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Beyond the Bitcoin bubble

nytimes.com

31–40 of 244 posts

Re: Beyond the Bitcoin bubble

#31
post #5

I hope the technology matures beyond 'blockchain' and marketing drops the 'coin' moniker and the gold rush dies down. Cryptographically verified distributed log files should have negligible hype value and be hidden part of the infrastructure. I predict that 10 years from now normal relational databases have infrastructure for shared, authenticated and verified rows and columns and we laugh at the ICO era.

You are not seeing the whole picture and don't understand the goal of the "coin" in a "blockchain". I would strongly urge you to do some research so that you can make up your mind from a place of knowledge instead. http://github.com/jpantunes/awesome-cryptoeconomics

I tried some of the introductory stuff and even that is difficult for me. How about an ELIF of the goals of the coin?

Re: Beyond the Bitcoin bubble

#32

I am personally hoping we can survive the speculation craze and reach a point where we can use the block chain technology in revolutionary (or even evolutionary) ways. Since it’s tax time I can’t help but feel that the true long term danger to block chain technology isn’t draconian government regulation, it’s the IRS. For example I have a transaction earlier this year where I purchased some software for $15 BTC equiv…

Why should crypto currencies get special tax treatment?

Re: Beyond the Bitcoin bubble

#33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No I am not tired of keeping my uniformed friends scared and their money safe.

Well, I think it's more proper to inform and educate friends and people instead of scarring them. For me what SEC and regulators in majority of other countries are doing is scarring people (with all the warnings) - I'd find education more effective.

The SEC is warning people so they don't get scammed. Good for them.

Their actions aren't unwarranted because there's been a lot of scams. You're asking for an open market so that people can be defrauded.

Re: Beyond the Bitcoin bubble

#34
post #3

This was a necessary phase. Mass adoption couldn't have been achieved without the exponential price rise of various cryptocurrency tokens. There would not have been media coverage of this proportion, had it not been for the gains. People now talk cryptocurrency, read more about the underlying technology and accept that it will positively affect the industry in the upcoming future. I hope the market stabilizes and som…

It's only adoption when at least one of these is true:

a) people regularly trade it for goods or services

b) people stop caring about the conversion rate to their local plain old fiat money currency

a could greatly help b but it's not happening

Re: Beyond the Bitcoin bubble

#35

I am personally hoping we can survive the speculation craze and reach a point where we can use the block chain technology in revolutionary (or even evolutionary) ways. Since it’s tax time I can’t help but feel that the true long term danger to block chain technology isn’t draconian government regulation, it’s the IRS. For example I have a transaction earlier this year where I purchased some software for $15 BTC equiv…

You legitimately made gains on those coins though and in this country we currently have a capital gains tax.

What would you prefer? A loophole the size of a mountain for bartering appreciating assets? A special carve out for bitcoin? A removal of the capital gains tax (which would result in raising taxes for the poor or large deficits)?

The system works the way it does for rather decent reasons.

Re: Beyond the Bitcoin bubble

#36
post #5

I hope the technology matures beyond 'blockchain' and marketing drops the 'coin' moniker and the gold rush dies down. Cryptographically verified distributed log files should have negligible hype value and be hidden part of the infrastructure. I predict that 10 years from now normal relational databases have infrastructure for shared, authenticated and verified rows and columns and we laugh at the ICO era.

Hmmm. Good point, I too hope ten years down the line we laugh at the ICO era. But the 'coin' part is actually more than a moniker. It has provided a PoC that value can be proved and transferred digitally. I hope governments actually continue research in this space, while effectively regulating this speculative fad.

The 'coin part' already has a name and it's not a new innovation.

Large part of financial innovation in the last century is based on the idea that is now called coin. It's called derivative.

If you have something valuable that can be traded, it can be made into derivative and traded in existing markets. Practically anything, physical things, electricity, indexes, future events or prices, insurances, storage capacity, contracts, mortgages, price differences, ... only the sky is the limit.

New technological solutions can hopefully expand this existing trend but it's already very efficient.

Re: Beyond the Bitcoin bubble

#38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, I think it's more proper to inform and educate friends and people instead of scarring them. For me what SEC and regulators in majority of other countries are doing is scarring people (with all the warnings) - I'd find education more effective.

The SEC is warning people so they don't get scammed. Good for them. Their actions aren't unwarranted because there's been a lot of scams. You're asking for an open market so that people can be defrauded.

Not really, first of all when SEC warns it is usually when people already actually get scammed. Second - if my father kept telling me "son, don't go there" I wouldn't know why, and how to distinguish safe places from unsafe.

All I mean is that by scarring you don't protect people from being defrauded. And I wouldn't care if I'd like to see people being defrauded, but in fact I do care, and don't find the "scarring/warning approach" to be working.

Re: Beyond the Bitcoin bubble

#39
post #28
post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> People now talk cryptocurrency, read more about the underlying technology and accept that it will positively affect the industry in the upcoming future. Do they really though? I don't hear anyone outside of people who have actively bought into the cryptocurrency hype saying that it is going to have a positive affect on the industry. I hear a lot of people saying things like "it's a bubble" or that "the rules these…

Right, this. I think cryptocurrencies are here to stay. I'm not convinced that's actually going to "positively affect the industry in the upcoming future". I don't think cryptocurrencies are going to remove the need for some big middleman like Visa to sit between individual consumers and their partners. Things like reversible transactions and on-demand small loans are too attractive to the median consumer, so someone…

>Central banks have their issues, to be sure, but I'm pretty sure they're better than the huge boom & bust cycles they replaced.

Are you implying central banks are not cyclically prone to "booms and busts"?

Re: Beyond the Bitcoin bubble

#40

Is anyone else tired of hearing the word 'bubble' applied to everything? Whether we're talking about tech stocks, chicken futures, tulips, or Bitcoin, it's become a really tired and meaningless term. You can't know if an asset is in a 'bubble' until long after the bubble has burst. Bitcoin is far from having burst, so this article and all those that came before it offer nothing new or insightful. Please, let's move p…

We had the dot-com bubble, but it didn't stop the internet from changing everything in fundamental way. Google, Facebook and Amazon are in the top 10 most valuable companies in the world - all completely dependant on the internet for the business model. Granted webvan and pets.com didn't make it, but it didn't mean the internet had failed as an idea.
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