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As I said here last week "Also the lead developer is some kid who believes very much in moving fast and breaking things. This philosophy may work for a social n

As I said here last week "Also the lead developer is some kid who believes very much in moving fast and breaking things. This philosophy may work for a social network site but not for other people's money." This philosophy permeates the community of Etherum development. Bitcoin disabled most of the smart contracts op codes for a very good reason. I wouldn't recommend putting anything of value into an Etherum smart contract and find a project with more responsible developers who take a more "wait and see" approach.

ghayes 9y ago
Do you have examples of this, or just hearsay?
- coldtea 9y ago
  Beyond the one we're already discussing?
- corndoge 9y ago
  the story you are commenting on is a good example it should not be this easy to lose sixteen million dollars
  - patejam 9y ago
    I feel like we shouldn't be expressed in dollars, but in percentage of total funds. In this case 16 million is about 1% of the total. This would be a $16 billion case if the US banking system was the target and used this technology.
    - rubidium 9y ago
      That... doesn't make a difference in my mind. Losing 1% of people's money is _very_ unacceptable and worth being laughed at for. Financial institutions are accurate to tiny tiny fractions of percentage points. Not "eh we got 99% of it right".
      - hinkley 9y ago
        Especially when the odds are that it will happen again soon.
  - Will_Do 9y ago
    Yes. If a similar scale thing were to happen in the U.S. banking system, 1% would be 160 billion dollars, not 16. I'm amazed that otherwise intelligence people really believe this is a better system than fiat currencies + banks.
    - JohnJamesRambo 9y ago
      *intelligent
    - xrd 9y ago
      Microtransactions.
- legolassexyman 9y ago
  You should ask yourself what the Bitcoin developers are doing while Ether takes their market share. The answer is the exact same thing, at https://elementsproject.org https://elementsproject.org Now why hasn't there been as much publicity about this? Is it because Vitalik Buterin is a wunderkind genius who simply beat them to market? Nope, the Bitcoiners are simply being more responsible and making sure they get the formula right before rushing to market.
  - JohnJamesRambo 9y ago
    You sound very biased on this.
    - legolassexyman 9y ago
      I am very biased because I know the people at Blockstream have been thinking about this problem longer than the developers of Ethereum. Please see this article to get an idea of the personalities involved: http://www.newsbtc.com/2016/08/17/gregory-maxwell-vitalik-buterin-ran-quantum-computer-scam/ http://www.newsbtc.com/2016/08/17/gregory-maxwell-vitalik-bu...
Taek 9y ago
People write this stuff off so fast. Here we have a parity developer, probably one of the most competent in the Ethereum ecosystem, and he screwed up to the tune of losing $30m of other people's money. If HE can't get it right, what business do you have running around saying that anyone who can make a webpage can make a decentralized application? We are playing with money. Dealing with attackers is not as simple as rebooting your server. Mistakes mean irreversible loss. The devs in this industry are way over their heads and nobody is willing to admit it, because doing so destroys the entire core value prop of Ethereum, the poster child of the current bubble.
- vasilipupkin 9y ago
  Dear god, I've been thinking crypto is a bubble since 2010. At some point, we have to admit this is not just a bubble. It's a new unproven evolving technology
  - JauntyHatAngle 9y ago
    I actually think eth has a lot of potential, but I don't think he's saying crypto is a bubble. He's probably talking about the ICO "bubble", which isn't a controversial thing to claim. Eth has already halved in value in the last month which is mostly put down to the crazy value being pumped into ICO's slowing down.
    - vasilipupkin 9y ago
      I would argue ICO phenomenon is not a bubble Rather, some ICOs are scams But many are legitimate business ventures. Buying into an ICO is similar to buying deep out of the money options
  - Taek 9y ago
    Crypto has had at least 3 distinct bubbles. There's the current one, marked by Eth's absurd rise to $300. The previous one was when Bitcoin made an absurd rise to $1200 in 2014. There was a bubble before that where Bitcoin rose to $266 in 2011. And one before that I believe where Bitcoin rose to $32 in 2010. Though crypto has risen past the high point of each of these bubbles, each price point can be definitively classified as a bubble in it's own time, and was followed by a crash that wiped out >70% of the market cap over the coming months/years. Though it did recover, that doesn't mean it wasn't a bubble. I believe cryptocurrency is going to be bigger than e-commerce is today. But it's not there yet, and it shouldn't be valued as though it has changed the world. It hasn't yet, and it's still a few years away at least from doing so.
gst 9y ago
> Bitcoin disabled most of the smart contracts op codes for a very good reason. Bitcoin is also stuck in the past. Yes, Ethereum breaks things, but for me it's not about the money but about the technology stack. We're too early in the process to have the luxury of being able to stop innovating. If I want to play with cool state-of-the-art technology I use Ethereum. For financial transactions I use my bank and/or Transferwise. Haven't quite yet figured out why I'd use Bitcoin for something.

