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Cryptocurrency Startup School

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Re: Cryptocurrency Startup School

#71
post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I work in crypto space myself and I can tell that this space is really interesting. Both technical and business challenges are quite unique. Here's just a quick recap of different, new business models https://medium.com/abridged-io/web3-business-models-in-the-w... IMO things like DeFi are finally a good use case for blockchain. So yeah, I think this a good idea to create a startup school focused on new, different are…

Thank you for TypeChain, it's great. I remember last year, I got Gitcoin to give you some free money to put up bounties. One reason I'm not building on ethereum right now, is you have no contact with customers/users, because for 90% of the projects, there aren't any. In my other software projects, you are talking with customers every week, it is hugely helpful. What MakerDAO are doing is awesome; DAI is my digital ca…

> Thank you for TypeChain, it's great. I remember last year, I got Gitcoin to give you some free money to put up bounties.

Thanks!!! I really appreciate it. I am actually wrapping up a new version of TypeChain for my Devcon talk (yes, I got a speaking slot! ;) )

> One reason I'm not building on ethereum right now, is you have no contact with customers/users, because for 90% of the projects, there aren't any. In my other software projects, you are talking with customers every week, it is hugely helpful.

Yeah... this space is definately over-hyped sometimes...

Btw. are you still in crypto space? If yes, what other blockchains than ethereum do you work on?

Re: Cryptocurrency Startup School

#72
post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thank you for TypeChain, it's great. I remember last year, I got Gitcoin to give you some free money to put up bounties. One reason I'm not building on ethereum right now, is you have no contact with customers/users, because for 90% of the projects, there aren't any. In my other software projects, you are talking with customers every week, it is hugely helpful. What MakerDAO are doing is awesome; DAI is my digital ca…

> Thank you for TypeChain, it's great. I remember last year, I got Gitcoin to give you some free money to put up bounties. Thanks!!! I really appreciate it. I am actually wrapping up a new version of TypeChain for my Devcon talk (yes, I got a speaking slot! ;) ) > One reason I'm not building on ethereum right now, is you have no contact with customers/users, because for 90% of the projects, there aren't any. In my ot…

Not in Crypto anymore, now making X-Plane addons. I may well return to Crypto in a couple of years, it should be a more exciting and mature space then.

Re: Cryptocurrency Startup School

#73
post #69
post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To dismiss something as 'meaningless utopianism' just because it doesn't agree with your personal experience is incredibly naive and shortsighted. There are plenty of legitimate reasons for wanting a decentralised alternative to banking. Just recently there was an article posted on here about how money is used as a system of control. [0] Even under the best case scenario of well regulated financial institutions in a…

> To dismiss something as 'meaningless utopianism' just because it doesn't agree with your personal experience is incredibly naive and shortsighted. I'm not. That phrase "Smart contracts allowing for autonomous organisations might well be the first time a species is organising itself without a central entity." is ridiculous. Plenty of organisms organise between individuals without a centralised entity. Look at, for e…

To be clear, I am in no way advocating the view that it is "inevitable that everything in banking/finance will move to a decentralized model". Financial institutions, although not perfect, serve many function which would not be suited to a decentralised model. There is no dichotomy here between traditional banking and decentralised finance.

There is however no reason for banks to have a monopoly on these services and every reason to encourage decentralised systems to develop. You claim that people don't want autonomy when this is clearly untrue. It's easy to assume this if speaking from a position of privilege, however there are more than a few edge cases where autonomy is required. A dissident in HK, an anonymous donor in Turkey, a worker in Venezuela, or perhaps even someone in the West wishing to make an international payment but not wanting to wait 2-5 days for a SWIFT payment to clear whilst also incurring a number of handling and transaction fees.

Re: Cryptocurrency Startup School

#74
post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> a singular technical solution that has now gone years without any demonstrable killer app But cryptography underpins all the killer apps! If you need to communicate, then you need cryptography.

This is about cryptocurrencies, not cryptography.

Yes, isn't it annoying how the contraction "crypto" has been taken over by one very specific (and IMO rather pedestrian) application of cryptography, after decades of more general use? GP illustrates exactly why this is so problematic.

Re: Cryptocurrency Startup School

#75
post #73
post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> To dismiss something as 'meaningless utopianism' just because it doesn't agree with your personal experience is incredibly naive and shortsighted. I'm not. That phrase "Smart contracts allowing for autonomous organisations might well be the first time a species is organising itself without a central entity." is ridiculous. Plenty of organisms organise between individuals without a centralised entity. Look at, for e…

To be clear, I am in no way advocating the view that it is "inevitable that everything in banking/finance will move to a decentralized model" . Financial institutions, although not perfect, serve many function which would not be suited to a decentralised model. There is no dichotomy here between traditional banking and decentralised finance. There is however no reason for banks to have a monopoly on these services an…

> You claim that people don't want autonomy when this is clearly untrue.

The vast majority don't. I agree, there are some small edge cases where this may be desirable, but these are neither mass market nor have mass appeal. For most use cases it's worse than the existing system by a long way.

