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I honestly don’t know what to make of it. I’m surrounded by a lot of bankers, none of them believe in cryptocurrencies but all of them are focused on the price

I honestly don’t know what to make of it. I’m surrounded by a lot of bankers, none of them believe in cryptocurrencies but all of them are focused on the price and have zero understanding of the technology. I’m also surrounded by a lot of blockchain people who are insanely hyped by the future of cryptocurrencies and who have little idea about their current prices. Being in the middle I see 99% of bullshit blockchain stuff, but I’m really hyped by some cryptocurrencies and some of their tech. It is a really interesting field if you ignore the market, but there is also a lot to win/lose if you can predict where the tech will go. Bankers and blockchain people are both the worst people to ask for an opinion. So I might be in the right position to make a guess. There is value. This market might become as strong as the stock market is nowadays. As long as there is hype, there will continue to be a market. If it’s a scam/pyramid sheme/mlm, then it’s an international one and it’s probably not going to stop.

buboard 8y ago
I 'm confused about the position of bankers. Our bank terminated our business account because they found out we ran a cryptocoin price aggregator (oh the horror!). I had to terminate the site (because it was making peanuts and i didn't have the time) to have the account reinstated but i didn't understand the hostility. And this came from a bank that in 2013 crashed and literally stole money from their customer's accounts. This weird situation actually made me a lot more optimistic about the future of crypto, because , you know, banks are thieves too.
- JumpCrisscross 8y ago
  > i didn't understand the hostility Cryptocurrencies are an AML nightmare. Ironically, this is a social–not technological–problem. Even on HN, you'll regularly see "I don't have to pay taxes on cryptocurrencies because the authorities can't catch me" comments. This creates regulatory risks. Regulatory risks are regulatory costs. Add to that the credit card fraud (buy cryptocurrencies with a card, charge back; profit) and theft risks, and a cryptocurrency-affiliated customer is more likely to cost a bank rather than make them money. Layer on top of that the time it takes to develop expertise and a blanket ban on everything around cryptocurrencies becomes understandable (versus training employees to comb through them). I don't like this outcome. But I see why a big bank would decide this. Community banks, on the other hand, might be willing to invest the time into understanding why you don't pose a fraud or my-assets-got-stolen-now-I'm-broke risk.
  - buboard 8y ago
    But i wasnt running a crypto exchange, but a listing of cryptocoin prices.
    - deleted 8y ago
      [deleted]
- Scoundreller 8y ago
  Have you posted a writeup of your business experiences running the aggregator? Seems like it would be a good read.
waynecochran 8y ago
The weird thing about it, as long as cryptocurrencies are volatile, folks are not going to buy/sell using them. Then what is the intrinsic value of it if no one buys/sells with them? Only value is speculation with nothing real supporting it. Bitcoin is not even shiny and pretty like Gold.
- the_clarence 8y ago
  Your comment is pretty much what I get from bankers all the time. There is much more to just bitcoin, actually even off-side chains built on top of bitcoin which provide more than just transactions of money.
  - bb88 8y ago
    But isn't that effectively just git without all the branching nonsense and stronger crypto? The original argument for bitcoin was that it's a great replacement of physical money.
    - the_clarence 8y ago
      Yeah, in the arguments for a lot of other cryptocurrencies are different: use the financial incentive to build something else.
  - riskneutral 8y ago
    What are you even talking about? Does the stuff you are referring to have a market price? Like with Bitcoin, we can say that its market price is around $5,000 USD per BTC. Does this other stuff, which you say is so great, have a unit price at which it can be bought and sold? If yes, is that market anywhere as large as Bitcoin? If it doesn’t have a Traded price, then what is it?
    - the_clarence 8y ago
      I’m not sure I understand your question. Other cryptocurrencies are building systems backed by financial incentives. These systems offer different properties: File storage, name resolution, smart contracts, etc. Every cryptocoin is trying a different tech. As I said there is a lot of bullshit in the field but if you dig, there are things that are interesting. These projects are flying under the radar and potentially have a future. I’m not selling you anything, just pointing out that a lot of people (on both side) are clueless and I think you proved my point.

buboard 8y ago

I 'm confused about the position of bankers. Our bank terminated our business account because they found out we ran a cryptocoin price aggregator (oh the horror!). I had to terminate the site (because it was making peanuts and i didn't have the time) to have the account reinstated but i didn't understand the hostility. And this came from a bank that in 2013 crashed and literally stole money from their customer's accounts. This weird situation actually made me a lot more optimistic about the future of crypto, because , you know, banks are thieves too.

JumpCrisscross 8y ago
> i didn't understand the hostility Cryptocurrencies are an AML nightmare. Ironically, this is a social–not technological–problem. Even on HN, you'll regularly see "I don't have to pay taxes on cryptocurrencies because the authorities can't catch me" comments. This creates regulatory risks. Regulatory risks are regulatory costs. Add to that the credit card fraud (buy cryptocurrencies with a card, charge back; profit) and theft risks, and a cryptocurrency-affiliated customer is more likely to cost a bank rather than make them money. Layer on top of that the time it takes to develop expertise and a blanket ban on everything around cryptocurrencies becomes understandable (versus training employees to comb through them). I don't like this outcome. But I see why a big bank would decide this. Community banks, on the other hand, might be willing to invest the time into understanding why you don't pose a fraud or my-assets-got-stolen-now-I'm-broke risk.
- buboard 8y ago
  But i wasnt running a crypto exchange, but a listing of cryptocoin prices.
  - deleted 8y ago
    [deleted]
Scoundreller 8y ago
Have you posted a writeup of your business experiences running the aggregator? Seems like it would be a good read.

waynecochran 8y ago

The weird thing about it, as long as cryptocurrencies are volatile, folks are not going to buy/sell using them. Then what is the intrinsic value of it if no one buys/sells with them? Only value is speculation with nothing real supporting it. Bitcoin is not even shiny and pretty like Gold.

the_clarence 8y ago
Your comment is pretty much what I get from bankers all the time. There is much more to just bitcoin, actually even off-side chains built on top of bitcoin which provide more than just transactions of money.
- bb88 8y ago
  But isn't that effectively just git without all the branching nonsense and stronger crypto? The original argument for bitcoin was that it's a great replacement of physical money.
  - the_clarence 8y ago
    Yeah, in the arguments for a lot of other cryptocurrencies are different: use the financial incentive to build something else.
- riskneutral 8y ago
  What are you even talking about? Does the stuff you are referring to have a market price? Like with Bitcoin, we can say that its market price is around $5,000 USD per BTC. Does this other stuff, which you say is so great, have a unit price at which it can be bought and sold? If yes, is that market anywhere as large as Bitcoin? If it doesn’t have a Traded price, then what is it?
  - the_clarence 8y ago
    I’m not sure I understand your question. Other cryptocurrencies are building systems backed by financial incentives. These systems offer different properties: File storage, name resolution, smart contracts, etc. Every cryptocoin is trying a different tech. As I said there is a lot of bullshit in the field but if you dig, there are things that are interesting. These projects are flying under the radar and potentially have a future. I’m not selling you anything, just pointing out that a lot of people (on both side) are clueless and I think you proved my point.