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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

#301

Post by seibelj »

mondoveneziano wrote: post #250
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…

I am essentially pasting an old comment of mine: The Internet was always something where demand--and desired applications--were vastly over capacity and capability. From the moment computers were networked, more people wanted to do more things over those networks, and both infrastructure and underlying technology had to grow to barely keep up (or, in fact, could not keep up--many long desired applications only became…

Fees of blockchains are at times very high because the demand vastly exceeds their current transaction capabilities

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

#302

Post by jeofken »

idlewords wrote: post #252
ggreer wrote: post #209

Tweets like those are why Pinboard is one of the few Twitter accounts I've blocked. On certain issues, the author loves to righteously sneer. It annoys the hell out of me because when he's not sneering, he can be a knowledgeable and clear thinker. He's like a glass of wine with a single fly in it. This behavior isn't just annoying to others; it's harmful to his own goals. If Maciej had hedged his bets and accepted Bi…

Let's be clear that if I had accepted Bitcoin payments in 2013, I would have then lost them all a year or two later when my exchange got hacked. That would make me an even more bitter person now. I can't remember ever calling for a ban on cryptocurrency. If you're remembering something I'm not, then please correct me.

Let me know if you want a hand in setting up a private key on a normal computer

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

#303

Post by paulgb »

fleddr wrote: post #279
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…

This huge silent majority that know it is a scam doesn't exist. Crypto is so large, complex and fast-moving that it takes thousands of hours to grasp. If I'd make a list of 100 questions regarding crypto, an exam so to speak, I am reasonably sure that this silent majority can't even answer 5% of the questions. Because they don't know crypto. At all.

> If I'd make a list of 100 questions regarding crypto, an exam so to speak, I am reasonably sure that this silent majority can't even answer 5% of the questions.

I'd reckon that the average HN cryptocurrency skeptic would do better than the average person who's actually invested in crypto.

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

#304

Post by djmashko2 »

fleddr wrote: post #279
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…

This huge silent majority that know it is a scam doesn't exist. Crypto is so large, complex and fast-moving that it takes thousands of hours to grasp. If I'd make a list of 100 questions regarding crypto, an exam so to speak, I am reasonably sure that this silent majority can't even answer 5% of the questions. Because they don't know crypto. At all.

I'd be interested in seeing this exam!

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

#305

Post by zzzeek »

harwoodleon wrote: post #211
meowkit wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

lighting the earth's natural resources literally on fire to create currency is pretty violent towards human life.

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

#306

Post by mthoms »

idlewords wrote: post #252
ggreer wrote: post #209

Tweets like those are why Pinboard is one of the few Twitter accounts I've blocked. On certain issues, the author loves to righteously sneer. It annoys the hell out of me because when he's not sneering, he can be a knowledgeable and clear thinker. He's like a glass of wine with a single fly in it. This behavior isn't just annoying to others; it's harmful to his own goals. If Maciej had hedged his bets and accepted Bi…

Let's be clear that if I had accepted Bitcoin payments in 2013, I would have then lost them all a year or two later when my exchange got hacked. That would make me an even more bitter person now. I can't remember ever calling for a ban on cryptocurrency. If you're remembering something I'm not, then please correct me.

You seem like a very smart and highly technical person so I find it incredibly hard to believe you would have left vast sums of crypto on an unregulated exchange.

You're either being dishonest here or you consider yourself extremely naive.

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

#308

Post by ertian »

msoad wrote: post #291
fleddr wrote: post #264

I could waste a huge amount of time refuting the author's points, but will make it more of a meta comment. Crypto is vast, complex, and inherently not suitable for binary thinking. I've studied the space for months and have come to the conclusion that crypto is two-sided in almost every aspect. Many/most coins are speculative, which you can associate with words like "greed" and "casino". Yet also provide wealth savin…

Crypto == Cryptography over here. Just FYI

Huh? Not in the original article, or in OPs reply, unless I'm seriously misunderstanding him. He's talking about the pros/cons of cryptocurrency.

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

#309

Post by ArkanExplorer »

bo1024 wrote: post #175
shafyy wrote: post #96

The issue of the "promise" of cryptos (and blockchain in general) is that it tries to solve problems that are not tech problems. They are mostly political/governmental problems that are solved by a working democracy. In countries where there is no working democracy, the dictator won't give two shits if this NFT proves that you own this piece of land before taking it from you. Blockchain in itself is not something tha…

Actually, my understanding is that cryptocurrencies are having impact in developing countries. They can address hyperinflation, access to financial services, general friction in exchanging money etc.

The people who have the capability to use and exchange cryptocurrencies in developing countries are those who already have local or foreign bank accounts denominated in USD or EUR.

These same people then mine coins in those countries, utilising cheap or subsidised electricity, resulting in power shortages.

As we have seen in Turkey, these exchanges can be easily shut down, or the founder can simply disappear with all the cash.

These are not really long term solutions, and the existence of cyrptocoins is probably making the individual lives of people in the 3rd world worse.

I think its more likely that if these grey-market coins didn't exist, the local tech bros in the 2nd/3rd world would actually be pushing Governments to improve general financial regulation and stability, and building a proper series of banking companies themselves.

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

#310

Post by ahallock »

john_alan wrote: post #13

Hacker news is holistically anti cryptocurrency. Which disappoints me. It has virtues. As someone who works in applied Cryptography and has also worked for the European Central Bank, we need “crypto”. 1) seigniorage is an abused privilege. Source: US debt ceiling at 27TRN. 2) permissionless money has value, I cannot send more than 5k a day using my bank. I can send any amount using crypto. I also don’t need two utili…

You're not wrong, and you have some good points here, especially about the banking limits. I'm not sure where the cynicism comes from, but HN seems very hostile to this space.
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