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

Half of ICOs Die Within Four Months After Token Sales Finalized

bloomberg.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

261–270 of 433 posts

Re: Half of ICOs Die Within Four Months After Token Sales Finalized

#261

Post by DonHopkins »

ENGNR wrote: post #159
empath75 wrote: post #145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is one of the most naive, starry-eyed posts I’ve ever seen here. If you deregulate securities you’re just going to see a whole bunch of senior citizens fleeced by high tech boiler rooms.

Geez sorry for outlining both sides of an argument in response to a question, hivemind downvotes are strong today

It's ironic how the crowds of pro-crypto-currency shills so predictably whine and throw around the word "hivemind" in response to thinking people reacting rationally in response to their mindless greedy knee-jerk decentralized marketing of fraudulent pump-and-dump schemes.

Re: Half of ICOs Die Within Four Months After Token Sales Finalized

#262

Post by wpietri »

darawk wrote: post #98
hudon wrote: post #23

You can see the state (volume, # daily users) of some of these promised "dapps" here: https://dappradar.com . It is indeed a barren wasteland. And when a new popular ICO comes along, the Ethereum network struggles and fees skyrocket. It's weird because people compare it to the early days of the Internet... but the early Internet was useful from its beginning: you could at least send messages and files across the netw…

> It's weird because people compare it to the early days of the Internet... but the early Internet was useful from its beginning That really depends on where you put 'beginning'. But more to the point, blockchains are useful now, just like the internet was. They're just not useful for all the things that are being promised (yet). Also, just like the internet wasn't. > Now, all we see is rampant fraud and a complete d…

> That really depends on where you put 'beginning'.

It does not. In 1995 the Internet was useful for 30m people. In 1985 it was useful for 30,000. Email was better than paper mail from the get-go. Networked file transfer was way better than mailing magtapes or CDs. Remote terminal connections were way better than driving or doing long-distance dialup. The Internet was not the wonder it is today, but from very early on it had clear practical use.

> But more to the point, blockchains are useful now, just like the internet was.

Not really. I ask regularly here, and so far there's approximately no commercial use case where blockchains are better than some other technology. The main exceptions being hype, fraud, speculation, and some light financial crime like money laundering and capital control evasion. If you have some examples, I'll of course read them with interest.

My personal bet is that blockchains will be like XML: a technology that was going to be The FUTURE for a while, got put into a bunch of things (often generating large consulting revenues), and then quietly dropped later as people discovered that there were better alternatives for almost every practical use case.

Re: Half of ICOs Die Within Four Months After Token Sales Finalized

#263

Post by [deleted] »

darawk wrote: post #98
hudon wrote: post #23

You can see the state (volume, # daily users) of some of these promised "dapps" here: https://dappradar.com . It is indeed a barren wasteland. And when a new popular ICO comes along, the Ethereum network struggles and fees skyrocket. It's weird because people compare it to the early days of the Internet... but the early Internet was useful from its beginning: you could at least send messages and files across the netw…

> It's weird because people compare it to the early days of the Internet... but the early Internet was useful from its beginning That really depends on where you put 'beginning'. But more to the point, blockchains are useful now, just like the internet was. They're just not useful for all the things that are being promised (yet). Also, just like the internet wasn't. > Now, all we see is rampant fraud and a complete d…

[deleted]

Re: Half of ICOs Die Within Four Months After Token Sales Finalized

#264

Post by DonHopkins »

ENGNR wrote: post #147
NathanCH wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Forget money, I would like to know of one legit ICO. One single ICO that has a product. One.

Golem has a working product, integrated into blender. It lets users trade rendering time with each other It works well for 3D graphics because it's easy to verify the work was done and it's low risk. With more encryption research the model would work for more types of computing

Think of all the 3D graphics you could render with all those high-end GPUs and electricity being wasted on the blockchain.

Do you have a less delightfully ironic and self defeating example to support your argument?

Re: Half of ICOs Die Within Four Months After Token Sales Finalized

#265

Post by sadturnip »

lurker456 wrote: post #249
bduerst wrote: post #199

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Venezuelan bolívar is not a good example of prime markets for cryptocurrencies. The forced exchange rates, runaway inflation, and general mismanagement has created a black market in which literally any other currency is better.

