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I wasted years of my life in crypto

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Re: I wasted years of my life in crypto

#571

Post by beezlebroxxxxxx »

yakkomajuri wrote: post #497

Similar thing happened to me, albeit like 6 or so years ago. I was very young and had been "in the space" for a couple years. The concept of "decentralization" in general appealed to me as someone frustrated with the abuses of centralized power. I liked the idea of a transparent ledger and wanted to apply it to non-profit initiatives. I even spoke about this at the European Central Bank as a 20 year old (got there vi…

> a transparent ledger

The only useful application of crypto/blockchain tech I've ever seen simply takes advantage of the transparent ledger as a way of tracking receipts.

One of the perfect applications is in shipping and logistics where receipt validation, transparency, and certification, is an essential part of the business.

Re: I wasted years of my life in crypto

#572

Post by mothballed »

ninkendo wrote: post #562
AnthonyMouse wrote: post #257

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Unfortunately, this solves the wrong problem. Spending money usually involves getting a good or service in return, which inherently requires "trust" (as does any human interaction). Your fancy blockchain is not going to help you if you order something with Bitcoin and no package arrives. That problem already has solutions. The problems cryptocurrency is supposed to solve are, I want to buy subversive literature fro…

> > Your fancy blockchain is not going to help you if you order something with Bitcoin and no package arrives. > That problem already has solutions The solution to that problem is "the court orders the bank to send the funds back to my account", including all the way up to clawing back any funds the scammer spent. This is possible when the government controls the currency. It is not possible with crypto. The only rem…

Of course it's possible with crypto, it just means you can only deal with people with a known physical presence if you want any prayer of getting it back.

A judge can order a lien or seizure of their assets. I presume people that deal in crypto still want a car, a place to stay, some nice chairs or maybe to stay out of a cage when a judge determines they are willfully avoiding a court order to pay the money back.

Of course if they have no tangible assets or the entire operation is out of jurisdiction then that's an issue, but for a random joe are you really that worse off than trying to get the Chinese government to refund you for that knockoff you bought on aliexpress?

Re: I wasted years of my life in crypto

#573

Post by dyauspitr »

spicyusername wrote: post #9

I've never understood the initial arguments about Bitcoin, no matter how many times they've been explained to me. The block chain is, and always was, an extremely inconvenient database. How anyone, especially many intelligent people, thought it was realistic to graft a currency on top of such a unwieldy piece of technology is beyond me. Maybe it goes to show how few people understand economics and anthropology and ho…

> The block chain is, and always was, an extremely inconvenient database

The point is to be a database that isn’t controlled by a central authority, rather by the majority of its users.

Re: I wasted years of my life in crypto

#574

Post by Imustaskforhelp »

pavlov wrote: post #528
Imustaskforhelp wrote: post #293

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The only real world problem is probably solved by low chain fees where I can hold usdc or gold coins and then pay or recieve payments without too much hassle But that again, is such a low niche and something that includes exchanges fees too Recently I wanted to get a domain name on black friday so I went to namecheap and paid them 10 $ in crypto, I had to pay 80 cents to an exchange to convert my usdc polygon to btc…

> "buying this domain pseudo-anonymously (yes I know I can do things with monero too so thus anonymously too) is the only real use case" The domain registrar is required to have valid contact information for you. Sure, you could lie to them, but then you risk having your account terminated. So I'm not sure this is a real use case for crypto.

I have given my real information to name cheap for what its worth, namely my valid phone number so yes in a way it isn't anonymous.

Still, I would argue that crypto with things like njal.la and orangehosting etc. kind of allow it to be a real-use

Personally,So this reduces the "use-case" to basically a bank account for teenagers with (no?) limits and less KYC overall

Re: I wasted years of my life in crypto

#575

Post by dyauspitr »

AnthonyMouse wrote: post #257
fsh wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's an ingenious solution to achieve a "trustless" currency that prevents double-spending without a central authority. Unfortunately, this solves the wrong problem. Spending money usually involves getting a good or service in return, which inherently requires "trust" (as does any human interaction). Your fancy blockchain is not going to help you if you order something with Bitcoin and no package arrives.

> Unfortunately, this solves the wrong problem. Spending money usually involves getting a good or service in return, which inherently requires "trust" (as does any human interaction). Your fancy blockchain is not going to help you if you order something with Bitcoin and no package arrives. That problem already has solutions. The problems cryptocurrency is supposed to solve are, I want to buy subversive literature fro…

I’m all for bitcoin but your examples are essentially I want to do all these generally illegal things that I cannot within the current legal framework.

Re: I wasted years of my life in crypto

#576

Post by SirMaster »

hshdhdhj4444 wrote: post #398
mozarella wrote: post #206

https://vitalik.eth.limo/general/2024/01/31/end.html#section... Vitalik touched upon this briefly in an other-wise long and wide-reaching essay. I think its a good treatment of the topic that the author is talking about. He categorizes the ecosystem broadly into 4 cohorts- [token holders] (which includes investors, speculators, etc.), [pragmatic users] (actual end-users who spend crypto to buy stuff), [intellectuals]…

The only buyers are criminals, sanction evaders, and probably the dumbest people in the world given that the entire crypto ecosystem is focused on one thing and one thing only. Creating the most deflationary monetary system in history.

So it was dumb of me to buy my bitcoins back when they were less than $100 a coin just in the slim chance that it completely blew up? I don't see what was dumb about a decision to put less than $1000 into 10 coins just in case. Worked out really well for me in the end and a less than $1000 gamble doesn't seem like that crazy of a gamble, at least to me.

Re: I wasted years of my life in crypto

#578

Post by ceejayoz »

loughnane wrote: post #520

I get that the crypto world right now is a casino, but the unfulfilled need is still there: I want to be able to buy over the internet as anonymously as when I use cash in the real world.

The monkey's paw curls. Wish granted... but in the form of Palantir, Flock, etc. tracking your every move so those cash transactions can be just as anonymous as a credit card transaction.

Re: I wasted years of my life in crypto

#579

Post by greekrich92 »

SirMaster wrote: post #576
hshdhdhj4444 wrote: post #398

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The only buyers are criminals, sanction evaders, and probably the dumbest people in the world given that the entire crypto ecosystem is focused on one thing and one thing only. Creating the most deflationary monetary system in history.

So it was dumb of me to buy my bitcoins back when they were less than $100 a coin just in the slim chance that it completely blew up? I don't see what was dumb about a decision to put less than $1000 into 10 coins just in case. Worked out really well for me in the end and a less than $1000 gamble doesn't seem like that crazy of a gamble, at least to me.

That wasn't dumb but thinking this a meaningful rebuttal is

Re: I wasted years of my life in crypto

#580

Post by seanhunter »

SirMaster wrote: post #576
hshdhdhj4444 wrote: post #398

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The only buyers are criminals, sanction evaders, and probably the dumbest people in the world given that the entire crypto ecosystem is focused on one thing and one thing only. Creating the most deflationary monetary system in history.

So it was dumb of me to buy my bitcoins back when they were less than $100 a coin just in the slim chance that it completely blew up? I don't see what was dumb about a decision to put less than $1000 into 10 coins just in case. Worked out really well for me in the end and a less than $1000 gamble doesn't seem like that crazy of a gamble, at least to me.

You can't evaluate a decision in a stochastic process based on a single outcome, you need to look at the expectation over all outcomes.
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