> someone in the West wishing to make an international payment but not wanting to wait 2-5 days for a SWIFT payment to clear whilst also incurring a number of handling and transaction fees.

That person might want to move into the 21st century and stop complaining about things that changed in the 90s. For instance in the EU we can send between countries effectively instantly and mostly free, with fewer middlemen and fees than a similar transfer using cryptocurrency requires. And even to non EU countries the middlemen and fees are pretty low compared to the multiple fees and less than trustworthy parties you need to involve to transfer money using BTC.

And I'm sorry, but I don't believe BTC is much help to that many people in Venezuela or Hong Kong, I believe these are cryptocurrency-enthusiast's fantasies.

Re: Cryptocurrency Startup School

#76
post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I personally see it inevitable that everything in banking/finance will move to a decentralized model, with smart contracts as a driving force, because of autonomy. People don't want autonomy. I don't want to be my own bank. My bank is insured, they are secure, they provide me with a ton of services, and there is an identifiable party to go to if it all goes wrong, or if liability needs to be established. This idea…

That's like saying "Open Source" won't work because I don't want to be my own maintainer. It's not about one person. You not wanting autonomy or being your own bank doesn't matter. People on coinbase aren't their own bank either.

It's not like that at all, and cryptocurrency systems, as you so ably point out, are already tending towards centralisation.

Re: Cryptocurrency Startup School

#77
post #38
post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unfortunately people are not 100% trustable, devices are not 100% secure and code is not 100% perfect. If someone steals my credit number, I will likely not be on the hook for the money and will not lose anything. If I make a mistake during banking, I can turn to people at the bank about it.

> Unfortunately people are not 100% trustable, devices are not 100% secure and code is not 100% perfect. - which is actually why you use crypto. > If someone steals my credit number, I will likely not be on the hook for the money and will not lose anything. - because the bank guarantees the safety of the payment means you use. The fact that you don't have to pay (as a private customer) doesn't mean that stolen credit…

I'm sorry, but this is very naive about security, and cryptography, and blockchains. Allow me to quote some experts:

[0] > "Crypto is fundamentally unsafe. People hear that crypto is strong and confuse that with safe. Crypto can indeed be very strong but it’s extremely unsafe" -- Nate Lawson (Root Labs)

[1] > "We don't even really know how to build secure systems out of secure parts, let alone out of parts and processes that we can't trust" - Bruce Schneier

[2] > "If you think cryptography is the answer to your problem, then you don't know what your problem is" - Dr. Peter G. Neumann

Re: Cryptocurrency Startup School

#78
post #2

A startup school for a singular technical solution that has now gone years without any demonstrable killer app and which faces immense scaling and regulatory hurdles seems like putting the cart well before the horse here. I very much doubt that the key roadblock to realizing the crypto dream has been the lack of availability of a startup school around it.

there are very many comments like yours for years now. Actually the killer app is Bitcoin because billions are being transacted every day in value but still arguing about blockchain it seems that literally all of the tech leaders of our time agree the technology is sound, promising and the future. Literally everyone (I can list names here too). The thing is that many cowboys didn't get cars at first..

Re: Cryptocurrency Startup School

#79
post #11
post #2

A startup school for a singular technical solution that has now gone years without any demonstrable killer app and which faces immense scaling and regulatory hurdles seems like putting the cart well before the horse here. I very much doubt that the key roadblock to realizing the crypto dream has been the lack of availability of a startup school around it.

They are probably desperate to prevent all their investments in the crypto sector to fizzle out. A scenario more likely by the day.

As computers branched out from the math discipline very quickly there was also a need for formal education that only focused on computers. Without a shared advanced level of understanding it made collaboration all the more difficult, and people’s investments in the space all the more impossible.

It is a time tested strategy. It doesn't matter if it doesn't pan out, it is just as good if they all synthesize the idea that this is not economical for anyone and conclude not to pursue this technology anymore. The body of work will still be a worthwhile experiment. But now imagine if they did increase the utility of this technology.

Re: Cryptocurrency Startup School

#80
post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One of Blockchain's killer apps is...Bitcoin. There is no need to talk about "the crypto dream", people are using what they find useful (coinbase is currently #5 top YC company), and I personally see it inevitable that everything in banking/finance will move to a decentralized model, with smart contracts as a driving force, because of autonomy. Humans haven't really evolved much from say other Apes (or many more othe…

> I personally see it inevitable that everything in banking/finance will move to a decentralized model, with smart contracts as a driving force, because of autonomy. People don't want autonomy. I don't want to be my own bank. My bank is insured, they are secure, they provide me with a ton of services, and there is an identifiable party to go to if it all goes wrong, or if liability needs to be established. This idea…

> I don't want to be my own bank.

Try living in Cuba, Venezuela, African countries, China etc etc. Actually except from the so called developed countries, people really don't want banks because it's unlike anything you are used to. So the reasoning that in USA we don't need asset sovereignity because the banks are not controlled by some crazy dictator maniacs holds only in USA, Canada, Europe, Japan and Australia more or less.

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