Live data from Hacker News

Andreessen on Crypto

marginalrevolution.com

21–30 of 110 posts

Re: Andreessen on Crypto

#21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So far the only mass use-case for crypto has been speculation, so the only success story being Coinbase is fitting.

> So far the only mass use-case for crypto has been speculation... so you can't send crypto to another person? i'm confused. to downvoters: When you say the mass use case, you mean everyone is using crypto to scam each other? So there is absolutely no other good usecase for crypto and we should ban it completely?

So there is absolutely no other good usecase for crypto and we should ban it completely?

I don’t think we should ban everything that has no valid use case. Maybe someone will come up with one eventually. For now, it’s all get rich quick all the time.

Re: Andreessen on Crypto

#23
post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the US, higher small business tax rates are championed solely by the left. This fact is more accurate in characterizing left/right centralized authoritarianism than tech metaphors ever could.

Is there someone out there campaigning on "increase taxes on small business"? I think this is a strawman, "tax the rich" doesn't mean "tax the corner baker".

IDK how is it in the US, but where I live, additional regulations are more of a burden than taxation per se, and compliance with new regulations is usually easier for established big players than for the corner bakers.

Re: Andreessen on Crypto

#24
So says the guy with a gigantic stake in cryptocurrencies. Screw him for making my choice of technology a political statement or making technology simply an extension of a political view.

I think this says more about Andreessen than it does about technology. Andreessen is pushing cryptocurrencies and his motivation is clearly political.

Re: Andreessen on Crypto

#25

For everybody saying cryptocurrency has no use, you must not remember how much trouble society had envisioning the uses for the very internet upon which we are now posting. Here's an example of a use case recently gaining ground. https://mobile.twitter.com/BrantlyMillegan/status/1402388133... I don't have a crystal ball, but it seems foolish and short-sighted to imagine we are certain that there are no legitimate use…

I am so unbelievably sick of hearing this from bitcoiners.

It just isn't true. At all. There is zero comparison to be made between crypto and the early Internet, its incredibly dishonest.

Re: Andreessen on Crypto

#26

This is an ahistorical and backwards analogy. Historically the left/right political divide goes back to the French revolution where the rights side of their parliament supported the monarchy and the left opposed. From this perspective AI would seem more centralized, authoritarian, and right-wing, while open networks are more democratic, distributed, and left-wing.

Perhaps a more likely split would be along authoritarian/libertarian lines. That said, early enthusiasts notwithstanding, the majority of businesses are likely far more interested in the profit potential than political or ideological aspects of technology.

Even so, the libertarian right is a much more recent beast than the libertarian left. The latter predates the former by over 100years.

Re: Andreessen on Crypto

#28
> we can now, in theory, build Internet native contracts, loans, insurance, title to real world assets, unique digital goods (known as non-fungible tokens or NFTs), online corporate structures (such as digital autonomous organizations or DAOs), and on and on.

I'm so tired of this stupid mantra that crypto-addicts keep repeating.

1. You can't put real world events into a blockchain in a decentralized manner. In no fckn way. How are you gonna put a result of a sports event into a blockchain? By mining what? It's ridiculous. It always should be an oracle, authority, company, government, etc, i.e. a centralized trusted entity.

2. Loans. Yeah, loans to anonymous entities that can just transfer money to another wallet without any possibility of reversal.

3. Digital ownership. It's nothing without a possibility of a forceful defense of this ownership. You bought a house on a blockchain, but previous owners don't want to leave. What are you gonna do? Call Satoshi?

Re: Andreessen on Crypto

#29
post #24

So says the guy with a gigantic stake in cryptocurrencies. Screw him for making my choice of technology a political statement or making technology simply an extension of a political view. I think this says more about Andreessen than it does about technology. Andreessen is pushing cryptocurrencies and his motivation is clearly political.

The nature of the cryptocurrency beast, with its endless land rushes, is that participants are constantly incented to act like shady penny stock boosters. There may be some true believers in there but it’s impossible to tell with all the chaff.

Re: Andreessen on Crypto

#30
Never look to people like Andreesen or Thiel for political advice.

Do they think that giant companies are run in a decentralized manner in any way? Walmart, Target, Delta, Southwest, Google, Facebook, etc, are all plagued by “central planning”, and resemble the USSR more than they resemble any right-libertarian ideal.

Never mind the fact that the word libertarian referred to left-libertarians until right-libertarians coopted it in the 60s. Left-libertarianism predates right-libertarianism by a century

Also, it’s rich for Thiel to talk about decentralization when he used his money and power to support Trump, the most authoritarian President in a while. Cut a right-libertarian, and a fascist bleeds.

Post reply on HN