How would you send fiat to a family member stuck in Venezuela ? I agree that the value of cryptocurrency is hugely inflated, but it's not zero either. It's a good fit in some scenarios.

How would said family member actually convert the crypto into something that can be spent in their day to day lives?

Re: Half of ICOs Die Within Four Months After Token Sales Finalized

#266

Post by jacobush »

wpietri wrote: post #262
darawk wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It's weird because people compare it to the early days of the Internet... but the early Internet was useful from its beginning That really depends on where you put 'beginning'. But more to the point, blockchains are useful now, just like the internet was. They're just not useful for all the things that are being promised (yet). Also, just like the internet wasn't. > Now, all we see is rampant fraud and a complete d…

> That really depends on where you put 'beginning'. It does not. In 1995 the Internet was useful for 30m people. In 1985 it was useful for 30,000. Email was better than paper mail from the get-go. Networked file transfer was way better than mailing magtapes or CDs. Remote terminal connections were way better than driving or doing long-distance dialup. The Internet was not the wonder it is today, but from very early o…

XML quietly dropped? If blockchains are dropped in the same manner, it will be around forever and ever. It will outlive Cobol.

Re: Half of ICOs Die Within Four Months After Token Sales Finalized

#267

Post by tomp »

darawk wrote: post #259
tomp wrote: post #217

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Eventually people are going to realize that (1) all of these can essentially require transparency + encryption (i.e. git + signatures), not the whole blockchain, (2) hence can be had without the huge energy losses (that come from many nodes (re-)computing the same result over and over, and (3) centralisation is a feature most people want, because it helps resolve conflicts (à la Vitalik's centralised resolution of th…

> all of these can essentially require transparency + encryption (i.e. git + signatures), not the whole blockchain, That's just empirically not true. You need to timestamp transactions in a BFT way for all those examples. No way around it. > hence can be had without the huge energy losses (that come from many nodes (re-)computing the same result over and over, and You can get this with Proof of Stake. But you do need…

> You need to timestamp transactions

No, for most things what you really need is a happens before relationship. Git does that better, since it supports multiple timelines (branches) that can be resolved (merged) cleanly if there are no conflicts (double spends).

Re: Half of ICOs Die Within Four Months After Token Sales Finalized

#268

Post by replies_to_all »

protonimitate wrote: post #41
hudon wrote: post #23

You can see the state (volume, # daily users) of some of these promised "dapps" here: https://dappradar.com . It is indeed a barren wasteland. And when a new popular ICO comes along, the Ethereum network struggles and fees skyrocket. It's weird because people compare it to the early days of the Internet... but the early Internet was useful from its beginning: you could at least send messages and files across the netw…

>>It's weird because people compare it to the early days of the Internet... but the early Internet was useful from its beginning Exactly why so much wealth was created by the Internet boom. The wealth came from utility that already existed, just needed to be harnessed to its fullest potential. ICO scams are based on generating wealth first and hoping that utility follows at some undetermined time in the future. It's…

If Bitcoin was a Valley Startup would you be saying the same thing?

Re: Half of ICOs Die Within Four Months After Token Sales Finalized

#269

Post by dnautics »

bduerst wrote: post #191
dnautics wrote: post #144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've definitely transferred assets to someone anonymously (not for anything illicit, it was strictly a non quid-pro-quo charitable act) using Bitcoin. I did not want this person to know who I was because I didn't want them to feel like they owed me anything.

How common is this use case? How is it competitive to other methods, i.e. mailing a money order?

I have no data on it and it depended on both me and the other person being Bitcoin enthusiasts... It was way more convenient to find the person's btc address than their physical address.

Re: Half of ICOs Die Within Four Months After Token Sales Finalized

#270

Post by mikeschmatz »

christianbryant wrote: post #211

In contrast, the ICO for SingularityNET has actually done quite well and received 5 times the amount of demand expected for their token sale; they postponed the end of their token sale date to properly handle the overwhelming demand. Feels most ICO sites are giving them 4/5 rating on average, but we'll how that goes. I think the reason this one in particular is doing so well is that the purpose of the sale feels usef…

> I think the reason this one in particular is doing so well

What makes you think it is doing so well?

Post reply on HN