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Ethereum Isn't Fun Anymore

timdaub.github.io

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Re: Ethereum Isn't Fun Anymore

#411

The Hacker News community has long been anti-crypto, and as someone deeply involved in the space, these long threads of complaints and diatribes are difficult to handle. Everyone is missing so much context. Ethereum gas prices are astronomical because there's unprecedented demand to use the network: NFT art and collectibles are exploding (NBA TopShot, Foundation, SuperRare, Rarible, OpenSea, etc.) at the same time De…

As an outsider missing context, what are the answers to the following? They are all valid questions that come up every time, and aren't well answered, given my research into them. - Is the long term alternatives to PoW actually viable, given the huge power consumption of cryptocurrency currently? - Are the valid use cases (other than drugs, ransomware and speculation) worth the valuation? - If Tether collapses, due t…

1. https://www.investopedia.com/terms/p/proof-stake-pos.asp Yes, proof of stake is exactly that. 2. Read the above comment and search some of those companies 3. Binance props Tether up, so the largest Centralized exchange may suffer dramatically, but a Tether collapse would likely drive users into better stablecoin projects like USDC and DAI, being generally good for the space

Re: Ethereum Isn't Fun Anymore

#412
post #355

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I believe that technically, any conversion between crypto assets is still a taxable event. If you want to follow the (silly) rules, you have to pay taxes on your gains once you purchase something using your borrowed stablecoin.

So yes, you'd pay capital gains tax on the DAI that you've borrowed when you transfer it back to USD, but DAI is a stablecoin that's pegged to 1$ and the volumes are pretty high on many exchanges. Once you include your exchanges fees in your cost basis, you actually lost like 30-40$, so it's a taxable event with capital gains loss .

https://www.forbes.com/sites/shehanchandrasekera/2020/07/21/...

Re: Ethereum Isn't Fun Anymore

#413

The Hacker News community has long been anti-crypto, and as someone deeply involved in the space, these long threads of complaints and diatribes are difficult to handle. Everyone is missing so much context. Ethereum gas prices are astronomical because there's unprecedented demand to use the network: NFT art and collectibles are exploding (NBA TopShot, Foundation, SuperRare, Rarible, OpenSea, etc.) at the same time De…

As an outsider missing context, what are the answers to the following? They are all valid questions that come up every time, and aren't well answered, given my research into them. - Is the long term alternatives to PoW actually viable, given the huge power consumption of cryptocurrency currently? - Are the valid use cases (other than drugs, ransomware and speculation) worth the valuation? - If Tether collapses, due t…

- Is there anything actually wrong with PoW? It's fun to say it's "wasted" electricity, but we "waste" more power, resources, and man-hours in other trivialities (eg. video games) without really caring.

- Read the whitepaper of whichever crypto you're asking about. The answer is "it depends", because each one exists to fill a different niche.

- Nobody really cares about Tether, so probably nothing.

Re: Ethereum Isn't Fun Anymore

#414
post #316
post #206

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If the gold price crashed I'd be very interested. Imo central banks are in a tough spot now. They've issued huge amounts of bonds, and cannot raise interest rates. If inflation rises, they will be unable to raise rates - unless they want to pay incredible amounts of interest to the banks. If they do decide to do so, they will need to sell large quantities of gold to help pay for that, which will be a heavy downward…

Central banks do not issue bonds. What they've been doing is buying bonds issued by national governments. Usually on the public markets, not directly. Where do they get the money to buy the bonds? Why they just magically create it. That's their job. Central banks do not care, per se, if they have to "pay incredible amounts of interest to the banks" since they literally create (and destroy) money. Central banks do not…

Thanks, your understanding is better than mine. Its the national governments who would have to pay the incredible amounts of interest, and may fund that by selling the gold they own (https://www.usfunds.com/investor-library/frank-talk-a-ceo-bl...). Interested to hear whether you think gold will increase or decrease its value, over the next years.

Re: Ethereum Isn't Fun Anymore

#415

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How is being able to do this good? There are reasons why this shit has been regulated.

