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Watch this video [1] of Bill Gates explaining the value of the Internet to David Letterman, where he's just not getting it at all. Bill's telling him the things

Watch this video [1] of Bill Gates explaining the value of the Internet to David Letterman, where he's just not getting it at all. Bill's telling him the things it can do relative to David's interests, but he just sees those as problems that don't really exist because they've already been solved. It took decades before the Internet was useful to "the masses." I don't think there's some conspiracy among VCs, but I do think dismissing cryptocurrencies for the reasons you have is short-sighted. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lskpNmUl8yQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lskpNmUl8yQ

deleted 9y ago
[deleted]
root_axis 9y ago
I tire of the internet comparison. You're drawing a surface-level comparison between the greatest communication and economic innovation in human history and blockchain software, because people were skeptical of both. And? That doesn't prove anything except that people were skeptical of both; nothing in that comparison speaks to the underlying nature of either things being compared. They are not the same.
- moduspol 9y ago
  Well it's in response to your rebuttal. > Where is the revolution? A common thread among cryptocurrency enthusiasts is that the revolution is coming... except it never does. A technology doesn't need to have all of its potential realized in the first few years of its existence. > Where is the disruption? Bitcoin is a smidgeon of a fraction of the commerce activity happening on the internet The Internet was a fraction of the commerce activity happening relative to Sears / JC Penney / Walmart. Yet clearly only a few decades later all of these are disrupted by the Internet. > bitcoin remains difficult and relatively unsafe to use (for the non-technical masses) and provides zero benefits for most people. ...as was the Internet for the first few decades. > Contrast these facts on the ground with the never-ending blockchain hype and the result is overall disillusionment with blockchains in general. This compares directly to, "Have you ever heard of radio?" Literally every dismissal of cryptocurrencies you made would have applied exactly to the Internet in the early '90s or prior. There are far more similarities than "people were skeptical of both." It's totally fine to take your position but it's unrealistic to claim these as reasons it can't succeed.
  - root_axis 9y ago
    > Literally every dismissal of cryptocurrencies you made would have applied exactly to the Internet in the early '90s or prior. It seems I'm not getting through to you. Just because two things have something in common doesn't mean that they're the same thing. Showing that people were skeptical of the internet and blockchains does not demonstrate that blockchains will be as successful as the internet. There is no connection between the two (besides the fact that blockchains are software that run on the internet, like all things on the internet). They are totally different.
    - semi-extrinsic 9y ago
      "They laughed at Columbus, they laughed at Fulton, they laughed at the Wright brothers. But they also laughed at Bozo the Clown." - Carl Sagan
    - moduspol 9y ago
      I guess I just feel like your rebuttal would be stronger if its only points weren't the same, yet ultimately irrelevant in the case of a prior technology with many similarities. Of course they're not the same thing. That doesn't mean it's now totally valid to claim that it won't be successful due to the same roadblocks that the Internet overcame easily. Do you have any arguments against cryptocurrencies that don't mirror early problems the Internet had, that people warned about, but ended up being very solvable? I think that'd be a lot more convincing.
      - Naomarik 9y ago
        Other than being a cryptocurrency, everything people are using blockchain based solutions for can be solved in a much more robust, complete, and scalable way using conventional software tools. This is why it's not the revolutionary thing everyone is saying it is. As a cryptocurrency blockchain is the killer implementation. For anything else it just becomes a ridiculously bloated, clumsy, and slow database that hardly anyone understands and wastes electricity.
  - snowwrestler 9y ago
- hectorr510 9y ago
  I see blockchain as an evolutionary step for computing and the internet. The internet is great because it grants the ability to communicate worldwide at minimal cost, to distribute software at minimal cost, and to replicate information at zero cost. While copying is great for knowledge, it's problematic for value. Blockchain solves this, now you can share applications and communicate globally with objects of value. That's it. I don't know if any of the current implementations will survive. I could see blockchain only running a small subset of online activity relating to finance, insurance, and law. I could also see it rendering our current conception of the internet sector as the media/advertising niche, the way cable changed broadcast TV forever. Mostly I think the tech is really cool. So I'm going to keep messing with it. But I appreciate the skepticism, it means there's work to do.
this_user 9y ago
The Internet opened up a whole new world of applications. Distributed ledgers do not. They are a complex and horribly inefficient solution to a very niche problem that crypto currrencies like Bitcoin have. But outside of that realm, they offer next to no technical advantages that would justify the exploding costs incurred by implementing this technology.
- jerguismi 9y ago
  I think we have to wait on that. Maybe both bitcoin and ethereum are still a bit on the wrong track, and better use cases will show up later on.
- just_one_time_ 9y ago
  I just played (and lost) 0.25 bitcoin on a decentralized blackjack app. My losses got split up between the nodes hosting the network. If you don't see the huge opportunity for new applications you have your eyes closed.

