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An NFT That Saves Lives

paulgraham.com

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Re: An NFT That Saves Lives

#181

Post by AlexandrB »

knowaveragejoe wrote: post #161
hoppyhoppy2 wrote: post #6

Has Mr. Graham done an honest calculation of how many lives will be lost to the environmental impacts of NFTs if they become mainstream?

Why in HN of all places do people constantly have years-old takes on crypto? Ethereum is moving to proof-of-stake. Most other chains use some form of proof-of-stake. It's not like these projects are unaware of your criticisms, nor have they stood still since you stopped paying attention in 2017.

> Most other chains use some form of proof-of-stake.

I don't think this matters unless you weigh these chains by something like popularity or market cap - who cares if a blockchain used by a few hundred people is using PoS? Bitcoin and Ethereum are the two big ones and neither use PoS (yet)[1]. Also, we have new blockchains like Chia that have found novel ways to waste resources that don't involve PoW.

[1] People have been saying that Ethereum is "moving to proof-of-stake" for years. Here's an article saying it's going to happen in Dec 2020 after a Jan 2020 deadline was missed: https://www.exodus.com/blog/ethereum-proof-of-stake-date/ Is this time different? I don't know. But saying Ethereum is moving to proof of stake is like saying "the market is going to crash". Yes, maybe, but when?

Re: An NFT That Saves Lives

#182

Post by tomhoward »

dvt wrote: post #171
tomhoward wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Giant assumption that Silicon Valley VCs missed out on Bitcoin. YC invested in Coinbase in 2012. Andreessen Horowitz and Union Square Ventures invested in 2013. You don't think their partners bought at least a bit of Bitcoin then as well?

> You don't think their partners bought at least a bit of Bitcoin then as well? I have no way of knowing but I'd wager probably not; VCs invest in highly-speculative moonshot ideas all the time. Back then, crypto was mostly naïve zealotry. And these days, it's mostly greed. It seems people forgot BitTorrent circa 1999-2003 -- it's history literally repeating itself.

Marc Andreessen was publicly speaking of Bitcoin as an important technology in 2014 [1]. He sounded like a true believer then, not a moonshot speculator.

I remember Sam Altman (then YC president) tweeting about him and other YC partners trading Bitcoin in about 2014 too. And I heard of Peter Thiel having big Bitcoin investments several years ago.

It’s not so true that VC’s “invest in highly-speculative moonshot ideas”. YC does as their business model is to bet on a huge pool to catch the outliers. But traditional VCs have to defend their investments to LPs so have to be more prudent. Any VC investing in Bitcoin companies in 2013 was doing so because they personally believed Bitcoin had huge potential.

[1] https://www.econtalk.org/marc-andreessen-on-venture-capital-...

Re: An NFT That Saves Lives

#183

Post by Barrin92 »

fighterpilot wrote: post #179
libra1 wrote: post #151

While the calculation of $1,235 to save a life is very good, donating blood is arguably the most efficient way to save a life since it is free.

Is there an under-supply of blood in rich countries to the point where people are dying as a result? If 1 regular donor stopped donating, how many additional people will die?

There's lack of supply of some rare blood types[1]. Also relevant to point out, if you go donating blood don't just go after some disaster hits. It's a common occurrence that tons of people show up for blood donations after some tragedy hits but blood can only be stored a limited amount of time and it tends to be wasted. If you want to donate, go regularly.

[1]https://www.blood.co.uk/news-and-campaigns/the-donor-magazin...

Re: An NFT That Saves Lives

#184

Post by nrmitchi »

capableweb wrote: post #133
yawnxyz wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

well, some NFTs do have thousands copies, etc. — they're not always unique, but I get your point haha. Maybe they should have done it as a ICO / social coin instead :P

> well, some NFTs do have thousands copies, etc. — they're not always unique What? No. They are unique and not the same as the others, that's what makes them NFTs in the first place. A NFT that has thousands of copies is just a cryptocurrency... You might mean that there are "collections" of NFTs, where the artwork happens to be the same and the author is the same. But each individual piece of that is it's own NFT an…

You're just being extremely pedantic around the use of the word "copy" to try to make your point. If you have thousands of things where the artwork is the same and the author is the same, we have a word for that: "copies".

