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The technical reasons why blockchain is overhyped are well-described by others, including this succinct presentation the other day: https://twitter.com/ncweaver

by neilk 9y ago

The technical reasons why blockchain is overhyped are well-described by others, including this succinct presentation the other day: https://twitter.com/ncweaver/status/980485587827224577?s=21 https://twitter.com/ncweaver/status/980485587827224577?s=21 . But I suspect what really annoys people about blockchain is that it’s making lucky, foolish, or crooked people very rich. For now, anyway. The lucky and the fools - who either got in super early, or spent a lot of their net worth on a speculative asset - now consider themselves geniuses and proselytize how blockchain is going to change the world. Worst example: crypto bro disaster capitalists in Puerto Rico. https://mobile.nytimes.com/2018/02/02/technology/cryptocurrency-puerto-rico.html https://mobile.nytimes.com/2018/02/02/technology/cryptocurre... The crooked - do I even need to explain? PS: I’m not saying everyone who is into blockchain is lucky, foolish, or crooked. Just the vast majority at this time. Notable exceptions: some of the original Bitcoin developers, Vitalik Buterin, apparently the whole nation of Argentina (https://twitter.com/santisiri/status/980483903633977344?s=21 https://twitter.com/santisiri/status/980483903633977344?s=21), and some interesting projects like Filecoin. PPS: I forgot the most annoying bitcoin supporters: anarchocapitalists. For them, it’s all about making money laundering go mainstream. These people cheer for the defunding of public institutions and the disenfranchisement of everyone who isn’t already in the 1%.

dlwdlw 9y ago
The core source of things "bad" on the world is the dehumanization of humans by other humans. Some original reasons being race and gender. Religion also became a big one. In American culture it's revolves around hard work. Those who work less hard are less human or less deserving. In tech this also happens and it revolves around intelligence. It is opposed to hard work in a way as well. Blockchain puts front and center fools getting rich and fools getting scammed. I suspect the bristling is at the former and the latter is used subconsciously as a socially acceptable justification. Ironically truly empowerment technology created both good and bad and the creators did not become mega rich. Tcp/up and BitTorrent come to mind. It's only recently that tech has mixed with the narratives of high salaries and founders becoming rich. It used to be a Mish mosh of people just doing what they thought was cool. (without moral consideration I might add in a cats are assholes type of way)
arisAlexis 9y ago
Lucky is also visionary or risky same as some that bought Apple shares in the 80s but that doesn't piss people off because it wasn't as fast. Psychology is very interesting.
- yks 9y ago
  People who bought Apple shares got rich because Apple made something good (arguably changed the world). People who got rich on Bitcoin got rich while really nothing of value has been produced (although crypto prophets indeed try hard to tell us how the world has changed). And yes, there are real-world usages of the cryptocurrencies but they haven't changed while the market valuations did.
  - arisAlexis 9y ago
    can you wait a bit on that?
justaguyhere 9y ago
Valid point about crooked, but why the hate for lucky/foolish people? A lot of people owe their success in life (at least partially) to luck, being at the correct place at the correct time. Not just financially, but in relationships/politics etc. A lot of deserving/smart/hard working people don't get what they deserve, but a lot of dumb/lazy people get more than what they worked for. That's how life works, isn't it?
- arisAlexis 9y ago
  exactly. it's funny that the same people that don't like communism where these things don't happen get very mad about how capitalism works and how some people become rich without skills/effort (although it's just random variance I am not saying that skills are not rewarded).
atomical 9y ago
How can Filecoin compete with Amazon? Amazon has economies of scale.

by neilk 9y ago

dlwdlw 9y ago

The core source of things "bad" on the world is the dehumanization of humans by other humans. Some original reasons being race and gender. Religion also became a big one. In American culture it's revolves around hard work. Those who work less hard are less human or less deserving. In tech this also happens and it revolves around intelligence. It is opposed to hard work in a way as well. Blockchain puts front and center fools getting rich and fools getting scammed. I suspect the bristling is at the former and the latter is used subconsciously as a socially acceptable justification. Ironically truly empowerment technology created both good and bad and the creators did not become mega rich. Tcp/up and BitTorrent come to mind. It's only recently that tech has mixed with the narratives of high salaries and founders becoming rich. It used to be a Mish mosh of people just doing what they thought was cool. (without moral consideration I might add in a cats are assholes type of way)

arisAlexis 9y ago

Lucky is also visionary or risky same as some that bought Apple shares in the 80s but that doesn't piss people off because it wasn't as fast. Psychology is very interesting.

yks 9y ago
People who bought Apple shares got rich because Apple made something good (arguably changed the world). People who got rich on Bitcoin got rich while really nothing of value has been produced (although crypto prophets indeed try hard to tell us how the world has changed). And yes, there are real-world usages of the cryptocurrencies but they haven't changed while the market valuations did.
- arisAlexis 9y ago
  can you wait a bit on that?

justaguyhere 9y ago

Valid point about crooked, but why the hate for lucky/foolish people? A lot of people owe their success in life (at least partially) to luck, being at the correct place at the correct time. Not just financially, but in relationships/politics etc. A lot of deserving/smart/hard working people don't get what they deserve, but a lot of dumb/lazy people get more than what they worked for. That's how life works, isn't it?

arisAlexis 9y ago
exactly. it's funny that the same people that don't like communism where these things don't happen get very mad about how capitalism works and how some people become rich without skills/effort (although it's just random variance I am not saying that skills are not rewarded).

atomical 9y ago

How can Filecoin compete with Amazon? Amazon has economies of scale.