6 ms·

The crypto space to me is really frustrating. I've seen friends become something very close to scammers, I can't have interesting technical discussions about th

The crypto space to me is really frustrating. I've seen friends become something very close to scammers, I can't have interesting technical discussions about the topic without being called doomsayer and even when I pitch an idea what to use the Blockchain for, all I get is:"let's do an ICO and raise a shitton of money!" although that doesn't really make sense towards what I'm proposing. I feel like the nerd in class that hopes that the teacher (regulatory bodies) will pinch those bullies so we can get back to topic. I hate that feeling.

tim333 9y ago
Humans can be kind of money motivated. Such is life. For me one of the interesting things with crypto is whether you can use that for something positive in society.
- jotto 9y ago
  ...the greatest conqueror in history, a conqueror possessed of extreme tolerance and adaptability, thereby turning people into ardent disciples. This conqueror is money. from Sapiens: https://books.google.com/books/about/Sapiens.html?id=FmyBAwAAQBAJ https://books.google.com/books/about/Sapiens.html?id=FmyBAwA...
  - Donzo 9y ago
    +1 Definitely in my top ten list. The text is life-changing.
josephagoss 9y ago
A lot of my ideas for blockchain technology work a lot better using ETH for example, rather than yet another token. I think we'll need to wait a few months/years before the ICO craze dies down and we can get back to focusing on building tech on top of Bitcoin/Ethereum without the word ICO.
- DennisP 9y ago
  My ideas tend to be the same. I don't see any reason not to go ahead and build them.
hal9000xp 9y ago
Don't worry free market will sort it out eventually. Dump money will run out after a few big project failures. Investors will be more sophisticated. It's a new market and what's happening now is natural, it's the same as dot-com bubble. Smart regulators can help free market to get rid of dishonest projects. But the common problems with regulators is that they are not smart and they are slow to fix their mistakes if they ever acknowledge them. Bad regulation can kill the market.
- nukeop 9y ago
  Mentioning the "free market" in any other context than a joke will make most people not take your post seriously.
  - hal9000xp 9y ago
    I assume only die hard leftists like you downvoted my comment despite me writing: > Smart regulators can help free market to get rid of dishonest projects. I gave you one unrelated example of total stupidity of regulators - H1B visa. Instead of high salary requirement, it has bachelor degree requirement. Having bachelor degree tells absolutely nothing about qualification of employee. In fact, there are shitload of bachelor degree holders in computer science who don't know difference between O(n) and O(n^2) and have no idea what red-black tree is. H1B is abused badly. Large majority of H1B quota goes to very questionable body shops who flood the market with cheap labor. It can be ended very quickly if high skills determined by size of salary and bonus. Yet for years, regulators still can't figure it out. Not to mention that while high skilled indians and chinese wait green card for decades, some lucky and completely unskilled people get green card straight away by winning diversity lottery. There is endless list of stupidity of government. I'm sure there is a lot of people here in HN who just hate cryptocurrencies and just want to kill the market by government machine.
    - Angostura 9y ago
      If you want examples of where the free market you can look at any of the tragedy of the commons. In these situations, government helps. There is an endless list of the stupidity of the free market.
xiphias 9y ago
What's going on right now with Bitcoin is the biggest wealth transfer in human history. I believe as Bitcoin is getting more valuable, the scams will just scale linearly, so this is just the start. The wealth transfer takes about 5-10 years more, and then it will be over, I think until then it's better not to argue with people who want to scam others.
mratzloff 9y ago
I had a conversation with a guy creating a crypto startup recently. It only took five minutes in before the thin veneer of an actual business model fell away and the real motive—free money—starting coming out. His position, distilled: if people are stupid enough to give me money, who am I to say no? I suggested his easy money might not be so easy if (for US investors) the SEC, FTC, CFTC, etc. crack down and claw back investor money. Maybe that's fine if you've become hugely profitable in that time, but if you haven't...
- dingo_bat 9y ago
  I agree with your friend. Dumb people will give away their money anyway. Might as well give it to me. What's wrong with free money as long as I'm not doing illegal stuff.
  - alex_hitchins 9y ago
    Morals, ethics?
    - roymurdock 9y ago
      If investors are giving money based on lies, there’s a legal system in place to help them recover failed fraudulent investments. I’d wager in many cases investors know exactly what they’re investing in. So I don’t see any ethical/moral conflicts in a lot of these BS cryptocurrency schemes, just a lot of wasted potential and a somewhat shameful divergence from the idealistic core tech - private, trustless transactions through a decentralized blockchain (bitcoin).
      - alex_hitchins 9y ago
        Stunned by that comment. Stunned.
        appleflaxen 9y ago
        .

