Crypto is libertarianism-as-code: it promises freedom for all, even from the state (or "cathedral" in Moldbugese), but it's really an unworkable scam whose actual effect is to enrich the founders and the investor elite at the expense of everyone else. Oh, and as a side effect, it contributes to destroying the environment while its proponents tell us this is a good thing.
The Handwavy Technobabble Nothingburger of Crypto
151–160 of 704 posts
Re: The Handwavy Technobabble Nothingburger of Crypto
#152Earlier quoted context omitted.
Once you accept that the future is unknown, you'll see that every asset is a speculative asset, no? For the longest time, real estate was assumed to be 100% safe until 2008, etc.
Just because the future is uncertain doesn't mean you can't do research to make a reasonable forecast. Typically speculation is specifically buying/selling without any reasoning other than 'I think someone will pay higher for this in the future'. Many assets don't even have to appreciate. A car is an asset if I have paid it off. I don't expect someone to pay me more than I paid for it unless it is a collectible or I…
Then I can say that I've done my research and I think it's reasonable that USD won't remain global reserve currency forever and that it's replacement won't be a governmental currency, but a decentralized one and Bitcoin would be the only reasonable candidate.
Does this mean that I'm not speculating all of a sudden because I've done research and came up with a reasonable forecast?
Re: The Handwavy Technobabble Nothingburger of Crypto
#153Earlier quoted context omitted.
>Now it turns out I have to turn around and trust a central authority anyways! That authority being the government that is handling the prosecution of MtGox for fraud and theft. In theory, DeFi can solve this. In practice it is hampered by poor UX and high transaction/gas fees. I think in the far future, the idea of ever having "your" assets in a wallet whose key you don't control will be seen as a ludicrous archaism…
> Sorry for your loss btw, that really sucks You and me both - 41 bitcoin at $4.17 a piece. Admittedly, if they hadn't been stolen I was planning on buying a 1/4 of weed with them, so I probably wouldn't be rich either way... shrug Fun story though - I can honestly say I spent more than USD 10 million in bitcoin on weed in college. Only about $500 at the time.
You know they recovered 150000 Bitcoin from a cold wallet and are going to repay holders?
Re: The Handwavy Technobabble Nothingburger of Crypto
#154"Any application that could be done on a blockchain could be better done on a centralized database."
The scientific community will disagree with this. The whole culture of independent peer review process assumes there is no centralized control over scientific conclusions, whose rigor stems from decentralized feedback. The time when centralized database (source of truth) became the basis of mainstream science was during the dark ages.
Re: The Handwavy Technobabble Nothingburger of Crypto
#155When it comes to crypto I am completely uninformed. In my uninformed opinion, I think there is probably something of value in crypto and the blockchain but I can't see it under the intense amount of bullshit the crypto community comes up with and I am not willing to dig through that mountain.
Re: The Handwavy Technobabble Nothingburger of Crypto
#156This entire post seems to avoid or lack the understanding of the basic reasons blockchain were created; that is, to offer a decentralized, permissionless, censorship-resistant network. This was Satoshi's vision, and those values are a blockchain's express priority over scale and efficiency. Centralization is great for speed and efficiency, not so great for protection against authoritarian actors (governments or centr…
We have one already: cash. As for protection against authoritarian actors. If your state has already gone full panopticon, crypto won't save you, indeed the state will mandate exclusive use of their chosen crypto, gaining even more visibility into your life. If your state has not yet done so, you should fight to preserve liberty and the rule of law. If your country turns into a full-out surveillance state, you are no…
No one in the thread has mentioned "overthrowing a state" except for you.
Re: The Handwavy Technobabble Nothingburger of Crypto
#157I think a lot of discussions around the utility of blockchains misses (or just ignores) a really subtle but important point: smart contract networks (like Ethereum) could be thought of like public utilities that are implemented via markets. And I think that perspective can unlock a lot of innovation.
If I want to launch a startup, I have to cover hosting costs, manage infrastructure (terraform, AWS/DigitalOcean, Docker, DNS, etc) and handle lots of other complexity that is incidental to what I'm actually trying to build. It really helps to have VC money to ease that pain - but VC money is a dangerous train to get on.
But if I can build my app using smart contracts, then they are always available to execute when needed - just pay to write/execute. I don't need to cover hosting costs or much infrastructure beyond some web interface (which I could just put on Netlify). That simplicity reduces the need for funding.
Any data or infrastructure that I put in place is - by default - still available if my startup fails, so users who put their content into the system can still get access to it even if I can't afford to pay the bills anymore.
And of course, other startups could immediately build on top of whatever I've created.
Honestly, using blockchains for money - while essential for some of this - is not the most interesting application.
Re: The Handwavy Technobabble Nothingburger of Crypto
#158I wonder how much of the Crypto hype is because the US banking system still lives in the 1980s or thereabouts. If everybody in the US had access to bank accounts with easy electronic transfers within 5 seconds for no charge, no chargebacks and so on, as people are used to in the EU, would people still be excited about Bitcoin?
The problem with bank accounts is the banks. The promise of crypto is that you don't need to trust any institution, such as a bank, to keep track of your money.
Re: The Handwavy Technobabble Nothingburger of Crypto
#159"self-automated bug bounties" is my new favourite phrase.
Re: The Handwavy Technobabble Nothingburger of Crypto
#160This particular source is extremely low quality and is motivated by the author's undisclosed competing product. I would like to see higher quality sources on the front page of hacker news one day.
> the author's undisclosed competing product Which is: http://adjoint.io "Adjoint digitises cash and settlement processes for multinational corporates."
I always assumed his anti-crypto writing was related to being in the Haskell community and a lot of Haskell community really going all-in for crypto at some point several years ago. I think because the problems were interesting and the type of hard that Haskell people like.
It's news to me he has other reasons to dislike crypto. I didn't know about adjoint, but that is very curious. I wonder which came first, the distaste or the financial company.
I suspect his opinion would be the same regardless of adjoint.