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The Ethereum merge is done

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Re: The Ethereum merge is done

#601

This thread is HN jumping the shark for me. The merge is freaking incredible. Switching the engine of a $60 billion financial network in-flight. Permanent power savings the scale of a country. An incredible coordination between a huge number of diverse parties all over the world. Everything open source. And all we get is a rehash of tired old arguments against cryptocurrencies. This was originally a forum for hackers…

> Permanent power savings the scale of a country

I don't know if you ever argued against that massive energy footprint as "FUD". But I do find it pretty hilarious to see a crypto proponent now use that as a positive. "We're not wasting country-sized amounts of electricity anymore!"

FWIW, I don't think most crypto-critics (yours truly included) argue that it's not technically interesting. We argue that it's tech in search of a (mostly) non-existent problem, that has a whole host of very negative externalities.

Re: The Ethereum merge is done

#602

This thread is HN jumping the shark for me. The merge is freaking incredible. Switching the engine of a $60 billion financial network in-flight. Permanent power savings the scale of a country. An incredible coordination between a huge number of diverse parties all over the world. Everything open source. And all we get is a rehash of tired old arguments against cryptocurrencies. This was originally a forum for hackers…

> Permanent power savings the scale of a country.

Don't count your chickens before they hatch.

Re: The Ethereum merge is done

#603

This thread is HN jumping the shark for me. The merge is freaking incredible. Switching the engine of a $60 billion financial network in-flight. Permanent power savings the scale of a country. An incredible coordination between a huge number of diverse parties all over the world. Everything open source. And all we get is a rehash of tired old arguments against cryptocurrencies. This was originally a forum for hackers…

HN has been oddly prejudiced against crypto. Sure there is a ton of hype, but there are some extremely interesting ideas and some incredible innovation taking place.

This is what happens when startups become cool and the people who would have otherwise gotten an MBA and tried to find work at a major bank are now the ones on HN.

Re: The Ethereum merge is done

#604
post #598

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So we now have a technical marvel used for financial speculation, conducting illicit transactions, and dodging regulators... that no longer is also burning the planet. Am I supposed to be impressed by this? It's easy to worship engineering as some kind of pure endeavor divorced from the real world, and admire cleverness for its own sake. But things that actively make the world worse should not necessarily be praised,…

> So we now have a technical marvel used for financial speculation, conducting illicit transactions, and dodging regulators You're right, it's an impressive piece technology that's been growing through questionable use cases. But that's not the fault of the underlying technology, but of the actors involved. As long as blockchains are treated as a second class citizen, governments choose to ostracize it, financial oli…

"Properly regulate" a thing whose only purpose is to bypass regulation. Seems legit...

Re: The Ethereum merge is done

#605

This thread is HN jumping the shark for me. The merge is freaking incredible. Switching the engine of a $60 billion financial network in-flight. Permanent power savings the scale of a country. An incredible coordination between a huge number of diverse parties all over the world. Everything open source. And all we get is a rehash of tired old arguments against cryptocurrencies. This was originally a forum for hackers…

So we now have a technical marvel used for financial speculation, conducting illicit transactions, and dodging regulators... that no longer is also burning the planet. Am I supposed to be impressed by this? It's easy to worship engineering as some kind of pure endeavor divorced from the real world, and admire cleverness for its own sake. But things that actively make the world worse should not necessarily be praised,…

Do you use the shadowy currency popular with criminals known as the US dollar?

USD is by far the most popular currency used for crime. It has stable price, accepted everywhere, and lacks a public ledger.

Re: The Ethereum merge is done

#606

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is still a forum for hackers, makers and entrepreneurs. We just don't accept Monopoly Money as compensation for work rendered.

> We just don't accept Monopoly Money as compensation for work rendered. Every person that took equity in a startup that then went out of business would love to talk with you. Believing bitcoin will be valuable for some people isn't really any different than believing pets.com will be successful or that tesla will actually be able to make electric cars and taking equity instead of cash for compensation.

You're right, I sometimes forget that the crowd here is motivated more by opportunism than real technical innovation.

All the more, we shouldn't cede financial power to Joe Shmoe and his pre-mined L2 chain.

Re: The Ethereum merge is done

#607

A good moment of humility I hope for all those HN experts who implied Ethereum's transition to Proof of Stake would never happen.

I feel like you have an overly emotional attachment to this, given your need to make this comment. People say things that turn out to be wrong all the time, but you seem to have become resentful that they disbelieved this would happen. Odd way to approach a technology.

[deleted]

Re: The Ethereum merge is done

#608

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is still a forum for hackers, makers and entrepreneurs. We just don't accept Monopoly Money as compensation for work rendered.

> We just don't accept Monopoly Money as compensation for work rendered. Every person that took equity in a startup that then went out of business would love to talk with you. Believing bitcoin will be valuable for some people isn't really any different than believing pets.com will be successful or that tesla will actually be able to make electric cars and taking equity instead of cash for compensation.

This is not the same thing. Shares of a company have an actual value: a part of the company's capital (computers, building, etc). At least there is some ground based on real-world something. Of course the company can go bankrupt and owe more money than its capital can cover, but that's still not the same has crypto assets, whose values are purely speculative.

Re: The Ethereum merge is done

#609

This thread is HN jumping the shark for me. The merge is freaking incredible. Switching the engine of a $60 billion financial network in-flight. Permanent power savings the scale of a country. An incredible coordination between a huge number of diverse parties all over the world. Everything open source. And all we get is a rehash of tired old arguments against cryptocurrencies. This was originally a forum for hackers…

I’ve given up on HN understating crypto before they mint some Giga unicorn and everyone understand where the future is. The hive mind here is dangerously anti crypto. It’s the biggest wealth producing opportunity of the next decade or two and HN doesn’t get it at all. It’s basically become a forum for your average developer. I’d bet a lot of folk who don’t understand crypto at all are web developers or something wher…

Laughable to suggest that everyone is wrong (except you of course) and that not worshipping crypto makes you an “average developer”

Re: The Ethereum merge is done

#610

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So we now have a technical marvel used for financial speculation, conducting illicit transactions, and dodging regulators... that no longer is also burning the planet. Am I supposed to be impressed by this? It's easy to worship engineering as some kind of pure endeavor divorced from the real world, and admire cleverness for its own sake. But things that actively make the world worse should not necessarily be praised,…

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