A faster, more efficient cryptocurrency • Hacker News Board

Re: A faster, more efficient cryptocurrency

#81

Post by lostjohnny » Mon, Feb 18, 2019, 4:45 PM UTC

kakarot wrote: post #56

ForHackernews wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Money is more fairly distributed than cryptocurrencies. Credit Suisse found that 97% of bitcoin is held by 4% of addresses (though some may belong to exchanges): http://www.businessinsider.com/bitcoin-97-are-held-by-4-of-a...

And the top 1% of the American population controls around 40% of the wealth. In accordance with the power law, the top 20% of the population owned 86% of the country's wealth. Still doesn't seem like a pipe dream.

Wealth, not money.

Money is heavily regulated.

Crypto are not.

Re: A faster, more efficient cryptocurrency

#82

Post by sametmax » Mon, Feb 18, 2019, 4:46 PM UTC

malloreon wrote: post #16

I have long wondered how cryptocurrency fans would answer the question: ‘Would you be happy if the crypto-utopia you bring up happens in the next 10 years, and all value is stored/transacted through a cryptocurrency, but it was a coin that you do not possess now, nor could you transfer any of you current currencies into it?’ Say tomorrow someone releases the one true coin, but no one notices. All other cryptocurrenci…

How do you think bitcoin started ? You'd had to be crazy to believe in it 9 years ago, and spend time and energy in the community, nlt to lention monney, to foster the project.

My family and friends said i was stupid, utopist, being conned, wasting my time, and so lany things.

Btc was banana money at first, and only people believing it would be a great thing as a concept made it work. We didn't expect to make banks, it was a happy side effect of a mad naive bet.

All great things start like that. Comics are now the thing, but 20 years ago were still for pationate nerds.

Re: A faster, more efficient cryptocurrency

#83

Post by skohan » Mon, Feb 18, 2019, 4:46 PM UTC

ses1984 wrote: post #48

malloreon wrote: post #16

I have long wondered how cryptocurrency fans would answer the question: ‘Would you be happy if the crypto-utopia you bring up happens in the next 10 years, and all value is stored/transacted through a cryptocurrency, but it was a coin that you do not possess now, nor could you transfer any of you current currencies into it?’ Say tomorrow someone releases the one true coin, but no one notices. All other cryptocurrenci…

The anarchist in me wants to believe that cryptocurrency will diminish the power of the state but I don't actually have enough faith in humanity that we will come up with something better than crypto-oligarchy.

The story of cryptocurrency over the past couple years has been a really interesting case-study in the application of Libertarian principals.

It's interesting how something which was built on the idea of decentralization by design has given way to a clear power structure, where those who have the sway to control the fate of the technology have largely used it to pursue their own personal enrichment over the health and success of the system as a whole.

To me it's evidence that some form of governance is required to build something which can actually serve the greater good. I also would like to see a stateless currency work out, but there are clearly still quite a few problems to be solved before that will even seem like a possibility.

Re: A faster, more efficient cryptocurrency

#84

Post by DennisP » Mon, Feb 18, 2019, 4:46 PM UTC

dijit wrote: post #31

malloreon wrote: post #16

I have long wondered how cryptocurrency fans would answer the question: ‘Would you be happy if the crypto-utopia you bring up happens in the next 10 years, and all value is stored/transacted through a cryptocurrency, but it was a coin that you do not possess now, nor could you transfer any of you current currencies into it?’ Say tomorrow someone releases the one true coin, but no one notices. All other cryptocurrenci…

I think that's a fair question; A good litmus test is people who had bitcoins prior to 2012 (arbitrary date), I had friends who mined bitcoins because they thought it was "cool" and because they liked the idea, not because it was an investment. Personally the computational overhead makes me weep a fair amount; we're simultaneously trying to save the planet while making our payment methods several orders of magnitude…

Proof of stake is likely to make that energy expenditure obsolete over the next several years.

