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This might not be particularly relevant to the article, but I'm still genuinely shocked that the HN crowd is so anti-cryptocurreny. Most of the arguments again

This might not be particularly relevant to the article, but I'm still genuinely shocked that the HN crowd is so anti-cryptocurreny. Most of the arguments against it are akin to someone in 1995 saying the internet isn't viable because it's insecure, there's no real business use-case for it, no major corporations are investing in it, it's super slow, no one is ever going to use it for real-world business transactions, it's only used by geeks, etc... If you said that in 1995 you were terribly wrong and you'll be wrong about this as well. Criticisms of alta-vista may have had some relevance but criticizing the underlying ideas and technology is short-sighted.

bitcoinisqueen 8y ago
My theory is that HN people feel they "missed the bus" which causes cognitive dissonance because "we're techies and edgy startups af". Combine the feeling of missing out on 10,000% financial gains and you have a case for thr worst kind of disgust and cognitive dissonance. The truth is that most of the people in this space who "know crypto/blockchain" are clueless and missing the point. If you refer to cryptocurrency or blockchain as a concept instead of just saying POW or bitcoin (cash), then you missed the point from the beginning and you are blind to what is coming next.
sireat 8y ago
Many on HN have seen the promise of crypto since 2010-2011. We mined some, we bought some, we dealt with technological issues, we were ecstatic for a while. Yet the big crypto promise is to be fulfilled and we are now on 3rd or 4th big hype/decline cycle. We see the big negatives of various cryptocurrencies(energy usage, affecting various hardware markets, supporting fraud on massive scale, insecurity for normal folks, etc. etc.) but do not see any big positive developments. Sure, if you are able to be paid in crypto in some country with a lousy banking system that's great but you are in a tiny minority then. All those tales of normal non-tech people using crypto for every day tasks are closer to fairy tales. The worst is the tendency for various cryptosolutions to tend back to centralized PRIVATE control. Tether is the worst offender in this regard. The cognitive dissonance is fantastic here. I have no doubts that there will be another hype cycle attracting new followers with blinders. For a brief moment in 2013 crypto(Bitcoin especially) actually seemed useful as a currency. To conclude, maybe in 2023 someone will come up with a killer app for crypto but crypto kitties is not the answer. "What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun."

bitcoinisqueen 8y ago

My theory is that HN people feel they "missed the bus" which causes cognitive dissonance because "we're techies and edgy startups af". Combine the feeling of missing out on 10,000% financial gains and you have a case for thr worst kind of disgust and cognitive dissonance. The truth is that most of the people in this space who "know crypto/blockchain" are clueless and missing the point. If you refer to cryptocurrency or blockchain as a concept instead of just saying POW or bitcoin (cash), then you missed the point from the beginning and you are blind to what is coming next.

sireat 8y ago

Many on HN have seen the promise of crypto since 2010-2011. We mined some, we bought some, we dealt with technological issues, we were ecstatic for a while. Yet the big crypto promise is to be fulfilled and we are now on 3rd or 4th big hype/decline cycle. We see the big negatives of various cryptocurrencies(energy usage, affecting various hardware markets, supporting fraud on massive scale, insecurity for normal folks, etc. etc.) but do not see any big positive developments. Sure, if you are able to be paid in crypto in some country with a lousy banking system that's great but you are in a tiny minority then. All those tales of normal non-tech people using crypto for every day tasks are closer to fairy tales. The worst is the tendency for various cryptosolutions to tend back to centralized PRIVATE control. Tether is the worst offender in this regard. The cognitive dissonance is fantastic here. I have no doubts that there will be another hype cycle attracting new followers with blinders. For a brief moment in 2013 crypto(Bitcoin especially) actually seemed useful as a currency. To conclude, maybe in 2023 someone will come up with a killer app for crypto but crypto kitties is not the answer. "What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun."