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Cryptocurrencies are really not that hard to understand. Without a doubt, they are better understood on average among HN readers than among cryptocurrency owner

Cryptocurrencies are really not that hard to understand. Without a doubt, they are better understood on average among HN readers than among cryptocurrency owners, and yet, it is the only subject where expressing doubt over it's worth always gets you hit with "Well maybe you're just not enlightened enough??"

yorwba 8y ago
> expressing doubt over it's worth always gets you hit with "Well maybe you're just not enlightened enough??" I also doubt that blockchains contribute anything of value for most applications that are currently being tried out, but I also felt that "selling blockchain blocks" was an odd way to phrase it. It's a bit like someone claiming that a perpetuum mobile is impossible because "movement consumes energy and eventually it will run out". You can't tell whether they have the correct idea about conservation of energy and momentum or whether they actually believe that moving at a constant speed would constantly require energy even without friction.
al_chemist 8y ago
Without a doubt, average HN reader knows more about cryptocurrency than average cryptocurrency owner, knows more about farming than average farmer, knows more about biology than average bioscientist. Why? It's obvious, isn't it? \s Cryptocurrencies aside, currencies are hard to understand. It's not "you trade money for stuff, duh!". It's how USA can print dollars to import stuff from China year by year without giving anything back. It's who prints money. It's how come printing dollars makes existing ones less valuable while also creating debt. How does independent currency affect debt-based currencies? It's easy to be elitist. We know about computers more than average Joe, so we are experts on computer's money, but IMO cryptocurrencies are more currencies than crypto. And currency part is harder to understand than crypto part.

yorwba 8y ago

> expressing doubt over it's worth always gets you hit with "Well maybe you're just not enlightened enough??" I also doubt that blockchains contribute anything of value for most applications that are currently being tried out, but I also felt that "selling blockchain blocks" was an odd way to phrase it. It's a bit like someone claiming that a perpetuum mobile is impossible because "movement consumes energy and eventually it will run out". You can't tell whether they have the correct idea about conservation of energy and momentum or whether they actually believe that moving at a constant speed would constantly require energy even without friction.

al_chemist 8y ago

Without a doubt, average HN reader knows more about cryptocurrency than average cryptocurrency owner, knows more about farming than average farmer, knows more about biology than average bioscientist. Why? It's obvious, isn't it? \s Cryptocurrencies aside, currencies are hard to understand. It's not "you trade money for stuff, duh!". It's how USA can print dollars to import stuff from China year by year without giving anything back. It's who prints money. It's how come printing dollars makes existing ones less valuable while also creating debt. How does independent currency affect debt-based currencies? It's easy to be elitist. We know about computers more than average Joe, so we are experts on computer's money, but IMO cryptocurrencies are more currencies than crypto. And currency part is harder to understand than crypto part.