deleted 9y ago

[deleted]

root_axis 9y ago

I tire of the internet comparison. You're drawing a surface-level comparison between the greatest communication and economic innovation in human history and blockchain software, because people were skeptical of both. And? That doesn't prove anything except that people were skeptical of both; nothing in that comparison speaks to the underlying nature of either things being compared. They are not the same.

moduspol 9y ago
Well it's in response to your rebuttal. > Where is the revolution? A common thread among cryptocurrency enthusiasts is that the revolution is coming... except it never does. A technology doesn't need to have all of its potential realized in the first few years of its existence. > Where is the disruption? Bitcoin is a smidgeon of a fraction of the commerce activity happening on the internet The Internet was a fraction of the commerce activity happening relative to Sears / JC Penney / Walmart. Yet clearly only a few decades later all of these are disrupted by the Internet. > bitcoin remains difficult and relatively unsafe to use (for the non-technical masses) and provides zero benefits for most people. ...as was the Internet for the first few decades. > Contrast these facts on the ground with the never-ending blockchain hype and the result is overall disillusionment with blockchains in general. This compares directly to, "Have you ever heard of radio?" Literally every dismissal of cryptocurrencies you made would have applied exactly to the Internet in the early '90s or prior. There are far more similarities than "people were skeptical of both." It's totally fine to take your position but it's unrealistic to claim these as reasons it can't succeed.
- root_axis 9y ago
  > Literally every dismissal of cryptocurrencies you made would have applied exactly to the Internet in the early '90s or prior. It seems I'm not getting through to you. Just because two things have something in common doesn't mean that they're the same thing. Showing that people were skeptical of the internet and blockchains does not demonstrate that blockchains will be as successful as the internet. There is no connection between the two (besides the fact that blockchains are software that run on the internet, like all things on the internet). They are totally different.
  - semi-extrinsic 9y ago
    "They laughed at Columbus, they laughed at Fulton, they laughed at the Wright brothers. But they also laughed at Bozo the Clown." - Carl Sagan
  - moduspol 9y ago
    I guess I just feel like your rebuttal would be stronger if its only points weren't the same, yet ultimately irrelevant in the case of a prior technology with many similarities. Of course they're not the same thing. That doesn't mean it's now totally valid to claim that it won't be successful due to the same roadblocks that the Internet overcame easily. Do you have any arguments against cryptocurrencies that don't mirror early problems the Internet had, that people warned about, but ended up being very solvable? I think that'd be a lot more convincing.
    - Naomarik 9y ago
      Other than being a cryptocurrency, everything people are using blockchain based solutions for can be solved in a much more robust, complete, and scalable way using conventional software tools. This is why it's not the revolutionary thing everyone is saying it is. As a cryptocurrency blockchain is the killer implementation. For anything else it just becomes a ridiculously bloated, clumsy, and slow database that hardly anyone understands and wastes electricity.
- snowwrestler 9y ago
hectorr510 9y ago
I see blockchain as an evolutionary step for computing and the internet. The internet is great because it grants the ability to communicate worldwide at minimal cost, to distribute software at minimal cost, and to replicate information at zero cost. While copying is great for knowledge, it's problematic for value. Blockchain solves this, now you can share applications and communicate globally with objects of value. That's it. I don't know if any of the current implementations will survive. I could see blockchain only running a small subset of online activity relating to finance, insurance, and law. I could also see it rendering our current conception of the internet sector as the media/advertising niche, the way cable changed broadcast TV forever. Mostly I think the tech is really cool. So I'm going to keep messing with it. But I appreciate the skepticism, it means there's work to do.

this_user 9y ago

The Internet opened up a whole new world of applications. Distributed ledgers do not. They are a complex and horribly inefficient solution to a very niche problem that crypto currrencies like Bitcoin have. But outside of that realm, they offer next to no technical advantages that would justify the exploding costs incurred by implementing this technology.

jerguismi 9y ago
I think we have to wait on that. Maybe both bitcoin and ethereum are still a bit on the wrong track, and better use cases will show up later on.
just_one_time_ 9y ago
I just played (and lost) 0.25 bitcoin on a decentralized blackjack app. My losses got split up between the nodes hosting the network. If you don't see the huge opportunity for new applications you have your eyes closed.