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Forgive my ignorance here, but it seems like everyone and their grandmother has been starting their own cryptocurrency lately... Why is this noteworthy? I'll ad

Forgive my ignorance here, but it seems like everyone and their grandmother has been starting their own cryptocurrency lately... Why is this noteworthy? I'll admit that I'm still largely ignorant as to why so many people consider cryptocurrencies to be such a big deal.

timbowhite 10y ago
> why so many people consider cryptocurrencies to be such a big deal. Sending value anywhere in the world in a very short amount of time without having to trust a middleman.
- freehunter 10y ago
  But then you have to trust a middleman to convert it into something that's actually usable. It's like gold, I can send it anywhere with DHL or UPS, but my recipient is going to have to find someone to convert it to local currency before they can actually use it. As a result, not many people send gold back and forth.
  - StavrosK 10y ago
    That's not why your grocery store doesn't accept gold for a pack of gum, though. If you could have an unforgeable, standard-sized, $0.01 nugget of gold, you wouldn't have to convert it, you'd just pay with that. That's what cryptocurrencies could offer.
  - kmicklas 10y ago
    I suspect that is not the reason people do not send gold back and forth.
cryowaffle 10y ago
You aren't at the NYT.com, this is an uncurated niche technology site that aggregates a massive amount of bubbling news content.
chfs 10y ago
> why so many people consider cryptocurrencies to be such a big deal That alone could be a reason too. My other guesses: versatility and in some countries ease of use when compared to standard solutions.
notliketherest 10y ago
Pump and dump. Coins with a higher market cap feed the buying of coins with a lower market cap. As the founder of a coin you have all the initial coins since you were the only one mining (if your coin is premined, even better). Once your coin starts gaining traction, you pump up the price and then dump. Cha-ching.
- freehunter 10y ago
  This is the answer. Everyone wanted to make "... but on the Internet" because there was money in it. Then everyone wanted to make "Facebook, but for..." because they could get money. Now everyone wants to make cryptocurrency or do blockchain stuff because people are still willing to spend money on it. It's the hot new thing, there's a frontrunner but not an established winner, and investors are still willing to give people money for it.
aminorex 10y ago
Because our society is stuck on a finite planet, using a debt-based monetary system in which counter-party obligations expand exponentially. Without an alternative monetary system, the disruptions which occur when the exponential growth stops may be of a scale on par with an extinction level event, in the most extreme scenarios. All of the transparent block chains create another problem, however: Pervasive surveillance, and chilling effects. For that reason, I like the singular cryptocurrency which offers the anonymity and fungibility of cash, without a pre-mine scam or a graft tax, Monero. I think it is the only exemplar which offers all of the features required to serve as both a store of wealth and a medium of exchange. (Privacy being a requirement for fungibility.)

timbowhite 10y ago

> why so many people consider cryptocurrencies to be such a big deal. Sending value anywhere in the world in a very short amount of time without having to trust a middleman.

freehunter 10y ago
But then you have to trust a middleman to convert it into something that's actually usable. It's like gold, I can send it anywhere with DHL or UPS, but my recipient is going to have to find someone to convert it to local currency before they can actually use it. As a result, not many people send gold back and forth.
- StavrosK 10y ago
  That's not why your grocery store doesn't accept gold for a pack of gum, though. If you could have an unforgeable, standard-sized, $0.01 nugget of gold, you wouldn't have to convert it, you'd just pay with that. That's what cryptocurrencies could offer.
- kmicklas 10y ago
  I suspect that is not the reason people do not send gold back and forth.

cryowaffle 10y ago

You aren't at the NYT.com, this is an uncurated niche technology site that aggregates a massive amount of bubbling news content.

chfs 10y ago

> why so many people consider cryptocurrencies to be such a big deal That alone could be a reason too. My other guesses: versatility and in some countries ease of use when compared to standard solutions.

notliketherest 10y ago

Pump and dump. Coins with a higher market cap feed the buying of coins with a lower market cap. As the founder of a coin you have all the initial coins since you were the only one mining (if your coin is premined, even better). Once your coin starts gaining traction, you pump up the price and then dump. Cha-ching.

freehunter 10y ago
This is the answer. Everyone wanted to make "... but on the Internet" because there was money in it. Then everyone wanted to make "Facebook, but for..." because they could get money. Now everyone wants to make cryptocurrency or do blockchain stuff because people are still willing to spend money on it. It's the hot new thing, there's a frontrunner but not an established winner, and investors are still willing to give people money for it.

aminorex 10y ago

Because our society is stuck on a finite planet, using a debt-based monetary system in which counter-party obligations expand exponentially. Without an alternative monetary system, the disruptions which occur when the exponential growth stops may be of a scale on par with an extinction level event, in the most extreme scenarios. All of the transparent block chains create another problem, however: Pervasive surveillance, and chilling effects. For that reason, I like the singular cryptocurrency which offers the anonymity and fungibility of cash, without a pre-mine scam or a graft tax, Monero. I think it is the only exemplar which offers all of the features required to serve as both a store of wealth and a medium of exchange. (Privacy being a requirement for fungibility.)