Earlier quoted context omitted.
> I worked in Solana and was surprised to find out that a developer can update a program at will Because it's not a real blockchain. Most chains are centralized. You should really focus your time on Ethereum. It's the only chain researching and innovating and is focused on longevity.
Absolutely not true. Program maintainers can create immutable programs, most just choose not to. It's a user issue more so than a protocol issue.
In 2022, Web3 went just great
191–200 of 205 posts
Re: In 2022, Web3 went just great
#192Earlier quoted context omitted.
And retail traders should not trade options. It is a terribly stupid thing to do and is almost guaranteed to lose them money. If a sophisticated financial actor wants to trade in options or crypto, then I don't think it is terribly productive but that is their business. There are also people who fly airplanes and cliff dive, but if my acquaintance Joe the whitecollar sales associate who lives two houses down from me…
It all depends on how much they are spending. If joe has $1k disposable income he can play the lottery,crypto,options whatever. I personally only ever bought a few hundred dollars at a time only to sell at 5-10% profit. Even right now you can make a few bucks on the normal turbulence. You seem to have overlooked my statement about rule #1 it has to be money you can afford to lose and of course people will tell you th…
Did I know people who made out well playing the crypto market? One. Did I tell him to not do it? Nope, because he knows what he is doing.
The flipside of this is the 5 or so people in my direct personal sphere and hundreds if not thousands (if you count the lurkers who followed conversations I was having with individuals) online who have advocated for or expressed direct involvement or interesting in playing in crypto markets that I have advised against doing so, with a rare few heeding my warning but the overwhelming majority using circular logic, fallacies, personal attacks, and 'not-even-wrong' economic theories to justify putting a large portion of their income (sometimes even taking out loans) on it.
Please understand that the perspective I am trying to show the readers of my comments is my own.
Re: In 2022, Web3 went just great
#193Earlier quoted context omitted.
To me, price increase is a good proxy for growth and I believe in both BTC and ETH to appreciate more than S&P500 over the next 10 years.
Why is it a good proxy for growth? What do you base that on? Are you familiar with the term Deflationary Asset?
Because buyers are valuing them more and more and not just in words but by actually with their money?
> Are you familiar with the term Deflationary Asset?
Yes. I also believe BTC will outperform gold over the next 10 years (both of those are deflationary assets).
Re: In 2022, Web3 went just great
#194Earlier quoted context omitted.
People forget how hyped the internet was circa 1996-2000. During the early days, one of the most popular sites was a web cam pointed at a coffee mug [0] and a webcam pointed at a "lifecaster" showing her everyday life [1]. Email was confusing and misunderstood [2]. Startups were laughed at when they said you would buy pet food online [3] or pay your parking tickets online [4]. Both are so commonplace now as to barely…
> but it sits at the middle of theoretical computer science, economics and finance in a novel way that responds to a lot of shortcomings of attempts before it. The problem here is that the creator of Bitcoin was following a philosophical motivation, not a scientific one. The 'economics' behind it are completely misguided and appear to be based on the notion that taking power away from powerful entities and distributi…
This sentence is also weird:
> The 'economics' behind it are completely misguided and appear to be based on the notion that taking power away from powerful entities and distributing amongst individuals will remove the problems associated with capitalist systems.
So you're arguing that consolidating power by removing it from the masses is a better alternative? It's not that distributing power solves problems, it's that distributing power is a necessary precursor to solving problems. You apparently disagree with that premise?
I said that it may have critical flaws not that it does. I'm trying to communicate uncertainty. I believe Bitcoin has a solid foundation but I could be wrong so I'm trying to leave room open for debate and to be open to new information that could prove me wrong. Bitcoin is also an evolving story, with usability issues and scaling issues that complicate discussions.
The fact that dogma is associated with it is kind of irrelevant. I guess you focus on it so much because it's dogma you disagree with? GNU is steeped in dogma. The US constitution is steeped in dogma. The mere fact that dogma is present is not the sole indicator of validity of an idea.
Bitcoin was a specific and evolutionary response to what was perceived as a failing system. Your statements get pretty hyperbolic. I'm not sure it's relevant, helpful or valid to compare Bitcoin to eugenics or atrocities committed by Russia on it's citizenship.
Re: In 2022, Web3 went just great
#195Earlier quoted context omitted.