tim333 9y ago

Humans can be kind of money motivated. Such is life. For me one of the interesting things with crypto is whether you can use that for something positive in society.

jotto 9y ago
...the greatest conqueror in history, a conqueror possessed of extreme tolerance and adaptability, thereby turning people into ardent disciples. This conqueror is money. from Sapiens: https://books.google.com/books/about/Sapiens.html?id=FmyBAwAAQBAJ https://books.google.com/books/about/Sapiens.html?id=FmyBAwA...
- Donzo 9y ago
  +1 Definitely in my top ten list. The text is life-changing.

josephagoss 9y ago

A lot of my ideas for blockchain technology work a lot better using ETH for example, rather than yet another token. I think we'll need to wait a few months/years before the ICO craze dies down and we can get back to focusing on building tech on top of Bitcoin/Ethereum without the word ICO.

DennisP 9y ago
My ideas tend to be the same. I don't see any reason not to go ahead and build them.

hal9000xp 9y ago

Don't worry free market will sort it out eventually. Dump money will run out after a few big project failures. Investors will be more sophisticated. It's a new market and what's happening now is natural, it's the same as dot-com bubble. Smart regulators can help free market to get rid of dishonest projects. But the common problems with regulators is that they are not smart and they are slow to fix their mistakes if they ever acknowledge them. Bad regulation can kill the market.

nukeop 9y ago
Mentioning the "free market" in any other context than a joke will make most people not take your post seriously.
- hal9000xp 9y ago
  I assume only die hard leftists like you downvoted my comment despite me writing: > Smart regulators can help free market to get rid of dishonest projects. I gave you one unrelated example of total stupidity of regulators - H1B visa. Instead of high salary requirement, it has bachelor degree requirement. Having bachelor degree tells absolutely nothing about qualification of employee. In fact, there are shitload of bachelor degree holders in computer science who don't know difference between O(n) and O(n^2) and have no idea what red-black tree is. H1B is abused badly. Large majority of H1B quota goes to very questionable body shops who flood the market with cheap labor. It can be ended very quickly if high skills determined by size of salary and bonus. Yet for years, regulators still can't figure it out. Not to mention that while high skilled indians and chinese wait green card for decades, some lucky and completely unskilled people get green card straight away by winning diversity lottery. There is endless list of stupidity of government. I'm sure there is a lot of people here in HN who just hate cryptocurrencies and just want to kill the market by government machine.
  - Angostura 9y ago
    If you want examples of where the free market you can look at any of the tragedy of the commons. In these situations, government helps. There is an endless list of the stupidity of the free market.

xiphias 9y ago

What's going on right now with Bitcoin is the biggest wealth transfer in human history. I believe as Bitcoin is getting more valuable, the scams will just scale linearly, so this is just the start. The wealth transfer takes about 5-10 years more, and then it will be over, I think until then it's better not to argue with people who want to scam others.

mratzloff 9y ago

I had a conversation with a guy creating a crypto startup recently. It only took five minutes in before the thin veneer of an actual business model fell away and the real motive—free money—starting coming out. His position, distilled: if people are stupid enough to give me money, who am I to say no? I suggested his easy money might not be so easy if (for US investors) the SEC, FTC, CFTC, etc. crack down and claw back investor money. Maybe that's fine if you've become hugely profitable in that time, but if you haven't...

dingo_bat 9y ago
I agree with your friend. Dumb people will give away their money anyway. Might as well give it to me. What's wrong with free money as long as I'm not doing illegal stuff.
- alex_hitchins 9y ago
  Morals, ethics?
  - roymurdock 9y ago
    If investors are giving money based on lies, there’s a legal system in place to help them recover failed fraudulent investments. I’d wager in many cases investors know exactly what they’re investing in. So I don’t see any ethical/moral conflicts in a lot of these BS cryptocurrency schemes, just a lot of wasted potential and a somewhat shameful divergence from the idealistic core tech - private, trustless transactions through a decentralized blockchain (bitcoin).
    - alex_hitchins 9y ago
      Stunned by that comment. Stunned.
      - appleflaxen 9y ago
        .