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Ask HN: Why does cryptocurrency subjects on HN lack curious conversations?

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Re: Ask HN: Why does cryptocurrency subjects on HN lack curious conversations?

#241

Post by short_sells_poo »

anonymoushn wrote: post #85
short_sells_poo wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd argue that's not a problem that cryptocurrencies somehow uniquely solve, and in fact even this is solved inefficiently by them. Enormous amounts of energy have to be expended to facilitate a fairly low number of transactions. There are zero technical reasons why non-crypto/non-blockchain technologies wouldn't allow instantaneous money transfer. And in many places of the world, they do. I can instantly transfer mo…

In Europe, you cannot send wire transfers to Japan on weekends in a couple seconds. So the problem is not solved in Europe. Posting "there's no technical reason why every bank cant coordinate to provide a non-terrible experience eventually in a hundred years" is not helpful. We have working international settlements for any origin to any destination for any amount of money in seconds today.

Proposing cryptocurrencies as somehow uniquely capable of solving this problem is incorrect. Furthermore, there are also valid reasons why payments may take longer when crossing certain national boundaries. E.g. KYC/AML checks and so forth.

Re: Ask HN: Why does cryptocurrency subjects on HN lack curious conversations?

#242

Post by ThalesX »

reginold wrote: post #193
ThalesX wrote: post #7

There’s only so much to be said for retaining my curiosity after years and years of getting shouted about it by people who have no understanding of what they are peddling. I’m actively involved in the space, I explored my curiosity through designing a few DApps, building some coins, the usual. The tech is interesting, the approach is worthwhile, the whole FOMO pyramid on top of it is just noise and I wish it would st…

Is there a place to go to talk to other people like you? I would love to hear about your Dapps, what's working, what's not.

You can start your search on the Matrix official chat.

I’ve found a lot of interesting conversations in the distributed channels and IPFS channels, less so on company-focused or specific-blockchain-focused channels.

Re: Ask HN: Why does cryptocurrency subjects on HN lack curious conversations?

#243

Post by antifa »

Viliam1234 wrote: post #180
ykevinator2 wrote: post #154

Because it's not two disinterested parties, it's owners versus mockers. Owners say irrational things because they've drunk the water. It's like asking why don't believers in ressurection ever have curious conversations about the impossibility of ressurection.

This, but in a world where the believers' net worth doubles almost every year.

Plenty of people own appreciating assets like bitcoin and etherium while ignoring hot garbage like NFTs.

Re: Ask HN: Why does cryptocurrency subjects on HN lack curious conversations?

#244

Post by onethought »

gjulianm wrote: post #27
onethought wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The environmental argument is a straw man, and not really related to crypto, but actually related to our energy mix. If crypto was mined only on renewables there is no environmental argument. Ergo, not related to crypto technology itself.

It's not a straw man. Yes, if the energy mix was only reliant of renewables, energy usage wouldn't be as much as a problem. But it is not, and won't be in years, decades, so we can't just brush off the energy usage of crypto as "well it's the energy mix fault". You cannot evaluate a technology in isolation of its real world, practical context. Not to mention that even with renewables, energy usage would be still a co…

How come you see this argument pedaled on crypto but not every other technology?

Cobalt mining for batteries?

Energy consumption for processed metals?

Oil refining from rocketry (largely used by military in practice scenarios)

This list goes on. It seems crypto is the only technology evaluated in relation to the whole environment. For all the others we shrug and ignore externalities.

Re: Ask HN: Why does cryptocurrency subjects on HN lack curious conversations?

#245

Post by onethought »

onion2k wrote: post #119
onethought wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you mean that without crypto the bad guys are unable to perform exchanges of value? How is crypto different from a Big bag of cash? Both are anonymous/trustless transactions. Cat memes and mindless YouTube videos use more bandwidth and cpu cycles than crypto ever will…

Cat memes and mindless YouTube videos use more bandwidth and cpu cycles than crypto ever will You cannot win an argument that something is bad by pointing to something that's worse. You're just reinforcing the idea that we need to do better in both things.

I’m saying neither are bad. This is what computers are for.

Re: Ask HN: Why does cryptocurrency subjects on HN lack curious conversations?

#247

Post by fsflover »

gjulianm wrote: post #240
kayamon wrote: post #239

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Agriculture is invented and pretty advanced and yet there are a lot of humans suffering from hunger. Perhaps we could invent a new thing to solve that too? Improvements to crop technology, breeding, farming methods continue to happen every year. Inventions like the Internet bring information to people in rural areas who might not otherwise have had access to it. Why can't we solve all these things with technology?…

> Why can't we solve all these things with technology? Unless you invent a way to generate political will, eliminate wars, reduce inequality, no, I don't think you can. > But can't those things all be solved by inventing something? Let's say you wanted to teach someone something, perhaps even without their knowledge or against their will? Could someone not invent a thing or process for doing that? No, I don't think y…

> You can't fix people not wanting to do things by tech

At some point, people were afraid of any technology. Now, they live online, eating highly processed food delivered by planes. Yes, you can ‘fix’ people. Just give them convenience.

> I don't see one can be naive/deluded enough to think all problems can be solved by new technology.

Who said that all problems can be solved by technology?

> Unless you invent a way to generate political will, eliminate wars, reduce inequality, no, I don't think you can.

Technological progress often goes against the will of governments. See Twitter-triggered revolutions.

Re: Ask HN: Why does cryptocurrency subjects on HN lack curious conversations?

#248

Post by ashwagary »

cliftonk wrote: post #211
leroman wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not op but will give my thoughts- The only theory I'm aware of, which the "proof-of-stake" approach is based on, is some form of "game theory", my translation - "people won't do evil stuff since it's against their interest", which generally aligns with people being rational and basing economic theories on top of this thesis.

Every major chain except bitcoin and ethereum is proof-of-stake now. And in less than a year, ethereum will be proof of stake. People that say proof-of-stake "won't work" have no idea what they're talking about.

>People that say proof-of-stake "won't work" have no idea what they're talking about.

My understanding is every POS blockchain is centralized and not secure.

Can you name a POS blockchain that you think has achieved sufficient decentralization and security so we can test your claim?

PS: How about answering the question instead of preemptively downvoting and attempting to shutting down the conversation. If POS truly works, you should be happy to provide an example or even multiple examples. Any reluctance is a red flag...

Re: Ask HN: Why does cryptocurrency subjects on HN lack curious conversations?

#249

Post by ashwagary »

speedgoose wrote: post #142
ajg4 wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why will proof-of-stake never happen?

In my opinion it's because it has not happened yet. Yes I know about the etherium experiment that has been delayed many times but may be running currently, but the crypto community seem to prefer the proof of work.

They prefer POW because it's actually more secure and decentralized. ETH POS results in a smaller group of people controlling the network, majority of fully validating nodes running on AWS, and introduces massive collusion/attack risks.

ETH POS has many of the bad characteristics current central banks have...

Re: Ask HN: Why does cryptocurrency subjects on HN lack curious conversations?

#250

Post by ashwagary »

pyb wrote: post #178

"the discussions on HN are today ... two camps that are just screaming at each other." Not really... HN has made its mind up, it's become mostly indifferent to crypto. Too many unfulfilled promises over the last decade. The screaming happens not here but on Twitter.

What are the top bitcoin related unfullfiled promises?
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