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Kik, once valued at $1B, is to be closed

forbes.com

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Re: Kik, once valued at $1B, is to be closed

#101

Post by untog »

jackcodes wrote: post #100
untog wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Scam" is a broad term. The technical basis of bitcoin can be 100% solid and it can still be a "scam" in the sense that it's been sold as a get rich quick scheme for speculative investors rather than an actual, day-to-day use currency (given transaction times it'll struggle to ever be that, but I digress)

Saying cryptocurrencies are a scam is kind of like saying leggings are a scam because of LuLaRoe.

I'd say it depends on percentages. The vast, almost entire majority of leggings are not scams. A notable number of cryptocurrencies are scams.

Re: Kik, once valued at $1B, is to be closed

#102

Post by tempestn »

commoner wrote: post #98
unityByFreedom wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Irreversibility of transactions is not a feature I want. If someone wants to rob you of all your bitcoin, they can hold a gun to your head until you give it to them. A bank, on the other hand, has transaction limits. If I buy something online with a credit card and soon after discover it's fraudulent (which has happened to me on multiple occasions), I can reverse that too.

That criticism also applies to cash.

True, although most people wouldn't hold nearly as much cash as is commonly held in bitcoin.

Re: Kik, once valued at $1B, is to be closed

#103

Post by jackcodes »

untog wrote: post #101
jackcodes wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Saying cryptocurrencies are a scam is kind of like saying leggings are a scam because of LuLaRoe.

I'd say it depends on percentages. The vast, almost entire majority of leggings are not scams. A notable number of cryptocurrencies are scams.

Bitcoin, Ethereum and XRP take up around 80% of total market cap and I’ll class those as legitimate enough to fall in the non-scam category. I’ll also ballpark half of the remaining 20% as not being scams (I know that’s a little debatable too, is a poor business premise a scam for example?), and I’d say that’s not too bad on the whole.

If we’re talking about number of projects then I can’t disagree, there’d be no argument.

Re: Kik, once valued at $1B, is to be closed

#105

Post by jjeaff »

linkregister wrote: post #96
coralreef wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Right. I'm going to challenge you to: - prevent or reverse any of my transactions - confiscate my bitcoin, or even find out how much I have You can't, and never will. Some cryptocurrencies are scams. But if you're saying all cryptocurrencies are scams, you're simply saying math and economics are a scam.

- confiscate my bitcoin, or even find out how much I have Bitcoin's public ledger is especially vulnerable to FBI "follow the money" investigation. Only one end is required to be known, and the entire trail is easily followed. The federal agent who stole a portion of Dread Pirate Roberts' Bitcoin was quickly tracked and prosecuted.

Properly implemented "Laundering" services for crypto currency can make follow-the-money effectively useless.

The funds are transferred to a wallet, they are mixed with many other coins, and then they are paid out in different sized transactions to the recipient.

Assuming you have a busy enough pool, it should be technically untraceable.

Re: Kik, once valued at $1B, is to be closed

#106

Post by hudon »

coralreef wrote: post #80
chx wrote: post #78

Cryptocurrencies are scam. End. This is very simple. Yes, they are a new kind of scam, a good name suggested is Nakamoto Scheme. https://prestonbyrne.com/2017/12/08/bitcoin_ponzi/ Also notable: https://davidgerard.co.uk/blockchain/2018/04/05/debunking-bu... which doesn't outright call it a scam but certainly points out > Git gives you pretty much everything offered by the business case for blockchains. The one thing…

Right. I'm going to challenge you to: - prevent or reverse any of my transactions - confiscate my bitcoin, or even find out how much I have You can't, and never will. Some cryptocurrencies are scams. But if you're saying all cryptocurrencies are scams, you're simply saying math and economics are a scam.

transactions are “reversed” every time a chain is abandoned. It happened in 2010 when Satoshi himself called to abandon a chain, again 2013 when Luke and Pieter called miners to abandon a chain, and probably many times since then to fix various bugs. It’s impossible to count how many of those abandoned transactions were successfully replayed on the new chain versus how many were spent elsewhere (ie reversed)

Re: Kik, once valued at $1B, is to be closed

#107

Post by dingdongding »

jjeaff wrote: post #105
linkregister wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

- confiscate my bitcoin, or even find out how much I have Bitcoin's public ledger is especially vulnerable to FBI "follow the money" investigation. Only one end is required to be known, and the entire trail is easily followed. The federal agent who stole a portion of Dread Pirate Roberts' Bitcoin was quickly tracked and prosecuted.

Properly implemented "Laundering" services for crypto currency can make follow-the-money effectively useless. The funds are transferred to a wallet, they are mixed with many other coins, and then they are paid out in different sized transactions to the recipient. Assuming you have a busy enough pool, it should be technically untraceable.

Just like giant corporate balance sheets?

Re: Kik, once valued at $1B, is to be closed

#108

Post by pentae »

SolarNet wrote: post #13

Most apps have child abuse problems. Of all the examples of how modern corporations externalize risk and internalize profits, I think the child abuse for ad revenue on content is particularly egregious (one example link here is that the children are the viewers and consumers of the ads (advertising to children being worth more money in many contexts), and the child abusers post massive amounts of content that childre…

I don’t see how any of these chat apps you described is any different to IRC which I frequented as a kid. It had wll the horrors you describe but navigating that jungle made it exciting and fine tuned my radar against scammers and dodgy people.

Without it, i wouldn’t have formed life long friendships, learned how to code and had a huge positive contribution on where I am today.

But yeah, you can see porn on there and child predators can also access it.. so uh, child abuse or something. Lets just ban everything.

Re: Kik, once valued at $1B, is to be closed

#109

Post by harry8 »

xmprt wrote: post #92
harry8 wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

so exactly like irc only not irc, which makes it better because, um..?

If you think this is exactly like IRC then you're delusional.

I'm not sure that response is as helpful as you think it is. I'm pretty sure irc has searchable public groups fwiw. Pretty sure irc is text based group chat.

If there's something that kik gets you beyond irc it's completely unclear from this discussion what that might be. Whether or not I'm delusional, and I sure I am as delusional as anyone about certain things, your response isn't useful, informative, helpful or kind. But YMMV.

Re: Kik, once valued at $1B, is to be closed

#110

Post by tastroder »

harry8 wrote: post #109
xmprt wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you think this is exactly like IRC then you're delusional.

I'm not sure that response is as helpful as you think it is. I'm pretty sure irc has searchable public groups fwiw. Pretty sure irc is text based group chat. If there's something that kik gets you beyond irc it's completely unclear from this discussion what that might be. Whether or not I'm delusional, and I sure I am as delusional as anyone about certain things, your response isn't useful, informative, helpful or ki…

I mean, they had a shiny app, marketing, and I'd guess similar features the young target group appreciated. A lot of things are like IRC but preferred by the new generation. People don't often select apps based on their backend stack.
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