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

Post by doom » Mon, May 31, 2021, 7:20 AM UTC

strangescript wrote: post #750

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 mean it took a decade for that internet you are describing to form in the 90s from its inception in the 80s. Even then, only a small fraction of people were participating. BC has value because it a limited supply of a unique item that can be mathematically verified, even if it never solves all problems its advocates claim to want to solve in the world. It might not have value to you personally, but it currently doe…

Post by doom » Mon, May 31, 2021, 7:22 AM UTC

EricMausler wrote: post #624

ffggvv wrote: post #581

Earlier quoted context omitted.

the problem is there’s always someone knew who hasn’t been fooled by it, and it can sound good at first. i remember i believed in it in 2013 before becoming disillusioned. but there’s people who first bought it in 2020 who tell me i don’t understand ot

Smart contracts seem legitimately useful. Am I missing something here?

Post by nostrademons » Mon, May 31, 2021, 7:41 AM UTC

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…

Post by [deleted] » Mon, May 31, 2021, 7:50 AM UTC

aeternum wrote: post #369

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…

"A lot of observers", "Many people say", "Everyone says". Let's stop using weasel words, if you consider yourself a techie, come up with some real evidence-based arguments.

Post by idlewords » Mon, May 31, 2021, 8:03 AM UTC

mthoms wrote: post #693

idlewords wrote: post #639

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I seriously considered acceptiong bitcoin payments (it was a fad, why not) but did not want to connect something like Mt. Gox to my bank account. That was the stumbling block for me. It did not occur to me at the time that I should hoard these payments until they were worth millions in 2021; back then we were still thinking of cryptocurrency in terms of something you'd get paid in and convert to a bank balance.

If you were cashing out as the money was coming in, then you wouldn't have lost all of it in a "hack", would you? So, which is it? Would you have lost all of it in a hack or would you be withdrawing straight to a bank balance because you abhor "hoarding"? It can't be both.