Re: A faster, more efficient cryptocurrency

#85

Post by smokeyj » Mon, Feb 18, 2019, 4:48 PM UTC

patientplatypus wrote: post #75

Crypto currencies have all seemed like an obscurantist version of hot potato. Either the hash gets too long to calculate effectively or the amount of money at stake means very very smart people will start finding ways to hack the coin (and they will). But basically the deal crypto developers are trying to make with me is to trade US backed dollars for "fun bux". These developers are usually very smart people - often…

Bro have you looked at the source code for the green paper? There's weird ACL rules, double spending, it's backdoored and pre-mined. Trust me, crypto is wayyy simpler to understand.

Re: A faster, more efficient cryptocurrency

#86

Post by mihaifm » Mon, Feb 18, 2019, 4:48 PM UTC

MuffinFlavored wrote: post #52

_Kristijan_ wrote: post #47

A "faster, more efficient cryptocurrency" is already in productive operation since 2015. Called "Nano" https://nano.org/en

Care to elaborate? If this is faster and more efficient, why is it #40 on coinmarketcap.com?

Coinmarketcap is not to be taken as a standard of quality. I mean Bitconnect used to be in the top 10 before it was exposed as a massive ponzi scheme.

https://coinmarketcap.com/historical/20171029/

Coinmarketcap just reflects what people invest in at a certain time, it doesn't mean that these investments are rational or are based on highly calculated decisions. A lot of coins in the top 100 are copycats, tokens or just concepts, very few are fully functional products.

Re: A faster, more efficient cryptocurrency

#87

Post by DenisM » Mon, Feb 18, 2019, 4:50 PM UTC

This gets asked often, but in case something changed recently - what are the use cases of cryptocurrencies that are not:

  - Attempts to side-step the law (however misguided the law is)
  - Trivial to do using a typical centralized database (e.g. Federal Reserver or VISA)
  - Tantamount to waiting for a greater fool to buy out the current players

I am not looking for answers of the form "well whenever you want to avoid a third party...", I actually want to know what are those cases where you have to avoid a third party, and why.

The economist-in-me appreciates that non-legal activities are perfectly capable of both demanding and supporting a novel financial instrument on their own, I only exclude it from my question because it's a rather obvious application and I would like to probe beyond that.

Re: A faster, more efficient cryptocurrency

#88

Post by glass_of_water » Mon, Feb 18, 2019, 4:51 PM UTC

School-Cotton wrote: post #64

haolez wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, if it means that my government cannot create inflation anymore.

Why do you think moderate inflation is bad?

I don't think the issue is controlled inflation. I think the fear is of rapid inflation caused by governments struggling to make interest payments, which could cause the value of any cash or bond positions you have to effectively go to 0.

Similar reason people find gold appealing I suppose.

Re: A faster, more efficient cryptocurrency

#89

Post by DickingAround » Mon, Feb 18, 2019, 4:53 PM UTC

malloreon wrote: post #16

I have long wondered how cryptocurrency fans would answer the question: ‘Would you be happy if the crypto-utopia you bring up happens in the next 10 years, and all value is stored/transacted through a cryptocurrency, but it was a coin that you do not possess now, nor could you transfer any of you current currencies into it?’ Say tomorrow someone releases the one true coin, but no one notices. All other cryptocurrenci…

Yes. I'd be quite happy with that. I can generate value; the hard part is keeping that value safe. That is what crypto offers.

Re: A faster, more efficient cryptocurrency

#90

Post by dantillberg » Mon, Feb 18, 2019, 4:54 PM UTC

DenisM wrote: post #87

This gets asked often, but in case something changed recently - what are the use cases of cryptocurrencies that are not: - Attempts to side-step the law (however misguided the law is) - Trivial to do using a typical centralized database (e.g. Federal Reserver or VISA) - Tantamount to waiting for a greater fool to buy out the current players I am not looking for answers of the form "well whenever you want to avoid a t…

> Attempts to side-step the law (however misguided the law is)

There are a lot of people in the world that live in places where the law is far more gone than "misguided." For these people, it's not a question of "whether" to side-step the law but "how." You may not care, but they do.