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Coinbase acquires Earn.com

news.earn.com

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Re: Coinbase acquires Earn.com

#121

Post by jMyles »

wpietri wrote: post #112
jMyles wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm head-down in writing NuCypher as we speak, but it's obvious to me how to do what we're doing without a distributed consensus mechanism, and I do think that the real world use cases will be pretty rad. Our system allows an actor (Alice) to select any number of recipients (Bob) in a Policy. Alice can disappear from the network forever, and subsequently, any DataSource can encrypt data, using Alice's public key, whi…

So I'm sure you mean well this is an exact example of my problem with the cryptocurrency/blockchain space. For years and years I've said, "Yes, that is a pretty cool technology, but what real-world value is it currently providing?" One common answer is, "But it's a really cool technology!" No argument, but that seems to miss the point. Another is, "I'm sure it will be amazing!" Which again, misses the point. A third…

Hmm - it seems, though, that you haven't responded to the use cases I've outlined above. What say you?

Re: Coinbase acquires Earn.com

#122

Post by wpietri »

jonnydubowsky wrote: post #115
wpietri wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Would you be so kind as to show a few of those technologies in some practical use where they're sufficiently better than existing technologies that they are displacing existing businesses? > But I just don't see how anybody can think that these are uninteresting times for this tech. Really? For me it's the almost-a-decade of hype but seeing very little in practical utility beyond speculation, ransomware, and some lig…

I've been using my bitpay card for over a year to handle every type of payment that you would want to make using fiat money. I know this isn't viable as a total replacement for dollars yet, due to the sometimes wild fluctuations in the price, but that is stabilizing over time. It is reasonable to think that the price of btc will eventually reach a more stable base, as more money (including institutional money) enters…

The NYT writer did more research than most people would. If you're blaming the user for not teching correctly, you've already lost.

If the review I read is correct, that's an ordinary debit card that one refills by selling bitcoin. Which has approximately no value to most people, because they already have debit cards that work just fine.

It could be that bitcoin will eventually end up being useful as a currency, but its high volatility means that day hasn't come yet, and won't come soon. Prominent bitcoin advocates are happy to give up on it as a currency altogether. E.g.: http://avc.com/2017/08/store-of-value-vs-payment-system/

Re: Coinbase acquires Earn.com

#123

Post by [deleted] »

leppr wrote: post #99
paulie_a wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I honestly think those are the two worst possible examples. I would never trust my secret management to some random block chain. And for medical records? That is laughable at best with severe HIPPA compliance issues.

You would not trust a cryptographic system to manage your cryptographic keys? And you think regulations are set in stone with no room for innovation? Empty, politically motivated arguments.

[deleted]

Re: Coinbase acquires Earn.com

#124

Post by paulie_a »

leppr wrote: post #99
paulie_a wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I honestly think those are the two worst possible examples. I would never trust my secret management to some random block chain. And for medical records? That is laughable at best with severe HIPPA compliance issues.

You would not trust a cryptographic system to manage your cryptographic keys? And you think regulations are set in stone with no room for innovation? Empty, politically motivated arguments.

No I am simply pragmatic. Blockchain is an empty promise

Re: Coinbase acquires Earn.com

#125

Post by wpietri »

jMyles wrote: post #121
wpietri wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So I'm sure you mean well this is an exact example of my problem with the cryptocurrency/blockchain space. For years and years I've said, "Yes, that is a pretty cool technology, but what real-world value is it currently providing?" One common answer is, "But it's a really cool technology!" No argument, but that seems to miss the point. Another is, "I'm sure it will be amazing!" Which again, misses the point. A third…

Hmm - it seems, though, that you haven't responded to the use cases I've outlined above. What say you?

They are hypothetical. I asked for "some practical use where they're sufficiently better than existing technologies that they are displacing existing businesses," which is pretty clearly not hypothetical.

Cryptocurrency and blockchain proponents always have hypothetical use cases. The original Bitcoin paper [1] gives a hypothetical use case, a "purely peer-to-peer version of electronic cash would allow online payments to be sent directly from one party to another without going through a financial institution." This still remains basically hypothetical; even prominent Bitcoin boosters have given up on that vision. [2]

I'm done taking hypotheticals seriously in this space; I've seen too much hype and approximately nothing in the way of results. Maybe someday you'll be proved right about your use case. Maybe you'll have customers who not only buy it but keep using it and come back to buy more. But until then, you should expect people to be skeptical. Previous blockchain/cryptocurrency promoters have, for me and many others, used up all the reasonable benefit of the doubt and more.

