Turning Down a Blockchain Job Offer • Hacker News Board

Re: Turning Down a Blockchain Job Offer

#111

Post by ecuzzillo » Mon, Jan 22, 2018, 6:34 PM UTC

tlb wrote: post #8

In the US, the financial system is about 10% of GDP. (The number depends on your definitions of financial system, US, GDP, and "is"). It also consumes vast amounts of resources ranging from gasoline to drive mortgage brokers to and from work, to the cost of mailing out free low-introductory rate credit cards. It's a fair criticism of Bitcoin that it uses a lot of energy, but it's hard to predict whether it will ultim…

Is there some evidence that it would actually replace any of the existing financial system, rather than just adding yet another venue for speculation and manipulation?

Re: Turning Down a Blockchain Job Offer

#112

Post by mikestew » Mon, Jan 22, 2018, 6:34 PM UTC

ChrisLomont wrote: post #61

nemild wrote: post #24

The danger in a space like this is throwing the baby out with the bath water. - Yes, there are an insane amount of scams, and lots of dumb money flowing in - Yes, many use cases of blockchains should really be databases - Yes, many blockchain job posts are just PR initiatives for companies who want to differentiate themselves That said, it's an early time to have a tremendous amount of impact. Don't like "proof of wo…

>Get angry at banks? I've found in many fields that are as complex as finance, that when I think something in that field is stupid, unnecessary, or onerous, it is I that am wrong because I simply didn't understand the why of how that thing came about. So I find it fascinating how many people/groups in history have gotten mad at banks/finance, tried to make a "better" product, gotten stung or robbed others, only to ev…

I've found in many fields that are as complex as finance, that when I think something in that field is stupid, unnecessary, or onerous, it is I that am wrong because I simply didn't understand the why of how that thing came about.

Someone else has already brought up Chesterton's Fence, but long before I heard about the fence of Mr. Chesterton, I learned that every warning sticker on your ladder, every regulation you despise, every "Don't Do $ACTION on the $THING" sign you see has a story behind it. Because few people enjoy researching and purchasing signs and stickers so much that they'll do it unprompted.

So, yeah, as you've discovered, when you hear talk about getting rid of Frank-Dodd or other dual-name regulations, ask yourself who benefits from that and why we had to write down some rules in the first place. IOW, Chesterton's Fence. :-)

Re: Turning Down a Blockchain Job Offer

#113

Post by Jare » Mon, Jan 22, 2018, 6:36 PM UTC

unixhero wrote: post #33

I don't understand the high horse. Accept the offer, rake in the cash, move on. Whether or not the company eventually becomes a success does not affect the money you have raked in. Be greedy, the investors are. If you're an engineer, you're the needed fuel they need for their fire.

There's always a reward for becoming part of a problem.

Re: Turning Down a Blockchain Job Offer

#114

Post by mstade » Mon, Jan 22, 2018, 6:36 PM UTC

nemild wrote: post #24

The danger in a space like this is throwing the baby out with the bath water. - Yes, there are an insane amount of scams, and lots of dumb money flowing in - Yes, many use cases of blockchains should really be databases - Yes, many blockchain job posts are just PR initiatives for companies who want to differentiate themselves That said, it's an early time to have a tremendous amount of impact. Don't like "proof of wo…

> Get angry at banks?

My response to anyone serious about competing with banks: go work for one.

Banks are often portrayed as these evil faceless entities that act completely in their self interest. In reality, most banks that matter are simply too large to act as one – and not in the sense that they are too big to fail (although, that's probably true as well) but that they are huge organizations with thousands upon thousands of employees and teams of varying autonomy. They may be all under one brand (and likely also under many sub-brands) but they don't act as one, pretty much ever.

Banks are very interesting organizations to work for, for a great many reasons. I think anyone with a serious grudge against banks thinking they can do better should spend at least a few years working for one. If nothing else, they'll learn first hand what to try and avoid, and possibly also why things are so ass-backwards a lot of the time.

Re: Turning Down a Blockchain Job Offer

#115

Post by draw_down » Mon, Jan 22, 2018, 6:37 PM UTC

endorphone wrote: post #72

It is interesting how grievance posts have such an easy time on HN, and how willing the audience is to put aside basic cynicism (AMP is another easy target for these sorts of posts). I am going to be a little more suspicious and say that the OP never had a job offer for a "blockchain implementation", but instead posted the standard, rather empty cynical fare with the job offer justification. Lumping in all blockchain…

The author says they were offered a job in a space they considered to be filled with bad actors and dishonesty, so they turned it down. That just isn't what cynicism means, sorry.

Cynical would be the opposite, working in a space that you believe to be full of bad people but not caring about any of that and focusing on just the money.

