems (technical, economical, philosophical, ICO are insanes) but saying they are ponzi schemes is plain wrong. And it just takes 5 minutes of reading on Ponzi Schemes signs and basic knowledges of how those currencies work to understand why.

They are as much a Ponzi scheme as gold (which has almost no practical use) and ugly paintings that cost millions http://www.therichest.com/luxury/most-expensive/10-ugly-piec...

If expensive ugly paintings are not a Ponzi scheme, then cryptocurrencies are not a Ponzi scheme.

Re: Easiest Path to Riches on the Web? An Initial Coin Offering

#65

Post by xyzzy_plugh »

douche wrote: post #59
bluetwo wrote: post #42

200 years ago in the U.S. regional banks printed their own currency. The constitution does not create a common US currency, although we have been operating as if it does. Will a non-nation state be able to generate enough credibility to run their own currency that lasts a lifetime? I don't know be I think it's interesting to watch. And if they do, it may force central banks into a corner by limiting their ability to…

The British East India Company was able to do this; they issued their own currency at various times. I'm not sure we'll ever see a company with that kind of temporal power again, though.

Amazon Coins?

(I'm only half joking)

Re: Easiest Path to Riches on the Web? An Initial Coin Offering

#66

Post by ErikVandeWater »

lsadam0 wrote: post #34
nodesocket wrote: post #4

I'm sorry but this is so absurd. They are doing the equivalent of printing their own monopoly money in the garage and then selling it for real currency... dollars.

Absurdity of the action has no correlation to profitability of said action.

If that were true there would be no economy.

Re: Easiest Path to Riches on the Web? An Initial Coin Offering

#67

Post by Jabanga »

soup10 wrote: post #16
matt_wulfeck wrote: post #13

These crypto coin bubbles can't pop soon enough.

The problem is they will pop, and then come back. They are like a resilient strain of disease. Each time people lose faith in them they develop new ideas and arguments for why they are the future. They aren't the future, they are deeply flawed ponzi-schemes, this is obvious. But we better find out what the future is before they start converting the gullible masses to a currency that is less secure in many ways that i…

>They aren't the future, they are deeply flawed ponzi-schemes, this is obvious.

By definition, they are not ponzi schemes. None of your claims are obvious, and implying otherwise is disingenuous.

>But we better find out what the future is before they start converting the gullible masses to a currency that is less secure in many ways that is swept under the rug.

Ah yes the "gullible masses", and the wise men and women who know better.

How about we respect other people as adults who have a right to buy whatever they want with their own money and stop trying to treat them like sheep that need to be protected from their own gullibility. Your presumptions of knowing what's best for them, to the point where you'd like them to be denied the option of buying them, are extremely condescending.

Re: Easiest Path to Riches on the Web? An Initial Coin Offering

#68

Post by afeezaziz »

jamespitts wrote: post #45

I would like to make an appeal to the YC community: please reach out and help guide those involved in this rapidly advancing phenomenon. There is a huge amount of instantly-deployable capital in Ethereum and Bitcoin, held by individuals now seeking ways to put it to work. Many technologists will naturally make use of this energy, but so will BS artists and people under the influence of hubris. I am making this appeal…

I agree with this sentiment.

The sentiment on HN is that ICO promoters/startups are all scammer. My company, Pipeline Network is going to launch our ICO soon. We would be more than happy to get some guide/mentorship from the YC community.

Re: Easiest Path to Riches on the Web? An Initial Coin Offering

#69

Post by lettergram »

mathieuuu wrote: post #38

I am amazed that in 2017, there is still people qualifying Bitcoin or Ethereum of ponzi schemes. Crypto currencies have a lot of problems (technical, economical, philosophical, ICO are insanes) but saying they are ponzi schemes is plain wrong. And it just takes 5 minutes of reading on Ponzi Schemes signs and basic knowledges of how those currencies work to understand why.

To be fair, Ethereum looks like a scheme of some kind (not Ponzi necessarily). The vast majority of the ether is controlled by a single company, which is literally just selling it for money.

... I get the other advantages to Ethereum, but it's not Bitcoin where there is actually a distributed number of people managing it.

Re: Easiest Path to Riches on the Web? An Initial Coin Offering

#70

Post by ransom1538 »

xyzzy_plugh wrote: post #61
ransom1538 wrote: post #58

I have a fetish for watching complicated court cases play through. What you realize is a judge in a courtroom has a lot of power. They can take your money, freedom or even kids. However, if I had few hundred thousand in Ethereum encrypted placed into a few random anonymous git hub repros, well, the government can't take it. It is truly yours. No one can take it. That must be horrifying proposition for (some) governme…

And if you go hide a few million bucks in cash in the middle of a desert, they can't take it either. The hard part has always been getting it out and not getting caught. Nothing is truly yours.

You can trade for goods or services with your coins. You cannot trade for anything with cash dug in the desert. Cash is confiscated daily by authorities.
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