Live data from Hacker News

U.S. Secret Service Launches Cryptocurrency Awareness Hub

secretservice.gov

301–310 of 312 posts

Re: U.S. Secret Service Launches Cryptocurrency Awareness Hub

#301

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Deflationary currency encourages savings, inflationary currency encourages spending. We're just so accustomed to a world where our money is steadily becoming worthless that sometimes we forget there are other options.

The "inflation/deflation" argument is a red herring. The shape of mining curves is much more important than their upper limit. For all of the bluster that deflationary systems are better for the little guy because their wealth isn't eaten by inflation, the logarithmic mining curves are the biggest source of wealth consolidation seen perhaps in human history, shifting absolutely bonkers amounts of wealth from latecome…

Every year the federal government is creating trillions of new dollars diluting the value of your money and shifting the wealth to whoever gets their hands on that new currency, which is mostly large corporations and the wealthy.

Early adopters making a bunch of money doesn't concern me at all because that's a short-term issue compared to the USD wealth transfer which will continue forever into the future.

Crypto is new, and there's definitely a lot of volatility there with new coins popping up and being destroyed far more frequently than legacy currencies. I expect this will die down over time.

FWIW my time horizon for thinking about these things is 50+ years.

Imagine I tried to convince you to use my new foo-coin. The hand full people of who have the most foo-coins can issue themselves as many new foo-coins as they want, but nobody else can create any foo-coins. You would probably think this is a nonsensical currency that no one would think is reasonable to use. Except that is practically how the USD works. The USD is designed specifically for the purposes of corruption.

Re: U.S. Secret Service Launches Cryptocurrency Awareness Hub

#302

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I for one am surprised by the negative sentiment only because the tech industry seems to be all about it. Between the prevailing trend of rent-seeking subscriptions and shoving NFTs/blockchain into anything that some knucklehead thinks it will fit in, tech is very much becoming grift culture as the nerds get run over by sharks, business types, and crypto bros

that trend started 30 years ago

The difference is they're so much better at it now.

Social media allows for efficient targeting, and even if you know how marketing works it will work on you eventually.

Re: U.S. Secret Service Launches Cryptocurrency Awareness Hub

#303
post #156

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> human sentiment - a very fickle input Ordinary accounting principles already have a concept for this: goodwill. If a business's valuation exceeds the net of its tangible assets minus liabilities, then that intangible asset is called goodwill. Goodwill is neither a strange concept nor inapplicable to virtual currencies/assets. Instagram's value as a business entity (yes, I know it's owned by Meta) clearly exceeds th…

> A competitor could duplicate everything Instagram does, but the competitor wouldn't be as valuable as Instagram. You left out IP other than source code, specifically all the User Generated Content they have.

Doesn't matter. The competitor could have a (legal) real-time mirror of all the UGC, but no users would interact with it -- they'd give their likes and comments to the real Instagram. Nobody would visit the competitor's app to post new UGC, either -- people post on Instagram for the likes and comments.

The value is in the network, not the IP.

Re: U.S. Secret Service Launches Cryptocurrency Awareness Hub

#304

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am probably not going to change your mind. But I think some stuff you should consider are: Is the volatility an inherent problem built into the code and design of bitcoin et al? Or does the volatility stem from external factors like it being new, difficult to value, and much lower market cap then other currencies? I personally believe that bitcoin's volatility is not by design and will not last forever. Secondly, y…

Yes, gold is another awful deflationary currency that drives people to poverty. The vast majority of people were poor on the gold standard . (Consider also, how much https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cross_of_Gold_speech spoke to the people). In any case, crypto isnt a currency. Comparing it to any currency presumes vastly too much, let alone "fiat" which has enabled the fastest increase in general wealth in human histor…

You have failed to acknowledge or address any of the points I brought to your attention. I didn't think I would change your mind anyhow

