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The End of My Childhood

vitalik.eth.limo

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Re: The End of My Childhood

#61

Post by Our_Benefactors »

koonsolo wrote: post #55
therobots927 wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's much easier to transfer bitcoin than it is to transfer gold, so not only does it share #1, it has additional attributes than what you listed. It already is a useful way to exchange value, people do it all the time.

You can literally store it in your mind. A lot of people buy gold for when "Shit hits the fan". But in the end, it's better to flee a horrible place (think Russia or Hong Kong) with a bottle of water and $1M worth of bitcoin stored in your head.

> You can literally store it in your mind

People love to say this, but frankly it is so unrealistic as to border on untrue. It’s a lot to remember. And you can’t transact with “your head” alone, you still need to interface with a computer of sorts; in the event you’re fleeing it’s probably not so easy to purchase a hardware wallet or download the TB-scale blockchain.

Re: The End of My Childhood

#63

Post by bemusedthrow75 »

roenxi wrote: post #45
pinkmuffinere wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I feel the comparison to gold is a bit of a reach. Gold is valuable because: 1. People see it as a store of value 2. It has some useful physical properties 3. People use it as a decoration Possibly there are other reasons as well, but those are the ones that come immediately to mind. As far as I can tell, Bitcoin only shares attribute #1. It doesn’t have intrinsic properties that make it useful into larger systems (t…

Crypto overall, including Bitcoin, have bunch of intrinsic properties. A lot of people just don't want to recognise them. It puts me in mind of the Sovereign citizen movement, and I expect it'll work just as well for them vs crypto as it did for the SovCits vs the US government. * Can only pull new bitcoin into existence by paying a hefty market-determined price. * Can transfer them iff you know a certain secret. * C…

I also think Bitcoin and crypto generally have a lot in common with the sovereign citizen movement. But I think where you and I differ is that I think that’s a uniformly bad thing.

Re: The End of My Childhood

#64

Post by koonsolo »

Our_Benefactors wrote: post #61
koonsolo wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can literally store it in your mind. A lot of people buy gold for when "Shit hits the fan". But in the end, it's better to flee a horrible place (think Russia or Hong Kong) with a bottle of water and $1M worth of bitcoin stored in your head.

> You can literally store it in your mind People love to say this, but frankly it is so unrealistic as to border on untrue. It’s a lot to remember. And you can’t transact with “your head” alone, you still need to interface with a computer of sorts; in the event you’re fleeing it’s probably not so easy to purchase a hardware wallet or download the TB-scale blockchain.

> but frankly it is so unrealistic as to border on untrue. It’s a lot to remember.

12 words is enough. For example: witch collapse practice feed shame open despair creek road again ice least. If you can make a story that incorporates those words, it's even easier to remember.

> you still need to interface with a computer of sorts

You flee a nasty place towards a nice place. Nice places have computers and internet.

Re: The End of My Childhood

#65

Post by [deleted] »

Our_Benefactors wrote: post #61
koonsolo wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can literally store it in your mind. A lot of people buy gold for when "Shit hits the fan". But in the end, it's better to flee a horrible place (think Russia or Hong Kong) with a bottle of water and $1M worth of bitcoin stored in your head.

> You can literally store it in your mind People love to say this, but frankly it is so unrealistic as to border on untrue. It’s a lot to remember. And you can’t transact with “your head” alone, you still need to interface with a computer of sorts; in the event you’re fleeing it’s probably not so easy to purchase a hardware wallet or download the TB-scale blockchain.

[deleted]

Re: The End of My Childhood

#66

Post by throwawaycities »

wslh wrote: post #60
throwawaycities wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Regarding the other post I am lucky to know neiman personally. Neiman is a PhD in mathematics and idealist. The solution he wants goes beyond just hosting a decentralized blog. As far as ENS, I’m a fan. Though it’s too bad someone registered your well known business name you can always import your DNS into the ENS protocol (ENS is not the .eth extension, rather .eth is the native ENS blockchain extension but is rever…

Beyond your ad-hominem criticism on Neiman. I have used IPFS professionally and it is very slow. This issue is well known and gives an objective metric for the tool beyond idealisms. Extremely easy to check: [1] [2]. BTW, I come out with the paper "Is IPFS Ready for Decentralized Video Streaming?" [3] that could be an interesting read. [1] https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=ipfs+performance&hl=en&... [2] https://ww…

>ad-hominem criticism on Neiman

What a bizarre thing to say.

Neiman is a friend and inspiration. I specifically said I’m lucky to know him personally.

Calling him an idealist isn’t an attack, it’s admirable.

IPFS is fine for hosting blogs and static websites, I have 50 IPFS websites using a pinning service neiman cofounded. However, his blog post speaks for itself and his considerations are greater than whether IPFS/IPNS can host a blog.

Nice work on your paper.

Re: The End of My Childhood

#68

Post by dartos »

eaurouge wrote: post #31
dartos wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m not against crypto as a technology, but as a financial tool, how is it not a greater fools game? Broadly speaking, you can’t live on crypto alone. Most people aren’t able to buy food and shelter with it. So the goal, in those majority of cases, is to buy in low for the exact purpose of waiting for a “greater fool” to purchase it from you for more.

> Broadly speaking, you can’t live on commodities alone. Most people aren’t able to buy food and shelter with it. > So the goal, in those majority of cases, is to buy in low for the exact purpose of waiting for a “greater fool” to purchase it from you for more. Feel free to substitute with your preferred non-monetary asset.

Not _any_. I can live in a house while it appreciates.

I can take dividends (in dollars) from certain stocks.

But not crypto (or non dividend stocks)

I’d argue that stocks without dividends are also a greater fool’s game.

But back to the original point, so you agree that crypto is a greater fools game, financially.

Re: The End of My Childhood

#69

Post by [deleted] »

LegionMammal978 wrote: post #44
eaurouge wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Sure, but that’s my point exactly. > You need an offramp. > The only offramp is someone else (or some exchange) buying your stocks. > They would be the “greater fool” in this case. > Even if you earn stocks, that stock came from a “lesser fool.” > You’re just the intermediary.

> The only offramp is someone else (or some exchange) buying your stocks. So dividends, buybacks, and takeovers don't exist?

[deleted]

Re: The End of My Childhood

#70

Post by dartos »

tough wrote: post #36
eaurouge wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Sure, but that’s my point exactly. > You need an offramp. > The only offramp is someone else (or some exchange) buying your stocks. > They would be the “greater fool” in this case. > Even if you earn stocks, that stock came from a “lesser fool.” > You’re just the intermediary.

> Sure, but that’s my point exactly. > You need an offramp. > The only offramp is someone else (or some exchange) buying your fiat. > They would be the “greater fool” in this case. > Even if you earn stocks, that stock came from a “lesser fool.” > You’re just the intermediary.

That’s just not true.

I can purchase food and shelter directly with fiat. (There may be some areas where crypto can do that too, but it’s far from the norm)

That’s not a merchant “buying” my money with other representations of wealth, that’s me purchasing food and shelter. Framing it like that is a bad faith argument.

And yeah, I’d say stocks without dividends is also a greater fool’s game.

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