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Cryptocurrencies add nothing useful to society, says chip-maker Nvidia

theguardian.com

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Re: Cryptocurrencies add nothing useful to society, says chip-maker Nvidia

#51
post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Reminds me of when a sushi chef apologized to me for the sea urchin tasting nasty: "Sorry, it's out of season. It's not fresh." "Why do you sell it out of season?" "People still buy it."

Unless there's more to the story, IMO the onus is very much on the person who procures seafood every day to explain when a dish is out-of-season.

I think the chef is saying that most people buy it and don't complain, even when it's out-of-season, and selling sea urchin is (presumably) profitable, so it's worth the occasional customer complaining about the taste.

Re: Cryptocurrencies add nothing useful to society, says chip-maker Nvidia

#52

> “All this crypto stuff, it needed parallel processing, and [Nvidia] is the best, so people just programmed it to use for this purpose. They bought a lot of stuff, and then eventually it collapsed, because it doesn’t bring anything useful for society. AI does,” Kagan told the Guardian. No, the crypto mining industry collapsed because the largest GPU-mined cryptocurrency (Ethereum) removed the ability for people to m…

It's entirely possible for nvidia to be sour and also correct. Crypto currencies have done nothing for society but to introduce scam and money laundering vectors.

Right, but _they_ are also are also firmly planted within the fiat monetary system. Ultimately their will be a socially defined singular cryptographic definition of economic value at some point in the future.

Re: Cryptocurrencies add nothing useful to society, says chip-maker Nvidia

#53

> “All this crypto stuff, it needed parallel processing, and [Nvidia] is the best, so people just programmed it to use for this purpose. They bought a lot of stuff, and then eventually it collapsed, because it doesn’t bring anything useful for society. AI does,” Kagan told the Guardian. No, the crypto mining industry collapsed because the largest GPU-mined cryptocurrency (Ethereum) removed the ability for people to m…

It's entirely possible for nvidia to be sour and also correct. Crypto currencies have done nothing for society but to introduce scam and money laundering vectors.

Online dark net markets would not be possible without cryptos.

They are a pretty big win for those who believe in personal liberty.

Re: Cryptocurrencies add nothing useful to society, says chip-maker Nvidia

#54

> “All this crypto stuff, it needed parallel processing, and [Nvidia] is the best, so people just programmed it to use for this purpose. They bought a lot of stuff, and then eventually it collapsed, because it doesn’t bring anything useful for society. AI does,” Kagan told the Guardian. No, the crypto mining industry collapsed because the largest GPU-mined cryptocurrency (Ethereum) removed the ability for people to m…

You're kinda right but it's also kinda right that after a decade+ crypto found like 1.5 useful applications and generative AI is finding some mind blowing product launch or demo something like once every 8 hours.

What were the 1.5 useful application - buying illegal stuff and money laundering?

Re: Cryptocurrencies add nothing useful to society, says chip-maker Nvidia

#56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're kinda right but it's also kinda right that after a decade+ crypto found like 1.5 useful applications and generative AI is finding some mind blowing product launch or demo something like once every 8 hours.

What were the 1.5 useful application - buying illegal stuff and money laundering?

There is also ransomware.

Re: Cryptocurrencies add nothing useful to society, says chip-maker Nvidia

#57

> “All this crypto stuff, it needed parallel processing, and [Nvidia] is the best, so people just programmed it to use for this purpose. They bought a lot of stuff, and then eventually it collapsed, because it doesn’t bring anything useful for society. AI does,” Kagan told the Guardian. No, the crypto mining industry collapsed because the largest GPU-mined cryptocurrency (Ethereum) removed the ability for people to m…

It's entirely possible for nvidia to be sour and also correct. Crypto currencies have done nothing for society but to introduce scam and money laundering vectors.

His claim... "it collapsed, because it doesn’t bring anything useful for society"

...is incorrect. The total crypto market cap collapsed because of interest rate hikes.

Nvidia's stock dropped 68%. Is that because it didn't bring anything useful for society? No. It was trading at a premium because of low rates.

Re: Cryptocurrencies add nothing useful to society, says chip-maker Nvidia

#58
post #10

Who is "society"? Users of cryptocurrencies obviously find them useful, or hope they will be in future. The alternative to cryptocurrency and blockchain contracts are global alliances that make trading in dollars easy in all important markets and enforce contracts across jurisdictions. Billions of people who are not part of these alliances are left out and the rest are reliant on US/Europe remaining leading superpowe…

"Users of cryptocurrencies obviously find them useful, or hope they will be in future" Do they hope they'll be useful in the future because they think they're great technology that everyone should benefit from... or do they want them to be useful because they bought in early and want to get rich?

Anyone that's bought in during the past few years isn't early.

Those that held pre-2017 are the ones that got in early.

The rest could probably make better returns speculating in the US markets.

Re: Cryptocurrencies add nothing useful to society, says chip-maker Nvidia

#59

Who is "society"? Users of cryptocurrencies obviously find them useful, or hope they will be in future. The alternative to cryptocurrency and blockchain contracts are global alliances that make trading in dollars easy in all important markets and enforce contracts across jurisdictions. Billions of people who are not part of these alliances are left out and the rest are reliant on US/Europe remaining leading superpowe…

How does shifting from a physical currency based on the petrodollar to a digital currency backed by the petrodollar address any of this? Technology cannot solve problems of power…

The story of 'dollar backed by petrol' is fiction. Petrodollar exists as much as a corndollar exists. The dollar is US Treasury debt.

Re: Cryptocurrencies add nothing useful to society, says chip-maker Nvidia

#60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's entirely possible for nvidia to be sour and also correct. Crypto currencies have done nothing for society but to introduce scam and money laundering vectors.

Online dark net markets would not be possible without cryptos. They are a pretty big win for those who believe in personal liberty.

Fortunately I don’t think anyone is concerned with what libertarians consider a “big win”.
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