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The general public shouldn't be excited about blockchain. It should be hidden by abstraction to them, like multithreading and device drivers. Products intended

The general public shouldn't be excited about blockchain. It should be hidden by abstraction to them, like multithreading and device drivers. Products intended for non-technical users that tout their blockchain technology are either really missing the mark on marketing or trying to pull the wool over consumers' eyes with buzzwords. Tech folk should be excited about blockchain but the hysteria over exchanges right now is off-putting once you understand how deeply rigged the markets are. My next venture will be blockchain-based but I have a few years before I'm free to pursue that. I'd rather see the fundamentals of the tech improved in the meantime rather than have it prematurely hyped and have the bubble pop as I seek to raise funding... I imagine there are many others who are in the position of wanting to build apps based on blockchain tech but who are not yet able. For us, slow and steady wins the race.

Erlich_Bachman 9y ago
It sounds like you're trying to tell the market what it should and should not buy. That's not how it works. The market tells you what it has chosen, then you can choose your reaction to it. Your reaction seems to be "disapproval"? Well that's mildly interesting I guess. Saying "they're missing the mark on marketing" about the second-largest crypto by market-cap, and surely top-5 in terms of ongoing development is at the very least a bit ironic. They exactly did NOT miss the mark on marketing. There are other technically superior products that don't get nearly as much funding, public attention, development resources etc.
- simonh 9y ago
  ‘The market’ bought investment funds from Bernie Maddoff, and more recently Martin Shkreli. In February it thought the Dow was worth 24,515 one day and 1,600 points less the next. Sometimes the market is wrong, whatever free market fundies will tell you.
  - derefr 9y ago
    From an investor's perspective, sure, the market can be "wrong"; and avoiding its incorrect beliefs and hype-trains is how you make gains while avoiding losses. As an entrepreneur, though, the market makes the final decision on whether you make money, whether it's "right" or "wrong." If you're "right" when the market is "wrong" as an entrepreneur, you lose—you're "ahead of your time" or some other pleasantry meaning "you weren't giving the market what it wanted." If you want to sell something to the market, then if the market is irrationally exuberant, you have to be irrationally exuberant too.
    - simonh 9y ago
      You don’t have to be irrationally exuberant to succeed in the market, even if it’s irrationally exuberant. Is every single company on earth leaping and dancing to the latest fad of the minute in order to succeed? Is the secret of Warren Buffets’s success piling in on on all the latest trends? No, yet somehow our economy seems to bubble along ok. So I categorically reject the idea that this is the only way success is gauged, that’s self evidently not true. Secondly, if the market is wrong and you dance to that tune, eventually when reality catches up the market will realise it’s mistake. Trust me, the market can sell out of your company faster than you can pivot your entire business model. But sure, it is possible to make money following trends. But it’s not the only way. It’s not an immutable law of capitalism, and there’s plenty of money to be made providing actual, sustainable value.
      - dorgo 9y ago
        >You don’t have to be irrationally exuberant to succeed in the market, even if it’s irrationally exuberant. Yes, but it is risky. If you don't follow trends/buzzwords you have two threats: 1) You bet that many people (the market) are wrong and you are right. Possible, but unlikely. 2) You bet that after these many people (the market) come to senses and realize that they were wrong (remember: nobody likes to admit that they were wrong), they acknowledge that you are right and buy your product. As the funny saying goes: "the market can stay irrational longer than you can stay solvent".
  - Erlich_Bachman 9y ago
    Absolutely. In no way was my comment saying that the market sentiment is somehow an accurate measure of the underlying quality or even utility of such a product. If anything, I think there are much better projects out there already. But in a way, being a market leader gives a lot of adoption and a big ecosystem of tools produced by other developers - which in this space means a lot, because a blockchain's usability increases with adoption, even somewhat exponentially.
- heurist 9y ago
  I think you miss my point and that you've never tried to sell a technology solution to non-technical consumers. The world is bigger than crypto speculators.

Erlich_Bachman 9y ago

It sounds like you're trying to tell the market what it should and should not buy. That's not how it works. The market tells you what it has chosen, then you can choose your reaction to it. Your reaction seems to be "disapproval"? Well that's mildly interesting I guess. Saying "they're missing the mark on marketing" about the second-largest crypto by market-cap, and surely top-5 in terms of ongoing development is at the very least a bit ironic. They exactly did NOT miss the mark on marketing. There are other technically superior products that don't get nearly as much funding, public attention, development resources etc.

simonh 9y ago
‘The market’ bought investment funds from Bernie Maddoff, and more recently Martin Shkreli. In February it thought the Dow was worth 24,515 one day and 1,600 points less the next. Sometimes the market is wrong, whatever free market fundies will tell you.
- derefr 9y ago
  From an investor's perspective, sure, the market can be "wrong"; and avoiding its incorrect beliefs and hype-trains is how you make gains while avoiding losses. As an entrepreneur, though, the market makes the final decision on whether you make money, whether it's "right" or "wrong." If you're "right" when the market is "wrong" as an entrepreneur, you lose—you're "ahead of your time" or some other pleasantry meaning "you weren't giving the market what it wanted." If you want to sell something to the market, then if the market is irrationally exuberant, you have to be irrationally exuberant too.
  - simonh 9y ago
    You don’t have to be irrationally exuberant to succeed in the market, even if it’s irrationally exuberant. Is every single company on earth leaping and dancing to the latest fad of the minute in order to succeed? Is the secret of Warren Buffets’s success piling in on on all the latest trends? No, yet somehow our economy seems to bubble along ok. So I categorically reject the idea that this is the only way success is gauged, that’s self evidently not true. Secondly, if the market is wrong and you dance to that tune, eventually when reality catches up the market will realise it’s mistake. Trust me, the market can sell out of your company faster than you can pivot your entire business model. But sure, it is possible to make money following trends. But it’s not the only way. It’s not an immutable law of capitalism, and there’s plenty of money to be made providing actual, sustainable value.
    - dorgo 9y ago
      >You don’t have to be irrationally exuberant to succeed in the market, even if it’s irrationally exuberant. Yes, but it is risky. If you don't follow trends/buzzwords you have two threats: 1) You bet that many people (the market) are wrong and you are right. Possible, but unlikely. 2) You bet that after these many people (the market) come to senses and realize that they were wrong (remember: nobody likes to admit that they were wrong), they acknowledge that you are right and buy your product. As the funny saying goes: "the market can stay irrational longer than you can stay solvent".
- Erlich_Bachman 9y ago
  Absolutely. In no way was my comment saying that the market sentiment is somehow an accurate measure of the underlying quality or even utility of such a product. If anything, I think there are much better projects out there already. But in a way, being a market leader gives a lot of adoption and a big ecosystem of tools produced by other developers - which in this space means a lot, because a blockchain's usability increases with adoption, even somewhat exponentially.
heurist 9y ago
I think you miss my point and that you've never tried to sell a technology solution to non-technical consumers. The world is bigger than crypto speculators.