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Hundreds of Bitcoin Wannabes Show Hallmarks of Fraud

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Re: Hundreds of Bitcoin Wannabes Show Hallmarks of Fraud

#111

Post by nikanj »

tdb7893 wrote: post #94
mythrwy wrote: post #44

The anti blockchain sentiment on HN is something like the anti-Trump hysteria in the period leading up to/immediately after the election. Tons of grandiose "it's SO horrible" posts, tons of downvotes. I predict it will shake out about the same way also. Blockchain and bitcoin aren't going anywhere in the near future. Some people have, and will continue to have, a use (for whatever reason). The "I hates it precious!"…

I think the negative sentiment is largely because of how much the bitcoin evangelists promise. There's a lot of hype and lofty goals tossed around but cryptocurrencies have been around for nearly a decade (If I remember bitcoin started early 2009) and they mostly seem to be used for fraud and speculation now. I'm not saying that the technology is fundamentally useless but the mismatch between delivery and retoric has…

Fraud, speculation, and drug trade. Don't forget about the drugs.

Re: Hundreds of Bitcoin Wannabes Show Hallmarks of Fraud

#112

Post by FooHentai »

tptacek wrote: post #45

In the end, the "reputable" ICO-backed companies will mostly (perhaps entirely) turn out to be no better. Enron was a real company that did real things. During the time it operated, hundreds of aspiring future Enrons were born in the penny stocks, took down a few thousand in profits, and died. Skeptics of Enron could have pointed to those overt frauds and said "sure, the space is littered with frauds, but look at Enr…

>the "reputable" ICO-backed companies will mostly (perhaps entirely) turn out to be no better.

It seems ironic that such trust/reputation has become a central point, in light of blockchain's nature as a decentralized trust-less system.

Re: Hundreds of Bitcoin Wannabes Show Hallmarks of Fraud

#113

Post by granaldo »

hudon wrote: post #6

- The space is littered with fraud. - Wallets have bugs that lose hundreds of millions of dollars - Energy consumption forecasted to hit 0.5% of the world’s electricity consumption by end of 2018 - Promoters yelling “decentralize everything” while exchanges, development teams and mining are all highly centralized - No legal use case found to date Blockchain is a parasite on society.

No denying the wild speculative ride https://www.coingecko.com/en/coins/ath

Re: Hundreds of Bitcoin Wannabes Show Hallmarks of Fraud

#114

Post by hueving »

ryanlol wrote: post #23
lotyrin wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you have counter examples? Anything using the currencies as stores of wealth or mediums of exchange seem to be better suited by traditional finance which are less volatile and capable of higher volume. Anything using the ledger as a distributed datastore seems like it would be better suited by a datastore that wasn't wrapped up in a currency ledger and uses a consensus algorithm less costly than proof-of-work.

We receive up to six figures in cryptocurrency payments every week for multiple perfectly legal products. If that’s not a “legal use case”, I don’t know what is. Are we going to argue next that credit cards have no use case because other forms of payment exist? Another example: I just bought a watch off of a guy on a forum using bitcoin, bank transfers or WU would have been a far bigger pain in the ass.

What is bitcoin giving your customer that a credit card would not?

Re: Hundreds of Bitcoin Wannabes Show Hallmarks of Fraud

#115

Post by woah »

hudon wrote: post #107
woah wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm working on a blockchain-based mesh project. We currently have around 6 users on a test network in Oregon, but the product isn't completely done yet and no real payments work yet. Our goal is to create a system where individuals and businesses can participate in a decentralized ISP with the routers "peering" automatically and routing along the cheapest, best paths in the network. What blockchain gives us is a very…

Do you have a website with more information? On your blockchain, if a new consensus rule is being disputed or if a bug in the consensus rules causes a fork, who has the final say, the developers or the miners?

http://altheamesh.com

We will likely use Cosmos which uses proof of stake validators instead of miners although we are prototyping on Ethereum. In any case, the miners/validators would decide, as they always have and always will. If there was a big divide between users and validators, the users could choose to leave and use a different fork (although they would have to modify their router firmware). The only power that the developers have is thought leadership, and the ability to claim that something is an "official" binary. This is also how the Ethereum DAO hardfork went down.

Re: Hundreds of Bitcoin Wannabes Show Hallmarks of Fraud

#116

Post by headsoup »

granaldo wrote: post #113
hudon wrote: post #6

- The space is littered with fraud. - Wallets have bugs that lose hundreds of millions of dollars - Energy consumption forecasted to hit 0.5% of the world’s electricity consumption by end of 2018 - Promoters yelling “decentralize everything” while exchanges, development teams and mining are all highly centralized - No legal use case found to date Blockchain is a parasite on society.

No denying the wild speculative ride https://www.coingecko.com/en/coins/ath

Lol at the ad for Peer Mountain at the top

Relevant.

Re: Hundreds of Bitcoin Wannabes Show Hallmarks of Fraud

#118

Post by abalone »

ryanlol wrote: post #108
abalone wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

False. Random sellers on internet forums are not easy to vet at all. The whole point of chargebacks is you don't have to vet the seller.

Sure, that’s the point of chargebacks. Everybody knows this. What is the point you are trying to make? That you’re too dumb to not buy from “random sellers”?

So you think people who get defrauded on the Internet are "dumb". I can see why you like cryptocurrency.

Re: Hundreds of Bitcoin Wannabes Show Hallmarks of Fraud

#119

Post by mempko »

mmgutz wrote: post #105

It basically boils down to the world is full of suckers. I'd like to find alternatives to Bitcoin and Ethereum that are actually innovating. For most coins, forking is the extent of their technology.

This! I wish other projects tried harder.

Re: Hundreds of Bitcoin Wannabes Show Hallmarks of Fraud

#120

Post by branchless »

hudon wrote: post #6

- The space is littered with fraud. - Wallets have bugs that lose hundreds of millions of dollars - Energy consumption forecasted to hit 0.5% of the world’s electricity consumption by end of 2018 - Promoters yelling “decentralize everything” while exchanges, development teams and mining are all highly centralized - No legal use case found to date Blockchain is a parasite on society.

As is finance. Create wealth, do not appropriate it.
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