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Ask HN: Are there any substantial examples of blockchain solving a real problem?

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Re: Ask HN: Are there any substantial examples of blockchain solving a real problem?

#161
post #147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Bitcoin is imho a terrible solution because it’s unstable / volatile and it’s totally a ponzi scheme + piramid scheme. I want my money to be backed up by a government that wants to keep society stable. Sad to see that bc is always so tied to distrust of governments. That way of thinking seems so naive.

Why is it a ponzi scheme + pyramide scheme?

It’s neither. It might be a bubble though.

Re: Ask HN: Are there any substantial examples of blockchain solving a real problem?

#162

problem #1 - protect freedom, liberties problem #2 - adaptation to the needs of the complex system like modern society those are kind of ‘significant’ problems, technologies like Internet, blockchain etc, provide sequential approximations to the solution of those problems.

Blockchain creates privacy issues though. You now have metadata on who has traded with who and if “they” get an exchange to reveal its clients you can then really see the whole picture. So it’s about as private as a regular bank account, maybe less so.

Re: Ask HN: Are there any substantial examples of blockchain solving a real problem?

#163

I’d like to go back to 1988 and ask “Is anyone actually using the Internet?” I’m sure the responses would be similar. Blockchain is still in its infancy, give it a decade or two and I think you’ll be surprised how it became “an overnight success”.

It’s not hard to imagine uses for a global communication network though even if the costs were too high for the average person to get online and the speeds were low.

Re: Ask HN: Are there any substantial examples of blockchain solving a real problem?

#164

I'm an old man, so let me show you how to frame thinking about blockchain. I experienced the 90's, so let me tell you why email will never take off, since we have a trustworthy postal service: 1. Almost nobody you know has an email address, but everyone has a real address. 2. People want to have something they can touch, a personal, perfumed handwritten letter. Not a cold virtual thing with printed letters. 3. You ca…

As a counterexample, look at how sure people and companies were that AI would take off and solve most problems in the 80s. Historically, you can find plenty of examples for both over- and underhyped technologies. It's a complex world, and trying to project these historical events onto new technologies is useless. It's like saying, "well, look at what the stock market did 20 years ago, it has to go up today!" - You ma…

AI is a nebulous term though.

Re: Ask HN: Are there any substantial examples of blockchain solving a real problem?

#165

Paying bribes to government officials. Large transactions for illegal goods such as drugs. Transferring money out of controlled currencies. This isn’t meant to be a joke. I’m illustrating that the price of cryptocurrency is indeed backed by some of its utility and not 100% a money making scheme.

Are there any large, stable examples of blockchain being used in a way that makes the world better? The fact you only listed examples where it doesn't makes me think there aren't any.

Re: Ask HN: Are there any substantial examples of blockchain solving a real problem?

#166

Paying bribes to government officials. Large transactions for illegal goods such as drugs. Transferring money out of controlled currencies. This isn’t meant to be a joke. I’m illustrating that the price of cryptocurrency is indeed backed by some of its utility and not 100% a money making scheme.

Dollar is by far biggest offender is all of those categories, but bitcoin is the currency of evil, eh...

That's a horrendous argument. 'Nefarious activity' is a vanishingly small fraction of how dollars are used. Not so for crypto. And the reason for the discrepancy is obvious: it's much harder to identify and counter illicit activity conducted via crypto.

Re: Ask HN: Are there any substantial examples of blockchain solving a real problem?

#167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Dollar is by far biggest offender is all of those categories, but bitcoin is the currency of evil, eh...

That's a horrendous argument. 'Nefarious activity' is a vanishingly small fraction of how dollars are used. Not so for crypto. And the reason for the discrepancy is obvious: it's much harder to identify and counter illicit activity conducted via crypto.

It depends on crypto, so lets talk about the biggest one, bitcoin. You cannot money launder bitcoin. Because all transactions are tracked, as opposed to dollar. Bitcoin is not anonymous.

Also where do you base your case though? What % of bitcoin is used for crime?

All i have seen is total amounts, and bitcoin nor other crypto coins don't come even close.

Heck, all major banks were openly laundering narco money and nobody gave fuck. What makes you think that bitcoin changes anything?

Re: Ask HN: Are there any substantial examples of blockchain solving a real problem?

#168

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's a horrendous argument. 'Nefarious activity' is a vanishingly small fraction of how dollars are used. Not so for crypto. And the reason for the discrepancy is obvious: it's much harder to identify and counter illicit activity conducted via crypto.

It depends on crypto, so lets talk about the biggest one, bitcoin. You cannot money launder bitcoin. Because all transactions are tracked, as opposed to dollar. Bitcoin is not anonymous. Also where do you base your case though? What % of bitcoin is used for crime? All i have seen is total amounts, and bitcoin nor other crypto coins don't come even close. Heck, all major banks were openly laundering narco money and no…

'Here's how criminals use Bitcoin to launder dirty money' (https://thenextweb.com/hardfork/2018/11/26/bitcoin-money-lau...)

'Bitcoin Money Laundering: How Criminals Use Crypto' (https://www.elliptic.co/our-thinking/bitcoin-money-launderin...)

'Bitcoin Has Lost Steam. But Criminals Still Love It.' (https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/28/technology/bitcoin-black-...)

Re: Ask HN: Are there any substantial examples of blockchain solving a real problem?

#169

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree with you. Maybe the main point I wanted to bring across is that blockchain will not live in the present, it will live in the future. The polaroid picture in my email comparison it really nice in that sense. Nobody was taking digital photo's. For a long time it was even unclear if digital photography would ever surpass traditional. (and some companies made some painful decisions here). Nothing important is in…

I find your examples / analogies not convincing. Email and digital photography have very clear benefits and those where totally transparent from the beginning . I can see none for bt.

Hindsight is 20/20.

You probably never lived in the age where people were convinced that digital photography would never reach the quality of "real" photography.

If blockchain ever takes of, I'm sure it was all obvious from the start to everyone.

I've lived long enough to know human reasoning.

Re: Ask HN: Are there any substantial examples of blockchain solving a real problem?

#170

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It depends on crypto, so lets talk about the biggest one, bitcoin. You cannot money launder bitcoin. Because all transactions are tracked, as opposed to dollar. Bitcoin is not anonymous. Also where do you base your case though? What % of bitcoin is used for crime? All i have seen is total amounts, and bitcoin nor other crypto coins don't come even close. Heck, all major banks were openly laundering narco money and no…

'Here's how criminals use Bitcoin to launder dirty money' ( https://thenextweb.com/hardfork/2018/11/26/bitcoin-money-lau... ) 'Bitcoin Money Laundering: How Criminals Use Crypto' ( https://www.elliptic.co/our-thinking/bitcoin-money-launderin... ) 'Bitcoin Has Lost Steam. But Criminals Still Love It.' ( https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/28/technology/bitcoin-black-... )

Bitcoing tumblers are obfuscation method and are definitely not preventing you from tracing money. Its a way of making it harder to trace all the money.

Also its public which tumbler was used for laundering so it can become target for law enforcement too.

It sounds like you feel really strongly about the subject and don't like crypto at all but I think you are being unfair here.

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