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Cryptocurrency is something people tell lies about in hopes of getting richer

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Re: Cryptocurrency is something people tell lies about in hopes of getting richer

#121

Post by zepto »

TomGullen wrote: post #84
marban wrote: post #5

The whole NFT craze lost me when tech founders I once highly respected started pushing and showing off their ugly gifs and trading cards on Twitter. Bad taste of the bored rich is not a new thing, but I hope NFTs won't become a noble tradition.

I must be getting old because I just don't get NFT's. They look stupid and I don't get why anyone would buy them. Declining tech companies and startups seem to be trying to crowbar them into their products much like Blockchain when it was new and shiny. Perhaps younger me would of seen something I can't anymore.

The emperor is dressed in NFTs.

Re: Cryptocurrency is something people tell lies about in hopes of getting richer

#122

Post by oyf »

doomroot wrote: post #107
oyf wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Since 1920, at least 55 hyperinflation events have taken place, destroying savings and creating economic hardship... Bitcoin offers the world an alternative – a sound monetary system outside the control of governments and central banks. The paper you linked doesn't exactly get off to a good start, considering there are ~1600-2200 dead/worthless cryptocurrencies (see below) and Bitcoin itself is incredibly volatile.…

> Bitcoin itself is incredibly volatile. Largely in the right direction.

Good point, but you have to consider that if we're talking about a scenario in which it's being used in the place of a national currency, the bigger picture matters less. If your paycheck can lose 20% of it's value in a few days you may not have the option to wait for it to possibly regain that value. Even ignoring the short term issues, I'm not convinced Bitcoin is any more protected from becoming totally worthless than any given fiat currency. I just can't see the scenario in which it solves or even helps the issue of hyperinflation in a way that fiat currency couldn't.

Re: Cryptocurrency is something people tell lies about in hopes of getting richer

#123

Post by overlaid »

space_rock wrote: post #31

The rebranding of MySQL as blockchain was a brilliant move for sales. Bit torrent is decentralized and it doesn't use "blockchain". "Blockchain" only works for money and nothing else

> The rebranding of MySQL as blockchain

Sadly this really is the most nuanced definition of "blockchain" that many people can understand

Re: Cryptocurrency is something people tell lies about in hopes of getting richer

#124

Post by landemva »

HelixEndeavor wrote: post #81

I won't pretend I'm a computer genius or anything, but I feel like I understand tech at least more than the average Joe - at least, I'm the designated IT guy for computer problems faced by anyone I know. The fact that, despite having it explained multiple times by multiple sources multiple ways, I still can't seem to wrap my head around how crypto functions... Makes me suspicious. It feels like the whole idea is to o…

'existential spiral of thoughts about how all value is just perceived and agreed upon'

Yes, you are awakening. Cultures seem to like jewelry and art.

Re: Cryptocurrency is something people tell lies about in hopes of getting richer

#125

Post by UncleMeat »

cryptica wrote: post #41
UncleMeat wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Resistant to centralized censorship (as you pointed out) I'd wager that most people don't care about this much, though it is real. Still, this can be achieved with signature-based authentication that doesn't require the tremendous waste of BTC. Just... tell the service your public key and sign a message when you sign up. Your key pair doesn't need to be associated with some distributed system for that to work. This…

>> This sounds like an anti-feature to me. Especially since it'd be foolish for a service to only support authentication via a blockchain. Imagine telling my grandmother that she needed to buy some btc in order to sign up for the service that hosted my wedding photos. This is different because your grandma would have to buy the tokens once and signup once and she will have access not only to the 'wedding photo servic…

> People who signed up early to the right blockchains will have priority access to certain software ecosystems and exclusive services which are only accessible to the richest among them (for example).

I cannot possibly imagine a world where services will choose to only permit authentication via some expensive blockchain such that they deny themselves access to markets outside of the global rich.

And telling my grandma "don't worry, the coins you don't understand will go up in price" is not going to help.

This is the core question: why is signature-based authentication using public keys associated with BTC wallets superior to signature-based authentication using public keys not associated with BTC wallets? As far as I can tell, the only benefit here is that now my identity on my photo sharing service can be linked to my identity on my wine rating service. Why do I want that?

Re: Cryptocurrency is something people tell lies about in hopes of getting richer

#126

Post by marcus_holmes »

cryptica wrote: post #23
mminer237 wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wouldn't that make it impossible to change your password if compromised?

Yes but it also makes it a LOT less likely that your passphrase would be compromised because it is never sent to any service over the wire; with blockchain signatures, your passphrase never needs to leave your own machine. So the service providers you log into never have any opportunity to even see your passphrase; they only see your signatures which proves that you know the passphrase. You could use a different prog…

If someone does steal your identity in this way, there's no way of getting it back. You can't appeal to any authority, because there's no authority to appeal to in a decentralised system. You literally have to start again and create a new identity.

So you're gambling bigger: less likely to have your identity stolen, but complete loss of everything to do with that identity, with no recourse, if it is stolen.

I'm not sure I like those odds.

Re: Cryptocurrency is something people tell lies about in hopes of getting richer

#127

Post by BTCOG »

Here's your seemingly month reminder that there is only one cryptocurrency. Bitcoin.

NFTs are epitome of tulip mania. Bitcoin, while it does increase in value due to low supply, is the only secure and actually fair escape hatch to the global monetary system and holds value globally. Proof of Stake, and every single coin below Bitcoin, copied from Bitcoin, are similar to fiat and centralized. Ethereum is the worst of the bunch and is scamming millions.

Re: Cryptocurrency is something people tell lies about in hopes of getting richer

#128

Post by SergeAx »

TomGullen wrote: post #84
marban wrote: post #5

The whole NFT craze lost me when tech founders I once highly respected started pushing and showing off their ugly gifs and trading cards on Twitter. Bad taste of the bored rich is not a new thing, but I hope NFTs won't become a noble tradition.

I must be getting old because I just don't get NFT's. They look stupid and I don't get why anyone would buy them. Declining tech companies and startups seem to be trying to crowbar them into their products much like Blockchain when it was new and shiny. Perhaps younger me would of seen something I can't anymore.

They don't look stupid, they are stupid outside of their blockchain. There's no way to force a proof of ownership between NFT and physical item.

Re: Cryptocurrency is something people tell lies about in hopes of getting richer

#129

Post by skinnyasianboi »

marban wrote: post #5

The whole NFT craze lost me when tech founders I once highly respected started pushing and showing off their ugly gifs and trading cards on Twitter. Bad taste of the bored rich is not a new thing, but I hope NFTs won't become a noble tradition.

It's not just ugly gifs. It's digital art, your online game items, concert tickets, supermarket vouchers and so on.

Quote from statista: "In 2020, global gaming audiences spent an approximate 54 billion U.S. dollars on additional in-game content". But the players don't own their purchases. You don't play the game anymore, servers go down or you get banned and all your stuff is gone. Think about that.

Edit: Of course my comment got nothing but down votes again on HN. Was worth a try anyway.

Re: Cryptocurrency is something people tell lies about in hopes of getting richer

#130

Post by SergeAx »

nradov wrote: post #102
TomGullen wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I must be getting old because I just don't get NFT's. They look stupid and I don't get why anyone would buy them. Declining tech companies and startups seem to be trying to crowbar them into their products much like Blockchain when it was new and shiny. Perhaps younger me would of seen something I can't anymore.

Beanie Babies also looked stupid. It's just another fad and bubble. https://www.wbur.org/hereandnow/2015/03/02/beanie-baby-bubbl...

At least you may physically own a beanie doll.
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