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Half of ICOs Die Within Four Months After Token Sales Finalized

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Re: Half of ICOs Die Within Four Months After Token Sales Finalized

#301

Post by mrep »

JohnJamesRambo wrote: post #138
confiscate wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What attributes about crypto, makes you feel the same way? i.e. that it is going to be revolutionary Because the example you said about the internet (from loading webpage to video streaming) does sound amazing. What's the "parallel" for crypto that you see?

https://i.redd.it/l5y9p9nqwu811.png This sums it up better than I could. The wrenching of power away from centralized authorities and organizations (which we have seen abuse us and our privacy mercilessly for their gain) to decentralized applications with no middlemen, that are free of censorship, and can not be "stopped."

LOL. You still need middlemen with cryptocurrencies in all those cases because the middleman is now run across computers that don't scale whatsover (hardcoded limit in processing which is the worst type of scaling possible and scaling is the main reason software is a profitable industry). To make matters worse, you have no way of funding the developers to build the software required for the decentralized software outside of "buy our coins and hope they rise in price forever".

How is there still this much FAD in cryptocurrencies considering their terrible scaling technology and economic solutions?

Re: Half of ICOs Die Within Four Months After Token Sales Finalized

#302

Post by perl4ever »

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #93
darawk wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> There is a lot of trust involved in a cryptocurrency transfer. You have to trust your technical competence to have securely mounted your wallet. You have to trust the wallet you're sending money to is the wallet it's supposed to go to. You have to trust the person you're sending money to will do what you're paying them to do. You have to trust the network to maintain the value of the currency you're sending and rec…

> The transfer itself does not require trust Cash transfers and barters are trustless. Wires are trustless (in being reasonably irrevocable) in a manner similar to cryptocurrencies ( i.e. if we ignore the plumbing). Cryptocurrencies solve for trust in the most reliable part of the trust chain while exacerbating every other element of transaction risk.

Cash and barter require trust that your counterparty won't club you and take your stuff, since you have to be physically present.

Re: Half of ICOs Die Within Four Months After Token Sales Finalized

#303

Post by perl4ever »

darawk wrote: post #153
JumpCrisscross wrote: post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> What does that have to do with what we're talking about? Generally speaking, if my things get stolen, "it was stolen by X and not Y" is not a value-adding rebuttal. It is actually counterproductive if X ( e.g. , a cryptocurrency thief) is harder to gain recourse against than Y ( e.g. an FDIC-insured bank).

> Generally speaking, if my things get stolen, "it was stolen by X and not Y" is not a value-adding rebuttal. It is actually counterproductive if X (e.g., a cryptocurrency thief) is harder to gain recourse against than Y (e.g. an FDIC-insured bank). That's certainly true. But the issues around people losing their coins and having their keys stolen can be solved by better UX and application security. Essentially crypt…

"Essentially crypto transmutes the problem domain, from a people problem to an application design problem."

The fact that nobody understands how human institutions work is an advantage, because it prevents malicious actors from subverting them. Whenever someone figures out how institutions work, they destroy them and civilizations fall, so they evolve to be incomprehensible. So "transmuting the problem domain" seems like a bad move to me.

Re: Half of ICOs Die Within Four Months After Token Sales Finalized

#304

Post by perl4ever »

chrisco255 wrote: post #232
JumpCrisscross wrote: post #180

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> In a hypothetical crypto dominated world, most people would still use centralized services to store their money. But they'd have the ability to opt out if and when they choose The problem with this vision is those people using centralized services see no benefit. They are better off sticking with the status quo . Cryptocurrencies make sense for people who wish, for philosophically reasons, to control their own mone…

It's not true that they see no benefit. They will see benefit in: 1) cheaper financial services 2) broader financial services 3) real-time financial services 4) access to financial services regardless of location (or nation) 5) decentralized applications fully integrated with financial services The average Joe doesn't need to control their own private keys in order to gain these benefits. But think of it this way. Wh…

"1) cheaper financial services"

If a million people want to deal with each other without any trusted party to intermediate, then they have to keep a million ledgers and agree on a protocol for reconciliation. Once you've conceded over a million-fold factor of inefficiency, being cheaper doesn't seem plausibly within reach. I don't see the details as mattering much; it's the big picture that doesn't make sense.

