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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

#121

Post by mothballed »

whiplash451 wrote: post #119
zmgsabst wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I use crypto for exchange between friends (US + EU) and myself (SE Asia). Our options are IBAN (slow!), WesternUnion (fees, denials, hassles) or crypto (10min, cheap). We chose crypto - because it’s the practical path from their bank to mine. CashApp and Coinbase interface with my actual bank accounts, on my end. If you don’t do international banking, then much of the utility is diminished — so I’m not surprised by y…

Aren’t there fees to convert fiat from/to crypto on both ends?

You can make the fees rather than pay them if you make the market. There are decentralized exchanges where this can be done ~trivially for even low amounts. The fees are for those who want instant gratification.

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

#122

Post by akoboldfrying »

this_user wrote: post #107
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…

> it enables people to transact monetary value bypassing for-profit operators such as western union and paypal You are not even getting rid of that, you are just replacing them with a different set of middlemen in the crypto ecosystem who are demanding substantially higher fees than, say, a Wise does.

Who are these middlemen? The miners?

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

#123

Post by netsharc »

ozgrakkurt wrote: post #86
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…

I live in less developed countries so it is actually useful for me but I see it the same way as you wrote here. Low-life businessmen ruined the technology outside of some spaces where there is strong tech leadership. They did too much damage to reputation of the whole industry They did the same butchering to LLM/AI tech.

Silicon Valley was a place of engineering invention, and then the money-people saw, "Oh, there's riches to be made here!"...

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

#124

Post by raincole »

this_user wrote: post #107
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…

> it enables people to transact monetary value bypassing for-profit operators such as western union and paypal You are not even getting rid of that, you are just replacing them with a different set of middlemen in the crypto ecosystem who are demanding substantially higher fees than, say, a Wise does.

It's a very weird comment as people who actually use crypto (not flipping or holding) are those who without other viable choices. They're not replacing something. Those transactions would simply not happen without crypto.

Notice that the parent comment didn't use the word replacing.

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

#125

Post by zmgsabst »

whiplash451 wrote: post #119
zmgsabst wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I use crypto for exchange between friends (US + EU) and myself (SE Asia). Our options are IBAN (slow!), WesternUnion (fees, denials, hassles) or crypto (10min, cheap). We chose crypto - because it’s the practical path from their bank to mine. CashApp and Coinbase interface with my actual bank accounts, on my end. If you don’t do international banking, then much of the utility is diminished — so I’m not surprised by y…

Aren’t there fees to convert fiat from/to crypto on both ends?

Yes — there’s fees converting from/to fiat and when sending the crypto.

You’ll generally have the conversion slippage and transaction fee regardless - so the difference is the second conversion.

In practice, that isn’t too expensive and worth it for the speed; though that may change if you’re sending larger or smaller amounts than I am (in $1k-10k range).

Edit:

Replying by edit due to rate limits — but subcontracting and personal loans, eg, until a client pays.

Being a consultant is hard; being a consultant with no support network is harder.

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

#126

Post by jakelazaroff »

akoboldfrying wrote: post #114
Sharlin wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Technological solutions to social problems only tend to work when the problems are of the type "I wish it were easier to rid people of their money".

Agriculture. Plumbing. The printing press. Electricity. Vaccines. Fiat money itself, which is a technology that is better than the technology of barter, which is better than each person having to grow or make every material thing they need.

"How do we remove feces from our living spaces" and "how do we stop dying from pathogens" are not social problems.

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

#127

Post by coreyh14444 »

aurareturn wrote: post #63

Having worked in crypto analytics briefly, normal people have no clue how much fraud and scams are happening in crypto at the exchange level. FTX collapsed and was caught but more conservative crypto exchanges continue to use customer funds, trade against their own customers, use insider information, etc. Even a supposedly "legitimate" exchange like Coinbase is allowing unregistered securities to trade on its platfor…

It is the main use case!

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

#128

Post by neonstatic »

akoboldfrying wrote: post #114
Sharlin wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Technological solutions to social problems only tend to work when the problems are of the type "I wish it were easier to rid people of their money".

Agriculture. Plumbing. The printing press. Electricity. Vaccines. Fiat money itself, which is a technology that is better than the technology of barter, which is better than each person having to grow or make every material thing they need.

I think the point that is missed is all of these solved real problems that needed solving. I feel over the last decade we have exhausted the obvious benefits of the Internet revolution and more often than not we were seeing clever technology being developed, that wouldn't solve any problems. Then long and painful search for applications of that technology would ensue. Cases in point: crypto, llms.

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

#129

Post by kakacik »

jdw64 wrote: post #23

Actually, this industry routinely runs what you'd call "hero marketing," and what makes it especially dangerous for young people is that they're being sold success stories by actors playing people who don't exist, fictional characters who supposedly got rich through crypto. 1.A tiny handful of success stories are pushed to the front. 2.The vast majority who lost money are made invisible. 3.It manufactures the expecta…

While true about that 'hero' marketing, you can claim the same about literally any marketing campaign, or things like American Dream (TM).

How many teenagers looked with starry eyes into US military recruiting PR campaigns, then get send to Iraq / Afghanistan, and instead of glory and cool adventures that were promised they saw death of peers and civilians on massive scale, they became invaders for at best questionable causes, experienced huge human suffering and destruction... which at the end didn't achieve anything positive at all, neither for US nor for locals, massively in contrary. Heroes look very differently in hindsight.

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

#130

Post by Nursie »

zmgsabst wrote: post #116
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…

I use crypto for exchange between friends (US + EU) and myself (SE Asia). Our options are IBAN (slow!), WesternUnion (fees, denials, hassles) or crypto (10min, cheap). We chose crypto - because it’s the practical path from their bank to mine. CashApp and Coinbase interface with my actual bank accounts, on my end. If you don’t do international banking, then much of the utility is diminished — so I’m not surprised by y…

Or a service like Wise which is cheap and takes a few minutes most of the time.

Never had much of a need for other services when transferring across the globe.

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