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Crypto is an unproductive bubble

alexkolchinski.com

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Re: Crypto is an unproductive bubble

#21

Post by woodruffw »

seibelj wrote: post #5

Counter point - art itself has absolutely zero non-monetary applications. If you disagree, then you must admit NFTs can be appreciated as art. If so, the argument of the OP is refuted. If you think art can be appreciated without being an NFT, then why pay any amount of money for any physical art when a super high resolution PNG does the same thing?

> If you disagree, then you must admit NFTs can be appreciated as art. If so, the argument of the OP is refuted.

This seems to be an object/reference mistake: NFTs (as we've been repeatedly told) are tokenizations of an asset, not the asset itself. You can tokenize anything, so of course there exist things represented by NFTs that are themselves are.

But NFTs themselves? They're not art, at least not until the Andy Warhol of SHA256 shows up.

Re: Crypto is an unproductive bubble

#22

Post by Ekaros »

seibelj wrote: post #5

Counter point - art itself has absolutely zero non-monetary applications. If you disagree, then you must admit NFTs can be appreciated as art. If so, the argument of the OP is refuted. If you think art can be appreciated without being an NFT, then why pay any amount of money for any physical art when a super high resolution PNG does the same thing?

Art itself often has material and labour value. And labour from real skilled worker. Not some arbitrary energy input.

NFTs as tokens not really. The art used in conjunction maybe. But the token is not art.

Re: Crypto is an unproductive bubble

#23

Post by charcircuit »

jmcgough wrote: post #19

One of the biggest drawbacks for blockchain is that transactions can't be revoked after the fact (with the only exception being costly forks of the entire ledger), and there's no additional human oversight (like I'd get when sending a large amount of money through a bank) to protect me. If someone steals my credit card, I have my credit card company to give me some level of protection. They can block transactions if…

The same flaw applies to cash. If you give someone $5 there is no way to revoke that transaction. You only can ask them to make a new transaction and give you the $5 back. Just like how additional layers were built on top of cash,new layers will be built on top of cryptocurrencies leading way to the "crypto 2.0" you are waiting for.

Re: Crypto is an unproductive bubble

#24

Post by whatshisface »

jmcgough wrote: post #19

One of the biggest drawbacks for blockchain is that transactions can't be revoked after the fact (with the only exception being costly forks of the entire ledger), and there's no additional human oversight (like I'd get when sending a large amount of money through a bank) to protect me. If someone steals my credit card, I have my credit card company to give me some level of protection. They can block transactions if…

If you want revokable transactions, you could invent a smart contract that releases money to either the bearer or the originator on the basis of your decision. Then the contracts could be traded on the basis of people's predictions about what your decisions would be.

Re: Crypto is an unproductive bubble

#26

Post by upsidesinclude »

jmyeet wrote: post #8

I couldn't agree more. It is the ultimate solution looking for a problem. What's funny is watching the crypto world relearn all the lessons that went into making the current financial system the way it is. Example: printing money aka managing the money supply. This is a feature not a bug. At least for a currency. Side note: let's stop calling these cryptocurrencies. They're crypt-assets. It makes me wonder if th Grea…

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Re: Crypto is an unproductive bubble

#27

Post by jka »

Cryptocurrencies and web3 demonstrate promise as ways to escape from the VC-funded walled gardens that are more typical of previous eras of the web.

Ironically that means that excessive amounts of money are being thrown at them in order to obtain any kind of small angular velocity towards funders that believe they can capture the next generation of the market -- or simply to prevent it from happening, for those with existing moats.

Simply wait. Give it another five years to a decade or so and the tide will recede and the valuable technology will remain above the silt.

Re: Crypto is an unproductive bubble

#28

Post by charcircuit »

Ekaros wrote: post #18
daenz wrote: post #6

I have a hard time imagining how your normal everyday people would put any faith whatsoever in crypto. It's another step removed from "just a bunch of numbers in an account" (current banking) that is even harder to explain and justify. Why should they trust it? So how can it succeed if everyday people don't want to use it?

At least with current numbers on account there is multiple governments involved trying to keep the value pretty stable overall. As that is best alternative in general for their politicians to continue staying in power. And other options are probably worse... Modern monetary policies whatever they are exist for reason, things would likely be worse without them. And the big cryptos have no monetary tools...

>And the big cryptos have no monetary tools...

Dai

Re: Crypto is an unproductive bubble

#29

Post by throw0101a »

jmcgough wrote: post #19

One of the biggest drawbacks for blockchain is that transactions can't be revoked after the fact (with the only exception being costly forks of the entire ledger), and there's no additional human oversight (like I'd get when sending a large amount of money through a bank) to protect me. If someone steals my credit card, I have my credit card company to give me some level of protection. They can block transactions if…

> One of the biggest drawbacks for blockchain is that transactions can't be revoked after the fact (with the only exception being costly forks of the entire ledger), and there's no additional human oversight (like I'd get when sending a large amount of money through a bank) to protect me.

I believe this is viewed as a feature in the blockchain / cryptocurrency world.

Re: Crypto is an unproductive bubble

#30

Post by dist1ll »

jmcgough wrote: post #19

One of the biggest drawbacks for blockchain is that transactions can't be revoked after the fact (with the only exception being costly forks of the entire ledger), and there's no additional human oversight (like I'd get when sending a large amount of money through a bank) to protect me. If someone steals my credit card, I have my credit card company to give me some level of protection. They can block transactions if…

> One of the biggest drawbacks for blockchain is that transactions can't be revoked after the fact

You can transfer money to an escrow smart contract that reverts the transaction if a third party confirms malicious activity.

> They can block transactions if they think it's stolen, and if I report it as stolen I can claw back money from fraudulent purchases.

Certain DLTs allow you to secure your account with SSI/DPKI methods. You can create complex multi signature authorization and revocation schemes.

> With crypto, I have to triple check the address I'm sending coins to because I can't undo it.

With time the UX of wallets and wallet integrations will improve. Many wallets already offer address books, where you give addresses names. Also, decentralized name service is being worked on (but still an unsolved problem).

> With crypto, I have to spend what's sometimes a significant amount of money just to complete a transaction, and transactions can take minutes or hours to complete.

Crypto isn't Bitcoin or Ethereum, crypto is much larger. The field is constantly evolving, and things like txn costs are non-issues for sophisticated architectures.

> I think there's a future in crypto but we're in the dotcom boom days of it where most of the value is in speculation. I'll wait for crypto 2.0.

100% agree. This field is full of speculation. The version 2.0 however will absolutely find impact.

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