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Crypto is an unproductive bubble

alexkolchinski.com

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Re: Crypto is an unproductive bubble

#71

Post by goldcd »

babypuncher wrote: post #49
anonporridge wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or gold. Or any other property. Bitcoin is simply digital property. And like real world property, you can mess up and lose it irrevocably. If you give your gold to the wrong person or drop it to the bottom of the sea, you're probably not getting it back. If you under fund your military, and someone else comes in and takes control of your land, you're probably not getting it back. If you send your bitcoin to the wrong…

But bitcoin isn't being billed as a value-store like gold, it's being sold more as a replacement for payment systems like credit cards, ACH transfers, or PayPal. There is a reason nobody goes around trading tiny bits of gold for goods and services. It is useful to have an abstraction that makes transactions easier and helps mitigate risk.

I don't think that's true.

Credit cards, paypal and all the rest existed before bitcoin. I mean it's nifty that I can do it without a single intermediary authority, but it's not that special.

I think the lack of revocation available to bitcoin is a (and I had myself for saying this) 'a feature'. If somebody sends me payment in bitcoin, I definitely know it can't be charged-back for example. It's like sending cash in the mail. Now that comes with the flip side, that they are putting all their trust in me.

Re: Crypto is an unproductive bubble

#72

Post by lern_too_spel »

gfodor wrote: post #37
fmvab wrote: post #32

Another point I’d add: isn’t it telling that we haven’t come up with use cases for crypto that aren’t in some way speculation in the last decade plus?

Crypto enables illicit transactions.

Only because they haven't yet been regulated. That has already changed in China and is about to change in the US. Then that use case goes away.

Re: Crypto is an unproductive bubble

#73

Post by RichardHeart »

1. Everything is a bubble. 2. Censorship resistance is the blockchains only real use case, and more important than ever. (Not hyperbole, since we have all time high population and cancel culture.) 3. Crypto is going no where but up. All fiat currencies go to 0 over time, the opposite of the cryptocurrency total market cap chart.

I accept down arrow fate.

Re: Crypto is an unproductive bubble

#74

Post by tiborsaas »

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?

If people see other people turning these made up numbers into Lambos then it's not really hard to see why they start to trust it.

Re: Crypto is an unproductive bubble

#75

Post by jhatemyjob »

benreesman wrote: post #43

How many times are we going to have this conversation? Yes crypto is an asset bubble, alongside equities, real estate, precious metals, you name it. Money printer go brrrr, more dollars are chasing the same amount of Apple sells iPhones. Crypto has no intrinsic value, it pays no dividend and doesn’t give you proxy rights, just like all the tech equities. Proof of work burns a lot of electricity, though this is compli…

Rust is an incredibly difficult language to be productive in and I don't think it will stand the test of time. C has been around for half a century and is a perfectly fine language to use today. Rust is popular because people these days are too risk averse, "unsafe" code is really not that bad.

Re: Crypto is an unproductive bubble

#76

Post by gonehome »

cco wrote: post #64
UncleMeat wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Banks won’t protect you from wire fraud. They will if you didn't initiate the wire. If you typed the wrong account number then you are SOL, but that's true of BTC too.

That isn't true in my experience at a, "lot of money" scale. They will help you set up the transaction, confirm the receiving party, test and prove the transfer, execute it. There are also courts etc to get involved, if someone sends you a million dollar wire and you keep it (for no services rendered), courts generally don't let you just have it (cross border caveats etc).

Courts can also get involved in the BTC case too - it’s just an expensive and slow option in both cases (with uncertain outcomes).

Re: Crypto is an unproductive bubble

#77

Post by newacc9 »

tootie wrote: post #47
newacc9 wrote: post #9

Bitcoin only has to be better than your local fiat currency, which isn't a very high bar. https://twitter.com/MichaelAArouet/status/147212863307459788...

Bitcoin is vastly worse than fiat. Like orders of magnitude. Bitcoin at this point isn't even currency. If it were, it would be in a cataclysmic deflationary spiral. Instead it's an investment vehicle. One backed by absolutely nothing. The Bitcoin market is 100% rents and 0% utility. Arguably negative utility because of the massive climate costs involved in mining. On the flip side, central banks managed to dig us ou…

No one keeps money in fiat. It goes into stocks, real estate, etc. Because fiat is going to zero.

Re: Crypto is an unproductive bubble

#79

Post by gfodor »

lern_too_spel wrote: post #72
gfodor wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Crypto enables illicit transactions.

Only because they haven't yet been regulated. That has already changed in China and is about to change in the US. Then that use case goes away.

Maybe, maybe not. Certainly some people who are doing this will continue to do so despite regulation. In any case disproves the comment I was replying to.

Re: Crypto is an unproductive bubble

#80

Post by benreesman »

jhatemyjob wrote: post #75
benreesman wrote: post #43

How many times are we going to have this conversation? Yes crypto is an asset bubble, alongside equities, real estate, precious metals, you name it. Money printer go brrrr, more dollars are chasing the same amount of Apple sells iPhones. Crypto has no intrinsic value, it pays no dividend and doesn’t give you proxy rights, just like all the tech equities. Proof of work burns a lot of electricity, though this is compli…

Rust is an incredibly difficult language to be productive in and I don't think it will stand the test of time. C has been around for half a century and is a perfectly fine language to use today. Rust is popular because people these days are too risk averse, "unsafe" code is really not that bad.

Not all heroes wear capes. :)
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