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The astonishing amount of time, money and effort that has been put into cryptocurrencies is a sociological marvel. Every emotion, every cognitive bias, every as

by adwhit 8y ago

The astonishing amount of time, money and effort that has been put into cryptocurrencies is a sociological marvel. Every emotion, every cognitive bias, every aspect of the human experience is on display. And it's all fully documented, in real time. Mass delusion in Big Data. A thousand sociology PhDs could be written about reddit's /r/cryptocurrency alone. A joyous, despairing, dissonant, gloating, brooding, witty, witless, confusing, euphoric mass. This article is part of a curious subgenre of cryptocurrency literature, that of an advocate of one cryptocurrency (Ethereum) holding forth against a different cryptocurrency (EOS). Do the words have any meaning beyond the confines of the beautifully elaborate internal world in which they reside? Perhaps, in a strictly metaphysical sense. I can't appreciate it, or even comprehend it, but I can sit back an delight that such a thing exists at all.

betterunix2 8y ago
It is not the last time we are going to see this sort of thing on the Internet, because, contrary to the overhyped media coverage, "blockchain" is not the revolution; the Internet is the revolution, and things like blockchains, P2P filesharing, the Web, and so forth are just the applications society is experimenting with for a previously inconceivable technology. We are a long way from a steady state and I expect to see this pattern of behavior several more times in my lifetime (by historical standards, we as a society are just starting to understand this technology, and it will be another century or two before society has internalized the Internet).
seibelj 8y ago
Ethereum is unquestionably an interesting technology. Whether the price is justified is a matter for the markets, which currently place several billions of dollars of value on it. If you are so certain it is mispriced, there are numerous places for you to profit from such stupidity, if you are confident enough to put your money up. Vitalik is the benevolent dictator for life of Ethereum, and EOS is a radically different model than proof of work blockchains like Ethereum and Bitcoin. However Vitalik and the ETH community recognizes there is some value in proof of stake and is working on their own implementation which is different than EOS’ model. Cryptocurrencies make us question why money has value, what makes an asset, and all sorts of interesting philosophical and economic questions. I wouldn’t write off the entire industry and technology. It has been attacked by intelligent people for a decade and it keeps moving forwards.
- SpicyLemonZest 8y ago
  The question isn't whether the price is right or wrong, but what it's a price of. For example, the market cap of Tether is a couple billion dollars. This doesn't mean that Tether as an abstract concept is worth a couple billion dollars, or even that market participants think it is. It just means that there are a couple billion Tether tokens floating around, and people are confident that they'll get $1 for their Tether if they want.
  - TaylorAlexander 8y ago
    The same is true of the stock market, or regular “fiat” currency. I guess the question is, does it matter if it’s “not really worth it”? The fact that people have been willing to pay so much for US dollars or British pounds or Japanese yen has meant a lot in this world. Isn’t it justified to awe at the power of a decentralized currency? Certainly it’s in the realm of heady ideas.
    - airstrike 8y ago
      > The same is true of the stock market, or regular “fiat” currency. No, it's not. Stocks are priced at the present value of future cash flows generated by the underlying assets. Fiat currency has no value in and of itself. Foreign exchange is essentially determined by the difference in interest rates between countries (and investors' beliefs as to which way those interest rates will go in the future). Those interest rates are (indirectly) related to what is produced by each country. Bitcoin is just plain make-believe. > The fact that people have been willing to pay so much for US dollars or British pounds or Japanese yen has meant a lot in this world. People also gave Bernie Madoff ~$65 billion dollars and it was all make-believe as well. > Isn’t it justified to awe at the power of a decentralized currency? Decentralization for decentralization's sake isn't inherently valuable. Or at least I wouldn't argue that to be an axiomatic truth. The burden of proof is on the bitcoin bulls.
      - gfodor 8y ago
        Stocks are not priced at the present value of future cash flows of the underlying asset. You're conflating valuation metholdogies with price. Stocks are priced at whatever the market decides, which may or may not be based at all on market participants' assessment of future cash flows.

by adwhit 8y ago

betterunix2 8y ago

It is not the last time we are going to see this sort of thing on the Internet, because, contrary to the overhyped media coverage, "blockchain" is not the revolution; the Internet is the revolution, and things like blockchains, P2P filesharing, the Web, and so forth are just the applications society is experimenting with for a previously inconceivable technology. We are a long way from a steady state and I expect to see this pattern of behavior several more times in my lifetime (by historical standards, we as a society are just starting to understand this technology, and it will be another century or two before society has internalized the Internet).

seibelj 8y ago

Ethereum is unquestionably an interesting technology. Whether the price is justified is a matter for the markets, which currently place several billions of dollars of value on it. If you are so certain it is mispriced, there are numerous places for you to profit from such stupidity, if you are confident enough to put your money up. Vitalik is the benevolent dictator for life of Ethereum, and EOS is a radically different model than proof of work blockchains like Ethereum and Bitcoin. However Vitalik and the ETH community recognizes there is some value in proof of stake and is working on their own implementation which is different than EOS’ model. Cryptocurrencies make us question why money has value, what makes an asset, and all sorts of interesting philosophical and economic questions. I wouldn’t write off the entire industry and technology. It has been attacked by intelligent people for a decade and it keeps moving forwards.

SpicyLemonZest 8y ago
The question isn't whether the price is right or wrong, but what it's a price of. For example, the market cap of Tether is a couple billion dollars. This doesn't mean that Tether as an abstract concept is worth a couple billion dollars, or even that market participants think it is. It just means that there are a couple billion Tether tokens floating around, and people are confident that they'll get $1 for their Tether if they want.
- TaylorAlexander 8y ago
  The same is true of the stock market, or regular “fiat” currency. I guess the question is, does it matter if it’s “not really worth it”? The fact that people have been willing to pay so much for US dollars or British pounds or Japanese yen has meant a lot in this world. Isn’t it justified to awe at the power of a decentralized currency? Certainly it’s in the realm of heady ideas.
  - airstrike 8y ago
    > The same is true of the stock market, or regular “fiat” currency. No, it's not. Stocks are priced at the present value of future cash flows generated by the underlying assets. Fiat currency has no value in and of itself. Foreign exchange is essentially determined by the difference in interest rates between countries (and investors' beliefs as to which way those interest rates will go in the future). Those interest rates are (indirectly) related to what is produced by each country. Bitcoin is just plain make-believe. > The fact that people have been willing to pay so much for US dollars or British pounds or Japanese yen has meant a lot in this world. People also gave Bernie Madoff ~$65 billion dollars and it was all make-believe as well. > Isn’t it justified to awe at the power of a decentralized currency? Decentralization for decentralization's sake isn't inherently valuable. Or at least I wouldn't argue that to be an axiomatic truth. The burden of proof is on the bitcoin bulls.
    - gfodor 8y ago
      Stocks are not priced at the present value of future cash flows of the underlying asset. You're conflating valuation metholdogies with price. Stocks are priced at whatever the market decides, which may or may not be based at all on market participants' assessment of future cash flows.