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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

#451

Post by paool »

snarfy wrote: post #252
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…

As an outsider not paying too much attention, how do you beat the ledger problem? Crypto only works if there is a ledger. I don't want a ledger of every transaction I made. Seems like an insurmountable fundamental privacy issue.

Framing the ledger as the problem seems strange. It's more accurately the solution. The problem being how you transfer value through the internet in a trusted manner.

Re: privacy though, there's many solutions. Single tailored chains for privacy, mixers, encrypted tokens, permissioned chains, etc.

In my experience, privacy, while important, is not something users actually care about enough to demand a solution for. Most web3 users today just want to degen and gamble, and they're okay with KYC to do so.

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

#452

Post by slopinthebag »

__MatrixMan__ wrote: post #387
slopinthebag wrote: post #384

Earlier quoted context omitted.

By that logic, Musk breaths air which probably eventually mixes with the air you breath, thus there is no escaping him. Come on dude

I don't know what you're talking about. We build society either out of rules or out of threats and favors. Preferring innovation on the rules side has nothing to do with who breathes whose air, unless you want to make a rule about that and enforce it with software--which you probably shouldn't, because it's dumb.

My comment got attached to the wrong thread…nvrmnd

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

#453

Post by lmz »

tialaramex wrote: post #172
lmz wrote: post #150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Some gamblers will inevitably run out of money and resort to crime.

Maybe, surely mostly white collar crime though because of the numbers involved? Nobody trusts junkies with $100 so it makes sense that shoplifting or burglary can get them the money they need, but a lot of people who have a gambling problem are six figures down, stealing a neighbour's PS5 is a drop in the bucket.

Oh the PS5 isn't to repay the debt. It's to bet so the big winnings can repay the debt.

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

#454

Post by rglullis »

cduzz wrote: post #440
rglullis wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Let's talk; You're in Crimea right now. You want some gasoline. You have some magic numbers in your magic rock. It needs you to cast a spell to transmit those magic numbers to someone else. I guess it probably also needs ... some electricity and some network access and some time to make those magic numbers update in the gas station's magic number. In what way is this actually going to help you in a total collapse? Le…

If your only idea of "institutional collapse" is "living in a war zone", then I envy you and your sheltered life.

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

#455

Post by trollbridge »

glitchc wrote: post #264
trollbridge wrote: post #234

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Euros, dollars, pounds, francs, and yen are all more stable and easier to use than cryptocurrencies. It gets even easier once you toss in Visa, Mastercard, Discover, Amex, various debit card and regional networks, and ubiquitous banking services. Checks and online ACH payments are free or nearly free. Payment card platforms are cheap in consideration the value you get for them. Meanwhile actually spending crypto is q…

The key difference is that they all require identity to use and can be traced back to a person.

Cash requires no such thing. Neither do easily available gift cards. There is a little more friction involved.

As a merchant I have zero desire to sell online to an anonymous buyer because the fraud risk is too high. I have to know whom I’m shipping to and how they’re paying for it.

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

#456

Post by trollbridge »

inigyou wrote: post #317
atomic_cowprod wrote: post #274

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That is by design and is a good thing to everyone except cartels and communist governments.

What about people wanting to buy abortion pills?

Cash, at a pharmacy.

Crypto doesn’t make that any better.

Neither does online ordering. Online orders have to have a degree of KYC.

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

#457

Post by __MatrixMan__ »

jchanimal wrote: post #448
__MatrixMan__ wrote: post #303

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's the perspective that our current systems are based on. And back when the majority of the problems that people were up against had to do with there being not enough of something to go around--when it took half of us working in the fields just to feed the rest of us--then the system worked relatively well. 9 times out of 10, when somebody got a loan (which is the event that injects dollars into the system) it ha…

Thanks for sharing your perspective. It’s reminding me of how I was feeling about crypto in the early days. I begin specifying a project on those lines way back when and the ideas behind it are still interesting. Maybe you’ll enjoy: https://www.wired.com/2014/07/document-coin/

Wow yeah, the wired description of it really rings a lot of bells in my head. I've got a lot of design work in a very similar direction.

Did you ever get a chance to turn it into something worth sharing? I'd be interested in an account along the lines of: "here are the decisions I made at the time, and now, with a decade of hindsight here's the ones I like and the ones I'd change if I were to try again."

I found this: https://www.infoq.com/presentations/document-coin/ which I guess addresses the first part of my curiosity.

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

#458

Post by deanishe »

bigfishrunning wrote: post #352
inigyou wrote: post #311

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Used to be, but now it's agree to paint Musk's fence in exchange for nothing, or else you aren't even allowed to exist, because the system has been thoroughly gamed. Usually when a metric becomes too gamed it's imperative that we stop using it as a metric (Goodhart's law) or else very bad things happen.

I live a perfectly fine, productive life not contributing to musk's empire. Are y'all really buying Teslas and blue twitter checks? The fact that he has a bunch of money really has no bearing on me.

> not contributing to musk's empire

You are if you've got a 401(k), just not voluntarily.

The SpaceX IPO is basically a scam designed to force pension funds to buy in before the stock price falls to where it should be.

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

#460

Post by __MatrixMan__ »

sunshine-o wrote: post #421
__MatrixMan__ wrote: post #269

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Crypto was initially interesting to me because scarcity based economics is failing us and crypto give us a way to explore alternatives. But so far, nearly everything we've built with it has just been a clone of some scarcity-based thing that already exists outside of crypto. Since then I've come to the conclusion that it's never worthwhile to buy crypto with fiat. Any scheme which asks that of its users creates too m…

My guess is a lot of people had too much expectations for blockchain and crypto. I remember here on HN 10 years ago everybody wanted to put everything on a blockchain. Some were betting on the collapse of the financial system. None of those things happened but ethereum created a neutral, stable, secure cheap and transparent programmable financial platform. Because it is neutral a lot of people ported the bad things h…

I have mixed feelings there. I agree that crypto has inherited a lot of troublesome behavior from the traditional system which may not have been, at the outset, crypto's fault. But on the other hand, presumably we built a new one because we thought it could be better than its predecessor, and it still isn't. At some point we've got to acknowledge that the culture that springs up around a system, wherever the people were previously, is a consequence of the merits and flaws of that system.
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