I'd say you have a more black-and-white vision than me.
While it's not perfectly decentralized, e.g. some users do delegate their trust to centralized services for convenience or security, it is still more decentralized than fiat where (digital) self-custody is simply not possible. Decentralization and trust are a spectrum, not a binary. Even compiling the software yourself wouldn't get you 100% there [0].
I also feel that it's a bit early to call Bitcoin a failure but I do agree that it has a long way to go for mass atoption. Bitcoin is not disrupting the taxi or the hotel industry. It is disrupting the most entrenched and powerful "status quo" there is on Earth. We're talking about global banking, global finance, powerful governments, etc. Most people have no conception of what money really is or even that it could be different.
> That people are still getting burned by trusting major exchanges is hard to believe, and why you really can't make this up. It's stranger than fiction.
Surely you knew that Binance existed prior to this tweet?
> Yes, it is me. Jamie Dimon. Warren Buffett and George Soros are here next to me too. Bill Gates is on the way, and he's bringing chips and guac. We're all out to get those pesky crypto entrepreneurs.
My suspicion was simply that many HNers tend to reflexively upvote any comment that paints crypto in a bad light.
[0] https://www.cs.cmu.edu/~rdriley/487/papers/Thompson_1984_Ref...