Putting an ID on each one doesn't make them any less "copies"; they're just numbered copies. Sure, you can call that a "collection" if you want, but they are a bunch of instances of the "same thing".

Re: An NFT That Saves Lives

#185

Post by ashtonkem »

criddell wrote: post #124
glitchc wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Has your past employer perchance switched from a "give what you can" to a subscription "pay X per month" model? The latter has proven to be remarkably unpopular with the public.

I'm only doing anonymous donations these days. Too many places do not respect your request to not be contacted in the future.

We donated to the EDF once; the sheer volume of junk mail they and their data broker sent us enraged us so much that we’ve sworn off ever giving them money again.

Re: An NFT That Saves Lives

#186

Post by _9omd »

bob33212 wrote: post #172
_9omd wrote: post #166

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the problem is you're looking at cryptocurrency with the wrong perspective, so you're missing the fundamental ways it can rewrite the entire world of finance. I imagine you're looking at this from a consumer perspective, and you trust your bank, have a stable government fiat currency to use, and a credit card to make easy transactions with, so you have little use for cryptocurrency. Yet with the internet you…

You are right, I am in country where there are enforceable laws and regulations. Maybe some developing countries can skip some of the legal and regulatory infrastructure and use software to solve those problems, similarly to how those countries skipped the wired telephone infrastructure and went directly to cell phones.

Spot on with the analogy of leapfrogging the land line technology. Also, just because you live in a country of law and order doesn't mean crypto doesn't have value there. Imagine missing the value proposition of the internet when it came out because you felt you lived in a country where you could trust the publishing and news industries to provide you with the best information!

Just as the internet unchained information from government and industry powers, cryptocurrency breaks the world of finance out of institutional control. This has the massive benefit of allowing bottom-up innovation, which is extremely valuable no matter which country you live in.

Re: An NFT That Saves Lives

#187

Post by p4bl0 »

selfhoster11 wrote: post #68
p4bl0 wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Destroying the environment I guess. And surfing on the sad hype that the NFT buzzword have.

Except that there are more power-efficient ways to build a blockchain than the Bitcoin approach. There's nothing inherent about NFTs that means they must destroy the earth.

There is nothing inherent about NFTs.

You got that right.

Re: An NFT That Saves Lives

#188

Post by _9omd »

graeme wrote: post #176
_9omd wrote: post #166

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the problem is you're looking at cryptocurrency with the wrong perspective, so you're missing the fundamental ways it can rewrite the entire world of finance. I imagine you're looking at this from a consumer perspective, and you trust your bank, have a stable government fiat currency to use, and a credit card to make easy transactions with, so you have little use for cryptocurrency. Yet with the internet you…

Chainlink sounds interesting. But how can you be sure about the data and the link? Insurers have sizeable fraud departments. If a system is unreversible and exists in a place without enforceable contracts, wouldn’t that allow for a large gaming opportunity?

It's probably best to read their whitepaper, as I don't know all the details off the top of my head, but they have a number of ways to prevent gaming the system. Of course, nothing is 100% sure, even Bitcoin can be attacked with enough power. It's about putting in place the economic incentives, such that the game theoretic best approach is to provide value to the network rather than trying to harm it.

So in the case of Chainlink the idea would be that it's much more profitable to be an honest data provider than a dishonest one, and each data source uses a number of independent data providers. If you act dishonestly you will lose out on the value you could have gained by acting honestly and also be penalized in the reputation system.

Re: An NFT That Saves Lives

#190

Post by coolestguy »

AlexandrB wrote: post #181
knowaveragejoe wrote: post #161

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why in HN of all places do people constantly have years-old takes on crypto? Ethereum is moving to proof-of-stake. Most other chains use some form of proof-of-stake. It's not like these projects are unaware of your criticisms, nor have they stood still since you stopped paying attention in 2017.

> Most other chains use some form of proof-of-stake. I don't think this matters unless you weigh these chains by something like popularity or market cap - who cares if a blockchain used by a few hundred people is using PoS? Bitcoin and Ethereum are the two big ones and neither use PoS (yet)[1]. Also, we have new blockchains like Chia that have found novel ways to waste resources that don't involve PoW. [1] People hav…

It's currently got PoS working alongside PoW - so it's already happening
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