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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

#131

Post by ericd »

lz400 wrote: post #91
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…

Well, if a court makes you liable for some payment and you have eth assets, they will force you to liquidate and pay. They can't confiscate it but if you refuse you go to jail.

Ah, the old encryption vs. monkey wrench scenario. Never forget the monkey wrench.

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

#132

Post by MachinShinn- »

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…

>Many firms funded by ICOs (or soon to be) have qualified leaders and developers and are developing great ideas, but IMO many are also raising too much money for their own good.

No, there aren't. Real money has never been cheaper than it is now. Never in human history. USD, Euros, JPY, etc. Super cheaper. Low single digits to borrow. Anyone doing an 'ICO' is trying to cash out at your expense, big time.

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

#133

Post by the_cat_kittles »

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 resemble ponzi schemes in that you get in early and benefit as more people adopt it. further, like all fiat currency, there is no "underlying" value, so your success depends entirely on how many other people adopt it. so, to me, it does resemble a ponzi scheme. my guess is that you take issue with the connotation of that word, implying its a scam. i dont think it is, but i do think it resembles a ponzi scheme.

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

#134

Post by MachinShinn- »

wmf wrote: post #47
hendzen wrote: post #15

Someone should start WebVanCoin.

It's funny you should mention Webvan. In 1999 grocery delivery was a hot market, then in 2002 it was completely and obviously stupid, now in 2017 it's hot again. Cryptocurrency is a bubble now, but will the world change such that it actually makes sense in 20 years?

Its still obviously stupid. The difference this time is there is a new niche that places like Whole Foods serve. They're not in the 'food' business so much as the 'whole food / wellness' business.

These people will pay a premium that warrants delivery.

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

#135

Post by ThrustVectoring »

the_cat_kittles wrote: post #133
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 resemble ponzi schemes in that you get in early and benefit as more people adopt it. further, like all fiat currency, there is no "underlying" value, so your success depends entirely on how many other people adopt it. so, to me, it does resemble a ponzi scheme. my guess is that you take issue with the connotation of that word, implying its a scam. i dont think it is, but i do think it resembles a ponzi scheme.

Fiat currencies have underlying value. If you want to operate a steel mill in the US without getting arrested, you need to procure a certain quantity of US Dollars and remit it to the IRS. No, you can't pay your taxes with bitcoins. It has to be dollars. That's why the US Dollar has inherent value - you can redeem them for the right to operate a business in the US.

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

#136

Post by Pinckney »

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…

Has there ever been any successful privately issued non-backed non-crypto currency?

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

#137

Post by ashnyc »

ICO are the best thing that ever happened. This is no different then kickstarter.com started. People where saying the same things. People put up lot of BS project and they got funded, in time these kind of project will fail on there own. This is just the start, no government or bank would have supported such system. For once, the small guy can participate in this market. I would have loved to invest in amazon, facebook, etc when they where private. You had to have the connection and access .. here the little guy in columbia or Africa has the same access to such a deal

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

#138

Post by Jabanga »

vectorpush wrote: post #99
imaginenore wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can also convert to Bitcoin, then sell via localbitcoins.com. LocalEthereum.com is being developed too.

So the only option is to arrange an in-person meetup with a random stranger from the internet so that they can gouge me with a gigantic markup or just rob me. This sounds terrible even if I have no beef with the government, but totally absurd if I am actually trying to hide money from authorities; for all I know, the person I meet up with is a federal agent or works with them.

It's possible to create a self-executing contract on Ethereum that will automatically send a pre-agreed amount of ether when you make a pre-agreed online bank transfer. In other words, it's possible to have exchange between fiat currencies and cryptocurrency without any need for trust, except in relation to whatever risk there is for each counter-party to report the other for participating in that particular transaction.

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

#139

Post by BoiledCabbage »

Alex3917 wrote: post #124
peckrob wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Let me see if I can explain this better. 500 years ago was 1517. This is just a bit into the Age of Discovery. We hadn't even managed to sail all the way around the world yet (that wouldn't come until 1522). The Enlightenment was still a couple centuries away. Feudalism was still a thing, plagues still routinely struck. Absolute monarchs reigned over lands. Most people still lived on subsistence agriculture and would…

> it is the height of tech arrogance, not to mention a gross lack of awareness of history, to put a yet largely unproven technology that most of the human population has not even heard of on the same level as vaccinations I said 'economically important'. The couple years they add to our life expectancy is great, but vaccines weren't really associated with an enormous transfer of wealth on the same level as, say, the…

> Weren't really associated with an enormous transfer of wealth on the same level as, say, the railroads or the age of sail.

How do you predict wealth will transfer differently under blockchains than with usual state backed currencies. Not the literal (you don't need a bank), but societal?

If block chains were to completely replace US currency, but society used them exactly the same, then they wouldn't be a transformative tech. They'd need to change society economically to do that. How do you see it doing that?

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

#140

Post by BoiledCabbage »

RexetBlell wrote: post #64
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.

Gold isn't a "Ponzi scheme". Even if you believe that investing in gold makes no sense, and it's a useless metal with no practical purposes, and it's a bubble waiting to burst and so on, that still doesn't make it a Ponzi scheme.

Even if all of those beliefs above were true, it still wouldn't be a Ponzi scheme. As someone else posted in here, Ponzi Scheme has a fairly specific definition which "Gold" doesn't meet.

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