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Ask HN: Feel bad about working in crypto, what to do?

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Re: Ask HN: Feel bad about working in crypto, what to do?

#101

Post by rglullis »

Bilal_io wrote: post #96
rglullis wrote: post #61

I'm wondering if there is anyone working at GAMMA (Google, Apple, Microsoft, Meta, Amazon) who also worries about the "constant backlash from the public" and if they feel bad about all the abuses their employers make, or if they just laugh all the way to the bank and get to develop a conscience when their companies face financial trouble. Nah, who am I kidding? Who cares about the evil stuff done by BigTech? The mone…

I don't work for any of these companies, and I wanted to do so in the past, but not anymore. Maybe Microsoft is an exception, and that's open to change. I personally do care about the "evil" stuff they do, especially when it comes to privacy and monopolistic practices, but I would never attack or shame anyone for working their, everyone makes their own choice.

The "evil" things done by Big Tech are possible because of the people working there.

No matter how "well-intentioned" they are, if their cushy jobs with high compensation salaries are only possible because of the lucrative "evil" things done by the company, they deserve as much scorn as their bosses.

Re: Ask HN: Feel bad about working in crypto, what to do?

#102

Post by egorfine »

I work in DeFi development as well and I can feel your pain.

Two things that I have to constantly keep in mind:

1. I have worked in stock markets for years before crypto and felt the same: I have been criticized in a similar fashion by laymen who don't necessarily have the proper understanding of what a stock market is and what value does it bring to the society. And yes, people who lost money were of course the most vocal.

2. Someone recently wrote: "99% of DeFi is scam. The rest is the future of finances". I strongly believe that idea, albeit I'd say the ratio is different.

---

One of the important things that is going to legitimize DeFi is deeper connection between DeFi protocols and real world use cases. One such example was for me when I fell on hard times and had to borrow on Aave to provide for the family. I had money available for me at a rate much lower than the bank, momentarily and with none of of the typical impossible soul-crunching KYC/AML bs. I recovered and paid back. I was happy. The lender was happy. Aave was happy. Stakers in Aave were happy. Absolute win-win all around. How is that not the future?

---

Oh, and don't work for scam projects.

Re: Ask HN: Feel bad about working in crypto, what to do?

#104

Post by cuteboy19 »

dig1 wrote: post #98

IMHO crypto space is good because the banking sector finally sees they have some competition. And crypto space is global, not tied to country banking sector lobbying (pardon, regulation :P). So, for example, in my country (and I believe many others as well), we have many banks. Still, you can't see competition between them - they usually charge the same/similar fees and give you a similar package. None of them will p…

The fair players like Celsius or maybe Terra Luna? I am almost genuine in this question because those two might probably have been in your "fair crypto" list a few months ago. Crypto practically incentivses scams. Why create something honest when you can rip off thousands of idiots and they will defend you for doing so?

Crypto offers almost none of the services that normal banks offer. Crypto loans are overcollateralized meaning you need to have $4 in your account to borrow $1. Banks don't feel threatened by crypto, they just see a new class of idiots to exploit.

Re: Ask HN: Feel bad about working in crypto, what to do?

#105

Post by mudrockbestgirl »

egorfine wrote: post #102

I work in DeFi development as well and I can feel your pain. Two things that I have to constantly keep in mind: 1. I have worked in stock markets for years before crypto and felt the same: I have been criticized in a similar fashion by laymen who don't necessarily have the proper understanding of what a stock market is and what value does it bring to the society. And yes, people who lost money were of course the most…

> One such example was for me when I fell on hard times and had to borrow on Aave to provide for the family

Can you explain how that worked? Aave loans are overcollateralized, so doesn't that mean you actually had capital available? That seems very different from a regular loan where you don't need liquid collateral since it's tied to your identity / credit score.

Re: Ask HN: Feel bad about working in crypto, what to do?

#106

Post by rglullis »

MauroIksem wrote: post #71
heckerhut wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Quoted post unavailable.

People like you are exactly the problem..provide a real use case where crypto and Blockchain have revolutionized something and then talk. You can't seem to do that.

Blockchain tech does not need to "revolutionize" anything. It just needs to be useful for (some) people in any of the cases where the status quo fail.

If 1% of the people can not use traditional banking, but they have an blockchain-based alternative, then blockchain has already justified itself.

Re: Ask HN: Feel bad about working in crypto, what to do?

#107

Post by vasco »

egorfine wrote: post #102

I work in DeFi development as well and I can feel your pain. Two things that I have to constantly keep in mind: 1. I have worked in stock markets for years before crypto and felt the same: I have been criticized in a similar fashion by laymen who don't necessarily have the proper understanding of what a stock market is and what value does it bring to the society. And yes, people who lost money were of course the most…

I can also ride a car without a seatbelt and ignore the soul crushing speed limits and it'll be way better for me to get places faster. How is that not the future?

Taking an existing process and removing safeguards that were added over time for good reason doesn't make something the future unless you can prevent the original problem in a new better way. If your solution is to just ignore the problem exists, it's hard to call it the future.

Re: Ask HN: Feel bad about working in crypto, what to do?

#108

Post by thinkingemote »

latchkey wrote: post #84
olalonde wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are a lot of stories like this. There are also a lot of unbanked people (1.7 billion worldwide). People who fail to see the value in Bitcoin/crypto often are not aware of those very real problems people are facing. Traditional banking is great so long as you are on the happy path.

In northern Vietnam, where I've done extensive travel, to this day, women store their meager wealth in gold fillings because that is the only place where they can put it and not have it stolen from them. There is no bank where they can deposit funds and even if there was, the Vietnam govt's version of FDIC is like $2k. Amazingly, they also have smart phones and the government has put 4G towers through the whole count…

Do the phones get stolen?

Re: Ask HN: Feel bad about working in crypto, what to do?

#109

Post by egorfine »

vasco wrote: post #107
egorfine wrote: post #102

I work in DeFi development as well and I can feel your pain. Two things that I have to constantly keep in mind: 1. I have worked in stock markets for years before crypto and felt the same: I have been criticized in a similar fashion by laymen who don't necessarily have the proper understanding of what a stock market is and what value does it bring to the society. And yes, people who lost money were of course the most…

I can also ride a car without a seatbelt and ignore the soul crushing speed limits and it'll be way better for me to get places faster. How is that not the future? Taking an existing process and removing safeguards that were added over time for good reason doesn't make something the future unless you can prevent the original problem in a new better way. If your solution is to just ignore the problem exists, it's hard…

Good point.

I can easily argument both for regulations in DeFi and against. I see it strong for both sides and I'm not sure what way is the right way.

PS: Regulation of DeFi is close to impossible, so the question is moot anyway.

Re: Ask HN: Feel bad about working in crypto, what to do?

#110

Post by chris_wot »

heckerhut wrote: post #65
Thlom wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

ETH has been a legitimate technology with real use cases for a decade now and all we’ve got is jpeg’s of apes. With the amount of real money, talent and hard work being pumped into this space we should have seen the use cases materialize by now. But there’s nothing. I’m sure someone uses it for something real, but I haven’t seen crypto actually solve a real problem any better than a plain old database. Please correct…

Quoted post unavailable.

This reply is the sort of thing you get when asking legitimate questions about crypto. Defensive, abusive responses to legitimate questions.

Even the response here is amazing: it is “I know all about cryotocurrencies, you don’t know anything! How dare you ask impertinent questions!”

Next thing you know, many of the same people want to know why you aren’t investing in cryotocurrencies.

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