Re: U.S. Secret Service Launches Cryptocurrency Awareness Hub

#305
post #52

I’m blown away by how anti-crypto this discussion is. I hadn’t realized how negative the prevailing sentiment is on Hacker News. One argument seems to be that cryptocurrency is purely speculative, which is apparently a dirty word. What about the stock market? What about any kind of investment? If you truly believe that cryptocurrency is the basis for a superior economic system, isn’t it rational and wise to put some…

Anti-crypto HN is real! I still have not found the HN-like community that gets cryptocurrencies. Maybe it's just being created today. People say Twitter but it's still pretty meme oriented. /r/ethfinance is ok but not enough content. Zero Knowledge podcast is solid but podcasts are one way communication. And the forums for cryotocurrency developers are beyond my level of tech knowledge. I wonder if at some point anth…

Ethereum Magicians

Re: U.S. Secret Service Launches Cryptocurrency Awareness Hub

#306

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Anti-crypto HN is real! I still have not found the HN-like community that gets cryptocurrencies. Maybe it's just being created today. People say Twitter but it's still pretty meme oriented. /r/ethfinance is ok but not enough content. Zero Knowledge podcast is solid but podcasts are one way communication. And the forums for cryotocurrency developers are beyond my level of tech knowledge. I wonder if at some point anth…

Oh, we “get” crypto. What we also “get”, and what crypto people don’t, are the systems crypto is trying to replace and why the aspects crypto people think are flaws (centralization, arbitration, ability to reverse transactions) are all features

> (centralization, arbitration, ability to reverse transactions) are all features

Don't sweat, this will all take place on Layer 2.

Re: U.S. Secret Service Launches Cryptocurrency Awareness Hub

#307

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So, assuming it's around that long, what happens in 2140? Infinite value?

Not really. Historically, no global currency since the Byzantine Solidus (whose practical dominance vaned with the Fourth Crusade in 1200-something) has lasted longer than 80-100 years. So, Bitcoin isn't even trying to do so.

[deleted]

Re: U.S. Secret Service Launches Cryptocurrency Awareness Hub

#308
post #174

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s becoming widespread with all of the apps, super bowl ads, and reduced friction in getting into crypto “investing”. It used to be people who purchased crypto had to know what they were doing (and know the risk). Now anyone can buy crypto without any understanding of anything after seeing a 30 second commercial about smart investing.

I think you're not understanding. While a bunch of people losing money is bad, it wouldn't create another Great Depression, per se. A huge investment bank with millions of counterparties going under absolutely could cause massive, long term damage to both the financial markets and the real economy. For example, people losing their hats in crypto wouldn't cause commercial paper markets to dry up. A big IB going down a…

Anyone with a smart phone can now spend their life savings on crypto or sports betting with almost zero friction.

We have a trillion each in student loans, auto, and credit card debt. Those (besides student loans) have requirements for credit worthiness. So those people were screened and some weren’t allowed to take on debt.

Not handled well (or ignored because it’s not viewed as a systemic risk), it’s a non-negligible portion of the population that is financially wrecked and unable to meet their debt obligations. And we can’t just make policy that says the idiots that blew their money on gambling and crypto don’t need to pay back their debt… it gets ugly fast.

Re: U.S. Secret Service Launches Cryptocurrency Awareness Hub

#309
post #213

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If it gets bad enough, it will increase the number of consumers who are defaulting on credit cards, mortgages, auto loans, and student loans.

likely not, the dotcom bubble was a big deal but it wasn't catastrophic like 2008 was and that's because of the greater coupling with financial institutions.

Look at the percentage of retail investors in the dotcom bubble. It’s much easier to make very stupid plays with money today than it was then, and a lot of “average” people are going to get burned.

Re: U.S. Secret Service Launches Cryptocurrency Awareness Hub

#310

Earlier quoted context omitted.

US currency is backed by the government, a mortgage is backed by property. In my opinion, "physics and math" do not provide the same kind of underlying value as a government or real estate.

Then why has no government currency ever been perpetually valuable?

Bitcoin will not be perpetually valuable. No cryptocurrency will be.

Forever is a mighty long time.

Post reply on HN