On top of all this, it could be macro-economically destabilizing and lead to disastrous results. Even Douglas Adams tried to warn us 40 years ago: https://benoitessiambre.com/specter.html
This is fantastic writing, thank you.
Cryptocurrency Is an Abject Disaster
221–230 of 260 posts
Re: Cryptocurrency Is an Abject Disaster
#222Earlier quoted context omitted.
> USD is paper and bits we believe has value. Speak for yourself. > BTC is bits that most people believe doesn't have value. This is changing rapidly, is it not?
>> USD is paper and bits we believe has value. > Speak for yourself. Raaa-haaaight. Next time you don't believe USD has value you'll skip picking up that $100 bill on the street. When you get robbed you'll laugh and give the robber your worthless USD and say "good luck using this for anything!". >> BTC is bits that most people believe doesn't have value. > This is changing rapidly, is it not? I wouldn't say so, no.
I'm not a crypto supporter, but I'd say that he is right there. If _you_ found private key to a wallet with 1 BTC somewhere, would you leave it be? Even if you can't buy a coffee with it, the exchangability for USD is real.
Re: Cryptocurrency Is an Abject Disaster
#223It's really unfortunate that rent-seekers (may have) ruined blockchain as a technology. The fundamental problem IMO is that the most useful applications have no speculative potential, and structuring blockchain applications in a way that creates speculative potential seems to inherently reduce their usefulness. Decentralized currency on the blockchain? Great! But a currency's much more useful if its value is stable,…
Gitcoin is exactly what you described with FOSS funding.
Re: Cryptocurrency Is an Abject Disaster
#224Earlier quoted context omitted.
I've heard a lot about proof-of-stake as being a lesser drain on energy per unit of mining, but I'm still very unclear on—well, many things about PoS, actually, but one in particular stands out: How would eliminating all Proof-of-Work cryptocurrencies and shifting entirely to Proof-of-Stake eliminate the incentive for miners to monopolize every last bit of computing resources they can? My understanding of cryptocurre…
>How would eliminating all Proof-of-Work cryptocurrencies and shifting entirely to Proof-of-Stake eliminate the incentive for miners to monopolize every last bit of computing resources they can? I guess the point here is that you could effectively stake on a Raspberry Pi with a 256GB SD card for the next 5 years or so, and you don't need more Raspberry Pis or SD cards to stake higher amounts. The main limiting factor…
...Can you expand on that a little further? I don't really understand what it means "to stake" in this context, or why more RPis (or other compute resources) wouldn't let you mine more/faster.
Or if you have a link to a good resource for explaining how proof-of-stake works in a way that would clarify this, that would also be fantastic.
Re: Cryptocurrency Is an Abject Disaster
#225Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is where your lack of knowledge in economics and trade really shows. If the US dollar ends up hyperinflating, assets like gold, bitcoin, stocks, housing, etc. become very, very expensive. They become expensive because everyone seeks to escape USD into safety of assets that are inflation resistant. So you have it backwards: people will give EVERYTHING of value to get those assets, because those are the only thing…
If you have hyper inflation, all the prices are going up. However assets with little to no practical value and no long term proven track record of value will not be where people will go to seek safety. Hard assets with long track records of value will beat bitcoin hands down.
Sure, you’re welcome to believe that.
You’re just betting against network effects, betting against metcalfe’s law and generally the digitalization of physical things.
This being HN, it’s ironic you would so short sighted take that position.
Re: Cryptocurrency Is an Abject Disaster
#226Earlier quoted context omitted.
Hmm… taking your question at face value. Can you be more specific? Is there value in nonreversibility? No, that "feature" has negative value, and it's the reason people trust credit cards. Value in anonymity? Not at this scale, no. On net that feature just is not workable in a society built on anything other than libertarian-anarchy. And most people actually want a structured society, not fiefdoms. Take KYC and AML l…
> Value in anonymity? Just as a reminder (from someone who admittedly knows little about cryptocurrencies aside from this): BTC and other cryptocurrencies are not anonymous. They are, at the most, pseudonymous, and because of their very nature, the trail linking whatever online identity you used to make the transaction lives forever on the blockchain.
I'm here talking about the goals, not the implementation. So what you're saying is a bit off topic. But yes some cryptocurrencies actually are anonymous, as I understand it. E.g. Monero.
Re: Cryptocurrency Is an Abject Disaster
#227Earlier quoted context omitted.
>> USD is paper and bits we believe has value. > Speak for yourself. Raaa-haaaight. Next time you don't believe USD has value you'll skip picking up that $100 bill on the street. When you get robbed you'll laugh and give the robber your worthless USD and say "good luck using this for anything!". >> BTC is bits that most people believe doesn't have value. > This is changing rapidly, is it not? I wouldn't say so, no.
I'm not a crypto supporter, but I'd say that he is right there. If _you_ found private key to a wallet with 1 BTC somewhere, would you leave it be? Even if you can't buy a coffee with it, the exchangability for USD is real.
Ok, fair. But I prefer a value backed by the whole world and the biggest military in the world.
Re: Cryptocurrency Is an Abject Disaster
#228Earlier quoted context omitted.
From my reading it looks like the "developing world" use case is pure propaganda. E.g. someone investigated the "bitcoin in venezuela!" claim. Actually going there and tracking down use. Turns out it was a bitcoin investor who went to venezuela to do a transaction for the sole purpose of screaming "bitcoin in venezuela" to pump up the price.
Hello. I'm from Argentina. I retired before turning 50 thanks to crytpo. Now I'm really thinking to leave this place after my daughter turns 18. It's not proganda.
That's not currency, that's speculation. You might as well argue for the logic of lottery tickets.
I have made money from cryptocurrency too, that's not at all relevant. (I exited when I became too disgusted by it)
Re: Cryptocurrency Is an Abject Disaster
#229"Cryptocurrency is the multilevel marketing of tech"
It's rare I see such a massive amount of hype, complexity, computation, articles, blather, bullshit, etc deconstructed so powerfully with a simple phrase.
Re: Cryptocurrency Is an Abject Disaster
#230Earlier quoted context omitted.
No, that's not what it is. That's not why people buy BTC. They buy it because it's going up.
They'll buy it if it doesn't go up either (and doesn't go down obviously). Hedging against inflation is a huge benefit.
If it were a hedge against inflation, it would behave like a hedge against inflation, and yet it shows no similar characteristics to preexisting inflation hedges? hmmmmm