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

news.ycombinator.com

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

#81

Post by Victerius »

tomiplaz wrote: post #63

I don't think you understand what Bitcoin has brought to the table. Consider its fundamentals and its network effect. Other blockchain tech, most prominently permissioned blockchains, should be reprobated, since they don't require blockchain tech and could be better implemented using tech that relies on standard database systems.

What Bitcoin has brought to the table:

- More convenient ways for malicious individuals to conduct ransomware attacks

- Fraudulent exchanges

- Persistent and global GPU shortages

- Anonymity to criminals

- Staggering consumption of real-life energy supplies, produced mostly with fossil fuels

What Bitcoin has not brought to the table:

- A store of value

- A trusted unit of account

- A widespread medium of exchange

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

#82

Post by ancientworldnow »

arcticbull wrote: post #57
kriops wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

None of the people I know involved with crypto, including miners, daytraders, and HODLers, have not crushed the market in the last nine years. Also, if mainstream crypto is a Ponzi scheme, how is fiat currency not?

> None of the people I know involved with crypto, including miners, daytraders, and HODLers, have not crushed the market in the last nine years. This is what we call survivorship bias. > Also, if mainstream crypto is a Ponzi scheme, how is fiat currency not? This is utter nonsense. Fractional reserve lending means that money enters the supply on loan . It has to be returned to the issuer, and once its returned, it bl…

Should let forex traders know that they can't make money on USD.

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

#83

Post by tlogan »

I do not know what to tell you. This is like Albania pyramid scheme in late 90s.

When I see Matt Damon, Tom Brady, Elon Musk, etc promoting NFTs it reminds so much of that. Now I see ads on YouTube telling people to take their 401k and invest in NFTs..

The only way we fix this with some laws - but even Elizabeth Warren is silent. We are fucked and I’m very pessimistic about the outcome.

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

#85

Post by momojo »

arcticbull wrote: post #49
unemphysbro wrote: post #19

why? 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.

The answer is pretty straight-forward. Every time we tried this before it collapsed into a giant ball of flame. Nothing crypto is producing is new. We've had stablecoins before in the form of wildcat banks. [1] They were backed at some point by barrels of nails with a few flakes of gold on top, and what little gold there was, was spirited around from bank to bank in front of the inspectors. That ended predictably. We…

> Crypto hasn't created anything new fundamentally

Orchids and Baseball cards and Beanie-Babies. We don't need a decentralized immutable, distributed ledger to verify something's value. We're already good at prescribing disproportionate value to arbitrary things. I don't think we ever cared that it was centralized or not.

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

#86

Post by exdsq »

Oh f** off. You know what’s even more damaging? Social networks impact on democracy in Western countries. Data mining from big tech and the impact on an individuals right to privacy. Making systems deliberately addictive which is highly likely to be related to the rise in mental health issues.

Bad crypto projects will die out. Maybe the tech will work for some use cases, like Visas work in the space, maybe it won’t. Crusading against a technology that you probably don’t understand entirely is frustrating to read, flame-war inducing, and repetitive on HN. Everyone understands that it’s like marmite, you either really like it or really hate it, but there are far more important things to take a moral stance against than blockchain tech. I wish we’d all just move on and talk about other things.

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

#87

Post by d--b »

The worst part of it is the carbon cost to be frank, it's ridiculous.

But regardless, no one cares. I've been telling people for years, but all you get is either: "screw you, I didn't invest, and look where it's at now." or "well I was right not to listen to you".

Hopefully the Ponzi scheme stops with the fed tightening policy.

Oh, and it has expanding into the average consumer markets. A lot of retired people I know are in.

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

#89

Post by 2pEXgD0fZ5cF »

logicalmonster wrote: post #68

> what a nightmarish step backwards it is for developers concerned with cost, speed, privacy, safety, and ease. 1) There's a lot of research and development into blockchain technology by very smart people. The systems are improving. What technology we'll have 5, 10, or 25 years from now is going to be much different than what exists now. It's a lack of imagination to think that because crypto is "slow" now (and not a…

> A centralized system can ban you because of what you say or even because of who you are.

So can anyone who builds a service on top of blockchain technology™ which is something a user ultimately has to interface with. Just because you have some unremovable flags set on your magical decentralized database that doesn't mean a service can't choose to ignore it.

> eliminate corruption

> Imagine a stock market that ran on some next generation blockchain tech that was perfectly transparent without any doubt about the number of shares in existence. No more dirty tricks or fraud possible.

Please elaborate, how does any of what you vaguely describe "eliminate corruption". How would it prevent dirty tricks and fraud?

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

#90

Post by rapind »

lostmsu wrote: post #77
ctvo wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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?

How can anyone answer such a massive question honestly. What are the ramifications of any socially entwined technology?
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