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Crypto in 2026: Oh, This Is the Bad Place

stephendiehl.com

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Re: Crypto in 2026: Oh, This Is the Bad Place

#71

Post by pjc50 »

rglullis wrote: post #55
alehrs wrote: post #50

I've been deep into crypto for years and I was a big stablecoin supporter. I was fascinated by the tech and I still am. But everything outside the tech itself is just trash, scams, and gambling. I've come to believe that "pure" decentralization is neither practical nor particularly convenient. The only real use case that makes sense to me is giving people in developing countries access to a stable currency they can a…

Exactly. Cryptocurrency is useful as as a backup system against failing/weak institutions. Just that. Like insurance, it was not there to make anyone's lives better but simply to become a safeguard to avoid complete collapse.

However, I think there's an argument that the existence of that backup, or at least its marketing, might of itself encourage people to make the institutions fail so they can profit from it.

Re: Crypto in 2026: Oh, This Is the Bad Place

#72

Post by astoor »

rglullis wrote: post #55
alehrs wrote: post #50

I've been deep into crypto for years and I was a big stablecoin supporter. I was fascinated by the tech and I still am. But everything outside the tech itself is just trash, scams, and gambling. I've come to believe that "pure" decentralization is neither practical nor particularly convenient. The only real use case that makes sense to me is giving people in developing countries access to a stable currency they can a…

Exactly. Cryptocurrency is useful as as a backup system against failing/weak institutions. Just that. Like insurance, it was not there to make anyone's lives better but simply to become a safeguard to avoid complete collapse.

If it was just a backup against failing/weak institutions it would be relavively benign, but the problem is that it incentivises machiavellian types to undermine society and nation states for their own personal profit - see e.g. The Sovereign Individual[0].

Combined with effective accelerationism[1] you can see why we could be heading towards somewhere a whole lot worse than The Bad Place.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sovereign_Individual

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Effective_accelerationism

Re: Crypto in 2026: Oh, This Is the Bad Place

#73

Post by ryanjshaw »

pjc50 wrote: post #28
l23k4 wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When you go outside of the nice countries, local money becomes worthless. Nobody wants it, they'd much rather have dollars instead. Stablecoins for the first time offer a reasonable way for the global poor to store value in dollars, or in the form of any relatively stable currency. Obviously this comes with all kinds of issues, but it's still better than the original situation where "savings" simply didn't exist exce…

While this has a very reasonable point about access to dollars, it's also funny to contrast it against the breathless propaganda from crypto advocates that the dollar itself is going to be the victim of hyperinflation Real Soon Now.

Crypto advocates are not one homogenous blob.

Re: Crypto in 2026: Oh, This Is the Bad Place

#74

Post by pjc50 »

fn-mote wrote: post #67
himata4113 wrote: post #45

Cryptocurrency is very much a double edged sword, on one hand it enables people to transact monetary value bypassing for-profit operators such as western union and paypal as well as hinders corrupt government institutions from confiscating or otherwise devaluing what you own. Of course this also allows people with harmful intentions to do the same, bypass centralized systems that keep fraud in check, mitigate theft a…

I’m ignorant of this but it seems wrong. 30% lost in fees?? Can they not manage to open a dollar-backed account somewhere? Also: > being stored in a currency that might lose a majority of its value overnight I for sure put crypto in this same category. “Stablecoin” or not.

> Can they not manage to open a dollar-backed account somewhere?

Outside the West, the answer is quite often "no". And trying to open an account in the US from outside will run into ID+residency requirements.

Re: Crypto in 2026: Oh, This Is the Bad Place

#76

Post by sfmz »

alehrs wrote: post #50

I've been deep into crypto for years and I was a big stablecoin supporter. I was fascinated by the tech and I still am. But everything outside the tech itself is just trash, scams, and gambling. I've come to believe that "pure" decentralization is neither practical nor particularly convenient. The only real use case that makes sense to me is giving people in developing countries access to a stable currency they can a…

An emerging use-case is a bank account for AI agents. I read that Coinbase 'Base' Ethereum layer2 is popular for AI banking.

Re: Crypto in 2026: Oh, This Is the Bad Place

#77

Post by fragmede »

fn-mote wrote: post #67
himata4113 wrote: post #45

Cryptocurrency is very much a double edged sword, on one hand it enables people to transact monetary value bypassing for-profit operators such as western union and paypal as well as hinders corrupt government institutions from confiscating or otherwise devaluing what you own. Of course this also allows people with harmful intentions to do the same, bypass centralized systems that keep fraud in check, mitigate theft a…

I’m ignorant of this but it seems wrong. 30% lost in fees?? Can they not manage to open a dollar-backed account somewhere? Also: > being stored in a currency that might lose a majority of its value overnight I for sure put crypto in this same category. “Stablecoin” or not.

> Can they not manage to open a dollar-backed account somewhere?

It's harder, if not impossible, if you've been got the wrong set of papers, or are missing them.

> this same category. “Stablecoin” or not.

Like it or not, USDC and USDT do seem to actually be stable. They've been pegged to the dollar for a while now, with increased scrutiny.

Re: Crypto in 2026: Oh, This Is the Bad Place

#78

Post by ryanjshaw »

dragandj wrote: post #31
l23k4 wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When you go outside of the nice countries, local money becomes worthless. Nobody wants it, they'd much rather have dollars instead. Stablecoins for the first time offer a reasonable way for the global poor to store value in dollars, or in the form of any relatively stable currency. Obviously this comes with all kinds of issues, but it's still better than the original situation where "savings" simply didn't exist exce…

The global poor already had ways to store value in dollars. They could simply exchange whatever meager savings they had into... real dollars! And they have been doing that for decades. I don't know whether anyone in the west really believes in this bullshit of cryptocurrencies that give the global poor options.

This is simply not true. In South Africa, one of the largest African economies, you cannot hold foreign currency unless you are traveling and then you have to sell it back within 30 days of returning to the country. You can open a foreign currency account with a minimum of eg R1500 which is half the monthly minimum wage. Then there are the exchange fees to talk about. You are oversimplifying.

Re: Crypto in 2026: Oh, This Is the Bad Place

#79

Post by ses1984 »

sfmz wrote: post #76
alehrs wrote: post #50

I've been deep into crypto for years and I was a big stablecoin supporter. I was fascinated by the tech and I still am. But everything outside the tech itself is just trash, scams, and gambling. I've come to believe that "pure" decentralization is neither practical nor particularly convenient. The only real use case that makes sense to me is giving people in developing countries access to a stable currency they can a…

An emerging use-case is a bank account for AI agents. I read that Coinbase 'Base' Ethereum layer2 is popular for AI banking.

Or you could just give your agents a debit card number loaded with only as much money as you specify.
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