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

Why All Cryptocurrency Should Die in a Fire

currentaffairs.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

131–140 of 341 posts

Re: Why All Cryptocurrency Should Die in a Fire

#131

Post by rscho »

Havoc wrote: post #44

>help me make it die in a fire I'm rather mistrustful of people that are this forthy about being against a new technology. If it really is that devoid of merit it'll die on its own. I also think it is a rather fundamental failure to see the big picture. Not efficient? Well neither was the Ford model T. Newer generations are getting better. Similarly somehow existing systems seem to get a free pass for things that are…

> Personally I think crypto is a 50/50 chance of working long term.

The chance is actually 100%, because future national currencies will be "cryptographic" tokens. Think of it for 2 sec: is there a government on earth that would say no to a financial system where you can track (poor) citizens' money down to the last penny, always and forever? There's your answer...

Re: Why All Cryptocurrency Should Die in a Fire

#132

Post by habosa »

binarymax wrote: post #100
lordofgibbons wrote: post #10

I will gladly stop using Monero if someone can tell me how to privately transact over the internet without CC companies (and others) spying on me and selling my data. Until there is a better solution, I'll keep using it.

The privacy is a myth, if you want to actually use the cryptocurrency to pay for things in the real world. If you pay fiat to get monero, the exchange has your info. If you cash out monero for fiat to buy something, the exchange has your info. The wallet and transaction in chain are permanent in the ledger. So where is the privacy?

Unlike with BTC with Monero you can’t tell what I did with the coins in between the two fiat transactions. For most people that’s a very meaningful level of privacy, even if it’s not perfect.

Re: Why All Cryptocurrency Should Die in a Fire

#133

Post by block_dagger »

Most of crypto is trash. However, Bitcoin will live for a very long time and take on appropriately high value. I don’t understand the folks who don’t see its incredible worth as a store of value. It doesn’t need to produce anything tangible to be valuable. Indeed it’s more valuable as a pure medium it seems. That’s the point.

Re: Why All Cryptocurrency Should Die in a Fire

#134

Post by asdadsdad »

ddjsn111 wrote: post #58

The world needs decentralised assets. It’s the internet of money. Some are shitty, some are not. Monero and Algorand are two good examples. The latter carbon negative.

The Internet is by no means decentralized, and the most compelling argument for the inefficiencies of crypto, in my opinion, is that everything we've built on the Internet tends to centralization. "No one wants to run their own mail server". So eventually, we'll have spent all this energy and time in designing convoluted protocols that solve the exact same problem we had already solved, only less efficiently and with more hoops.

(edit: fix typo)

Re: Why All Cryptocurrency Should Die in a Fire

#135

Post by thawaya3113 »

peyton wrote: post #117
wlll wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I'm rather mistrustful of people that are this forthy about being against a new technology. I don't really give a crap about what people do or don't do with new technology, ultimately what people want to spend their time and money on is up to them. However, "Crypto" is different. If all it was was just the unbelievably irritating crypto bros rug pulling, ponzi scheming, wash trading, ugly NFT shilling and hacking a…

> So far no-one has been able to point me at a single thing that public public blockchains do that either is worth doing and is only possible using blockchain tech, or is better (more power efficient, faster) than using pre-existing technology. Using privacy coins I can donate money to causes I believe in (eg WikiLeaks) without fear of reprisal and with the knowledge that the funds will reach their recipient. If you…

Every other way is better.

1) Crypto is easily traceable. Far more than any other means of funds transfer if you exercise even modest efforts to hide the source of funds. And to the extent crypto provides a modicum of privacy it’s because it’s too small for governments to have put any restrictions on it.

2) There is absolutely no guarantee the money will reach Wikileaks. At best, the money will reach the holder of Wikileaks’s private key holder. As we found out with Coinbase, for the vast majority of crypto wallets, that’s not gonna be your intended recipient.

3) Even “The money” it’s a term Is debatable. If you sent them that crypto 1 month ago and they tried to withdraw it today, at best they would have got half the value you sent them.

There is nothing unique about crypto in terms of privacy other than the fact that most governments haven’t bothered with it. In fact, crypto is so easily traceable I’ve always harbored half a theory that it was created by the CIA specifically to chart out and bust drug and terrorist rings.

I wouldn’t be surprised if the only reason the government isn’t taking down/regulating crypto is because the intelligence agencies are just so thrilled with the awesome network information they’re getting about criminals through their crypto transfers.

