Live data from Hacker News

A faster, more efficient cryptocurrency

news.mit.edu

91–100 of 839 posts

Re: A faster, more efficient cryptocurrency

#92

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…

This articulates pretty well something that I've tried to express about how I feel about cryptocurrency before. I don't own any, even though I've worked on a distributed application based on Ethereum and love the concepts because I was worried that by owning any coins I would be less trustworthy as a true believer. On the other hand, without any, I'm worried that I may seem as if I don't really believe in it, as I haven't put my money where my mouth is.

Anyway, I would love cryptocurrency to succeed, and in an efficient manner (say we get all the problems worked out of proof of stake).

Re: A faster, more efficient cryptocurrency

#93
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…

It depends on what you consider "side-step the law". If you encrypt your communication so no one can't read it, but the government didn't demand you not encrypt it.. are you side stepping the law? That's kind of what crypto is like buying regular stuff; you're protecting your money (it's value and your right to trade it as you see fit) even though no one is trying to take it at this particular moment.

Re: A faster, more efficient cryptocurrency

#94
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…

Banks are highly regulated and risk averse. They won’t transfer 100 USD to some country when it takes them more than some percentage of the transfer to do compliance for it. So the transfer is legal but banks can not do it compliant and efficient.

I know of Ukrainian developers being paid in ETH for that reason.

Adult cam models in some countries are another example.

Re: A faster, more efficient cryptocurrency

#95
post #66
post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Good question. Definitely yes. Why would I pay middlemen (banks) when there is no need to? Also why would I trust them, when there is no need to?

> Also why would I trust them, when there is no need to? Because your alternative is to trust the crypto infrastructure, which is far less trustworthy.

But muh decentralization! /s

In reality most of the exchanges and sites dealing with crypto were (and probably still are) built by absolute amateurs with no checks and balances on their apps from a security perspective. Its scary as hell that people trust those sites with their actual money.

Re: A faster, more efficient cryptocurrency

#96

Hogwash. How can a user be sure that the chain is valid if they don't download the transaction set? If users cannot verify the amount of coin in the network this is useless.

Not usable for certain operations perhaps. But useless? That seems a little extreme.

Re: A faster, more efficient cryptocurrency

#97
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…

My favorite future use case is electronic cash with privacy.

There are many LEGAL activities that people do not want to show up in a central database. For example, think of many things related to love and relationships.

"tantamount to waiting for a greater fool to buy out the current players" <= this is like investing works in general, or? ;-)

Re: A faster, more efficient cryptocurrency

#98
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…

Imagine 3 parties: buyer, seller and third-party shipper. When the buyer has paid to a specific address, he will also email an irrefutable, digital proof of payment to the shipper, who will then ship the goods.

It is trivial to look up the signed transaction to the specific address in the digital currency's blockchain. Hence, the shipping company can handle that situation.

On the other hand, try to get an irrefutable digital proof of payment from a bank. For example, get them to email you anything to you, anything at all, that you can use as proof that you paid last month's rent. A bank cannot do that, not even to save themselves from drowning.

Re: A faster, more efficient cryptocurrency

#99

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…

A problem, imo is that these cryptocurrencies are pieces of software developped by anybody. This means a new one popping up every month... Which in turn means that they are useless as currency.

Just like clone of Facebook is instantly as valuable as Facebook?

Re: A faster, more efficient cryptocurrency

#100
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…

I don't know if you've realized this, but HN is religiously against crypto and anything that rhymes with it. Like, irrationally mad.

If you want to explore the utility of crypto go check out different online communities that focus on that, some decent ones on reddit. The level of discussion on HN is usually "crypto baaad, centralized goood". As an economist I'm sure you expect more. Unless you want those ideas reinforced, keep the discussion here!

Post reply on HN