It gives freedom to people, how is that bad? The whole point is that it's a permissionless, borderless technology that anyone can participate in. There's really nothing holding innovation back. Flash loans are an example of that innovation, where if you see an arbitrage opportunity in the market, you can profit from it even if you don't own huge capital, so it levels the playing field for all these financial actors.

>It gives freedom to people, how is that bad?

Well it's great in theory until you hit a problem nobody was incentivized to guard against the resulting failure cascades.

Re: Ethereum Isn't Fun Anymore

#416

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So the stability fee you pay is 4.50%. You're still holding on to your assets appreciation, so if Bitcoin continues to appreciate at 300% per year, the 4.50% is a drop in the bucket and you didn't have to pay a capital gains tax. Eventually, some companies are working on tokenizing homes, so once that happens, you could potentially deposit that as collateral just as easily, but that's still far out.

This. It took me a long time to understand this. I was so focused on the volatility that I failed to look at the larger trend. It clicked for me only a couple of months back.

Same here, it took me a while to understand why anyone would get an over-collaterized loan until it just clicked, then I was like this is the future, it doesn't make any sense to sell the most valuable and appreciating asset ever, but you can still use the money from it.

Re: Ethereum Isn't Fun Anymore

#417

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Borrowing, lending, decentralized exchanges, innovations like flash loans that are just not possible in current financial system. The sky is the limit in terms of innovations possible, it's literally some code running on the global computer that is Ethereum.

How does borrowing work in an automated, trustless environment? Doesn’t someone have to decide whether you’re likely to pay back the loan with money you haven’t earned yet?

You have to put down collateral. Same idea as reverse mortgages on houses, or taking out an RSP-backed LOC.

Re: Ethereum Isn't Fun Anymore

#418

The Hacker News community has long been anti-crypto, and as someone deeply involved in the space, these long threads of complaints and diatribes are difficult to handle. Everyone is missing so much context. Ethereum gas prices are astronomical because there's unprecedented demand to use the network: NFT art and collectibles are exploding (NBA TopShot, Foundation, SuperRare, Rarible, OpenSea, etc.) at the same time De…

As an outsider missing context, what are the answers to the following? They are all valid questions that come up every time, and aren't well answered, given my research into them. - Is the long term alternatives to PoW actually viable, given the huge power consumption of cryptocurrency currently? - Are the valid use cases (other than drugs, ransomware and speculation) worth the valuation? - If Tether collapses, due t…

1. This has been resolved for years. See Celo and NEAR as examples of fully-programmable Proof of Stake blockchains that are live.

2. Yes.

3. It'll be a significant issue for decentralized exchanges and liquidity pools, but far from existential. The seasonal Tether FUD is generally overstated. (I have done a detailed analysis of this, but it exceeds the scope of this conversation.)

Re: Ethereum Isn't Fun Anymore

#419
post #261

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your correct to say the debt would need to be legally recognised, before it could be sold on to a legally registered debt collector. Aave for example has a UK Electronic Money Institution license, you might need some legal entity to take part in what I describe until laws catch up with innovation. Self driving cars, uber, Airbnb, face similar issues with regulation needing to adjust, that doesn't invalidate the innov…

I think the comparison to airbnb is revealing. Airbnb allowed individuals to rent their home to other individuals. But this is done through a centralized service. Scams and abuse exist, but the centralized service offers some nice benefits like reviews and bans for abusive participants. The innovative part was the new model of what you could rent, not the how of how you rent it. In comparison, the defi loan innovatio…

I suppose, with software eating the world, I want to believe we will collectively own and operate that software, rather than a particular company, that it will be open source, and if those who own it charge too much someone will fork it and outcompete them.

Re: Ethereum Isn't Fun Anymore

#420

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I know someone who got a 7 figure loan backed by cryptocurrency collateral in a matter of minutes using makerdao. The best part? They didn't even had to provide their name. This is the future folks, I highly recommend that you actually try some of these projects before writing them off.

Rich person gets easy loan and other news at 11.

That's what happens when you have an economy based on (interest bearing) loans.
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