Crypto... Graphy? Currency? Coccus?
Pretty cryptic, a crypto title indeed.
Cryptocurrency Startup School
61–70 of 160 posts
Re: Cryptocurrency Startup School
#62What 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.
Can you give me a couple of concrete examples? Especially large scale usage that actually impacts the value of Bitcoin? I currently see value in it only as an investment for people with FOMO. I visited Haiti and over there, people just use their phones to pay each other through their telecom provider, or they use USD. None of them use Bitcoin, they're not even aware it's a thing.
They're likely talking about Venezuela, BTC usage by some shops and charities there made quite a bit of media this year, turning it into a popular meme for the cryptocurrency narrative that isn't otherwise backed by the real world.
Re: Cryptocurrency Startup School
#63Earlier quoted context omitted.
> 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?
That's not the goal of markets. You don't get to have the Universal market.
A market is a way to organize a group of people in a decentralized way, but its existence and correct operation requires a different, centralized group that manages it. Market participants are decentralized, market regulators are not. Now, the solution for the "what if I don't want centralization in the market regulation space?" problem is recursion. You create a market for markets.
What happens if you don't centralize? You get something like global trade, which is a meta-market for national trade markets (which are centralized). Global trade is decentralized - in the sense that men with most guns tell everyone else what to do, because there's no central authority to prevent that.
Re: Cryptocurrency Startup School
#64Well, crypto is a scam and you better be on the side which gets rich from it.
Already in 2015 Washington Post summed it up:
> - Hey, do you want to hear about the future? It's a digital currency called Bitcoin that lets you spend or move your money online without paying any fees.
> - Sounds great. How does it do that?
> - Well, Bitcoin saves you money by making transactions irreversible.
> - So ... if I get scammed, I got scammed? There's nothing I can do about it?
> - Yes.
> - Okay, but is it at least easy to use?
> - The thing is, I don't actually use it. I just hoard it. I'm waiting for some greater fools to push up the price by using theirs.
> - Oh.
> - Yeah. So you should buy some Bitcoins and use yours.
Preston Byrne's great post two years later https://prestonbyrne.com/2017/12/08/bitcoin_ponzi/ suggested to call it a Nakamoto scheme, drawing parallels to chain distribution schemes:
> As used herein a “chain distributor scheme” is a sales device whereby a person, upon condition that he make an investment, is granted a license or right to solicit or recruit for profit or economic gain one or more additional persons who are also granted such license or right upon condition of making an investment and may further perpetuate the chain of persons who are granted such license or right upon such condition.
What is amazing in this new kind of scam is the lack of central scammers and certain actors can easily exploit the culpability of ordinary people. That's what this is, setting up various vehicles to separate fools from their money, and, of course, having a stake in the operation which does the separation. By all means this should be illegal and eventually it will be. Already Facebook's Libra attempt was met by a very stern no by financial regulators in various European countries. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-facebook-cryptocurrency-f...
Re: Cryptocurrency Startup School
#65"Free" because the product is you!
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Re: Cryptocurrency Startup School
#66Earlier 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…
> 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…
To dismiss something as 'meaningless utopianism' just because it doesn't agree with your personal experience is incredibly naive and shortsighted.
There are plenty of legitimate reasons for wanting a decentralised alternative to banking. Just recently there was an article posted on here about how money is used as a system of control. [0] Even under the best case scenario of well regulated financial institutions in a functioning democracy there is still little recourse/accountability if these institutions or the government decides to freeze your accounts. [1]
[0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21043888 [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21044914
Re: Cryptocurrency Startup School
#67Earlier quoted context omitted.
> 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's like saying "Open Source" won't work because I don't want to be my own maintainer. It's not about one person. You not wanting autonomy or being your own bank doesn't matter. People on coinbase aren't their own bank either.
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Re: Cryptocurrency Startup School
#68Earlier quoted context omitted.
> 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…
To dismiss something as 'meaningless utopianism' just because it doesn't agree with your personal experience is incredibly naive and shortsighted. There are plenty of legitimate reasons for wanting a decentralised alternative to banking. Just recently there was an article posted on here about how money is used as a system of control. [0] Even under the best case scenario of well regulated financial institutions in a…
Money as a system of control from the point of view of someone with a vested interest in cryptocurrencies. I'd be more interested were it from an even slightly known economist or other dispassionate observer.
What recourse is there to reverse a scam bitcoin transaction? To recover funds from one of the many fraudulent or failed exchanges - the only way to get bitcoin into real money?
At least a banking licence comes with obligations. Cryptocurrency for now comes with blind optimism and utopianism. It's great for a little speculation with some disposable stake money though. :)
Re: Cryptocurrency Startup School
#69Earlier quoted context omitted.
> 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…
To dismiss something as 'meaningless utopianism' just because it doesn't agree with your personal experience is incredibly naive and shortsighted. There are plenty of legitimate reasons for wanting a decentralised alternative to banking. Just recently there was an article posted on here about how money is used as a system of control. [0] Even under the best case scenario of well regulated financial institutions in a…
> To dismiss something as 'meaningless utopianism' just because it doesn't agree with your personal experience is incredibly naive and shortsighted.
I'm not. That phrase "Smart contracts allowing for autonomous organisations might well be the first time a species is organising itself without a central entity." is ridiculous.
Plenty of organisms organise between individuals without a centralised entity. Look at, for example, Stromatolites, which have been formed by self-organising bacterial colonies for around 3.5 billion years.
> There are plenty of legitimate reasons for wanting a decentralised alternative to banking.
There are a few, but those edge cases do not add up to it being "inevitable that everything in banking/finance will move to a decentralized model". And they don't outweigh the services and capabilities of the bank-mediated model for me, or I imagine many others.
When was the last time the bank froze your assets at the command of the government? I don't imagine it's even on the radar for most folks.
Re: Cryptocurrency Startup School
#70Earlier quoted context omitted.
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?
One can argue black markets don't have a central authority and are more effective
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