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Crypto in 2026: Oh, This Is the Bad Place

stephendiehl.com

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Re: Crypto in 2026: Oh, This Is the Bad Place

#411

Post by himata4113 »

ac29 wrote: post #263
sanex wrote: post #161

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're entirely wrong about that. A bitcoin transaction costs me pennies a wire transfer costs me $40.

Most real financial transactions need to start and end in fiat though, and that's where the costs are

There are pretty big markets in these countries because of crypto and even then it never reaches the native currency a lot of the market uses either us dollar or euro. Businesses are glad to accept dollars and euros for most bigger purchases especially p2p marketplaces. The myth that you have to off-ramp crypto is no longer true.

Re: Crypto in 2026: Oh, This Is the Bad Place

#412

Post by __MatrixMan__ »

bigfishrunning wrote: post #398
__MatrixMan__ wrote: post #372

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Somebody sells a tesla and then buys something from you with that money... and now you're contributing to musk's empire. Our money is set up so that you're not in a position to consent to it or even be aware of it.

Sounds like I sold something and therefore made money! glad to hear my business is doing well.

Sure, but at what cost? Maybe you made $10, by doing so did you enable musk to do $9 of harm to you, or was it $11?

Re: Crypto in 2026: Oh, This Is the Bad Place

#413

Post by himata4113 »

ncruces wrote: post #273
th0raway wrote: post #158

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What they are often talking about there is countries where the official exchange rate is very different from a real world exchange rate: This happened in Argentina quite often. That led to special black market stores where people would give you local currency for dollars at better rates, and often also had some crypto support. You are then going past the legal market either way.

Possibly? Yes. But for every Argentina, there's 10 other countries where you'd loose (far more than) 40% to social security, taxes, and middleman that will handle all the paperwork for for you, particularly if we are talking about "real, productive swe jobs [that] earn enough to support not only themselves, but everyone around them as well making the place they live in a tiny bit better." I basically have one such jo…

This has nothing to do with tax evasion, we're priviledged to live in countries with stable financial systems.

Re: Crypto in 2026: Oh, This Is the Bad Place

#414

Post by mrguyorama »

epochbtc wrote: post #177

Two things can be true at the same time: - Bitcoin was and is a massive, historic accomplishment in creating digital scarcity for the first time and the long term effects are still playing out. - Virtually all of the "crypto" or Bitcoin 2.0 schemes in the 15 years since have been scams. Essentially a way for a tech founder to mint tokens out of thin air, and then try to convince others to treat them as money so he ca…

Why is artificially creating digital scarcity, something that isn't actually difficult, an achievement?

Scarcity is not a virtue.

Re: Crypto in 2026: Oh, This Is the Bad Place

#415

Post by pixl97 »

jerf wrote: post #167
dghlsakjg wrote: post #134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can’t think of many better examples of social problems than sanitation and public health.

I think it would be a reasonable definition of "social problem" that it requires two people to have it, and that they must have it in relation to each other, which is to say, some sort of social interaction or communication must be involved as well. Sanitation is a problem for one person as well, as is health. Social problems arise specifically with the interaction of two people. You can't have a scam without two peo…

>If sanitation is a "social problem" then everything is a social problem

Social = society, keep that in your head.

The vast majority of problems you are going to face in your life are social problems because you live in a vast interconnected society with millions/billions of other individuals.

And it is important to remember that almost all problems are social problems, we get a quite a few of the libertarian types on HN that think "I'll just ignore other people and now I've solved every problem in the world". It's why this group of people thinks this way, it makes the problem way easier if you ignore reality.

Money, and the assorted scams around it, regardless of what type of money it is, is a social problem by definition.

Re: Crypto in 2026: Oh, This Is the Bad Place

#416

Post by derangedHorse »

viscountchocula wrote: post #221
colechristensen wrote: post #203

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>The only real use case that makes sense to me... Cryptocurrencies have a great and really boring application. You have to think "who needs a reliable ledger distributed among many entities?" The answer is institutional banks the likes of JPMorgan. They have a few cryptocurrencies, you need to be another large bank to use them. Big banks send each other large sums of money constantly back and forth. In no sense do th…

But a regular database can do that with PKI. Crypto isn't just a reliable ledger -- it's a reliable ledger between an arbitrary number of mutually distrusting parties. Which doesn't really describe banks in a regulated, functioning economy.

What's your definition of a "regular" database? If you need a distributed, well-sequenced, auditable trail of cryptographically signed operations representing the transfer of value, that quite literally can be fit to match the definition of a blockchain.

Re: Crypto in 2026: Oh, This Is the Bad Place

#417

Post by himata4113 »

joquarky wrote: post #389
tootie wrote: post #229

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Crypto has utterly failed as a currency. In that regard it's been dead for over a decade. If btc or eth were currency they'd be considered dead by deflationary spiral which is more or less what every economist predicted from the start. Some people got rich by investing but getting rich off of currency speculation is generally awful for people who rely on that currency to live. Crypto has been a success the same way T…

And at least The Room didn't enable ransomware.

it would be cash shipments if crypto didn't exist or some other form of monetary value transfer.

Re: Crypto in 2026: Oh, This Is the Bad Place

#418

Post by datsci_est_2015 »

toenail wrote: post #254
bunderbunder wrote: post #240

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Though, there’s a part of me thinking that the basic idea of creating artificial scarcity for profit is hard to separate from scamminess. It’s giving De Beers.

The entertainment industry tried for decades to achieve artificial scarcity for profit. All scammers?

> The […] tried to achieve artificial scarcity for profit. All scammers?

Yeah, I don’t really see a difference between scamming and certain types of rent seeking. So many things could fit in the blank there, not just the entertainment industry.

If:

  - you’re not creating value
  - you’re exploiting the value someone else has created
  - you’re engaging in anticompetitive, anticonsumer behavior
  - etc.
You’re rent seeking and the only reason we’re don’t use the word “scammer” is because the concentration of wealth of the western world is built on rent seeking behavior.

Re: Crypto in 2026: Oh, This Is the Bad Place

#419

Post by pixl97 »

dghlsakjg wrote: post #312
jakelazaroff wrote: post #157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In that case, what are examples of non -social problems you can think of?

A broken TV. If my neighbour has a "removing raw sewage from living spaces" problem, it is very much a concern for me. If my neighbour can't watch TV, I don't care.

Even a broken TV can be a social problem in some circumstances.

TV breaks because entropy doesn't like you = personal problem.

TV breaks because manufacture designed it to fail 3 months after warranty = social problem.

Re: Crypto in 2026: Oh, This Is the Bad Place

#420

Post by pixl97 »

slopinthebag wrote: post #388
astoor wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If it was just a backup against failing/weak institutions it would be relavively benign, but the problem is that it incentivises machiavellian types to undermine society and nation states for their own personal profit - see e.g. The Sovereign Individual[0]. Combined with effective accelerationism[1] you can see why we could be heading towards somewhere a whole lot worse than The Bad Place. [0] https://en.wikipedia.or…

Proponents of weak and failing institutions would make this exact claim about any sort of backup or alternative.

Two things can be true at the same time.
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