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It's time for us in the tech world to speak out about cryptocurrency

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Re: It's time for us in the tech world to speak out about cryptocurrency

#211

Post by harwoodleon »

meowkit wrote: post #107
skrebbel wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why can't the tech be neat/super cool and primarily be used to run a scam? I mean bittorrent is neat tech as well but it's still primarily used for piracy. Doing a deep dive into how bittorrent works doesn't suddenly change the fact that 99.9% of torrents out there are violating somebody's intellectual property. All I'm saying is, there's lots of super neat tech out there that's primarily used for not-so-super-neat s…

I disagree with the characterization that the primary use is a scam. That’s like saying the primary use of email is to receive ads and phishing mail.

Absolutely.

And of course new sectors that are not established can seem like snake oil, simply because they are new industries.

The internet has steamrollered many industries and fundamentally changed the way they work.

Manufacturing, Music, Politics and now The final big boss, money.

It will take another ten years for this industry to mature. But in amongst the sham and drudgery we have the first non-violent system of currencies.

Re: It's time for us in the tech world to speak out about cryptocurrency

#212

Post by meowkit »

jakelazaroff wrote: post #79
meowkit wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I'm pretty sure it's nothing but a pyramid scheme, but I always gave the enthusiasts the benefit of the doubt. So go find out? I’m quoting you here for the “pretty sure” part. Do a deep dive. I’be done deep dives on Bitcoin, Ethereum, Cardano, Monero, Nano, Iota, Hyperledger, BSC, Uniswap, Tether, Chainlink and cursory glances at dozens of other coins/tokens. I’m a tech guy. I work on an operating system/embedded s…

> The author saying the “silent majority tech people” know its a scam is such nonsense to my experience. Every tech person I know thinks either A) its neat/super cool, or B) they don’t know anything about it besides memes. Counterpoint: most "tech people" I know — including people who have worked in crypto — both know about it and also think it's a scam.

That’s the real point. For the author, me, or you to claim what most tech people think is ridiculous.

Re: It's time for us in the tech world to speak out about cryptocurrency

#213

Post by icelancer »

amingilani wrote: post #8

> Cryptocurrency is sustained by a mix of money laundering, vaporware, fraud, ransomware, gambling, and delusion. It has no social benefit except helping end first dates fast > What we especially need to stress to regulators is that there's no relationship between the technical claims of cryptocurrency and our now over 13 years of experience. It's not decentralized, it's not a currency, it's not a store of value, and…

Ironically enough the Pinboard account is engaging in the same nonsense and rhetoric it accuses cryptocurrency supporters of, hoping no one will notice.

Re: It's time for us in the tech world to speak out about cryptocurrency

#215

Post by Graffur »

pavlov wrote: post #21

“But it’s like the early Internet!” shouted the Emperor’s coinholders. “The Internet wasn’t yet useful a mere, um, thirteen years after its invention either.” I can see how people in their twenties would fall for this argument because they can’t remember. The reality is that the internet was immediately extremely interesting (either useful or fun) for practically everyone who got access. Email and ftp alone were kill…

Pauli, what are you talking about? Bitcoin, Ethereum or Cryptokitties?

What group are you talking about when you accuse them of "Scientology-like groupthink"? What comparisons can you draw? I think it's important you back up and explain what you're saying.

Re: It's time for us in the tech world to speak out about cryptocurrency

#216

Post by gregable »

blurbleblurble wrote: post #60

I can understand peoples' frustration with the artificial scarcity, but would like to see this same energy over the artificial scarcity of housing and free time. The oligopoly of national money systems is currently failing to provide people with basic access to capital. There's nothing intrinsic about cryptocurrency that will necessarily help this or exacerbate it, but the fact that I can get better interest on US do…

Tons of other risky assets have high "interest rates". Sell puts on high volatility stocks for example.

Re: It's time for us in the tech world to speak out about cryptocurrency

#217

Post by mettamage »

skrebbel wrote: post #50

These two resonated with me: > A lot of intelligent observers look at cryptocurrency, see that it makes no sense, and reasonably infer that they must be missing something profound on the technical level. Tech culture has a nice tradition of not deriding new ideas, but we need to break it here and speak out > [non-tech people] don't see the huge silent majority of tech people who know it's a scam. That's on us It is o…

It’s not on tech people to evaluate business impact or societal impact or economic impact. Sure, tech people could do that but most of our time is spent on designing or implementing software.

Let other people (non-tech or hybrid) comment on the idea. They have time to think about this.

Tech people can only help by explaining in understandable ways how blockchain/cryptocurrencies work. 3Blue1Brown has a good video on it.

Let’s keep the culture of not deriding ideas. We can’t predict human behavior or the future of it. Maybe something beautiful comes out of it, or maybe it accelerates global warming. I trust other disciplines to comment on that.

Re: It's time for us in the tech world to speak out about cryptocurrency

#218

Post by zx2391 »

dadoge wrote: post #198
zx2391 wrote: post #183

I read a Blockchain book from O'Reilly in 2015, when it came out and it left me with the distinct impression that this "technology" is vaporous. It could do anything, yet, almost no examples to try out, let alone real-world successes. Over time I witnessed many "new" things, and the ones which stick typically have a specific aura to them, like a 10x simplification, or speedup or reduction in "noise". These things are…

Tell that to people in Nigeria, Venezuela and Argentina that have no control over their money. In Venezuela there is absolutely absurd inflation number there: like over 1,000%. Argentina it’s over 30% each year for several years. Bitcoin is a tool against oppressive governments

True, and people can use it today, that's for sure.

Re: It's time for us in the tech world to speak out about cryptocurrency

#219

Post by kemonocode »

alecbz wrote: post #150
idlewords wrote: post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When I say pyramid scheme, I don't mean it in the sort of philosophical way that you could apply to all fiat currency, but in the "OMG look at Tether" way.

Ah, I might be out of the loop. tl;dr?

Tether, which is the most used so-called "stablecoin" (As its value is pegged to the USD) is extremely seedy at best and has had brushes with the law already [0] or is outright a Ponzi scheme [1] and plenty of people arguing for/against crypto know and have said so already.

Personally, even though I'm a proponent of cryptocurrency in general, I wish it'd disappear in spite of any short and middle-term calamitous consequences on perceived value if that means one less "dumbed-down club" (Using dang's words) when it comes to discussing crypto.

[0] https://ag.ny.gov/press-release/2021/attorney-general-james-...

[1] https://www.singlelunch.com/2021/05/19/the-tether-ponzi-sche...

Re: It's time for us in the tech world to speak out about cryptocurrency

#220

Post by sneak »

lefrenchy wrote: post #193

One thing that I find so confusing in the crypto maximalist sphere is the obsession with decentralization of everything but also with mainstream adoption. Coinbase is centralization, bank adoption is centralization, etc... Also if “fear of regulation” causes massive sell-offs, doesn’t it totally fail at being the “anti-government” centralized currency? I’m also just not convinced total decentralization is good? I mea…

Cryptocurrencies love discussing their decentralization plans in their Telegram and Discord chats, deploying on AWS/GCE.
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