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Crypto Winter, or Crypto Ice Age?

technollama.co.uk

21–30 of 167 posts

Re: Crypto Winter, or Crypto Ice Age?

#21
post #9
post #5

Bitcoin is absolute garbage and in theory any critique is good, but it bothers me that half of the points in this article aren't even internally logically consistent: > “Blockchain is just like the early internet”. No, it isn’t. Satoshi Nakamoto’s paper was published in October 2008 ... . Nothing about the original statement is predicated on the age of the tech. Even if it did, I don't see what modern tech corps have…

Crypto is basically gambling, and gambling is alive and well. This is why I don't see crypto dying anytime soon. It will die when a better gamble comes along.

Crypto is inherently very different than gambling.

People have been doing highly speculative investment in many different areas and this is clearly not something that will die.

Crypto has been a fantastic vehicle for that because of the hype and the lack of regulation, but this won't last, people can't be fooled forever.

Of course there will be other vehicles, hopefully less destructive than this one...

Re: Crypto Winter, or Crypto Ice Age?

#22
post #13

I live in Canada and recently invested a small amount in a startup via AngelList RUV. There were two funding options: (1) wire transfer, (2) transfer USDC via Ethereum network. One of these options is cheaper, faster, and more flexible than the other. Crypto has long been criticized for being gambling and lacking utility. I think utility is finally trickling in, although currently in limited settings. If you look at…

Wire transfers in North America are literally 40 years behind the evolution of bank transfers in EU and UK.

Sending money in Europe is free and increasingly often instantaneous 24/7. It will be very difficult for crypto to reach the level of convenience available on unified infrastructure created through sensible regulation. Lacking that, maybe Americans will have to keep settling for all these clunky, incompatible intermediated patchwork solutions like Zelle and Venmo and USDC-on-Ethereum and whatever.

Re: Crypto Winter, or Crypto Ice Age?

#23
post #13

I live in Canada and recently invested a small amount in a startup via AngelList RUV. There were two funding options: (1) wire transfer, (2) transfer USDC via Ethereum network. One of these options is cheaper, faster, and more flexible than the other. Crypto has long been criticized for being gambling and lacking utility. I think utility is finally trickling in, although currently in limited settings. If you look at…

It is easier for me to call my bank and initiate a wire transfer than it is to transfer money via USDC.

I think the assumption a lot of people in crypto make is that everyone has a crypto account/wallet setup.

Re: Crypto Winter, or Crypto Ice Age?

#24
post #5

Bitcoin is absolute garbage and in theory any critique is good, but it bothers me that half of the points in this article aren't even internally logically consistent: > “Blockchain is just like the early internet”. No, it isn’t. Satoshi Nakamoto’s paper was published in October 2008 ... . Nothing about the original statement is predicated on the age of the tech. Even if it did, I don't see what modern tech corps have…

> Why is mining excluded for gold and not for Bitcoin in your analogy? because: "Bitcoin needs to be maintained by miners using electricity" like they say? Gold doesn't need continued mining to continue being gold.

You need to rent a safety deposit box for the gold to continue being your gold though.

Re: Crypto Winter, or Crypto Ice Age?

#25
Bitcoin has lost more than 80% of its value at least four times in its short 10yr existence. It, and all other crypto, are highly volatile. Every time they go through one of these stages, people publish articles like these, asking if this time is the end.

But the builders just keep building, advancing the tech and extending its capabilities. Largely because cryptocurrencies are a fascinating engineering problem, which combine cryptography and distributed systems in a way never done before, and which also incorporate programming language theory, networking, computer and network security, economics, and law into the mix. It’s one of the most multi-disciplinary technologies there is. Like catnip for engineers, they just can’t stop building this stuff.

Re: Crypto Winter, or Crypto Ice Age?

#26
post #13

I live in Canada and recently invested a small amount in a startup via AngelList RUV. There were two funding options: (1) wire transfer, (2) transfer USDC via Ethereum network. One of these options is cheaper, faster, and more flexible than the other. Crypto has long been criticized for being gambling and lacking utility. I think utility is finally trickling in, although currently in limited settings. If you look at…

Ethereum’s famously expensive and slow though.

Re: Crypto Winter, or Crypto Ice Age?

#27

Bitcoin has lost more than 80% of its value at least four times in its short 10yr existence. It, and all other crypto, are highly volatile. Every time they go through one of these stages, people publish articles like these, asking if this time is the end. But the builders just keep building, advancing the tech and extending its capabilities. Largely because cryptocurrencies are a fascinating engineering problem, whic…

Well there has always been a supply of victims (err investors*, but after the last two crashes , what if the well has ran dry?

Re: Crypto Winter, or Crypto Ice Age?

#28
post #26
post #13

I live in Canada and recently invested a small amount in a startup via AngelList RUV. There were two funding options: (1) wire transfer, (2) transfer USDC via Ethereum network. One of these options is cheaper, faster, and more flexible than the other. Crypto has long been criticized for being gambling and lacking utility. I think utility is finally trickling in, although currently in limited settings. If you look at…

Ethereum’s famously expensive and slow though.

And yet it was faster / cheaper / easier for the OP vs the traditional banking mechanisms. That says more about the US and Canadian banks than anything else.

Re: Crypto Winter, or Crypto Ice Age?

#29
post #22
post #13

I live in Canada and recently invested a small amount in a startup via AngelList RUV. There were two funding options: (1) wire transfer, (2) transfer USDC via Ethereum network. One of these options is cheaper, faster, and more flexible than the other. Crypto has long been criticized for being gambling and lacking utility. I think utility is finally trickling in, although currently in limited settings. If you look at…

Wire transfers in North America are literally 40 years behind the evolution of bank transfers in EU and UK. Sending money in Europe is free and increasingly often instantaneous 24/7. It will be very difficult for crypto to reach the level of convenience available on unified infrastructure created through sensible regulation. Lacking that, maybe Americans will have to keep settling for all these clunky, incompatible i…

> Sending money in Europe is free and increasingly often instantaneous 24/7. It will be very difficult for crypto to reach the level of convenience available on unified infrastructure created through sensible regulation. Lacking that, maybe Americans will have to keep settling for all these clunky, incompatible intermediated patchwork solutions like Zelle and Venmo and USDC-on-Ethereum and whatever.

While true, I do think there is value in a permissionless protocol that anyone can plug into like this. Anyone in the world can send USDC to someone else (and any bank can integrate with this). The same can't be said for banking systems.

Re: Crypto Winter, or Crypto Ice Age?

#30
post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Why is mining excluded for gold and not for Bitcoin in your analogy? because: "Bitcoin needs to be maintained by miners using electricity" like they say? Gold doesn't need continued mining to continue being gold.

You need to rent a safety deposit box for the gold to continue being your gold though.

> You need to rent a safety deposit box for the gold

No, I don't. Where I keep my valuables is my business, and it depends on how much gold I have. People kept gold long before safety deposit boxes at banks were a thing.

And, paraphrasing above: why is secure storage included for gold and not for Bitcoin in your analogy?

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