ghayes 9y ago

Do you have examples of this, or just hearsay?

coldtea 9y ago
Beyond the one we're already discussing?
corndoge 9y ago
the story you are commenting on is a good example it should not be this easy to lose sixteen million dollars
- patejam 9y ago
  I feel like we shouldn't be expressed in dollars, but in percentage of total funds. In this case 16 million is about 1% of the total. This would be a $16 billion case if the US banking system was the target and used this technology.
  - rubidium 9y ago
    That... doesn't make a difference in my mind. Losing 1% of people's money is _very_ unacceptable and worth being laughed at for. Financial institutions are accurate to tiny tiny fractions of percentage points. Not "eh we got 99% of it right".
    - hinkley 9y ago
      Especially when the odds are that it will happen again soon.
- Will_Do 9y ago
  Yes. If a similar scale thing were to happen in the U.S. banking system, 1% would be 160 billion dollars, not 16. I'm amazed that otherwise intelligence people really believe this is a better system than fiat currencies + banks.
  - JohnJamesRambo 9y ago
    *intelligent
  - xrd 9y ago
    Microtransactions.
legolassexyman 9y ago
You should ask yourself what the Bitcoin developers are doing while Ether takes their market share. The answer is the exact same thing, at https://elementsproject.org https://elementsproject.org Now why hasn't there been as much publicity about this? Is it because Vitalik Buterin is a wunderkind genius who simply beat them to market? Nope, the Bitcoiners are simply being more responsible and making sure they get the formula right before rushing to market.
- JohnJamesRambo 9y ago
  You sound very biased on this.
  - legolassexyman 9y ago
    I am very biased because I know the people at Blockstream have been thinking about this problem longer than the developers of Ethereum. Please see this article to get an idea of the personalities involved: http://www.newsbtc.com/2016/08/17/gregory-maxwell-vitalik-buterin-ran-quantum-computer-scam/ http://www.newsbtc.com/2016/08/17/gregory-maxwell-vitalik-bu...

Taek 9y ago

People write this stuff off so fast. Here we have a parity developer, probably one of the most competent in the Ethereum ecosystem, and he screwed up to the tune of losing $30m of other people's money. If HE can't get it right, what business do you have running around saying that anyone who can make a webpage can make a decentralized application? We are playing with money. Dealing with attackers is not as simple as rebooting your server. Mistakes mean irreversible loss. The devs in this industry are way over their heads and nobody is willing to admit it, because doing so destroys the entire core value prop of Ethereum, the poster child of the current bubble.

vasilipupkin 9y ago
Dear god, I've been thinking crypto is a bubble since 2010. At some point, we have to admit this is not just a bubble. It's a new unproven evolving technology
- JauntyHatAngle 9y ago
  I actually think eth has a lot of potential, but I don't think he's saying crypto is a bubble. He's probably talking about the ICO "bubble", which isn't a controversial thing to claim. Eth has already halved in value in the last month which is mostly put down to the crazy value being pumped into ICO's slowing down.
  - vasilipupkin 9y ago
    I would argue ICO phenomenon is not a bubble Rather, some ICOs are scams But many are legitimate business ventures. Buying into an ICO is similar to buying deep out of the money options
- Taek 9y ago
  Crypto has had at least 3 distinct bubbles. There's the current one, marked by Eth's absurd rise to $300. The previous one was when Bitcoin made an absurd rise to $1200 in 2014. There was a bubble before that where Bitcoin rose to $266 in 2011. And one before that I believe where Bitcoin rose to $32 in 2010. Though crypto has risen past the high point of each of these bubbles, each price point can be definitively classified as a bubble in it's own time, and was followed by a crash that wiped out >70% of the market cap over the coming months/years. Though it did recover, that doesn't mean it wasn't a bubble. I believe cryptocurrency is going to be bigger than e-commerce is today. But it's not there yet, and it shouldn't be valued as though it has changed the world. It hasn't yet, and it's still a few years away at least from doing so.

gst 9y ago

> Bitcoin disabled most of the smart contracts op codes for a very good reason. Bitcoin is also stuck in the past. Yes, Ethereum breaks things, but for me it's not about the money but about the technology stack. We're too early in the process to have the luxury of being able to stop innovating. If I want to play with cool state-of-the-art technology I use Ethereum. For financial transactions I use my bank and/or Transferwise. Haven't quite yet figured out why I'd use Bitcoin for something.