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Turning Down a Blockchain Job Offer

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Re: Turning Down a Blockchain Job Offer

#211

Post by jstandard »

hectorr1 wrote: post #205
danudey wrote: post #152

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is true of a lot of Silicon Valley startups I've seen lately as well. They make a big show of how they can do things better, faster, more efficiently, and cheaper than existing incumbents, until the government comes in and says "Did you buy your insurance? Are you paying your employees (or treating them as employees in the first place)? Are you providing benefits? Are you certified?" Then suddenly, the SV compan…

Airbnb and Uber going into hotels and public transportation respectively are examples of successful companies diversifying their income. The point is that their core innovation has provided the capital and human resources to tackle higher level challenges. It had to be a substantial improvement on the original problem to get that kind of traction in the first place. The hotel experience needed improvement. So did the…

It seems like you're responding to a different argument u/danudey isn't making.

Their point seems more about people getting too caught up in "disruption for disruption's sake".

To a certain degree, watching the evolution of cryptocurrency is like watching techies reinvent banking, one scam or lost transaction at a time.

Don't get me wrong, I absolutely see value of many blockchain-related innovations. Distributed ledgers. Decentralized transactions. Smart contracts for IoT.

But, I've also met many folks who are more enamored with the concept of "disrupting banking" without spending much time understanding the what and why of the disruption.

Re: Turning Down a Blockchain Job Offer

#213

Post by GFischer »

mstade wrote: post #114
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…

I worked for a few financial institutions, and interacted with banks, and frankly, you CAN do better, and you can both find malice and stupidity, and they can do that because they're protected by regulation.

There are some startups here in Uruguay that have gone against banks and were winning (one started by a classmate that used to work for a financial institution), and they of course are getting hammered with regulatory oversight (some needed, some not). I'm frankly surprised they let them go as far as they did, they were true entrepreneurs, I wouldn't have started them, not because I didn't think they were needed or succeeded, but because of the risk.

Re: Turning Down a Blockchain Job Offer

#214

Post by fwdpropaganda »

chowells wrote: post #209
fwdpropaganda wrote: post #202

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Fermi estimate"? You know that Fermi was known for backing up his talk with numbers, right? How can you say that then "surely it's a few cents"?

So, you have no disagreement with my actual point?

Is your actual point that bitcoin should be worth at last a few cents just because the blockchain can be used for timestamping?

Re: Turning Down a Blockchain Job Offer

#215

Post by 0wing »

nrhk wrote: post #193
0wing wrote: post #187

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The first result of a search reveals a bot to automate Raiblock captcha style PoW. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3YR8eebMTF0 8,254 views It sounds like Raiblock production/minting/distribution is finalized? How could you measure the Gini coefficient of Raiblocks, how do we know it's not worse especially considering even smaller window of time where people were allowed to participate in the minting and distribution…

I would take a look at the distribution in the top 10k wallets for Raiblocks versus other crypto to get this data. Mine is anecdotal, but I always take a look at this distribution when investing in a new coin and was surprised to find my small investment was on the list. I believe they changed the captcha as well during this phase to prevent automation. It was a big source of annoyance for people without time lol.

One person can control many addresses.

If the supply is produced in a limited time frame, then the limited amount of people who had accesses to production will control the supply.

Re: Turning Down a Blockchain Job Offer

#216

Post by MBCook »

cocktailpeanuts wrote: post #210
MBCook wrote: post #208

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Bitcoin (which as far as I know is the largest blockchain project) has been de-anonymized. You have to trust the other peers aren’t secretly working together to use a 51% attack.

Take out the “anonymous” part and it’s pretty much correct. Trustless value transfer is very powerful. Bitcoin hasn’t been “deanonymized”. It’s never been anonymous. Some of its value actually comes from its extreme transparency. That said, privacy is important when it comes to money and there are various ways people implement privacy. Both on top of bitcoin and outside of bitcoin. I don’t know what 51% attack has to…

The 51% bit had to do with ‘not needing trust’, not the anonymity.

Re: Turning Down a Blockchain Job Offer

#217

Post by deevolution »

nemothekid wrote: post #206
deevolution wrote: post #191

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> A centralized solution - something like Transferwise - does not use as much energy as Bitcoin. Then your choice comes down to this: Use a centralized system for less energy consuming transaction but greater centralization of wealth -- or -- Use a distributed system that requires more energy but distributes wealth amongst network participants. Personally, I would choose the system that distributes wealth at the expe…

This feels like a false choice. Why should I buy that the "decentralized system" distributes wealth at all? After all the top 1000 wallets hold 35% of bitcoin, and the top miners are factories that keep the best mining hardware to themselves. All of which compounds the fact that the participants in bitcoin were already wealthy enough from the "centralized" solution to buy into it.

Bitcoin obviously has flaws, but Bitcoin is still doing a better job at distributing wealth than the banks are, thats for sure. Bitcoin may not be doing it efficiently or as well as it could be, but its doing it. Also... there are other cryptocurrecies with different intents and purposes. If you are unhappy with bitcoin, build an alternative. Ethereum proves that its possible. Our financial system, laws, and government are all malleable, and from the looks of it could use some serious change.

Re: Turning Down a Blockchain Job Offer

#218

Post by hndamien »

mstade wrote: post #114
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…

I have a better solution for those that are angry at banks and wish to innovate around them. Don't use them. Build communities around you that are also happy to not use them. There are plenty of working solutions available now to be free of banks - the main thing that is tethering you is lack of faith in crypto/ each other and debt that is still required to be serviced. Once you can unshackle yourself of the debt, you can say goodbye to the traditional banking system. Maybe not completely, but in the most important and significant ways.

Re: Turning Down a Blockchain Job Offer

#219

Post by hndamien »

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…

The funny thing is that I have literally only ever been "robbed" in my life twice. (As in money that was rightfully mine blatantly stolen from me). Once was from Mt Gox who I largely suspected to be insolvent, and the other was from my bank, the largest banking institution in my country. Both clearly knew they were committing a crime, but I was really only shocked by one of these institutions.

Re: Turning Down a Blockchain Job Offer

#220

Post by hndamien »

deevolution wrote: post #197
earthtolazlo wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Bitcoin mining uses as much energy as the nation of Denmark. Each transaction confirmation uses as much energy as nine American households do in an entire day. What “deep knowledge” am I lacking here?

Thats because the bitcoin network is over relied on and the cyptocurrency space is still infantile and not decentralized enough. Once people realize that bitcoin isn't the only cryptocurrency out there, they will switch to other, less expensive coins and the pressure on bitcoin will, hopefully, be relieved some. Thats the beauty of this space! There can be so many coins and all with unique and improved attributes!

Until we have functional decentralised exchanges, using a common protocol would be a nice thing for humanity. Most people don't care about the bigger picture, they just want to get rich quickly, rather than try and make the world a better place by working together.
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