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I think one of the problems is that there are now, what, a few thousand cryptocurrencies? The optics of the multitudes of ICOs? Those aren't good. No, no they a

by KGIII 9y ago

I think one of the problems is that there are now, what, a few thousand cryptocurrencies? The optics of the multitudes of ICOs? Those aren't good. No, no they are not. A part of me wonders if this popularity boom might actually be the reason it dies out. How many hacks, thefts, and scams have there been? Sure, those happen with real money but real money isn't the one needing to work on its optics. We already accept real currency. This one is anonymous, this one is for burgers in Russia, this one is tied to fiat currency, this one is for an online file system... The list goes on. I'm not sure that diversity in choice is a net benefit with this, at least not in the long term. Someone important is going to lose some money and it's not that hard for a government to make it illegal. Depending on your jurisdiction, it's just a stroke of the pen. If I did want to invest, or use, I'd barely have an idea of where to start and I'm pretty technically literate. Hell, I even mined some BTC when it was new. Now, there are so many varieties. Maybe too many choices. There are even sites to let you easily make new ones.

mbrock 9y ago
Maybe it's like the internet. There used to be a lot of different websites, and a lot of them were scams. Now there's just a handful of websites, so it's easier for people to understand what to do... And of course there's still a long tail of weird niche sites with new experiments. The UN recognizes 180 different currencies, by the way. That's 180 different units of accounts, but the amount of forms of money is much larger, and then you have to consider the derivative forms of money, and the various credit systems. It's already an immense, staggering, crazy cornucopia. I don't think it's realistic that world governments will just eradicate cryptocurrency through legislation. Banking, insurance, finance, the internet itself, all of those things were really chaotic in the beginning, but businesspeople recognized them as useful and transformative, so states didn't want to ban them, even though they were dangerous. The IMF director is already saying that cryptocurrency will be massively disruptive and that they expect to play a part in regulating the ecosystem and that it's conceivable that the IMF would issue their own cryptocurrency. https://www.cnbc.com/2017/10/13/bitcoin-get-serious-about-digital-currency-imf-christine-lagarde-says.html https://www.cnbc.com/2017/10/13/bitcoin-get-serious-about-di... That makes me think it's really unlikely to just go away.
- KGIII 9y ago
  Your first paragraph, kind of. For many people, the net is just a few social media and streaming sites. The net has much of its wealth consolidated in just a few companies. We shall see.
zodiac 9y ago
Idk, we seem to live fine with thousands of fiat currencies, stocks, bonds, and derivatives, all non-pairwise-fungible. Markets could make it so that you'd just buy utility tokens when you need them, and only investors would need to care about owning equity-type tokens

by KGIII 9y ago

mbrock 9y ago

Maybe it's like the internet. There used to be a lot of different websites, and a lot of them were scams. Now there's just a handful of websites, so it's easier for people to understand what to do... And of course there's still a long tail of weird niche sites with new experiments. The UN recognizes 180 different currencies, by the way. That's 180 different units of accounts, but the amount of forms of money is much larger, and then you have to consider the derivative forms of money, and the various credit systems. It's already an immense, staggering, crazy cornucopia. I don't think it's realistic that world governments will just eradicate cryptocurrency through legislation. Banking, insurance, finance, the internet itself, all of those things were really chaotic in the beginning, but businesspeople recognized them as useful and transformative, so states didn't want to ban them, even though they were dangerous. The IMF director is already saying that cryptocurrency will be massively disruptive and that they expect to play a part in regulating the ecosystem and that it's conceivable that the IMF would issue their own cryptocurrency. https://www.cnbc.com/2017/10/13/bitcoin-get-serious-about-digital-currency-imf-christine-lagarde-says.html https://www.cnbc.com/2017/10/13/bitcoin-get-serious-about-di... That makes me think it's really unlikely to just go away.

KGIII 9y ago
Your first paragraph, kind of. For many people, the net is just a few social media and streaming sites. The net has much of its wealth consolidated in just a few companies. We shall see.

zodiac 9y ago

Idk, we seem to live fine with thousands of fiat currencies, stocks, bonds, and derivatives, all non-pairwise-fungible. Markets could make it so that you'd just buy utility tokens when you need them, and only investors would need to care about owning equity-type tokens