Curious what Chris Dixon and A16z have to say about it.
Something like this, most likely: https://www.semafor.com/article/11/16/2022/andreessen-passed...
Is this the end of crypto?
121–130 of 448 posts
Re: Is this the end of crypto?
#122Earlier quoted context omitted.
Good government is a luxury many lack.
Is there any crossover in a Venn diagram of "government is so bad you need crypto" and "government is good enough that they won't shut off the internet to control the people"? If there isn't then crypto isn't very useful in those places.
It is hard to shut off the Internet (or at least should be, if it is properly decentralized).
Point in case: Russia. Government has been trying to block everything they don't like for some ten years now I think. Controlling all the uplinks from the country is just not feasible (although they're working on buying everything out I believe), so it was in fact easier for them to make all the ISPs install some blocking equipment themselves, which works pretty poorly.
Many times they were successful, but they couldn't shut Telegram down for example. When TLS ECH is finally adopted it's basically game over for them.
Re: Is this the end of crypto?
#123I never know what people mean when they say "crypto". Are we talking about coins, de-fi, blockchain? Just yesterday I was presented with an option to pay for a standing desk in ETH and I don't see how FTX's downfall would change that. Is ETH just another scam? Very confusing stuff.
Re: Is this the end of crypto?
#124When Crypto was young it was this cool new technology that mostly interesting because of the underlying tech. But even back then it was mostly valuable for buying drugs online and other illegal stuff. Now it's that and a way to scam people of their life savings. I do hope it dies out, it should have been heavily regulated from the get go. Way too many people saw these high production commercials with their favorite c…
As it stands, without crypto, you are pretty much a hostage to visa, mastercard, discover, and amex to exchange money effectively, and those companies are opinionated to a disturbing extent about who they deny business with when it comes to something so important.
While those companies are not operated as some sort of common carrier of transactions crypto is essential for a free global society.
Apparently Trump of all people actually tried to make it so[0], but Biden seems to have taken it down.
Re: Is this the end of crypto?
#125When Crypto was young it was this cool new technology that mostly interesting because of the underlying tech. But even back then it was mostly valuable for buying drugs online and other illegal stuff. Now it's that and a way to scam people of their life savings. I do hope it dies out, it should have been heavily regulated from the get go. Way too many people saw these high production commercials with their favorite c…
Somewhere between "internet nerd project for buying drugs" and "every single Super Bowl ad" regulation should have stepped in.
That kind of shit gives the scams a legitimacy they can't buy otherwise.
Re: Is this the end of crypto?
#126When Crypto was young it was this cool new technology that mostly interesting because of the underlying tech. But even back then it was mostly valuable for buying drugs online and other illegal stuff. Now it's that and a way to scam people of their life savings. I do hope it dies out, it should have been heavily regulated from the get go. Way too many people saw these high production commercials with their favorite c…
When bitcoin first came onto the scene I personally knew a guy who was running a website to act as an exchange. It was small because bitcoin itself at that time was very small. Then bitcoin had its very first dip and it became unprofitable to mine bitcoins. When that happened he shuttered the website and kept everyone's bitcoins. I knew of bitcoin early on due to this guy, but even then I had no interest and consider…
Broadscale, crypto seems to have had an "Eternal September" moment and I think that's where the problems really began. Back in the early days before crypto entered the mainstream, it was pretty much like any other internet project. It was cool to be able to buy a pizza with internet funny money but by then it was still pretty small and everyone knew the inherent risks.
Then came the "Eternal September" where cryto went mainstream and many people started pitching this formerly niche project as a real investment vehicle. And people bought in thinking it was like any other investment. IMHO cyrpto itself isn't bad, it's all the people that pitched it like an old school investment vehicle.
Re: Is this the end of crypto?
#127No, but for retail, yes.
It's going to be a long time before the retail $16bn + contagion try it again, and they probably won't trust it for growth, interest bearing accounts; It also may not be needed for interest bearing accounts as the Federal Reserve seems to be on a path to offer meaningful rates for the long term.
So it's likely the end of mass market crypto? or effective advertising for major sporting events (F1, Miami Heat, LA)
Re: Is this the end of crypto?
#128We are making steady and inexorable progress through the technology hype cycle. From earlier this year: https://emtemp.gcom.cloud/ngw/globalassets/en/articles/image... Now we enter the Trough of Disillusionment. Given the general accuracy of this model/metaphor in the past, should we consider it to be any different this time around?
The hype cycle is not applicable to every technology. Some, probably even most, technologies are eventually found to not be useful or valuable, and never recover once the hype bust happens and the technology is forced to compete in the marketplace based wholly on its merits.
Re: Is this the end of crypto?
#129This is just such an awful betrayal of their mission. The Economist should know better, and everyone I have spoken to which is senior in their readership does know better. This is still a pro-crypto-scam article. They repeat the same scam-artist lies, crypto is somehow an innovation in "trust", somehow more "efficient" than existing infrastructure, somehow "smart contracts" are more reliable than actual contracts. Th…
> They repeat the same scam-artist lies, crypto is somehow an innovation in "trust", somehow more "efficient" than existing infrastructure, somehow "smart contracts" are more reliable than actual contracts. Things "become possible".
I can't read the article through the paywall to read any clarification on these points, but some of what you mentioned in that list above is arguably true.
* Say what you will about crypto, but it is an unbelievable accounting invention and innovation in trust. Crypto the technology is distinct from centralized exchanges.
* In terms of electricity usage and transaction speed, most crypto might not be very efficient (yet), but what efficiency are they talking about? If crypto-adoption can replace many bankers and finance employees because the network automatically does a lot of their day-to-day tasks, then there's an argument that crypto is highly efficient in some areas.
* Are smart contracts more reliable than traditional contracts? Well, that's highly debatable: you have the existing legal system that can sometimes be used to enforce contracts, but not always. But if the conditions of a smart contract are met, there's probably no conceivable force on Earth short of either a gargantuan cyberattack or the electricity going down network-wide that can stop it from executing. Sure, you might argue that smart contracts have numerous potential flaws (unreliable data, bugs in the contract, no possibility of rollback, etc) but there are good counterpoints, improvements in these areas, and some similar flaws in existing contracts. For instance: people intentionally cheat on traditional contracts all of the time and just dare others to sue: that's much harder with smart contracts that automatically execute once the agreed upon conditions are met.
Re: Is this the end of crypto?
#130Here's how I see it: Crypto as an investment - Not your keys, not your coin. Crypto as a currency - I can't directly buy food, water, shelter, transportation, energy, or anything fundamental with it. I know acceptance is growing, but 10+ years later, crypto still has extremely limited acceptance for daily goods and services. It is almost exclusively held as an investment.
> Crypto as a currency - I can't directly buy food, water, shelter, transportation, energy, or anything fundamental with it.
Not surprising, considering the technology isn't there yet. Scalability (and thus fees) are still unsolved. UX has so much to improve as well.
It's advancing, but it takes time.