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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?

#192

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yep, I had some bitcoins to put up as collateral. Didn't want to sell it. Re: regular loan: see, I live in a country other than the US.

"I have assets but I don't want to sell them" is very different from "I need a loan to provide for my family" - the latter is what banks typically provide, U.S. or not, while the former is just a financial instrument to manage exposure. You didn't have hard times , BTC is quite liquid, you just wanted to keep the exposure.

> banks typically provide, U.S. or not

or not. Very much not. So DeFi protocols were my only option.

> you just wanted to keep the exposure

Correct.

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

#193
post #159

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You don’t want to explain the other use-cases? Would you mind linking to a place that does explain them?

DeFi has concrete use cases. Just look at how derivatives and options work in DeFi. You will see how financial products work in traditional finance. You can understand them by reading their smart contract code. Another example would be reading the code of uniswap [0]. It is a decentralized exchange in other words, it lets you exchange your value without intermediaries and a central authority by having an algorithmic…

> You will see how financial products work in traditional finance. You can understand them by reading their smart contract code.

But this doesn't need DeFi. You could have open-source trading software without Ethereum.

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

#194
post #186
post #180

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Senior developers have that luxury. Healthcare adjacent tech is always hiring, and you can actually save lives there - not just make a bunch of crypto andys rich while destroying the planet

Two things: 1. Yes, healthcare was the only thing I could think of that would qualify for me personally. Pretty sure I've never seen a job like that in my area though. 2. Is "Andy" an actual concept outside the Ice Poseidon community? I wonder if people realize where it comes from and how toxic/racist it is. It basically started with Andy Milonakis being on Ice Poseidon's stream and then every non-white person who jo…

I have zero idea what the ice poseidon community is. I always presumed it comes from Toy Story, with Andy being the annoying cowboy

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

#195
post #180
post #164

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Who has the luxury to work on something that fulfils those criteria? If I would follow your advice I would be homeless.

Senior developers have that luxury. Healthcare adjacent tech is always hiring, and you can actually save lives there - not just make a bunch of crypto andys rich while destroying the planet

Healthcare isn't about saving lives. It's about making money. Medical devices, pharmaceuticals, children's hospitals, medical schools, all of it.

I suppose you can say that some healthcare is about doing good and/or providing a necessary service. Smile Train, Doctors Without Borders, national healthcare systems, etc. But all of these are subsidized with money from capitalism or tax revenue, and they's evaporate overnight if they were unfunded.

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

#196

I've been in crypto since 2014. I just had the California Franchise Tax Board literally steal money out of a bank account of mine without any warning or notice. They left $0.01 in there and charged a $125 fee. I found out today they are claiming I owe taxes from when I wasn't even living in the country (and I was paying taxes then too!). In 2021/2022, I paid more taxes than I ever have in my life. I even over paid ju…

Had similar experience when I was out working in Berlin. I had a gym membership in one part of the city (paid up 12 months in advance in cash). Moved to a different part of the city and didn't go back. Fast forward about six months, two bald headed goons came knocking at my old address looking for me, with a 1850 euro bill. Gym membership for the next year plus a 900 euro service charge because I hadn't written a let…

> Shortly after I moved much of my funds into crypto, and would do it again for the security from arbitrary seizure.

I don't think they would've been able to seize the money. But in any case your approach doesn't work, you still owe that money. Automatic renewals is a scummy practice but if they do have a legal claim you won't get out of it by being hard to find and keeping your money in crypto.

Probably best to treat it as an expensive lesson and remember to close your subscriptions in the future.

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

#197

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But it demonstrated beyond any reasonable doubt that code is not law since they breached that law with the hard fork.

That’s more of a demonstration that code is law but laws can change by the consensus of the participants, measured transparently and verifiable by their willingness to mine the fork. That was the system working as intended, even if not everyone in the community agrees with it.

I'd say it was more like committing secrets Into an early alpha repo... understandable at that stage of the project, likely never to be repeated.

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

#198
post #179

I've been in crypto since 2014. I just had the California Franchise Tax Board literally steal money out of a bank account of mine without any warning or notice. They left $0.01 in there and charged a $125 fee. I found out today they are claiming I owe taxes from when I wasn't even living in the country (and I was paying taxes then too!). In 2021/2022, I paid more taxes than I ever have in my life. I even over paid ju…

Crypto is one of many solutions for this problem. I'm willing to argue that out of 10 possible solutions, the crypto solution is the worst of all. Simply because the law is the law, and crypto might make it harder to enforce the law, it doesn't _change_ the law. So even with your crypto solution, you still would owe money to the California Franchise Tax Board, whether you like or not.

Possession is 9/10 of the law. What some tax board thinks only matters insofar as they are able to enforce their will. People think governments are omnipotent. They are not.

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

#199
post #175

Working in an industry that is considered shady can harm you in the long run. I have worked at one point in a gambling (So called "Gaming") company and 80% of the people there only move to other gambling companies (or even shadier places) because there is a bias against them in "regular" companies. I would also add that the longer they stay in the space the harder it is to leave it without a significant pay cut / pos…

The adult industry is another one that where I've heard a stigma exists. Saying you work for a premier streaming video platform with hard latency or caching characteristics sounds interesting until the interviewer asks the question and you feel compelled to be transparent and answer the NSFW domain name of the company or even just the industry.

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

#200

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Had similar experience when I was out working in Berlin. I had a gym membership in one part of the city (paid up 12 months in advance in cash). Moved to a different part of the city and didn't go back. Fast forward about six months, two bald headed goons came knocking at my old address looking for me, with a 1850 euro bill. Gym membership for the next year plus a 900 euro service charge because I hadn't written a let…

> Shortly after I moved much of my funds into crypto, and would do it again for the security from arbitrary seizure. I don't think they would've been able to seize the money. But in any case your approach doesn't work, you still owe that money. Automatic renewals is a scummy practice but if they do have a legal claim you won't get out of it by being hard to find and keeping your money in crypto. Probably best to trea…

Exhibit A of why predatory consumer practices work.

You'd rather be civil, than treated civilly.

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