The issue is people like him who is right won't be rewarded. Hype and luck sometimes matter more than being right.
Turning Down a Blockchain Job Offer
131–140 of 239 posts
Re: Turning Down a Blockchain Job Offer
#132Earlier quoted context omitted.
So did the blockchain Edit: not trying to defend bitcoin here, just pointing that the blockchain brought a new solution to a trust issue
No, it didn't. Blockchain technology is perhaps the biggest recent example of a solution in search of a problem. It's interesting but still not clear at all what it would be useful for over what already exists: >"Ten years in, nobody has come up with a use for blockchain" https://hackernoon.com/ten-years-in-nobody-has-come-up-with-...
Hackers are terrible at predicting usefulness / explosive growth of disruptive technologies.
Re: Turning Down a Blockchain Job Offer
#133The 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…
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…
Being decentralized doesn't mean that Bitcoin can't evolve, though. The process is just
- Someone proposes a change to the rules, effective as of some future block number
- Each miner decides whether to adopt the proposed rules
- The network is forked at that block number; some miners work on the original chain with the old rules while others work on a fork with the new rules
- The network converges as most miners, exchanges, etc. will end up honoring whichever fork has more traction. (Sometimes the fork with less traction remains somewhat viable; see Ethereum Classic.)
Re: Turning Down a Blockchain Job Offer
#134The 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…
If you want to spend your time on earth helping to destroy the lives of poor people, work at a bank like Bank of America or Wells Fargo. They've got evil corruption down to a science.
> A 2014 CFPB study showed that about 8 percent of bank customers pay about 75 percent of all overdraft fees. And much of the time, the purchases that trigger overdraft fees are minor. The median debit card transaction that ends in an overdraft fee is $24, according to the bureau.
> Overdraft fees began piling up in Davis Clark’s Wells Fargo account after he lost his job in February. The 26-year-old fell behind on bills, including about $9,000 in short-term loans he had taken out to help cover his living expenses. Each time the lenders tried to automatically withdraw payment from his checking account — his monthly payments added up to about $550 — he was hit with a $35 charge from his bank for not having sufficient funds.
By the time Clark started a new job as a data analyst less than two months later, his checking account was negative by more than $1,400. The debt that ate up more than half of his first paycheck and made it more difficult for him to catch up on the rent and other bills. Last week, Clark opened up a second checking account with another bank so that he could avoid having his earnings eaten by overdraft fees. But with the charges continuing to pile up on his first account, he worries he will have little choice but to file for bankruptcy to clear the loans and overdraft fees.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/get-there/wp/2016/06/13/...
If you want to help people, empower your fellow humans with new technology that renders these truly evil megacorps obsolete.
Re: Turning Down a Blockchain Job Offer
#135The 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…
> Don't like "proof of work"? Go hack on various other implementations.
If this strikes you as reasonable advice or as a reasonable way to think about cryptosystems, it is probably best if you don’t attempt to work on blockchain tech.
Re: Turning Down a Blockchain Job Offer
#136I don't necessarily disagree with the author here, but I would be genuinely curious if the job offer was for one of the "scammy cryptocurrency ICOs" or for one of the industry use case that seem to be destined to survive after the current round of scamminess passes.
Seems to be a critical piece of info that the author detained. A job with, for example, Google versus a job with BitGold+Plus would make a big difference in this kind of decision.
Re: Turning Down a Blockchain Job Offer
#137Earlier quoted context omitted.
> lets you explore a new edge technology A little bit off-topic, I find very interesting how blockchain is regarded as a new technology. All the underlying technology has been available for ages: cryptographic hashes, Merkle trees (patented in 1979!!), peer to peer protocols. It's crazy how putting together some already established technologies/techniques/mathematical instruments can generate such a big movement. A l…
It's a new technology because it enables a new human behavior. With your logic, everything is an old technology.
> It’s a new technology because it enables a new human behavior.
And what is that? Most of what it’s credited with seems shakey at best. E.g. it’s not really decentralized is the vast majority of the mining is done by two or three large groups.
Re: Turning Down a Blockchain Job Offer
#138Earlier quoted context omitted.
> 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…
Wells Fargo - multiple systematic fraudulent issues in the past few years https://www.washingtonpost.com/realestate/wells-fargo-accuse...
Sales issues, which any organization can and will have if they don’t very closely monitor what their sales people are promising and doing. Being a bank is not the red flag characteristic here.
Re: Turning Down a Blockchain Job Offer
#139The 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…
> That said, it's an early time to have a tremendous amount of impact.
It seems easy to forget that early actors of Bitcoin are either in jail or hiding. Why do you think this generation of actors will have a different fate?