Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Escaping the Dark Forest

samczsun.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

11–20 of 142 posts

Re: Escaping the Dark Forest

#11

Post by swensel »

nullc wrote: post #8
ladberg wrote: post #2

I love that they're continuing the Dark Forest analogy! Makes me also realize I never want to dip my toe in crypto like that. It's like an amateur going up to an entirely unregulated wall street and expecting to earn some quick cash.

The word you want here is "ethereum" not "crypto". Crypto is cryptography, and even if you want to redefine it as 'cryptocurrency' the sheer reckless yolo incompetence and scammyness of ethereum is not especially representative.

In terms of ethereum, do you mean ethereum smart contracts? The ethereum platform, as defined by it's creators, is actually quite technical. Anyone who spends the time to learn the Solidity language and what it takes to deploy a smart contract is free to, so yes there can be legitimate, illegitimate, poorly designed or well designed smart contracts, just like other software programs.

Re: Escaping the Dark Forest

#12

Post by jquery »

ordinaryradical wrote: post #7
formerly_proven wrote: post #4

This read like a piece by William Gibson in the Neuromancer universe. I finally understand now why people are attracted by cryptocurrencies.

Yes, if you're an enthusiast, it seems like good, technical fun. But I have no idea how an "investor" could read this and think they can price the risk correctly. This isn't even the wild west of finance--this is intergalactic space.

> But I have no idea how an "investor" could read this and think they can price the risk correctly. This isn't even the wild west of finance--this is intergalactic space.

To be a successful investor, you don’t necessarily have the price the risk correctly, you just have to price it better than others.

I imagine someone successfully investing in crypto can read stuff like this fluently.

Re: Escaping the Dark Forest

#14

Post by pron »

ladberg wrote: post #2

I love that they're continuing the Dark Forest analogy! Makes me also realize I never want to dip my toe in crypto like that. It's like an amateur going up to an entirely unregulated wall street and expecting to earn some quick cash.

Amateur has nothing to do with that. Ethereum, and "smart contracts" in general, are built on such shaky foundations that unless shakiness is what you're looking for, you have nothing of interest to find there.

Re: Escaping the Dark Forest

#15

Post by kevinpet »

Makes me think of salvage operations, and then raises the question of how do people get paid? They're providing a valuable service. I think in shipping there are both conventions and an ability to quickly negotiate that allows contracting for a salvage ship to rush to the aid of a grounded or sinking container vessel.

Re: Escaping the Dark Forest

#16

Post by currymj »

i tried writing some toy Ethereum smart contracts circa 2016. at that time it was immensely difficult to write them in a secure way -- even a simple "hello world" level Solidity contract could easily have exploitable bugs if you don't code in an extremely defensive style.

i'm told things have improved since then -- can anyone who's used Solidity more recently comment on this? is it true?

this, plus the fact that putting information from the real world onto the blockchain unavoidably requires some trust, seemed like the two big problems then, and it seems like they haven't really been fixed.

Re: Escaping the Dark Forest

#17

Post by pfisch »

jquery wrote: post #12
ordinaryradical wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, if you're an enthusiast, it seems like good, technical fun. But I have no idea how an "investor" could read this and think they can price the risk correctly. This isn't even the wild west of finance--this is intergalactic space.

> But I have no idea how an "investor" could read this and think they can price the risk correctly. This isn't even the wild west of finance--this is intergalactic space. To be a successful investor, you don’t necessarily have the price the risk correctly, you just have to price it better than others. I imagine someone successfully investing in crypto can read stuff like this fluently.

Anyone "successfully" investing in crypto got in at least 4 years ago or when we the last big run up was and just held in a reputable exchange or in their own wallet that they secured well.

They don't need to understand anything really except how to deposit 5000+ in a reputable exchange. I think this makes up most successful crypto investors.

Re: Escaping the Dark Forest

#18

Post by vvpan »

pron wrote: post #14
ladberg wrote: post #2

I love that they're continuing the Dark Forest analogy! Makes me also realize I never want to dip my toe in crypto like that. It's like an amateur going up to an entirely unregulated wall street and expecting to earn some quick cash.

Amateur has nothing to do with that. Ethereum, and "smart contracts" in general, are built on such shaky foundations that unless shakiness is what you're looking for, you have nothing of interest to find there.

Can you elaborate? Why do you find that "smart contracts" are built on a shaky foundation?

Re: Escaping the Dark Forest

#19

Post by snake_plissken »

I still don't understand what's happening at the core of this and the other dark forest post from a few weeks ago. How exactly are these bots front-running/stealing the ethereums?

My understanding:

   -these bots scan the smart contracts that are waiting to be executed by the miners
   -the bots find vulnerabilities (another grey area in my mind) in the contract
   -the bots adjust the destination address of where the contract is supposed to send the the ethereums
   -then the bots continually execute the vulnerable smart contract code
Post reply on HN