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

The Great Crypto Grift May Be Unwinding

newyorker.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

151–160 of 332 posts

Re: The Great Crypto Grift May Be Unwinding

#151

Post by woodruffw »

WFHRenaissance wrote: post #136
sk0g wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> you’d be an idiot to ignore the realistic and adopted use-cases Ignoring the hostility, what would you list as the realistic and adopted use-cases for crypto?

Smart contracts, DAOs, payments, self-sovereign identity, tokenization of real world assets, a few security use-cases, operating markets for prediction and asset-trade outside the control of external authorities (libertarian wet dream stuff), insurance and legal arbitration outside of the control of external authorities (more wet dreaming, but it’s happening), supply chain / provenance of assets… All of these could p…

I'm not aware of any serious supply chain or asset provenance efforts that rely on cryptocurrencies or DeFi. Lots of serious work uses Merkle constructions, but it would be a remarkable distortion to spin something like Certificate Transparency as a form of DeFi.

Re: The Great Crypto Grift May Be Unwinding

#152

Post by WFHRenaissance »

woodruffw wrote: post #141
razemio wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can proof that a digital file existed at a given time and hasn't been altered since. It is something that I use on a daily basis.

We've been able to do this for decades. It's a core part of our PKI ecosystem.

Surely, but PKI still relies on cert authorities which have been compromised before

Re: The Great Crypto Grift May Be Unwinding

#153

Post by razemio »

woodruffw wrote: post #141
razemio wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can proof that a digital file existed at a given time and hasn't been altered since. It is something that I use on a daily basis.

We've been able to do this for decades. It's a core part of our PKI ecosystem.

Not without a middlemen that we trust (cert authority in this case).

Re: The Great Crypto Grift May Be Unwinding

#155

Post by datadata »

adam_arthur wrote: post #105
datadata wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The answer to this question does not demonstrate that USD has any intrinsic value, it merely demonstrates that USD is the most valuable and well circulated of the currencies. These currencies still have zero intrinsic value.

Yes, fiat currencies don't have intrinsic value, they have network value as the primary unit of exchange. A good investment does need intrinsic value, which BTC does not have. It's also not a feasible payment system. The fact that cryptos are only referenced in USD terms proves that the only real use people have for them is a vehicle of speculation. Investment without intrinsic value = speculation The second there's…

> A good investment does need intrinsic value, which BTC does not have.

Agree, USD is also not a good investment but it is still widespread to have some USD.

> It's also not a feasible payment system.

Disagree, it is used (not widely) but without issue for payments all the time. It isn't a feasible payment system for every single transaction, but that is a ridiculous goal. There is no payment system that is feasible for every payment.

> The fact that cryptos are only referenced in USD terms proves that the only real use people have for them is a vehicle of speculation

No, it just proves that they haven't succeeded in taking over the incumbent fiat currencies. Stocks are also most commonly referenced in USD prices, and they are not merely vehicles of speculation.

Re: The Great Crypto Grift May Be Unwinding

#156

Post by randomhodler84 »

arcticbull wrote: post #131
randomhodler84 wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Quoted post unavailable.

I did, but it's kind of the empty set. I guess, you could say it's a high-beta play on liquidity, plus an army of Herbalife type salespeople.

Funny. The day is yours arctic, and I feel I have no power to argue. Still, I lost a larger percentage in stonks today, so I don’t really know where we should be putting our fiat.

Re: The Great Crypto Grift May Be Unwinding

#157

Post by 7speter »

dpweb wrote: post #68
etaioinshrdlu wrote: post #23

Crypto cannot create wealth, only move it around. If too many people become crypto-rich and try to spend it on real-world assets, the assets will just inflate in price. What can happen is that crypto could replace other forms of money. Governments will likely fight this tooth and nail however, because crypto is currently an anti-government technology.

Money is a creation of government, and frankly, the dollar ain’t so bad. If my bank goes under I’m protected by the FDIC. If Coinbase goes under they have the right to use my money to pay their creditors.

You’re protected upto $250k on deposits by the fdic. Still much better than Coinbase but just sayin’

Re: The Great Crypto Grift May Be Unwinding

#158

Post by SV_BubbleTime »

gfodor wrote: post #62

Crypto crashes every couple years and of course it has grown immensely since the last crash so the scale and scope of these kinds of “analyses” grow with it. I’d imagine in 5 years in the next big crash it will be the top news around the global for many weeks.

Interesting economic theory… “What happened yesterday will happen tomorrow”… hang on, I have a lot of money to move around before markets open tomorrow!

Re: The Great Crypto Grift May Be Unwinding

#159

Post by alexb_ »

WFHRenaissance wrote: post #136
sk0g wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> you’d be an idiot to ignore the realistic and adopted use-cases Ignoring the hostility, what would you list as the realistic and adopted use-cases for crypto?

Smart contracts, DAOs, payments, self-sovereign identity, tokenization of real world assets, a few security use-cases, operating markets for prediction and asset-trade outside the control of external authorities (libertarian wet dream stuff), insurance and legal arbitration outside of the control of external authorities (more wet dreaming, but it’s happening), supply chain / provenance of assets… All of these could p…

>Crypto will succeed because the rich...corrupt...liberarians want it to

Just because you want something to happen doesn't mean it will. Especially when you have to assume that we live in some fantasy world where nobody can be trusted and everything has to be done outside the influence of government (i.e. illegally) so we have to use a decentralized append-only database where nothing can be reversed because while you can trust nobody you also can trust people to not do decisions which need to be reversed.

>Crypto will succeed because it makes exit a reality

What does this even mean?

>Smart contracts, DAOs, payments, self-sovereign identity, tokenization of real world assets, a few security use-cases

these are all buzzwords or further tech that actually needs explaining as to what it's useful for (hint: it's nothing)

Re: The Great Crypto Grift May Be Unwinding

#160

Post by boznz »

arcticbull wrote: post #84
notch656a wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Keeping crypto on an exchange is like keeping gold at the gold dealer. Just why.

Nobody keeps bricks of gold at home. Just why would they. Way too much risk.

no risk if nobody knows they are there, ditto if you are a crypto billionaire and dont tell anyone
Post reply on HN