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Cryptocurrency Startup School

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Re: Cryptocurrency Startup School

#41

Post by paulgb »

theboywho wrote: post #23
egloo wrote: post #2

A startup school for a singular technical solution that has now gone years without any demonstrable killer app and which faces immense scaling and regulatory hurdles seems like putting the cart well before the horse here. I very much doubt that the key roadblock to realizing the crypto dream has been the lack of availability of a startup school around it.

One of Blockchain's killer apps is...Bitcoin. There is no need to talk about "the crypto dream", people are using what they find useful (coinbase is currently #5 top YC company), and I personally see it inevitable that everything in banking/finance will move to a decentralized model, with smart contracts as a driving force, because of autonomy. Humans haven't really evolved much from say other Apes (or many more othe…

> We haven't yet discovered a way to organise a group without the need for a central entity (an alpha male, a government, central banks, etc.)

Markets (at least, free markets) are exactly a way of organizing a group without the need for a central authority.

Re: Cryptocurrency Startup School

#42

Post by democracy »

theboywho wrote: post #23
egloo wrote: post #2

A startup school for a singular technical solution that has now gone years without any demonstrable killer app and which faces immense scaling and regulatory hurdles seems like putting the cart well before the horse here. I very much doubt that the key roadblock to realizing the crypto dream has been the lack of availability of a startup school around it.

One of Blockchain's killer apps is...Bitcoin. There is no need to talk about "the crypto dream", people are using what they find useful (coinbase is currently #5 top YC company), and I personally see it inevitable that everything in banking/finance will move to a decentralized model, with smart contracts as a driving force, because of autonomy. Humans haven't really evolved much from say other Apes (or many more othe…

You saying like that is a bad thing, but in fact centralisation is something that let us survive through wars, hunger and other hardships.

Re: Cryptocurrency Startup School

#43

Post by simias »

fcolas wrote: post #27
rapsey wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No one ever said the space is not interesting. It's just goes against human nature and how the world operates. The difference between a failed idea and a successful one is very often simply timing. Things that were complete nonsense in the dot com bubble are billion dollar businesses now. The crypto space is not for this time (imo).

You're right that timing is key, however: >> Crypto = Trust (100%) which is why (in my viewpoint) it matters a great deal, and there's just no way back. Trust is required for monetary exchange, but not only. It also matters where very strong guarantees are needed, which is everywhere, e.g., when setting up contracts or when making statements (expert or regulated) about a product, service, or a status. Trust matters b…

>It also matters where very strong guarantees are needed, which is everywhere, e.g., when setting up contracts or when making statements (expert or regulated) about a product, service, or a status.

10+ years later and we're still having this discussion. Yes, blockchain technologies manage to achieve a trust-less consensus about "a product, service or a status" but only if all the parameters can be encoded in the blockchain itself. It breaks down as soon as real world objects and interactions are involved because then the nodes need some sort of trustworthy "oracle" to monitor the real world. Many people have been working on that problem but I don't think anybody has a solution that works at scale in practice. And of course then a single bug and everything breaks down catastrophically (see the DAO).

Then there's the problem of scaling that solution to the transaction rate needed for a world-class blockchain. That also remains an open question.

Cryptocurrencies are interesting in the same way fusion reactors are interesting, if they can really work they will change the world but it's unclear if the technology is truly viable (even more so for cryptocurrencies IMO). As such I'm wary of this "crypto startup school" in the same way I'd be wary of a "nuclear fusion startup school".

Unless of course the objective is to effectively make a "pump-and-dump startup school" in which case I predict a huge success.

Re: Cryptocurrency Startup School

#44

Post by Nursie »

theboywho wrote: post #23
egloo wrote: post #2

A startup school for a singular technical solution that has now gone years without any demonstrable killer app and which faces immense scaling and regulatory hurdles seems like putting the cart well before the horse here. I very much doubt that the key roadblock to realizing the crypto dream has been the lack of availability of a startup school around it.

One of Blockchain's killer apps is...Bitcoin. There is no need to talk about "the crypto dream", people are using what they find useful (coinbase is currently #5 top YC company), and I personally see it inevitable that everything in banking/finance will move to a decentralized model, with smart contracts as a driving force, because of autonomy. Humans haven't really evolved much from say other Apes (or many more othe…

> I personally see it inevitable that everything in banking/finance will move to a decentralized model, with smart contracts as a driving force, because of autonomy.

People don't want autonomy.

I don't want to be my own bank.

My bank is insured, they are secure, they provide me with a ton of services, and there is an identifiable party to go to if it all goes wrong, or if liability needs to be established.

This idea that decentralisation is amazing because people can free themselves from the shackles of financial institutions is just all backwards when you start to look at what those entities actually provide.

And this -

> Smart contracts allowing for autonomous organisations might well be the first time a species is organising itself without a central entity.

Is just meaningless utopianism.

Re: Cryptocurrency Startup School

#45

Post by svrtknst »

Seems interesting, and I'll probably check it out. Been looking (albeit not very hard) for a neat entry into the blockchain field, this might be it.

Doubtless there are other excellent resources, this timed it pretty well for me.

My biggest gripe so far is that I had to turn off the contnet blocking in Firefox for the e-mail field to show up...

Re: Cryptocurrency Startup School

#46

Post by arethuza »

paulgb wrote: post #41
theboywho wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One of Blockchain's killer apps is...Bitcoin. There is no need to talk about "the crypto dream", people are using what they find useful (coinbase is currently #5 top YC company), and I personally see it inevitable that everything in banking/finance will move to a decentralized model, with smart contracts as a driving force, because of autonomy. Humans haven't really evolved much from say other Apes (or many more othe…

> We haven't yet discovered a way to organise a group without the need for a central entity (an alpha male, a government, central banks, etc.) Markets (at least, free markets) are exactly a way of organizing a group without the need for a central authority.

How many markets have there been in history that don't have some kind of central authority involved - to issue the money used if nothing else?

Edit: Of course there have been barter based markets, but aren't markets actually more effective when there is a central authority?

Re: Cryptocurrency Startup School

#47

Post by Nursie »

forgingahead wrote: post #13
egloo wrote: post #2

A startup school for a singular technical solution that has now gone years without any demonstrable killer app and which faces immense scaling and regulatory hurdles seems like putting the cart well before the horse here. I very much doubt that the key roadblock to realizing the crypto dream has been the lack of availability of a startup school around it.

Perhaps you're right, but so what? If they're funding it, and folks are interested in trying it out, what's the worst that can happen? Best case some new innovation comes out, worse case they end up back where they started. Journey and not the destination and all that.

Worst case is it adds to the wasteful hype-train and significant portions of the tech industry continue to be way-layed by a shiny boondoggle with get-rich-quick connotations.

Re: Cryptocurrency Startup School

#49

Post by Nursie »

bernardlunn wrote: post #19

What is it about HN people and negativity about Crypto? Want a killer app? Just look at Bitcoin. Want to find people who use Bitcoin? Move out of your world and visit countries with failing currencies.

> Move out of your world and visit countries with failing currencies.

None of whom use or would actually benefit from buying into your cryptocurrency of choice.

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