> but it sits at the middle of theoretical computer science, economics and finance in a novel way that responds to a lot of shortcomings of attempts before it. The problem here is that the creator of Bitcoin was following a philosophical motivation, not a scientific one. The 'economics' behind it are completely misguided and appear to be based on the notion that taking power away from powerful entities and distributi…
It's a weird distinction you make. To say that it's a philosophical motivation is ignoring motivation of a lot of innovation and kind of beside the point. The "philosophy" of the internet was to build a network that would be resilient against a nuclear attack yet, because of those motivations and in spite of that cynical outlook, the internet was created that was robust and flexible. The "philosophical" motivation be…
You misunderstand. If I develop a technology because I want society to be able survive a nuclear attack by making a robust network that has extra effects like enabling instant communication between disparate entities, that is a benefit. If I develop a technology that replaces in-place infrastructure like school buildings with nuclear-proof bomb shelters at great cost and by removing the schools and making children homeschool because I think that any ill-effects caused by disrupting society are worth it in order to safeguard humanity from a nuclear attack that I believe is coming -- well that all depends on whether I am right about my founding belief, isn't it? If there is no nuclear attack and we lose critical infrastructure because I had a political, unprovable belief, then we seriously messed up.
I think you know that what the difference is between ancillary benefits because of planning and destructive effects because 'the ends justify the means' especially when the 'ends' ever happening are highly disputed and the 'means' haven't even been proven to work in any sense at all to produce them.
> So you're arguing that consolidating power by removing it from the masses is a better alternative? It's not that distributing power solves problems, it's that distributing power is a necessary precursor to solving problems. You apparently disagree with that premise?
You are better than this. Please don't disrespect your position by relying on loaded questions and strawmen.
What I am arguing for is not disrupting existing power structures that society relies on because you think it would be better off without them and that they are unfair. Especially when your replacement is unproven and it seems reasonable and sounds good on paper until you play it through logically and see that it ignores basic tenets of established processes of modern societies -- like we need to be able for a world-wide payment system to be able to scale and not destroy the planet and eat up a large portion of our energy resources if and when it is trying to do so.
> I said that it may have critical flaws not that it does.
I misread you then, but that is probably because I contend that it does.
> I believe Bitcoin has a solid foundation
You have every right to believe that, and I have every right to tell you that you are wrong and that the debate is only between people who want Bitcoin to be a solution to something it cannot do (fix inequality or really anything that it is advocated for), people who want to use Bitcoin to redistribute wealth to themselves and their friends, and people who want the former group to snap out of it and use their effort to work on productive solutions and for the latter group to be investigated for crimes and if found guilty sent to prison.
> The fact that dogma is associated with it is kind of irrelevant.
Not when you come to terms with the fact that looking for evidence for something you already believe and discarding that which does not fit is something that is extremely harmful to society and prevented and reverted progress for unknown generations of people as evidenced by the dark ages in Europe and the regression of the middle East from world leaders in sciences and technology to war-torn wastelands.
> Bitcoin was a specific and evolutionary response
Evolution does not mean better -- it means more effective. Capitalism is about distributing resources from the ground to production to consumption and conversion into capital. Moving capital from people with little power to people with more power is actually more efficient when you remove regulations and societal prohibitions on deception, fraud, and usury. Bitcoin is great at that.
Re: In 2022, Web3 went just great
#196Earlier quoted context omitted.
> For the clown that paid $2.9 million for the first tweet He didn't pay for the first tweet, he paid for someone to create a hash of the URL of the first tweet. The distinction matters: the NFT scam works by tricking people into thinking they own the thing, instead of just a copy of a pointer someone made to the thing, which is what they actually "own."
"He didn't pay for that Picasso, he just paid for some canvas and paint!" 99.9% of people don't care about the technicalities of how NFT's work, they buy them because they are valuable to them and everyone else believes they are valuable. Every single digital item anyone has ever bought, from Ebooks, to in-game items, to movies, is just a pointer to some bytes on a disk.
Re: In 2022, Web3 went just great
#197Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's a weird distinction you make. To say that it's a philosophical motivation is ignoring motivation of a lot of innovation and kind of beside the point. The "philosophy" of the internet was to build a network that would be resilient against a nuclear attack yet, because of those motivations and in spite of that cynical outlook, the internet was created that was robust and flexible. The "philosophical" motivation be…
> The "philosophical" motivation You misunderstand. If I develop a technology because I want society to be able survive a nuclear attack by making a robust network that has extra effects like enabling instant communication between disparate entities, that is a benefit. If I develop a technology that replaces in-place infrastructure like school buildings with nuclear-proof bomb shelters at great cost and by removing t…
> You misunderstand.
