Careful using the term ‘ponzi’ - they’ll show up and argue with you on semantics of what to call the scam while ignoring your other (valid) arguments.
Tell HN: We have a responsibility to speak out against blockchain technologies
11–20 of 393 posts
Re: Tell HN: We have a responsibility to speak out against blockchain technologies
#12My brother is currently working in the field. It brings him good money. Now, really good money. His work is 100% clean per se (infrastructure for mining). I don't feel any moral grounds to say anything to him, he does it for engineering and fun and really actualizes himself. He is my older brother finally creating something meaningful for people and having rightful rewards. He is hidden in the moral waves, harvesting…
I have friends who have made millions from crypto. But every dollar they made is a dollar that someone else paid into the system, that that person is going to lose when the bubble bursts. Enabling that loss is not morally clean.
Taking your logic to its conclusion, any stock or other kind of trading should be banned because it will enable some people to lose money at some point. To clarify, is that your position, and if not, why not?
Re: Tell HN: We have a responsibility to speak out against blockchain technologies
#13When it comes up, I explain my position and move on. Sometimes, you need to learn for yourself. But with a good lesson comes a fresh perspective. Perhaps the general public will become more skeptical of 'technology' and make a greater effort to understand it themselves.
Re: Tell HN: We have a responsibility to speak out against blockchain technologies
#14Taking the premise of this at face value then these people are just going to get scammed on something else. There is a fairly sizable segment of the population that is unable to be anything but poor as they invest in get rich quick garbage.
And they always will. Maybe it is crypto, or maybe it is LuLaRoe or Beanie Babies. There is no saving them.
Re: Tell HN: We have a responsibility to speak out against blockchain technologies
#15From a technical perspective you are correct. However, in the midst of a mania, unfortunately nobody is going to listen to a group of engineers telling them about the dangers of blockchain. The only thing that will, and can, stop the madness is politicians getting off their backsides and implementing related laws and regulations. If you want to talk to anyone, and have any potential effect, talk to the people in gove…
I think that there is still time to inform general consumers so the vast majority are aware of the dangers before cryptocurrencies are made friendly enough to use for the average non-tech or finance folk. We are definitely hitting a point where these scams have to reach out beyond crypto-bros, finance gamblers, and the tech-savvy so that they can sustain the pyramid - and if people are aware before that happens, hopefully the bubble will burst and the fad will end.
Re: Tell HN: We have a responsibility to speak out against blockchain technologies
#16I mean I graduated top 5% of my class and make early 6 figures. My friend who graduated bottom 5% is now a crypto millionaire living in Dubai. Meanwhile I can write complex Scala code but I have no idea what blockchain , NFT , crypto is all about apart from the fact that it made my friend rich and made early adopters rich . How , why , when I don’t know . What’s the gain, purpose of it - I don’t know . Then again I don’t know what’s the purpose of data processing for ad-tech ML models and how it helps humanity either . The world is a Ponzi scheme . Can I go back to 1995?
Re: Tell HN: We have a responsibility to speak out against blockchain technologies
#17The blockchain is fine though. That's like trying to tell people to stop using linked lists or object-orientation; you're trying to disseminate a technical detail for an audience that doesn't understand nor care.
The modern crypto market is a disaster because cryptocurrency is a fiat, not a security or trading asset. People insist on it being the new gold though, so it's weaknesses are exploited and people get scammed left right and center. It's not surprising that when you abuse technology, bad things happen; it's put us in a situation where we're desperately trying to make these platforms safe for purposes they were never intended to fill. Of course there are going to be problems.
Even though I think NFTs are gaudy wastes of time, and Bitcoin is an inside joke for long-running IRC chats, I don't really care that much if the concept of a blockchain lives or dies. If anything, I'm glad that the recent publicity has gotten people to care about actually interesting and meaningful technology like IPFS and hashing algos.
Regardless of what any of us say, do or express, the blockchain is explicitly designed to keep on trucking. There's nothing you can do now, the only "ethical" way out is to ignore it and hope that your silence on the topic encourages other people to stop using it too. In the meantime, new technology is going to continue to be new, and gulliable individuals will continue to be scammed anywhere they choose to put their wallet on the line. There really is nothing new under the sun; not Bitcoin, not the blockchain, and certainly not scamming people online.
Re: Tell HN: We have a responsibility to speak out against blockchain technologies
#18I find it strange that people keep promoting that YouTube documentary. Ignoring tone issues, there is a lot of cherry picking and other logical fallacies. For example, he talks about how terrible Tether is and then completely ignores USDC. He also claims that none of the popular blockchains can scale, but Solana is frequently in the top 5 most popular cryptocurrencies.
It seems to me that people that do an hour of research are polarized hard. Either love it or hate it. The more time you spend understanding the space the more nuanced it becomes. Many are using the technology to facilitate scams and overpromising, but that doesn't make the technology fundamentally useless or bad.
Re: Tell HN: We have a responsibility to speak out against blockchain technologies
#19why? i think it's the coolest thing ever.
anyone can write a contract to automate taking out a loan, investing it, and pulling out the money, develop exotic securities, and bespoke arbitration. anyone can do it regardless of credentials or connections; just a month of learning.
pretty darn cool to have unbridled access to a distributed computer.
Re: Tell HN: We have a responsibility to speak out against blockchain technologies
#20I really don't follow. Can anyone enlighten me? I used to go with the casual notion 'tech isn't evil' / 'even a chair can be used as a weapon'. What have I missed here for blockchain?