4 ms·

"Crypto" isn't binary. There's a gold nugget in there somewhere buried under a literal mountain of (occasionally willful) disinformation, flimsy whitepapers and

"Crypto" isn't binary. There's a gold nugget in there somewhere buried under a literal mountain of (occasionally willful) disinformation, flimsy whitepapers and opportunistic ICOs that can best be described as Ponzi schemes. Spend any amount of time on bitcointalk or any of the altcoin subreddits to see what I'm talking about. That - IMO - is what "crypto skeptics" are actually skeptical of.

vertex-four 9y ago
Bingo. 98% of "crypto" is, basically, Pets.com (or worse) right now. Cryptocurrency is really, really useful for some things, just as the web is. On the other hand, there's an awful lot that simply doesn't make any sense - even ignoring the fact that many crypto advocates seem to have no idea how people work or what the constraints of any given problem are[0], a lot of it is technically and economically unsound. [0] See also the "put voting on the blockchain and give everybody an identifying number to verify their vote" people who seem to have absolutely no idea why we have a secret ballot.
smokeyj 9y ago
"The internet will never work because Pets.com is stupid" - would be a perfectly valid position to hold after the dot com bust. But those unable to separate HTTP from Pets.com are the real suckers. I guess that's why some people get rich and others sit on their hands and complain.
- doktrin 9y ago
  > "The internet will never work because Pets.com is stupid" - would be a perfectly valid position to hold after the dot com bust. No it wouldn't > I guess that's why some people get rich and others sit on their hands and complain. I honestly don't know what your point is. There's a lot to criticize in the crypto space right now. There's also a lot of money to be made. Those aren't in any way mutually exclusive.
  - smokeyj 9y ago
    > I honestly don't know what your point is I think you do. It was the sentence before the one you quoted
    - doktrin 9y ago
      > But those unable to separate HTTP from Pets.com are the real suckers. Ok. That's a bit contrived but is easy enough to agree with. > I think you do. Are we aggressively agreeing?

vertex-four 9y ago

Bingo. 98% of "crypto" is, basically, Pets.com (or worse) right now. Cryptocurrency is really, really useful for some things, just as the web is. On the other hand, there's an awful lot that simply doesn't make any sense - even ignoring the fact that many crypto advocates seem to have no idea how people work or what the constraints of any given problem are[0], a lot of it is technically and economically unsound. [0] See also the "put voting on the blockchain and give everybody an identifying number to verify their vote" people who seem to have absolutely no idea why we have a secret ballot.

smokeyj 9y ago

"The internet will never work because Pets.com is stupid" - would be a perfectly valid position to hold after the dot com bust. But those unable to separate HTTP from Pets.com are the real suckers. I guess that's why some people get rich and others sit on their hands and complain.

doktrin 9y ago
> "The internet will never work because Pets.com is stupid" - would be a perfectly valid position to hold after the dot com bust. No it wouldn't > I guess that's why some people get rich and others sit on their hands and complain. I honestly don't know what your point is. There's a lot to criticize in the crypto space right now. There's also a lot of money to be made. Those aren't in any way mutually exclusive.
- smokeyj 9y ago
  > I honestly don't know what your point is I think you do. It was the sentence before the one you quoted
  - doktrin 9y ago
    > But those unable to separate HTTP from Pets.com are the real suckers. Ok. That's a bit contrived but is easy enough to agree with. > I think you do. Are we aggressively agreeing?