No, I didn't. I understood and got at the core of the argument. You've responded to it with the argument you actually wanted to make, not the one you did make in the parent response.
So your argument now is not that it's dogmatic but that the implementation and rollout is/would be too disruptive.
I disagree. I think we're seeing people have mixed fiat currency and cryptocurrency and it seems clear that cryptocurrency can further integrate itself into everyday operations without causing the disruption you're thinking of.
> ... like we need to be able for a world-wide payment system to be able to scale and not destroy the planet and eat up a large portion of our energy resources if and when it is trying to do so.
These are all things that Bitcoin possibly can mitigate and work around. I'm willing to admit that this might not be possible. You refuse to engage in the idea.
> ... looking for evidence for something you already believe and discarding that which does not fit is something that is extremely harmful to society ...
Again, my argument is to have a reasoned critique, not a shouting match. Critique is important. Bullying doesn't help.
I am aware of the shortcomings. I don't want to ignore the problems but I also don't want to let let them overshadow the benefits, especially if the benefits outweigh the problems. I urge you to do the same.
> Evolution does not mean better ...
This was a response to your earlier point that Bitcoin was created from dogma. There might be bias in terms of which economic or political model is best (by Satoshi Nakamoto and other proponents) but my point was that Bitcoin was a logical progression of ideas to fix critical flaws in earlier attempts.
The commonly held political definition of Capitalism is "A socio-economic system based on private ownership of resources or capital." You're describing what you believe to be the effects of capitalism. Maybe that implies what you're talking about but that's not obvious to me and I suspect it's far from the truth. Shooting from the hip, I can already tell you that things like solar energy exist which are in the other direction of where you're pointing to for resources.
Moving capital from people with little power to people continuing to consolidate power is progressing just fine without cryptocurrency [1]. Though I'm not sure if the sources can be trusted or that the interpretation is correct, there's at least some evidence that cryptocurrency is being used for one of its intended, altruistic, use cases [2] [3] [4].
[0] https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/capitalism
[1] https://www.pewresearch.org/social-trends/2020/01/09/trends-...
[2] https://ripple.com/insights/broadening-financial-inclusion-i...
[3] https://cointelegraph.com/news/africa-s-crypto-market-has-gr...
[4] https://blog.chainalysis.com/reports/africas-grassroots-cryp...
Re: In 2022, Web3 went just great
#198Earlier quoted context omitted.
> The "philosophical" motivation You misunderstand. If I develop a technology because I want society to be able survive a nuclear attack by making a robust network that has extra effects like enabling instant communication between disparate entities, that is a benefit. If I develop a technology that replaces in-place infrastructure like school buildings with nuclear-proof bomb shelters at great cost and by removing t…
I am better than what you're accusing me of. It's too bad that you either can't see it or purposefully ignoring it. I suspect what you're doing is arguing in bad faith but accusing me of it first to shield yourself from critique. > You misunderstand. No, I didn't. I understood and got at the core of the argument. You've responded to it with the argument you actually wanted to make, not the one you did make in the par…
Let's get this out of the way right now:
I did not accuse you of anything -- I pointed out that you were using a loaded question and strawman and that you shouldn't do that. You are now suggesting, with no evidence, that I am acting deceptively. I have done nothing but share my opinion based on my own knowledge and experiences and have done so in direct response to you, quoting when appropriate, without pivoting, without moving goalposts, without using logical fallacies, and without accusations. I ask that you do the same going forward. If you dislike or disagree with something I write or I have made an error in rhetoric please point it out, but if not I would appreciate civility. Thank you.
Moving on...
> I understood and got at the core of the argument. You've responded to it with the argument you actually wanted to make, not the one you did make in the parent response.
I'd rather not that I rehash the same things but respond to you specifically. By bringing counterpoints you force me to revisit my thinking and clarify and expand -- this is a good thing and this is what discussions are good for. I hope you aren't suggesting that we sit here and yell the same unchanging talking points at each other ad-nauseum. I am honestly confused by your response here -- if you got my point the first time I said it then you wouldn't have responded to a misunderstanding of it. If you think you understand that what I meant by a philosophically motivated product was anything like a solution oriented product then I have not explained it properly and I would ask that you try and parse it so that we can be on common ground and not talk past each other.
