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OT: who are the crypto people you follow? And on which channels? Twitter seems sadly popular among this crowd. Sadly because it lends itself to flamewars.

berberous 9y ago
Here are two resources that I think are helpful: 1. Token Economy is a weekly crypto newsletter run by two crypto VCs (https://tokeneconomy.co/ https://tokeneconomy.co/). I think it is extremely good at separating the signal from the noise. Highly recommend. 2. Twitter is unfortunately indeed the easiest place to follow what's going on. Naval Ravikant, the founder of AngelList, recently published a list of the people he follows in the space (https://twitter.com/naval/lists/crypto/members https://twitter.com/naval/lists/crypto/members). It has a large overlap with my own list, but neither he nor I endorse everyone's views that are on it. But it probably includes most of the active developers, VCs and thought leaders in the space.
- mynegation 9y ago
  Oh, you meant cryptocurrencies, not the cryptography people. "Crypto" is an established abbreviation for "cryptography". Probably, to avoid confusion we should spell out both terms.
simias 9y ago
Cryptos lend themselves to flamewars, no twitter or anything else needed. You have a bunch of people who are trying to get rich quick while on average not understanding much about the underlying technology. Try to have a technical discussion on any crypto enthusiast forum and see how well it goes. In my experience it turns really ugly really quickly. In general I give up after I get the first "you don't know what you're talking about" without any kind of actual argument behind it. Note that you find several of these in the comments of TFA: >i find it deeply alarming everybody and their graindma has to write bad stuff about iota without beeing informed themselves enough. >I learned a lot today, but not from this article. The comment section has some good information. >you’re way too late for the fud party. >Wow…another clear case of awesome journalism. Another case of the misinformed trying to mislead people with another mudslinging article. >Just a question: does it ever occur to you to pick up the phone and may get in touch with someone who actually knows the topic at hand before writing this kind of garbage…say the IOTA… Truly enlightening. I love this comment too: https://medium.com/@dfalkman/i-think-this-article-sums-the-psychology-of-this-entire-situation-up-pretty-well-and-it-even-28304aac1c0d https://medium.com/@dfalkman/i-think-this-article-sums-the-p... >The bottom line is that IOTA is embarking on something new. Like a lot of things in crypto, it is theoretical and academic and working towards becoming practical. It is very early. Then: >We all rise together, so we should more encouraging of one another’s endeavors in crypto and blockchain. IMO these concerns would have been best voiced in the IOTA slack channel instead of on the interwebs for all to FUD about. In other words: it's experimental academic endeavor but don't criticize it publicly because it hinders my ability to pump it.
- mikestew 9y ago
  We all rise together, so we should more encouraging of one another’s endeavors in crypto and blockchain There’s your tip-off for a scam: don’t ask questions, and be encouraging to each other, because it’s us against a skeptical world. Cults, penny stocks, Amway, and now crypto currency scams apparently: I’ve observed similar patterns in all. Not that we shouldn’t support each other in our mutual endeavors, but if that’s the only thing with any substance that you hear and money is on the line, run away. Tip-off #2: “You don’t know what you’re talking about.” “Enlighten me.” <crickets> Learned that one from a biodiesel nut, a suburban boy with clean fingernails trying to convince this ex-mechanic who grew up on a farm that growing food crops for fuel is energy net positive, and otherwise a good idea. Not that his heavy financial investment in a local biodiesel company would color his opinion at all.
  - cesarb 9y ago
    > growing food crops for fuel is energy net positive, and otherwise a good idea. According to Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethanol_fuel_energy_balance https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethanol_fuel_energy_balance), growing sugarcane for ethanol is 8x net energy positive.
    - mikestew 9y ago
      Said biodiesel nut never once mentioned sugar cane, soybeans was the frequently suggested crop, your article is talking about ethanol and not biodiesel, and that wasn’t the point anyway.
      - logfromblammo 9y ago
        This biodiesel nut never said "algae", "duckweed", or "synergy with aquaculture"? Your nut isn't much of a nut.
        mikestew 9y ago
        That’s probably why he lost all of his money in that venture: just not quite nutty enough. No one’s going to jump on board for something as boring as soybeans. OTOH, snarky or not, you bring up an interesting thought: there are probably millions of people that know (as in practical knowledge) how soybeans are grown, hence enabling millions to call “bullshit”. Had said nutter said “algae”, I would have to have taken his word until I could research further.

