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Is this the end of crypto?

economist.com

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Re: Is this the end of crypto?

#381

Post by JohnFen »

TacticalCoder wrote: post #251
dragontamer wrote: post #32

Fundamental issues of cryptocurrency economy: 1. Biggest pushers are seemingly tech-bros from FANG companies. These companies are laying off staff in record numbers. The biggest cryptocoin believers therefore, will have less income than ever before (in ~3 months or so, after their severance is paid, they'll have to start drawing on savings if they didn't get a job yet... and getting a job in this economy is going to…

> 3. Inflation. Instead of being a hedge on inflation, cryptocoins collapsed in the face of it. I don't disagree with the other points but... That one remains to be seen. Bitcoin was precisely created as a gigantic middle finger to the central bank's endless money printing to bail out the financial system. That's the message in the genesis block ("Chancellor on the brink of second bank bail out": it's as political as…

So you're into it for political reasons as much as anything else?

Re: Is this the end of crypto?

#382

Post by dang »

P5fRxh5kUvp2th wrote: post #346
dang wrote: post #263

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> One could argue that Sure, but it always feels like the other person started it and did worse—so everybody always argues that.* Let's assume you are right and the other person is wrong. Posting an unsubstantive snark is the worst way to respond. It poisons the atmosphere, evokes worse from others, and ultimately discredits your own position (which, if you're right, means you're discrediting the truth—and that hurts…

guidelines state to assume good faith, I asked if they understood the actual point. What's happened here is my assumption of good faith with a question got turned into a warning by the mod because they, themselves, did not assume good faith on my part. So the question becomes, are those guidelines taken seriously by the moderators of this site or not? If they are, then maybe admit to your error and lets all just move…

It was obviously an unsubstantive comment, unduly personal, and basically a variation on "did you even read the article" which the site guidelines ask people not to post. That makes it flamebait, regardless of your intention when you posted it. I don't think it was a borderline call, nor is it hard to understand.

Ironically, the sort of legalistic pleading you're resorting to is a sign of a lack of the good faith you're claiming. So is the style of your reply sequence: never admit or accept a thing, never address what the other person says, and simply bring up a new argument every time. These are troll tactics, whether you're using them that way intentionally or not (https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&sor...), and part of how we moderate HN is not to dance that way.

Re: Is this the end of crypto?

#383

Post by majikandy »

P5fRxh5kUvp2th wrote: post #106
cooljacob204 wrote: post #11

When 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…

If the value dropped to Zero, I’d “buy” them all and then run my own miner to confirm the transaction and sail off into the virtual sunset with my story about how I bought all the bitcoin in the world. I’d keep running the miner and publishing my chain. But then someone would come along with more hashpower than me and rewrite all my transactions with their longer chain and my sunset would turn to darkness, and I’d be poor again… but ironically they’d probably not be worth zero anymore. Then people would rewrite that chain with more hashpower… And so on, until greed secures the transactions again and restores value.

At which point I’d turn my miner off and wind the chain back to when I was rich on my private virtual island for one and live happily ever after.

Re: Is this the end of crypto?

#384

Post by benlivengood »

rafaelero wrote: post #275

Bitcoin won't die. Crypto will, and hopefully soon. The community here is so oblivious to the characteristics that make Bitcoin the best monetary system we could have invented that I can only believe people haven't really thought things through. That's why we see these comparisons with Bitcoin and other cryptos. I am actually glad all this mess is happening so we can finally move on with all those crypto scams that w…

I am always curious when I hear sentiments like this. Why is BCH better than BTC as a monetary system? Is it the historical choice of larger block sizes to support currency transactions or the relative stability in USD compared to BTC?

Re: Is this the end of crypto?

#385

Post by hnarayanan »

P5fRxh5kUvp2th wrote: post #378
wizofaus wrote: post #374

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think I've ever seen a convincing argument that the physical "usefulness" of gold is a significant factor behind its market value. The closest is the argument that it's useful as marker for indicating wealth/status/privilege, because of its rarity (and obviously the skill involved in crafting it into various ornaments/utensils etc.). But yes, arguably more useful than cryptocurrency (where there's value in th…

The point is that gold is useful, crypto-coins are not.

Another point is that the perceived value of gold has never been tied to its supposed usefulness.

Re: Is this the end of crypto?

#386

Post by mxschumacher »

lupire wrote: post #55
cooljacob204 wrote: post #11

When 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…

Good government is a luxury many lack.

and competition is healthy anyway, even for governments. That transfers of money in the US are relatively slow and relatively expensive is a technical issue for the FED to resolve; already a solved problem in the Eurozone.

Re: Is this the end of crypto?

#387

Post by mxschumacher »

1970-01-01 wrote: post #88

Here'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.

is acceptance growing? I feel like I used to have the option of paying with Bitcoin more often a few years ago.

Re: Is this the end of crypto?

#388

Post by paiute »

Loughla wrote: post #329
paiute wrote: post #316

Earlier quoted context omitted.

it honestly sounds a lot like banking. We just have some rules now to prevent this sort of thing. It's not bitcoin that's the problem... It's the money changers.

If an item only works well in theory, then the item itself is the problem. A firearm is absolutely, 100% safe as long as no one ever interacts with it. Because we are humans, in a society, and everything we do relies on human interactions, if Bitcoin (and crypto in general) cannot operate positively and effectively, except in theory , then it is the problem, regardless of the underlying reason.

the history of money seems to be lost on you. It literally went through the same sorts of things. Fiat works because we learned. My Good that gun comparison was dumb.

Re: Is this the end of crypto?

#389

Post by adammarples »

ManuelKiessling wrote: post #360
TacticalCoder wrote: post #251

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 3. Inflation. Instead of being a hedge on inflation, cryptocoins collapsed in the face of it. I don't disagree with the other points but... That one remains to be seen. Bitcoin was precisely created as a gigantic middle finger to the central bank's endless money printing to bail out the financial system. That's the message in the genesis block ("Chancellor on the brink of second bank bail out": it's as political as…

> I have zero confidence in USD / EUR. I have zero confidence in banks. I believe in stocks and, yes, in BTC and ETH on my own hardware wallet. I’m eager to learn at which institutions you plan to buy and sell your stocks, and which currency you are planning to use to do so.

This is quite funny. What is a stock but a claim on a future income stream of usd/eur?

Re: Is this the end of crypto?

#390

Post by pera »

runarberg wrote: post #380
vaxintar wrote: post #252

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>This issue could be solved tomorrow by legislation if governments would cooperate and work to do so. Again, many countries around the globe don't have a functional government capable of produce such legislation _tomorrow_.

GP was talking about Argentina and the UK. Both have pretty functioning governments, and pretty stable relation. This could easily be solved for most people today. Even China and India have stable governments that pass legislation and adopt international standards. You will only find exceptions in places like the USA, Iran and Russia. However most people don’t live there.

I'm quite tired for a proper response right now but I wanted to point out that this has nothing to do with UK-Argentina bilateral relations: Argentina's economy has a very complex history, specially during the past 20 years, and things that you give for granted like transferring money internationally with your bank or having a savings account are simply not an option.
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