A philosophically motived product such as Communism has as its goal a politically driven end-point. It seeks to get there by whatever means are available and sees the end-point as the mark of success and treats things like human suffering on the way there as irrelevant or collateral damage or justice. Another example would be 'apocalypse fetishism' (with or without a religious basis)
A solution motivated product like medicine or the writing of the constitution seeks to to solve problems by working through them, proceeding in a fashion that seems reasonable, and moving forward or in other directions based on the results as the happen. Sometimes these products are ineffective, or they were the result of external forces, but the people at the heart of them were working towards progress and a goal (freedom, health) and would change their methods when news ones proved better, or they realized it was not productive or what have you.
I contend that Bitcoin is essentially a philosophically motivated product and has as its end-point a 'libertarian' society based on economics averse to central banking.
The fact that you can point out faults in some of these things does not change the fact that they are fundamentally different ways of approaching things. That is what I was trying to convey. If you still think there is no difference then I will either have to think of a better way to explain it or I will have to concede to the fact that I am either terrible at communicating something that seems basic to me, or that you are unable to understand it for some reason, but I neither of those things is true.
> I disagree. I think we're seeing people have mixed fiat currency and cryptocurrency and it seems clear that cryptocurrency can further integrate itself into everyday operations without causing the disruption you're thinking of.
I don't see any of the use cases for it happening at all. It may be that I live in the USA and am privileged, but no one I know who interacts with crypto sees any problems which can be solved better by it, except for novelty or speculation. The only cryptocurrency which is good at legitimately solving a problem well is Monero, because it is good at being a means of transaction for illicit goods online for which there is a good privacy wall in place.
> These are all things that Bitcoin possibly can mitigate and work around. I'm willing to admit that this might not be possible. You refuse to engage in the idea.
There is a difference between refusing to engage in an idea and having already spent time engaged in that idea and realizing that the idea is a bad one. I have done the latter.
> Again, my argument is to have a reasoned critique, not a shouting match. Critique is important. Bullying doesn't help.
There is no way to illustrate what can only be described as a technology which has as its stated goal the changing of society but to mention times in the past when this has happened to ill effect. I do not see it as hyperbolic at all. If you wanted to talk about a political philosophy advocating the training of dogs or something, then I wouldn't bring up Soviet Russia as a response. But since Bitcoin wants to break down central banking, for which our world economies are reliant, then Soviet Russia seems apt.
> Capitalism
I don't want to get into a 'the definition of...is' type debate, can we accept I was being a bit reductive but that you understood my general point, and skip the back-and-forth about it that we both know is pointless?
Re: In 2022, Web3 went just great
#199Earlier quoted context omitted.
> For the clown that paid $2.9 million for the first tweet He didn't pay for the first tweet, he paid for someone to create a hash of the URL of the first tweet. The distinction matters: the NFT scam works by tricking people into thinking they own the thing, instead of just a copy of a pointer someone made to the thing, which is what they actually "own."
"He didn't pay for that Picasso, he just paid for some canvas and paint!" 99.9% of people don't care about the technicalities of how NFT's work, they buy them because they are valuable to them and everyone else believes they are valuable. Every single digital item anyone has ever bought, from Ebooks, to in-game items, to movies, is just a pointer to some bytes on a disk.
When you buy an e-book you don't pay for "proof of ownership" like with an NFT. When you buy an e-book you get an actual file containing the data of the book. With this file you can read the book. With "proof of ownership" you can do exactly nothing.
Re: In 2022, Web3 went just great
#200I would feel bad for people who lost money in crypto if every time I tried to warn them during the bubble they wouldn't have said 'have fun staying poor' and called me ignorant. It is tough to remain motivated to try and convince people that they are making bad decision when they actively berate you. It feels like telling someone about to jump into the shallow end of a swimming pool from a balcony that they are going…
I think you likely encounter the rude people on twitter hiding behind anon. accounts. My step dad lost ~30k in what he thought was a relatively safe investment (earning APY). I did tell him to be very careful as most of crypto to the uninitiated is a scam. He ended up being able to put Ethereum in but not able to take it out. Obviously if the returns appear to good to be true they probably are but this is an older gu…