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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

#151

Post by mypastself »

useful wrote: post #113

Selling a future that hasn't happened is fine. If you saw the initial version of the internet or a cell phone you'd likely dismiss them. Crypto is rebuilding the same things that already exist but that process has the chance to remove people from a system who used to provide services and replace them with an algorithm. Most people would dimiss a NFT but some of the use cases could be great. If most laws/rules were en…

Wouldn’t most laws need a real-world source of truth and arbitration external to the network? It seems like a lot of work just to arrive at what is essentially centralization once again.

And the people who might have initially dismissed the early internet would likely have not understood it. A lot of NFT detractors are plenty tech-savvy.

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

#152

Post by tomp »

useful wrote: post #113

Selling a future that hasn't happened is fine. If you saw the initial version of the internet or a cell phone you'd likely dismiss them. Crypto is rebuilding the same things that already exist but that process has the chance to remove people from a system who used to provide services and replace them with an algorithm. Most people would dimiss a NFT but some of the use cases could be great. If most laws/rules were en…

You mainly spend money on lawyers when things go wrong (or in anticipation of things going wrong).

In crypto, when things go wrong they just fork the blockchain. YOLO

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

#153

Post by x3n0ph3n3 »

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…

> I still can't seem to wrap my head around how crypto functions... Makes me suspicious. It feels like the whole idea is to obfuscate it's functionality to the point it becomes this incomprehensible enigma - by design.

It's certainly not just obfuscation and smoke+mirrors. It's only as complicated as it has to be and the mathematics behind it are solid. Unfortunately, it is complicated enough that most people won't be able to easily understand it.

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

#154

Post by dotlog »

cfup wrote: post #72

I was involved in a blockchain (DeFi) startup. All the blockchain companies are mostly a huge pyramid scheme. The company I worked for has a lot of big claims, raised millions, wanted to solve world hunger, prioritized partnership, marketing, while having no working implementation. Others in the eco system are the same. The NFT scene is even more BS. It could destroyed uninformed people's life, just like gambling. Ho…

Was is literally a pyramid scheme that recruited people and paid people for getting new recruits? Or just a scheme?

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

#155

Post by wpietri »

doomroot wrote: post #97
wpietri wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mean, if you look at transaction cost, settle time, user friendliness, and currency risk, it doesn't even work as a medium of exchange, which is the definition of money. More than a decade on, approximately nobody uses Bitcoin for normal transactions. Compare with Venmo or MPesa, both of which launched around the same time, to se what actual digital money looks like. Both of those do way more transactions than Bitc…

Why does the bitcoin blockchain need to be used for normal transactions? Do you not think a neutral payment rail/unit of account between nation state level actor’s could be valuable?

Let me refer you back to the original paper: https://bitcoin.org/bitcoin.pdf

The goal was "a purely peer-to-peer version of electronic cash". That is, money.

If you are proposing a new goal, a settlement system for couple hundred named organizations with strong relationships, then a) that's not money, and b) the Bitcoin system is socially and technically wrong for that. But if we keep the goalposts in their original location, Bitcoin is clearly a failure when you look at how the competition has done.

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

#156

Post by wpietri »

mywittyname wrote: post #142
horsawlarway wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hard agree - the only thing bitcoin can reasonably be spent on for most folks is black market goods (usually drugs). Which is really why bitcoin exists as thing today, in my opinion. It was a way to pay for drugs over the internet. The rest of the pricing is purely speculation, and it hurts any real utility it might provide.

It does seem to be used by people transferring funds internationally, especially from SEA to the USA.

Oh? What percent of international transfers are using it?

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

#157

Post by hervature »

hanniabu wrote: post #80
hervature wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As the saying goes: not your keys not your wallet. This is the fundamental issue with the anonymity. You can prove you have access, but you cannot prove it belongs to you. The centralized/decentralized conversation often doesn't touch this aspect. When it comes to ownership, at some level, there needs to be a central power to enforce it as ownership is in itself a vague concept.

The path forward are contact wallets and dead man switches

Ah, so then possession becomes ten-tenths of the law. I'm not sure this is a system that we want. A system that allows for every day trading (buying something at a store) that requires a second piece of equipment to verify your identity that, if someone steals, there is no means of recourse. Sure, multiple wallets, something something, but this just sounds like a nightmare of record keeping where you offload a single point of failure to somewhere else (password manager to remember all your wallets).

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

#158

Post by k__ »

warkdarrior wrote: post #147
k__ wrote: post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

NFTs can be anything. I don't get the art focus. They can be a degree, a concert ticket, a driving license, a permission to a API service, equity to a company.

Out of the examples you gave, degrees, driving licenses, and permission to an API service are not suitable for NFTs, since they cannot/should not be traded. Presumably we do not want for people to sell their driving licenses or their degrees.

The (non-) fugibility of a token is just one aspect of it.

You can code a non-tradable NFT no problem.

Tradable NFTs are just the hype right now.

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

#159

Post by k__ »

rchaud wrote: post #141
k__ wrote: post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

NFTs can be anything. I don't get the art focus. They can be a degree, a concert ticket, a driving license, a permission to a API service, equity to a company.

So can blockchain, but the only use cases anybody has ever cared about are the get-rich-quick ones.

Yes, and that's sad. It has so much more potential.

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

#160

Post by wpietri »

horsawlarway wrote: post #74
wpietri wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mean, if you look at transaction cost, settle time, user friendliness, and currency risk, it doesn't even work as a medium of exchange, which is the definition of money. More than a decade on, approximately nobody uses Bitcoin for normal transactions. Compare with Venmo or MPesa, both of which launched around the same time, to se what actual digital money looks like. Both of those do way more transactions than Bitc…

Hard agree - the only thing bitcoin can reasonably be spent on for most folks is black market goods (usually drugs). Which is really why bitcoin exists as thing today, in my opinion. It was a way to pay for drugs over the internet. The rest of the pricing is purely speculation, and it hurts any real utility it might provide.

For sure. And I think that speculation (with attendant market manipulation) are the main observed purpose of it these days. The total drugs market is large, but I'd be surprised to learn that even 1% passes through all the cryptocurrencies put together. Especially Bitcoin given how traceable it is.
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