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Crypto in 2026: Oh, This Is the Bad Place

stephendiehl.com

471–480 of 561 posts

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

#471

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

Well, I wasn't intending to violate any guidelines, and I don't believe I've dismissed the article besides. I was just trying to save some people from potential frustration, as there was no warning provided upfront. edit: Ah, I see. You left this comment after having your last response flagged.

You dont believe you dismissed the article?

> so I'd suggest not reading unless you've already finished season 1

That’s pretty dismissive!

Yes I left this comment as an attempt at a new healthier approach to calling out bad/unhealthy comments. Not going to flag a rules debate.

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

#472

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

I disagree that a spoiler warning qualifies as a “dismissal” or even a “complaint”.

But the spoiler warning isn’t the dismissal. It’s the dismissal that’s the dismissal:

> so I'd suggest not reading unless you've already finished season 1

Looks pretty dismissive unless you finish watching a tv show not entirely related to the content of the post to me.

How is it not a complaint to complain that theres a minor spoiler from a tv show in an article and suggest people not read it?

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

#473
post #50

I've been deep into crypto for years and I was a big stablecoin supporter. I was fascinated by the tech and I still am. But everything outside the tech itself is just trash, scams, and gambling. I've come to believe that "pure" decentralization is neither practical nor particularly convenient. The only real use case that makes sense to me is giving people in developing countries access to a stable currency they can a…

'stable'coins are a lie though. They just hide the risk, they do not make it go away. (At least bank accounts are insured up to a certain amount.)

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

#474

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh okay, there are multiple articles on the same thing, don’t read or inform yourself of anything because they might spoil an old TV show! The article isn’t a light refresher on corruption, it literally has suggestions of how to change cryptocurrency investment for the better. It is frankly very indepth and lengthy and very good. But one wouldn’t know that if they skipped over it because of few lines might hurt their…

Don't put spoilers in your article then idk what to tell you.

Okay then I know what to tell you however: Enjoy your new found uninformedness as relative to your passive tv diet.

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

#475
post #464

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If your only idea of "institutional collapse" is "living in a war zone", then I envy you and your sheltered life.

Can you describe a "society collapse" where your cold wallet _can_ get you out of trouble, and why that particular situation isn't subject to "I will shoot your corgi." coercion? If you're dealing with a peer you can't trust (like the US government) that will ask for your passphrase and then not torture you for it if you refuse, I'd suggest you're not really in a situation where society has broken down.

You've created a strawman. In no point a said "society collapse". I am talking about failing institutions.

You can find on this very same comment section a handful of people who live in places where cryptocurrency enables people to work around failing institutions and/or protect their wealth from systemic corruption.

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

#476
post #339

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> scarcity based economics is failing us and crypto give us a way to explore alternatives The entire field of crypto was an attempt to create scarcity where none existed, by turning scarce electricity into special numbers.

It was about creating a rules based monetary system. It made engineering sense to start with a mimic of a system that was already known to be consistent (gold), but the feeling I got was that it was much more about letting the people choose which rules they wanted to follow, and less about favoring any particular ruleset (i.e. ones that create scarcity).

rules based? arguably the entire point is to break the existing rules based, heavily-regulated monetary system.

like that was the point, now you're not talking to banks and paying taxes and following regulations; it's why Monero is still a thing

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

#477

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…

The first thing is false or worded poorly. Before Bitcoin became globally popular, there were many examples of digital scarcity driving significant transaction volume: Early online games with tradeable game objects, gimmicks like Million Dollar Homepage, etc. Valve hired economist and future politician Yanis Varoufakis in 2012, when Bitcoin was well below $1000, to study "in-game economies" (i.e. digital scarcity) be…

That last example postdates Bitcoin, and even Bitcoin entering public consciousness (in 2011), so why bring it up ?

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

#478
post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m ignorant of this but it seems wrong. 30% lost in fees?? Can they not manage to open a dollar-backed account somewhere? Also: > being stored in a currency that might lose a majority of its value overnight I for sure put crypto in this same category. “Stablecoin” or not.

> Can they not manage to open a dollar-backed account somewhere? If you want to do financial crimes and fraud, you can't (or at least, shouldn't) really do this. Unspoken by the parent poster is that in practice these people are usually using crypto to break the law in some way, which is why it's valuable to them.

"Break the law" is too weak of a term since it includes routing around the monetary systems overseen by incompetent / corrupt / totalitarian governments.

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

#479

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The first thing is false or worded poorly. Before Bitcoin became globally popular, there were many examples of digital scarcity driving significant transaction volume: Early online games with tradeable game objects, gimmicks like Million Dollar Homepage, etc. Valve hired economist and future politician Yanis Varoufakis in 2012, when Bitcoin was well below $1000, to study "in-game economies" (i.e. digital scarcity) be…

That last example postdates Bitcoin, and even Bitcoin entering public consciousness (in 2011), so why bring it up ?

Bitcoin was not much in the public consciousness by then. It was trading at ~$10, mainly on MTGOX. It's likely its transaction volume was much lower than other non-crypto digital assets (and MTG cards) at the time.

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

#480

Earlier quoted context omitted.

All I can say is that I've been trying and trying to find work that actually solves a problem, and each time I become familiar with a business it seems like we're actually causing most of the problems we solve. The exceptions to this pattern that I've come across don't have enough money to be hiring people. Maybe I've just been unlucky.

each time I become familiar with a business it seems like we're actually causing most of the problems we solve. Do you mean, in general, as a society/culture, or are you just having an incredible run of jobs where each time that business is the problem?

Well I'm personally having a run where I realize, typically after several years of working somewhere, that deep down it's some kind of fraud or scam and the majority of us would be better without it.

So I've been taking classes with the idea that maybe I'll change careers, an I talk with people in the new industry, and I'm learning that they feel the same way about their jobs.

And I ask all of my friends and family about it and either they're true believers in something that it's clear to the rest of us is a problem, or they're clear-eyed about the fact that deep down their employer is quite shady.

There doesn't appear to be any money in anything that people actually want to happen. All of the investment appears to be in places that common folk are uncomfortable with (weapons, propaganda, financial abstraction, etc). Of course this perception is colored by my personal experiences, I can't exactly step outside of them. So to answer your question: it's both.

It can't always have been this way. There are so many good things left over from the past economy. It's like we were once speeding along towards a place we all wanted to go and then somewhere around the time I entered the workforce (2005) we realized that the steering wheel doesn't work and the car we're in isn't actually going where we want it to go. Record highs in the stock market, but to what end? Who cares about a car that goes very fast if it just takes you to an arbitrary place in the distance which has nothing to do with your needs?

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