Re: Half of ICOs Die Within Four Months After Token Sales Finalized

#305

Post by Azeralthefallen »

chrisco255 wrote: post #295
dragonwriter wrote: post #257

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> aris is technically correct. No,“can” and “are legally allowed to” don't, technically, mean the same thing.

For most Venezuelans, getting access to cash is not a practical reality, even if it's a theoretical one. I went to Venezuela in 2011 and you couldn't even bring $1K USD worth of goods into the country without being taxed to death on it (or paying off some government official). How about cash? Also, I'd rather carry a USB stick with a private key on it than a wad of cash in one of the world's most violent countries (i…

And how do you buy things with your usb stick?

Re: Half of ICOs Die Within Four Months After Token Sales Finalized

#306

Post by djur »

klenwell wrote: post #290
madeofpalk wrote: post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> But more to the point, blockchains are useful now, just like the internet was. They're just not useful for all the things that are being promised (yet) How long do we have to wait to find a valid use case for blockchains? It's been 10 years now and we're still asking the same question.

Transcript of text exchange with my sister just yesterday: SISTER: Any interest in learning blockchain development? I'm getting into that world and will need someone reliable. Plus, I'll be able to expose you to projects and get you consulting gigs. I know you have your new job and all it's demands. Timing prob isn't good but figured I'd check in anyway. ME: No thanks. I know the blockchain technologically is a thing…

> Patients can securely share access to their prescription records with interested parties and be compensated with MDX.

So patients are encouraged to sell their prescription records to "interested parties" in exchange for chits they can use to buy prescription drugs. Sounds altruistic to me!

Re: Half of ICOs Die Within Four Months After Token Sales Finalized

#307

Post by 6nf »

cslarson wrote: post #152
ashishb wrote: post #44

Are there any ICOs which resulted in a successful product? Please exclude crypto-exchanges like Binance.

Golem is live. Augur is going live today. MakerDAO has a very interesting stablecoin called Dai that's live. Status' mobile app is now mainnet by default. DigixDAO is live. And many more in testnet phases. But don't let reality mess with the cynical perception that the hn crowd wants to portray!

Is Golem actually cheaper than just renting servers from AWS?

MakerDAO and DigixDAO are just cryptocurrencies, they don't actually do anything as far as I can tell.

Re: Half of ICOs Die Within Four Months After Token Sales Finalized

#308

Post by tomglynch »

drngdds wrote: post #251

Is there a legitimate reason why ICO-backed projects seem to need so much money before even making a working prototype? Don't startups normally have to have a basic product to show off before they get investors?

Almost all successful ICOs in the past 6 months have working prototypes. Only in the very early stages, June 2017 - November 2017 was this not the case.

Re: Half of ICOs Die Within Four Months After Token Sales Finalized

#309

Post by godelski »

api wrote: post #141
madeofpalk wrote: post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> But more to the point, blockchains are useful now, just like the internet was. They're just not useful for all the things that are being promised (yet) How long do we have to wait to find a valid use case for blockchains? It's been 10 years now and we're still asking the same question.

The main use case for block chains is quite obviously to skirt government regulation: black markets, unregulated securities and quasi-securities, etc. A secondary and related use case is to avoid the hassle and complexity of old fashioned equity and other fund raising constructs and to make easier international wire transfers. Putting ethical concerns aside: these are very large market segments. Cryptocurrencies may…

I thought the main use case was gambling. Specifically volatility trading.

Re: Half of ICOs Die Within Four Months After Token Sales Finalized

#310

Post by wpietri »

jacobush wrote: post #266
wpietri wrote: post #262

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> That really depends on where you put 'beginning'. It does not. In 1995 the Internet was useful for 30m people. In 1985 it was useful for 30,000. Email was better than paper mail from the get-go. Networked file transfer was way better than mailing magtapes or CDs. Remote terminal connections were way better than driving or doing long-distance dialup. The Internet was not the wonder it is today, but from very early o…

XML quietly dropped? If blockchains are dropped in the same manner, it will be around forever and ever. It will outlive Cobol.

Fair point. I haven't seen any new use it in years, and it's down to 12% of its peak interest:

https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=all&geo=US&q=x...

(Or less, perhaps, in that I suspect the peak was earlier.)

But yes, I'm sure it's in plenty of Y2K-ish enterprise systems, spreading like kudzu.

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