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See that's the thing. You shouldn't buy any of these for investing - only for use and only when you need to. These are all mostly 'utility tokens' being added t

See that's the thing. You shouldn't buy any of these for investing - only for use and only when you need to. These are all mostly 'utility tokens' being added to Coinbase. One of the biggest areas that these might see usage in the future is decentralized finance and decentralized gaming. Probably the most interesting project now is DAI, and no, people definitely do not buy DAI because it's going to go up! There are some other great projects listed there, and I urge you to take a closer look at them before you dismiss them.

jpatokal 8y ago
And exactly which utility tokens have real usage today, as opposed to vague promises about tomorrow? As far as I can tell, the primary real-world use case for cryptocurrencies today appears to be money laundering.
- flyGuyOnTheSly 8y ago
  DAI actually works as a stablecoin today. It's pegged to the USD using crypto collateral.
  - bouncycastle 8y ago
    Yes! You can actually do this on the blockchain right now: buy DAI on a decentralized exchange (or mint your own DAI by opening a Collateralized Dept Position), then lend it out for interest. (Last time I've checked, the paying interest rates were very attractive). The tech is still very experimental, but has been functioning well for almost a year, despite this year's deep crypto market crash. I also think those who think crypto is only useful for speculation or crime are very much stuck with the 2013 opinion of it.
    - jpatokal 8y ago
      And why do you think those interest rates are "very attractive"? Are you by any chance picking up pennies in front of a steamroller? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taleb_distribution https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taleb_distribution
      - bouncycastle 8y ago
        Aha! That's an interesting question. "Pennies in front of the steamroller" is an oversimplification. Only DAI seems to be paying a high rate right now, other tokens not so much. It may be just because of supply and demand, there is quite a lot of demand for borrowing DAI. Why there might be demand for borrowing DAI may be too complex to explain to the hackernews crowd, so I'll leave it at that...
        arcticbull 8y ago
        First of all, if it’s too complex to explain to all of us, it’s probably not a good idea. Second of all the steam roller referenced is the entire implosion of the crypto space. You’re getting fractions of a penny in interest which you could easily achieve in the real market with much much lower risk.
        bouncycastle 8y ago
        It's not that it's too complex because it's hard to understand, it's just that the explanation is long, and it will get downvoted anyway, so no use of explaining anything further. Save my fingers from typing. HN is a waste of time.
koolba 8y ago
What does one do with any of these “utility coins”? I haven’t heard of nearly half of them and can’t think of a legitimate use for the ones I have heard of.
- anichhangani 8y ago
  Cross border payments is one use case that I have heard a lot and makes sense.
  - robryan 8y ago
    The value would need to become a lot more stable. I doubt people are getting a better result with crypto than a standard forex broker right now. Only use case I can see would be when your cross border transfer is going to be on the wrong side of the law at either end.
    - mdorazio 8y ago
      Pretty sure anichhangani is referring to consumer cross-border payments, which right now are not cheap or fast. Wire transfer fees are a joke and banks often take stupidly high commissions on currency conversion for non-institutional customers. There are some smaller services that have popped up in the market for this recently, but one of the original cryptocurrency use cases was basically "nearly free value transfers from anyone to anyone anywhere". The exchange fees have mostly destroyed this use case, but there's no reason spot conversions to/from a cryptocoin with a wallet transfer within a few seconds couldn't be possible.
      - manigandham 8y ago
        The existing mainstream banking system can easily handle instant payments to anywhere already, they're called wire transfers. Within certain regions like the EU, it can be even faster. The only reason international payments can be somewhat expensive is because of all the regulation involved into balancing a global currency system and making sure you're not funding the wrong people.

jpatokal 8y ago

And exactly which utility tokens have real usage today, as opposed to vague promises about tomorrow? As far as I can tell, the primary real-world use case for cryptocurrencies today appears to be money laundering.

flyGuyOnTheSly 8y ago
DAI actually works as a stablecoin today. It's pegged to the USD using crypto collateral.
- bouncycastle 8y ago
  Yes! You can actually do this on the blockchain right now: buy DAI on a decentralized exchange (or mint your own DAI by opening a Collateralized Dept Position), then lend it out for interest. (Last time I've checked, the paying interest rates were very attractive). The tech is still very experimental, but has been functioning well for almost a year, despite this year's deep crypto market crash. I also think those who think crypto is only useful for speculation or crime are very much stuck with the 2013 opinion of it.
  - jpatokal 8y ago
    And why do you think those interest rates are "very attractive"? Are you by any chance picking up pennies in front of a steamroller? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taleb_distribution https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taleb_distribution
    - bouncycastle 8y ago
      Aha! That's an interesting question. "Pennies in front of the steamroller" is an oversimplification. Only DAI seems to be paying a high rate right now, other tokens not so much. It may be just because of supply and demand, there is quite a lot of demand for borrowing DAI. Why there might be demand for borrowing DAI may be too complex to explain to the hackernews crowd, so I'll leave it at that...
      - arcticbull 8y ago
        First of all, if it’s too complex to explain to all of us, it’s probably not a good idea. Second of all the steam roller referenced is the entire implosion of the crypto space. You’re getting fractions of a penny in interest which you could easily achieve in the real market with much much lower risk.
        bouncycastle 8y ago
        It's not that it's too complex because it's hard to understand, it's just that the explanation is long, and it will get downvoted anyway, so no use of explaining anything further. Save my fingers from typing. HN is a waste of time.

koolba 8y ago

What does one do with any of these “utility coins”? I haven’t heard of nearly half of them and can’t think of a legitimate use for the ones I have heard of.

anichhangani 8y ago
Cross border payments is one use case that I have heard a lot and makes sense.
- robryan 8y ago
  The value would need to become a lot more stable. I doubt people are getting a better result with crypto than a standard forex broker right now. Only use case I can see would be when your cross border transfer is going to be on the wrong side of the law at either end.
  - mdorazio 8y ago
    Pretty sure anichhangani is referring to consumer cross-border payments, which right now are not cheap or fast. Wire transfer fees are a joke and banks often take stupidly high commissions on currency conversion for non-institutional customers. There are some smaller services that have popped up in the market for this recently, but one of the original cryptocurrency use cases was basically "nearly free value transfers from anyone to anyone anywhere". The exchange fees have mostly destroyed this use case, but there's no reason spot conversions to/from a cryptocoin with a wallet transfer within a few seconds couldn't be possible.
    - manigandham 8y ago
      The existing mainstream banking system can easily handle instant payments to anywhere already, they're called wire transfers. Within certain regions like the EU, it can be even faster. The only reason international payments can be somewhat expensive is because of all the regulation involved into balancing a global currency system and making sure you're not funding the wrong people.