Re: Why All Cryptocurrency Should Die in a Fire

#136

Post by MrMan »

xalava wrote: post #79
edent wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I understand this privacy argument - but I'm wondering what the practical downside is of this "spying"? I've been using credit cards online for decades and I am yet to encounter anything negative from doing so. I get that my credit card provider knows that I'm buying £X of goods from merchant Y. But unless that merchant is very specific, the card company doesn't know what I've bought. And, if it did... so what? Perha…

The importance of privacy is not theoretical. First, the data is accessible by credit card provider, but also by several financial and technical intermediaries. Second, there is no way for any of those companies to guarantee that the data will never be leaked. Then, in terms of consequences, it includes reputional risks, security risks people know your behavior patterns, and to be arrested for being at the wrong plac…

the impossibility of privacy is also not theoretical.

Re: Why All Cryptocurrency Should Die in a Fire

#137

Post by ephbit »

Gibbon1 wrote: post #17

Just remembered a couple of years ago I mentioned to a couple of friends that once the Feds zero interest rate policy ends cyrpto will collapse.

Let's see for how long the FED will be able to keep interest raised before having to lower it again.

I say they'll lower it again by 2024.

Re: Why All Cryptocurrency Should Die in a Fire

#138

Post by chalst »

wlll wrote: post #104
Havoc wrote: post #44

>help me make it die in a fire I'm rather mistrustful of people that are this forthy about being against a new technology. If it really is that devoid of merit it'll die on its own. I also think it is a rather fundamental failure to see the big picture. Not efficient? Well neither was the Ford model T. Newer generations are getting better. Similarly somehow existing systems seem to get a free pass for things that are…

> I'm rather mistrustful of people that are this forthy about being against a new technology. I don't really give a crap about what people do or don't do with new technology, ultimately what people want to spend their time and money on is up to them. However, "Crypto" is different. If all it was was just the unbelievably irritating crypto bros rug pulling, ponzi scheming, wash trading, ugly NFT shilling and hacking a…

I don't see any cryptocoins that I regard as a success, but I am watching three that might be a success:

1. Filecoin: It was well-motivated from the start, to provide a cheap way to get counterparties (by default, a multiple of six) to pin content in IPFS. I don't regard it as a proven technology yet, but it's usable as it stands;

2. Brave's BATs: Brave annoys me with its cryptocoin boosterism, but in principle this provides an way for content providers to profit from gaining a readership that doesn't involve nasty ad-tech. I don't think the system provides good enough incentives for users to mint BATS as it stands, but I think that in principle the Brave team have a viable solution to this problem.

3. The Stellar payments infrastructure has a cryptocoin used to grease its wheels. I don't see Stellar's choice to mint their own cryptocoin as principled here (they could have allowed nodes to choose), but using some cryptocoin here is driven by use.

None of these coins use Bitcoin / present-day Ethereum style proof of work, so they do not appear to have the negative externalities you deplore.

Re: Why All Cryptocurrency Should Die in a Fire

#139

Post by cuteboy19 »

thawaya3113 wrote: post #127
basisword wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>> 1) a very serious climate crisis 2) a cost of living crisis where people can't afford energy to cook and heat (in the UK at least) and 3) a war that would likely be brought to a stop sooner if we could phase out Russian gas sooner. All of these things are the result of bad governing, not crypto. Maybe banning crypto would help them (I don’t believe that) but banning lots of other things would also help. What we re…

Nothing is crypto’s fault. We get it. It’s not cryptos fault that it’s a terrible currency. Just invest in it. It’s not crypto’s fault that it’s a terrible investment. Why don’t you want a great currency that government doesn’t control? It’s not crypto’s fault that half the money in the ecosystem is stolen. Why isn’t the government helping this anti governmental technology? It’s not crypto’s fault that the vast major…

People might think this is too bitter or dismissive but it's true.

I have seen many many people pointing out the shady dealings and the death spiral nature of Terra on social media like reddit. But they were shouted out with cries of "FUD!".

It's a ponzi scheme and if your caught holding the bag, it is always in your interest to continue the scam rather than call out the scammers. That is why crypto "communities" will never acknowledge negative facts.

Re: Why All Cryptocurrency Should Die in a Fire

#140

Post by NikolaNovak »

wlll wrote: post #104
Havoc wrote: post #44

>help me make it die in a fire I'm rather mistrustful of people that are this forthy about being against a new technology. If it really is that devoid of merit it'll die on its own. I also think it is a rather fundamental failure to see the big picture. Not efficient? Well neither was the Ford model T. Newer generations are getting better. Similarly somehow existing systems seem to get a free pass for things that are…

> I'm rather mistrustful of people that are this forthy about being against a new technology. I don't really give a crap about what people do or don't do with new technology, ultimately what people want to spend their time and money on is up to them. However, "Crypto" is different. If all it was was just the unbelievably irritating crypto bros rug pulling, ponzi scheming, wash trading, ugly NFT shilling and hacking a…

Speaking of externalities - climate change is a very real consequence many people choose to go Lalala about. Ridiculously pricey GPU? Now we have something people might notice :D
Post reply on HN