Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Tell HN: We have a responsibility to speak out against blockchain technologies

news.ycombinator.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

71–80 of 393 posts

Re: Tell HN: We have a responsibility to speak out against blockchain technologies

#71

Post by dgellow »

pabe wrote: post #43

DLTs are not the problem. The problem is idiocracy. Most people don't think anymore. Some people even buy NFTs thinking ownership right come with those - not even asking legal questions... DLTs can indeed be incredibly useful, e.g. when multiple parties use the tech as a trusted pseudonymous data log, e.g. drug tracking from production to pharmacies. Or decentralized certificate wallets which allow you to actually ow…

> The problem is idiocracy. Most people don't think anymore

Most people are dumb and uninformed, that’s not something that is going to change. If this new blockchain world that is being created only work for an imaginary world where agents are rational logical, and well educated the result will be disastrous.

Re: Tell HN: We have a responsibility to speak out against blockchain technologies

#72

Post by pcthrowaway »

invaliduser wrote: post #52
rschachte wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Blockchain is an immutable ledger. Sure there are scams, just like there are on the regular internet, however, I think there is a lot of potential for blockchain. We're in the early phases of it, but there is more to blockchain that just the currency aspect of it.

«We're in the early phases of it» I've been hearing this for years now. How long can something stay in early phases ?

Defi is roughly 2-3 years old, and smart contracts are less than 7.

To put it in perspective, when the internet was 7 years old, the world wide web didn't even really exist beyond a concept yet.

Re: Tell HN: We have a responsibility to speak out against blockchain technologies

#73

Post by rschachte »

invaliduser wrote: post #52
rschachte wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Blockchain is an immutable ledger. Sure there are scams, just like there are on the regular internet, however, I think there is a lot of potential for blockchain. We're in the early phases of it, but there is more to blockchain that just the currency aspect of it.

«We're in the early phases of it» I've been hearing this for years now. How long can something stay in early phases ?

Some things take time to develop, be adopted and optimized. Not everything in tech is a Javascript framework.

Re: Tell HN: We have a responsibility to speak out against blockchain technologies

#74

Post by phkahler »

I dunno. If big investors want to dump money into something that has ZERO real-world value and is just FOMO and GFT investing so be it. When people ask me about it I just say it's all a scam and they seem to accept that at face value since they couldn't really figure out what it's all about anyway. Keep your friends retirement funds out of it and let the rest play their game I say.

I wish I could make money on the ability to predict "that won't pan out" but I haven't figured out how to do that yet. Example: Fully autonomous self driving cars - level 5 stuff. People are finally realizing A) how hard that is in practice - it really takes AGI and B) the huge liability that comes with it. But hey, a lot of people have been employed for 10 years now and have some impressive lane followers and sign readers while some have actually learned a lot about AI (google). Still, I had no way to bet against it 5-10 years ago.

Re: Tell HN: We have a responsibility to speak out against blockchain technologies

#75

Post by econeuler »

It is important to inform people about the potential dangers with the technology and investing in it, especially since there are no regulations to create, e.g., new tokens. There are scams going on and it is easier to get away with it because it is an unregulated market. However, blockchain technology is an emerging area and it's bound to be chaotic in the beginning. We should highlight the risks but not condemn the tech. Also, stay positive!

Re: Tell HN: We have a responsibility to speak out against blockchain technologies

#76

Post by zozbot234 »

reincarnate0x14 wrote: post #53
ohazi wrote: post #32

Like many people back then, I also found the whole proof-of-work / blockchain concept to be interesting from a theoretical computer science / distributed systems perspective. But these days, I can't help but think that we've inadvertently created a paperclip maximizer without even bothering to create an AGI first. Humans are the AGI, and we're going to happily use more and more energy to play this stupid game for as…

The leviathan is loose and it's never going back in a pen until the whole thing collapses under the weight of the fraud. Even legal restrictions on it will only help a little bit as enough moneyed interests are invested in keeping the hype train rolling. I've consulted for several companies trying to do blockchain based non-money things and can't emphasize to them enough that no one outside computer science and math…

> can't emphasize to them enough that no one outside computer science and math fields will ever associate them with anything but cryptocurrency (and thus scams)

How so? "Private blockchains" (with no general access + cryptographic proof of commitment) are practically indistinguishable from plain old Merkle trees, and yet I don't see many people arguing that git is some sort of "scam" even outside the CS and math community.

Re: Tell HN: We have a responsibility to speak out against blockchain technologies

#77

Post by lostmsu »

ctvo wrote: post #62
ajkdhcb2 wrote: post #36

I disagree with your assumptions. There are many conflicting views, and to me it is an objective fact that barely anyone really understands the technology and what its ramifications will be. Morality and development is a very tricky thing. As an analogy, all of AI tech to me is leading toward a horrific future, but I don't see how anyone can stop that and Chinese autonomous military drones, mass surveillance etc; the…

> There are many conflicting views, and to me it is an objective fact that barely anyone really understands the technology and what its ramifications will be. This isn't a new paper on quantum computing. Many of us understand the technology quite well.

Technology maybe, but what about ramifications?

Re: Tell HN: We have a responsibility to speak out against blockchain technologies

#79

Post by _bfhp »

Do what Dan Olson is doing but directly at your local representatives who can't understand any of it. Condense the info into to a letter or a flyer and get it into their hands. If the issue is not already on your local representatives' plates tell them how it will become so in the future.
Post reply on HN