[1] https://bitcoin.org/bitcoin.pdf

[2] https://avc.com/2017/08/store-of-value-vs-payment-system/

Re: Coinbase acquires Earn.com

#126

Post by hndamien »

loceng wrote: post #120
hndamien wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It seems you have a problem with other people having large pieces of pie, rather than the more important point that all people that have pie have it grow.

I really don't see how you could make either of those assertions from what I wrote. If I steal $100 from you, and now I have $100 and you have $0 - would you have a problem with that? That's a generally asinine accusation to make.. Isn't the most important part that something happens fairly - or is your argument that collaboration at all costs is okay? All people having the pie and wanting it to grow (it's what we te…

I have no idea what you are talking about. People that buy crypto currencies are exchanging money for digital rights (which some believe are better forms of money). How that relates to you stealing $100 from me is beyond my comprehension.

People that hold USD have their pie diluted, and they are even lied to about it by using a CPI figured calculated from consumer goods and not a more rounded figure of all asset prices (or actual new money injected/ removed).

Re: Coinbase acquires Earn.com

#127

Post by hndamien »

Retra wrote: post #116
hndamien wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It seems you have a problem with other people having large pieces of pie, rather than the more important point that all people that have pie have it grow.

Let's hear you say this next time you try to run a political campaign against someone who can outspend you a thousand times over. You'll lose, and they'll have everything they need to take whatever scraps of pie you have on your plate.

What are you referring to?

Re: Coinbase acquires Earn.com

#129

Post by wpietri »

acjohnson55 wrote: post #117
wpietri wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So I'm sure you mean well this is an exact example of my problem with the cryptocurrency/blockchain space. For years and years I've said, "Yes, that is a pretty cool technology, but what real-world value is it currently providing?" One common answer is, "But it's a really cool technology!" No argument, but that seems to miss the point. Another is, "I'm sure it will be amazing!" Which again, misses the point. A third…

> A third is, "It might be great for X," but without any real proof that people doing X want the technology, [...] It often seems to me that the mathematical purity of many crypto techs are a poor match for the fuzzy real world requirements. The result ends up being a big pile of abstractions with poor usability and major holes. After all this time, this still applies to basic payments for tangible goods.

100% agreed. Somebody elsewhere in this thread just did the "blame the user" thing again just now:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16854568

Blaming the user only works (for some value of "works") in a situation where a power relationship constrains the user. E.g., we've all seen customer service agents dealing with shitty in-house software. They can't easily quit, so they will just accept being told they're "doing it wrong".

But that doesn't fly when the user can easily make other choices. People who get blamed for "not doing enough research" when they have trouble using Bitcoin will probably not work harder. They'll just go back to using credit cards and Paypal and Venmo, which a) work much better, and b) have people who are trying hard to make that work well for them. People whose Bitcoins get stolen mostly aren't going to go and become security experts. They're going to use existing methods, which they generally understand how to secure, and which often have security and anti-theft measures built in.

Sure, they may pay a little more in transaction fees. (Although those fees are often hidden, so they may not notice.) But in effect, those fees are buying insurance. They're buying security teams. They're buying user interface designers who work hard to make things easy. For many people, that's worth it.

Re: Coinbase acquires Earn.com

#130

Post by querulous »

jMyles wrote: post #104
wpietri wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Would you be so kind as to show a few of those technologies in some practical use where they're sufficiently better than existing technologies that they are displacing existing businesses? > But I just don't see how anybody can think that these are uninteresting times for this tech. Really? For me it's the almost-a-decade of hype but seeing very little in practical utility beyond speculation, ransomware, and some lig…

I'm head-down in writing NuCypher as we speak, but it's obvious to me how to do what we're doing without a distributed consensus mechanism, and I do think that the real world use cases will be pretty rad. Our system allows an actor (Alice) to select any number of recipients (Bob) in a Policy. Alice can disappear from the network forever, and subsequently, any DataSource can encrypt data, using Alice's public key, whi…

how is this better than pgp? what does it do that keybase can't already do?
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