berberous 9y ago

Here are two resources that I think are helpful: 1. Token Economy is a weekly crypto newsletter run by two crypto VCs (https://tokeneconomy.co/ https://tokeneconomy.co/). I think it is extremely good at separating the signal from the noise. Highly recommend. 2. Twitter is unfortunately indeed the easiest place to follow what's going on. Naval Ravikant, the founder of AngelList, recently published a list of the people he follows in the space (https://twitter.com/naval/lists/crypto/members https://twitter.com/naval/lists/crypto/members). It has a large overlap with my own list, but neither he nor I endorse everyone's views that are on it. But it probably includes most of the active developers, VCs and thought leaders in the space.

mynegation 9y ago
Oh, you meant cryptocurrencies, not the cryptography people. "Crypto" is an established abbreviation for "cryptography". Probably, to avoid confusion we should spell out both terms.

simias 9y ago

Cryptos lend themselves to flamewars, no twitter or anything else needed. You have a bunch of people who are trying to get rich quick while on average not understanding much about the underlying technology. Try to have a technical discussion on any crypto enthusiast forum and see how well it goes. In my experience it turns really ugly really quickly. In general I give up after I get the first "you don't know what you're talking about" without any kind of actual argument behind it. Note that you find several of these in the comments of TFA: >i find it deeply alarming everybody and their graindma has to write bad stuff about iota without beeing informed themselves enough. >I learned a lot today, but not from this article. The comment section has some good information. >you’re way too late for the fud party. >Wow…another clear case of awesome journalism. Another case of the misinformed trying to mislead people with another mudslinging article. >Just a question: does it ever occur to you to pick up the phone and may get in touch with someone who actually knows the topic at hand before writing this kind of garbage…say the IOTA… Truly enlightening. I love this comment too: https://medium.com/@dfalkman/i-think-this-article-sums-the-psychology-of-this-entire-situation-up-pretty-well-and-it-even-28304aac1c0d https://medium.com/@dfalkman/i-think-this-article-sums-the-p... >The bottom line is that IOTA is embarking on something new. Like a lot of things in crypto, it is theoretical and academic and working towards becoming practical. It is very early. Then: >We all rise together, so we should more encouraging of one another’s endeavors in crypto and blockchain. IMO these concerns would have been best voiced in the IOTA slack channel instead of on the interwebs for all to FUD about. In other words: it's experimental academic endeavor but don't criticize it publicly because it hinders my ability to pump it.

mikestew 9y ago
We all rise together, so we should more encouraging of one another’s endeavors in crypto and blockchain There’s your tip-off for a scam: don’t ask questions, and be encouraging to each other, because it’s us against a skeptical world. Cults, penny stocks, Amway, and now crypto currency scams apparently: I’ve observed similar patterns in all. Not that we shouldn’t support each other in our mutual endeavors, but if that’s the only thing with any substance that you hear and money is on the line, run away. Tip-off #2: “You don’t know what you’re talking about.” “Enlighten me.” <crickets> Learned that one from a biodiesel nut, a suburban boy with clean fingernails trying to convince this ex-mechanic who grew up on a farm that growing food crops for fuel is energy net positive, and otherwise a good idea. Not that his heavy financial investment in a local biodiesel company would color his opinion at all.
- cesarb 9y ago
  > growing food crops for fuel is energy net positive, and otherwise a good idea. According to Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethanol_fuel_energy_balance https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethanol_fuel_energy_balance), growing sugarcane for ethanol is 8x net energy positive.
  - mikestew 9y ago
    Said biodiesel nut never once mentioned sugar cane, soybeans was the frequently suggested crop, your article is talking about ethanol and not biodiesel, and that wasn’t the point anyway.
    - logfromblammo 9y ago
      This biodiesel nut never said "algae", "duckweed", or "synergy with aquaculture"? Your nut isn't much of a nut.
      - mikestew 9y ago
        That’s probably why he lost all of his money in that venture: just not quite nutty enough. No one’s going to jump on board for something as boring as soybeans. OTOH, snarky or not, you bring up an interesting thought: there are probably millions of people that know (as in practical knowledge) how soybeans are grown, hence enabling millions to call “bullshit”. Had said nutter said “algae”, I would have to have taken his word until I could research further.