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It's time for us in the tech world to speak out about cryptocurrency

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Re: It's time for us in the tech world to speak out about cryptocurrency

#581

Post by ffggvv »

pavlov wrote: post #21

“But it’s like the early Internet!” shouted the Emperor’s coinholders. “The Internet wasn’t yet useful a mere, um, thirteen years after its invention either.” I can see how people in their twenties would fall for this argument because they can’t remember. The reality is that the internet was immediately extremely interesting (either useful or fun) for practically everyone who got access. Email and ftp alone were kill…

the problem is there’s always someone knew who hasn’t been fooled by it, and it can sound good at first.

i remember i believed in it in 2013 before becoming disillusioned. but there’s people who first bought it in 2020 who tell me i don’t understand ot

Re: It's time for us in the tech world to speak out about cryptocurrency

#582

Post by lifeisstillgood »

dang wrote: post #432
idlewords wrote: post #158

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks for your honest broker moderation, here and in all the other places you do it. I do find it interesting that there's this putatively 100% tech topic that has the same dynamic as political threads.

It's certainly not a 100% tech topic? there aren't any (or hardly any) of those anyhow, no? but the main thing I want to say is thanks for that "putatively". Post HN I want to work on a society for endangered words. Edit: well, one thought...IMO the dynamic that the explicitly-political threads and this sort of thread have in common is that people's identities are strongly vested in their position. The more we do tha…

Please consider my application for member status at your society for epeolatry. (always liked that one)

Re: It's time for us in the tech world to speak out about cryptocurrency

#583

Post by alfarisi17296 »

heurist wrote: post #345
Graffur wrote: post #225

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What are the fundamental flaws you're talking about? (I assume throughput but I'll wait for your reply). What do you mean by saying people fell for "this"? I assume you mean it's a scam but I will wait for your reply.

I'm confused about why Bitcoin is being discussed in the past tense when both usage and price have both grown significantly over the last year. Is it already dead? Could have fooled me.

You didn't notice? This chat is mostly composed of people salty because they didn't buy when they had the chance. Oops!

Re: It's time for us in the tech world to speak out about cryptocurrency

#584

Post by magila »

throwaway743 wrote: post #545
magila wrote: post #478

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People have been saying this for over a decade now. Mainstream applications are just around the corner, wait and see! We have waited, and all we've seen is baseless speculation (which you call "wealth savings/growth") and scams. I see no reason to think this is going to change any time soon.

I mean, it is being adopted by pay processors like Square, PayPal, and Cash App, and is being accepted by some large retailers like Newegg and Overstock. Wouldn't discredit that as not being progress :/

This is another thing cryptocurrency enthusiasts have been doing for a long time: name dropping some companies who are supposedly embracing bitcoin but without any evidence of actual user adoption.

Newegg and Overstock don't even take payment in bitcoin. They allow you to use a third party processor to exchange bitcoin for USD then immediately transfer the funds to the retailer. There's no evidence that these payment mechanisms have ever been more than a rounding error in these retailer's sales.

Re: It's time for us in the tech world to speak out about cryptocurrency

#585

Post by colecut »

onlyrealcuzzo wrote: post #500
skybrian wrote: post #391

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How are $2 ATM fees "stealing?" They provide a service, which you can pay for or easily avoid by planning ahead a bit. (And cryptocurrency charges even more.)

LOL - and Vanguard is apparently stealing all our money, providing zero value, and charging 0.1% on their index funds. Better go transfer my life savings into Bitcoin, I suppose.

You could probably do worse

Re: It's time for us in the tech world to speak out about cryptocurrency

#586

Post by floatboth »

pavlov wrote: post #340
mthoms wrote: post #261

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The "early internet" comparison is usually presented when talking about how clumsy and slow the technology is in its current state. The argument is certainly not presented in the context of how "fun" it is. There's nothing "fun" about finance (and there never will be). In the context of technological state (how brittle and obtuse the tools are), the comparison between the two is right on the money IMHO. I once config…

Nerds, early adopters — whatever you want to call them, the online behaviors they pioneered became mainstream. In contrast not even nerds are actually using Bitcoin or Ethereum for anything that interacts with the real world. All proposed applications are self-referential shell games like NFTs, staking schemes, etc. If this is a superior platform for finance, where’s the real economic activity? Handwaving about “prob…

> where’s the real economic activity?

If all the speculative activity isn't real enough, how about the ransoms being paid to ransomware authors?

Re: It's time for us in the tech world to speak out about cryptocurrency

#587

Post by ipnon »

graeme wrote: post #575
ipnon wrote: post #567

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No one is going back to a Fed fund rate pegged savings account after parking stablecoins in a DAO governed yield farm aggregator. Critics think we're in the Dotcom bubble of crypto right now, but we're still in the Usenet stages. You need technical expertise in finance and computer science to grok crypto. I would ask any naysayers to this point in particular to share their understanding of some protocol like Aave, Su…

Yield farm generator Madoff levels of returns (10+%). Why do you assume these are risk equivalent to a USD savings account? There’s no free lunch.

How do you think your bank manages to make billions of dollars in profit every year? Do you think the money that millions of Americans lend to them for effectively 0% returns has anything to do with it? What do you imagine they do with that money, and how does it differ substantially from what DeFi calls yield farming?

Re: It's time for us in the tech world to speak out about cryptocurrency

#588

Post by mthoms »

knorker wrote: post #484
mthoms wrote: post #471

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm going to cease to engage for several reasons: 1) You just flatly contradicted yourself without even realizing it. The top level comment said "The reality is that the internet was immediately extremely interesting (either useful or fun) for practically everyone who got access.". When challenged, you moved the bar to "Well, it eventually became useful to everyone!". 2) You're condescending "I can see how people in…

That's clearly not what they said. Any of the points. Except condescending. But I can't blame them with the nonsense you're saying.

Tell me then, why does usage in Venezuela (and other countries) as a hedge against hyperinflation not count as real-world positive usage?

You can also tell me, as a nerd who has lived through both eras, why my experience doesn't count?

Re: It's time for us in the tech world to speak out about cryptocurrency

#589

Post by sowbug »

shafyy wrote: post #267
sneak wrote: post #240

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The nice thing about Bitcoin is that it doesn't have a jurisdiction or location[1]; you can solve some problems in some places via a functioning government, but Bitcoin solves some problems in all places simultaneously. [1]: this is not to claim, as some do, that it is unregulatable, although it may be.

What problem does Bitcoin solve?

Reasonably private online payments. It's the closest to cash on the internet in terms of privacy.

(HN is a very pro-privacy community, judging from Apple vs. Google discussions, so I take it for granted that a desire for privacy doesn't need further justification or elaboration.)

Re: It's time for us in the tech world to speak out about cryptocurrency

#590

Post by Jotra7 »

graeme wrote: post #575
ipnon wrote: post #567

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No one is going back to a Fed fund rate pegged savings account after parking stablecoins in a DAO governed yield farm aggregator. Critics think we're in the Dotcom bubble of crypto right now, but we're still in the Usenet stages. You need technical expertise in finance and computer science to grok crypto. I would ask any naysayers to this point in particular to share their understanding of some protocol like Aave, Su…

Yield farm generator Madoff levels of returns (10+%). Why do you assume these are risk equivalent to a USD savings account? There’s no free lunch.

Because people are willing to pay a premium on interest to avoid cap gains.
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