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Ask HN: Feel bad about working in crypto, what to do?

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Re: Ask HN: Feel bad about working in crypto, what to do?

#281

Post by latchkey »

sshine wrote: post #117
granddemolisher wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Today, I ended up going to my other bank and pulling all of my money out as cash. I can't trust the system to not steal even more money from me. That's messed up. Because monday is a bank holiday, now I have to wait until tuesday until my accountant can deal with this bullshit. What kind of broken system is this? Same. It's insane how little control and power you have as an average person. Your bank accounts can be…

> You have no privacy. Is that not insane? You could be jailed for having a financial transactions on grindr in some countries in the world. That’s because privacy against the state is at odds with enforcing the state’s laws. From a state-centric perspective, money is “good citizen behaviour” points. If you maintain a job deemed valuable, the bank prints you money to buy a house, etc. You have to know what people use…

That's why bitcoin and ethereum are so awesome. It gives this power back to the people and there is not a whole lot that governments can do about it except watch the flow of funds. Of course we can argue over finer details, but the overall course has been set. It is just a matter of innovation now.

Having the combination of bitcoin as the single limited entity (simple is valuable) and eth as the programmable, more complex version of that, solves a lot of general needs and provides a good foundation to build on.

Sure the on/off ramps make it easier to trace it to individuals, but what happens when people stop using those and just deal with each other directly? L2's will make the smaller day to day, transactions cheaper and faster and those will just roll up with checkpoints on the L1's.

DeFi is a bottom up step in that direction. To emulate the existing infrastructure, we need programmable money. It stumbled to begin with, but again the foundation has been laid. Cat is out of the bag, so to speak.

Re: Ask HN: Feel bad about working in crypto, what to do?

#282

Post by latchkey »

notahacker wrote: post #255
latchkey wrote: post #235

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They are already gambling on gold.

Sure, but for all its flaws, gold is a 5000 year old store of wealth with some use in dentistry that doesnt lose most of its value on a regular basis, not a pump and dump scheme whose wealthy foreign speculators need bagholders who havent bored of hearing about its future as global currency to bail out their artificial asset's latest collapse.

"Sure but". Look at the last 100 years of the value of gold. The value has gone all over the place, with many crashes. It isn't as stable as you think.

All it takes is one single "discovery" of a massive cache of gold. That cache is then controlled by the government who's land it is found on. It is one of the most heavily manipulated forms of 'money' on the planet.

It might be good enough for you, but as the person who started this thread, I'm clearly in the camp of less government control over my funds... No, thanks.

Re: Ask HN: Feel bad about working in crypto, what to do?

#283

Post by antifa »

bko wrote: post #211
csomar wrote: post #209

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A fairer comparison will be gambling, sports games and drugs.

Sure I guess since they're voluntary. Much harder to opt out of big social media or ad agencies. But that makes my point even stronger since no one is forcing cryptocurrencies down your throat.

> no one is forcing cryptocurrencies down your throat.

But they are planning to.

Re: Ask HN: Feel bad about working in crypto, what to do?

#284

Post by andruby »

Kiro wrote: post #164
andruby wrote: post #136

Sometime in 2013 I was doubting to work with crypto. What made it clear for me, and this is the advice I still give friends today: Ask yourself this. Regardless of wether crypto pricing goes up or down, regardless of wether there is major adoption or not. Will I get satisfaction from having built X? Will I look back after a decade and be grateful about my contribution? So far, for me , the answer has been a no. I hav…

Who has the luxury to work on something that fulfils those criteria? If I would follow your advice I would be homeless.

I would say there are plenty of things I could work on that would give me satisfaction. It doesn’t necessarily have to be curing cancer or solving world hunger.

A crud app that solves the need of small business. A tool to help students learn. An app to help people travel. In my eyes the list of things worth doing is endless.

Since we’re talking about working in crypto, I assume you are a software programmer (or product, design, marketing, ..). Skills that I’m sure are also sought after in the above mentioned endeavors.

Re: Ask HN: Feel bad about working in crypto, what to do?

#285

Post by andruby »

fragmede wrote: post #199
drdrek wrote: post #175

Working in an industry that is considered shady can harm you in the long run. I have worked at one point in a gambling (So called "Gaming") company and 80% of the people there only move to other gambling companies (or even shadier places) because there is a bias against them in "regular" companies. I would also add that the longer they stay in the space the harder it is to leave it without a significant pay cut / pos…

The adult industry is another one that where I've heard a stigma exists. Saying you work for a premier streaming video platform with hard latency or caching characteristics sounds interesting until the interviewer asks the question and you feel compelled to be transparent and answer the NSFW domain name of the company or even just the industry.

Would that stigma be higher in certain cultures/countries? I feel like it would be lower where I’m from (a liberal European country).

It might offend some people, but I’d guess not most.

