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>Cryptocurrencies have existed for eleven years, they should have something to show for right now. IMO this argument is pretty seriously flawed. We tend to thi
by tr00586 7y ago
>Cryptocurrencies have existed for eleven years, they should have something to show for right now.
IMO this argument is pretty seriously flawed. We tend to think of revolutionary technologies as "overnight successes" but that's rarely the case.
If we had abandoned the smartphone 11 years after the first attempt at, we would never have the iPhone. If we had abandoned combustion engines 11 years after their first attempt, we never would have had the automobile. New technology is hard and requires a lot of tinkering.
I also think the author fails to capture what people look to as the potential of crypto. While there is a definite subculture of neo-Austrian economics, a lot of us are also interested about the ability to structure new forms of digital markets, make money programmatic, and increase the structural privacy of the internet.
- meowface 7y agoExactly. Bitcoin is the first flip phone. Let's see what things look like in 20 years. The one point I agree with the author on is that the electricity waste is unnecessary and unsustainable. Proof of Stake or other alternatives, if there are any, should be a requirement of all future cryptocurrencies.
- louwrentius 7y agoThe flip phone was usable from day 1. This is not a flip phone. It's a tamagotchi.
- klibertp 7y agoWhich made a bunch of Japanese elders not to suicide (yet). Yeah, no value at all.
- louwrentius 7y agoMissing the point is an art, I must admit.
- klibertp 7y agoYou've passed the flame-bait territory and are headed straight for troll-land. I'm so angry at myself that I got caught in your scheme, you wouldn't believe it.
- dang 7y agoPlease don't do this here. If someone is that wrong, or you feel they are, just let it go. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
- dang 7y agoPlease don't do this here. If someone is that wrong, or you feel they are, just let it go. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
- lidHanteyk 7y agoYou are selling the author's argument short. They are suggesting that cryptocurrencies have no big positive qualities, but so many negative qualities that it is possible to list them in a table and categorize them. When something is net-negative, we can ask whether we should continue harming society by propagating it further.