Re: Turning Down a Blockchain Job Offer

#116

Post by philipodonnell » Mon, Jan 22, 2018, 6:37 PM UTC

Karrot_Kream wrote: post #95

philipodonnell wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I thought there was a change to the protocol that prevented ASICs from being as effective? Perhaps I misunderstood in the context of Bitcoin, but in the context of the investment in GPUs providing support to pricing, I think that is validated just from the news a few days ago that GPU pricing because of crypto demand was causing pricing issues in PC-gaming. And the same principle should apply to whatever "effort-base…

A lot of altcoins have come up that are ASIC-resistant. A lot of these use memory as a bound, but GPUs sill have the memory bandwidth to make mining fast.

I must have mixed up some notes about ASIC-resistant altcoins with some older info about Bitcoin, its quite difficult to keep track.

Re: Turning Down a Blockchain Job Offer

#117

Post by JonnyNova » Mon, Jan 22, 2018, 6:37 PM UTC

Zpalmtree wrote: post #109

enknamel wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I really dislike how decentralized cryptocurrencies are. I'd be ok with how it is currently implemented as long as there was some level of central governance to guarantee the currency could continue forever. What's the point of mining bitcoin once all coins are allocated? Just for transaction fees? Or would people push to generate more coins? A central governing authority would be great in a situation like this. Righ…

The whole point of cryptocurrencies is that they're decentralized, and can't be controlled by governments. That would defeat the whole point of blockchain surely?

Not necessarily. Lack of centralized trust is just one feature. They have other features like public (but anonymous) ledgers, irreversible transactions, smart contracts, the ability to hold them without a bank account. Features like those could definitely come from a private or central bank.

Re: Turning Down a Blockchain Job Offer

#118

Post by leksak » Mon, Jan 22, 2018, 6:37 PM UTC

ChrisLomont wrote: post #61

nemild wrote: post #24

The danger in a space like this is throwing the baby out with the bath water. - Yes, there are an insane amount of scams, and lots of dumb money flowing in - Yes, many use cases of blockchains should really be databases - Yes, many blockchain job posts are just PR initiatives for companies who want to differentiate themselves That said, it's an early time to have a tremendous amount of impact. Don't like "proof of wo…

>Get angry at banks? I've found in many fields that are as complex as finance, that when I think something in that field is stupid, unnecessary, or onerous, it is I that am wrong because I simply didn't understand the why of how that thing came about. So I find it fascinating how many people/groups in history have gotten mad at banks/finance, tried to make a "better" product, gotten stung or robbed others, only to ev…

> So I find it fascinating how many people/groups in history have gotten mad at banks/finance, tried to make a "better" product, gotten stung or robbed others, only to eventually re-invent many of the things safe, efficient banking requires.

Hehe, this reminds me of a thing X that I'm implementing because my manager doesn't like thing Y. X will have the same exact same limitations as Y and won't be as battle tested nor will a new hire be familiar with X (although they'd be familiar with Y). But hey, at least it isn't Y.

Re: Turning Down a Blockchain Job Offer

#119

Post by Nursie » Mon, Jan 22, 2018, 6:38 PM UTC

mikestew wrote: post #112

ChrisLomont wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Get angry at banks? I've found in many fields that are as complex as finance, that when I think something in that field is stupid, unnecessary, or onerous, it is I that am wrong because I simply didn't understand the why of how that thing came about. So I find it fascinating how many people/groups in history have gotten mad at banks/finance, tried to make a "better" product, gotten stung or robbed others, only to ev…

I've found in many fields that are as complex as finance, that when I think something in that field is stupid, unnecessary, or onerous, it is I that am wrong because I simply didn't understand the why of how that thing came about. Someone else has already brought up Chesterton's Fence, but long before I heard about the fence of Mr. Chesterton, I learned that every warning sticker on your ladder, every regulation you…

I wasinformed recently that there's something similar behind most of the speed cameras in the UK - if you see one (other than on a motorway) it means that somebody died there, probably more than one somebody.

There's a debate to be had about whether they are the most effective means of slowing down traffic, but it changed my view a little.

Re: Turning Down a Blockchain Job Offer

#120

Post by drak0n1c » Mon, Jan 22, 2018, 6:39 PM UTC

nemild wrote: post #24

The danger in a space like this is throwing the baby out with the bath water. - Yes, there are an insane amount of scams, and lots of dumb money flowing in - Yes, many use cases of blockchains should really be databases - Yes, many blockchain job posts are just PR initiatives for companies who want to differentiate themselves That said, it's an early time to have a tremendous amount of impact. Don't like "proof of wo…

There are upcoming Distributed Ledgers that don't use blockchains or mining - like Hashgraph which uses a form of gossip protocol to handle more than 300k transactions/second. These distributed ledgers may soon handle traffic that currently requires centralized servers (MMORPG games, etc).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wgwYU1Zr9Tg