Re: Ask HN: Feel bad about working in crypto, what to do?

#286

Post by medvezhenok »

latchkey wrote: post #281
sshine wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> You have no privacy. Is that not insane? You could be jailed for having a financial transactions on grindr in some countries in the world. That’s because privacy against the state is at odds with enforcing the state’s laws. From a state-centric perspective, money is “good citizen behaviour” points. If you maintain a job deemed valuable, the bank prints you money to buy a house, etc. You have to know what people use…

That's why bitcoin and ethereum are so awesome. It gives this power back to the people and there is not a whole lot that governments can do about it except watch the flow of funds. Of course we can argue over finer details, but the overall course has been set. It is just a matter of innovation now. Having the combination of bitcoin as the single limited entity (simple is valuable) and eth as the programmable, more co…

I’m not sure that I would want people to hold all of that power - there’a a reason that the state has a monopoly on violence in the first place - turns out that having people roam the streets with guns is a less pleasant reality to be in for most people (look at Russia in the 1990s for what that looks like).

Not to go all black-mirror, but imagine someone anonymously putting up a $X million dollar bounty on someone’s head, backed by a smart contract promise or something (I know that it can’t be guaranteed at present, but imagine). Or other nefarious things that most of the society considers harmful - and having no way to stop those from happening.

Same as the promise of “hard money” - look at the 1930s for what a deflationary bust with “hard money” looks like. There is a reason why we have the current system, and while there are large issues with it, Bitcoin/Crypto solves very few of them

Re: Ask HN: Feel bad about working in crypto, what to do?

#287

Post by andruby »

rglullis wrote: post #258
chillacy wrote: post #242

Earlier quoted context omitted.

By extension what do you think about people living comfortably in the United States and benefiting economically (and indirectly helping prop) the military industrial complex?

Do you choose where you live (and where to pay taxes) like you choose where/how you work?

Good point.

Definitely not to the same degree. But to some small degree, you can choose to move.

You can also chose to vote a certain way. Although with a 2 party system, especially when both seem to support the military industrial complex, you don’t really have an alternative.

Sorry for the tangent: are most Americans content with a 2 party system? From the outside it feels so dysfunctional and divisive. (and, dare i say it, undemocratic)

Re: Ask HN: Feel bad about working in crypto, what to do?

#288

Post by isbvhodnvemrwvn »

mancerayder wrote: post #265
popcorncowboy wrote: post #161

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I don't foster any negative feelings towards developers per se. A job's a job Nah. This line of reasoning excuses any activity one might be involved with because "it's just my job". Doesn't work like that. The idea that you carry zero moral (or ethical or even legal) culpability because you're drawing a paycheck and being "told" what to do is what every person working for the companies that are deeply damaging our…

>Nah. This line of reasoning excuses any activity one might be involved with because "it's just my job". This comes off as financially entitled, like there aren't pressures around rent and life expenses that take precedence in decisions around employment. Either you've taken a vow of not caring about money, or you already have enough (and assets) not to care, or you're naive about a uniquely lucky time we lived in wh…

Software engineering jobs are extremely cushy. You are not working in an Amazon warehouse to make the ends meet.

Re: Ask HN: Feel bad about working in crypto, what to do?

#289

Post by mmcnl »

latchkey wrote: post #232
mmcnl wrote: post #181

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Banking is a solved problem, has been for decades. Seeking an alternative in technological complex solutions is running away from the actual problem.

If banking was a solved problem, then how come so many people don’t have an account?

Because the problem isn't banking. There are lots of people who don't have access to clean water either. Doesn't mean we need new solutions to provide clean water, but rather we need to figure out why existing solutions don't always work.

Re: Ask HN: Feel bad about working in crypto, what to do?

#290

Post by beardedetim »

mancerayder wrote: post #265
popcorncowboy wrote: post #161

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I don't foster any negative feelings towards developers per se. A job's a job Nah. This line of reasoning excuses any activity one might be involved with because "it's just my job". Doesn't work like that. The idea that you carry zero moral (or ethical or even legal) culpability because you're drawing a paycheck and being "told" what to do is what every person working for the companies that are deeply damaging our…

>Nah. This line of reasoning excuses any activity one might be involved with because "it's just my job". This comes off as financially entitled, like there aren't pressures around rent and life expenses that take precedence in decisions around employment. Either you've taken a vow of not caring about money, or you already have enough (and assets) not to care, or you're naive about a uniquely lucky time we lived in wh…

There are pressures, making it a choice of the actor. That actor will have consequences regardless of what choice they make. I disagree that 'i needed money' is a valid excuse to do things you morally disagree with. I also disagree that 'i needed money' is an excuse for others to do things that they believe is immoral.

Personally I don't like crypto so maybe that's where my opinion is coming from. But it sure feels like everywhere in life we are presented with a choice to do what is right and what is easy. Both have consequences.

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