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My guide to Ethereum: don't get involved in shady, unregulated industries unless you're aware of the possible consequences are are willing to accept them gracef

My guide to Ethereum: don't get involved in shady, unregulated industries unless you're aware of the possible consequences are are willing to accept them gracefully

RexetBlell 6y ago
What are the consequences that you’re talking about?
- albntomat0 6y ago
  Rampant swings in price, fueled by exchanges getting hacked/falling apart, weird ICOs, or the sketchiness of tether.
  - RexetBlell 6y ago
    There were no ICOs in the last 2 years. The community moved on from that. Decentralized non custodial exchange usage is growing, like https://loopring.org/ https://loopring.org/ that’s based on zero knowledge proofs cryptography and allows 2000 trades per second, and the people who built it can’t steal your money even if they wanted to. There are also decentralized options to protect you from volatility https://opyn.co/ https://opyn.co/ or https://www.hegic.co/ https://www.hegic.co/ There are many alternatives to Tether, for example USDc or a decentralized stable coin like DAI.
    - spottybanana 6y ago
      There are still ICO's, they are just rebranded usually to something else like IEOs or STOs.
    - Nursie 6y ago
      No ICOs? None at all? Since mid 2018? Having trouble believing that, especially as I can see evidence of hundreds of the damn things after a simple search - https://ico.tokens-economy.com/statistics/country.html?country=2019&year=2019 https://ico.tokens-economy.com/statistics/country.html?count... Sure, many of those won't be using ethereum, but they still happened. And that's before you dive into the IEOs and STOs, which appear to be more of the same.
    - albntomat0 6y ago
      Loopring is interesting, thanks for passing that along. Even with the options on ethereum, Tether alternatives, etc. involvement with cryptocurrencies has high risk for someone who doesn't have a strong understanding of how it all works at a technical level, which is what the parent comment stated.
- throwaw4y-plate 6y ago
  Mostly losing money, I'd suspect
- dehrmann 6y ago
  It's specifically trading and speculating in cryptocurrencies that's incredibly risky. There's a playbook of scams people used to pull with stocks were made illegal, but are suddenly viable again in the crypto space. There's also the risk of loss because of lax security on your part or the part of your wallet.
- swagonomixxx 6y ago
  Ever heard of the DAO? [1] Seriously, crypto is one of the shadiest things you can get into. Avoid it, and any exchanges, like the plague. It's interesting tech, but nothing more than that. Hugely speculative and not worth wasting hard earned money over. [1] https://www.coindesk.com/understanding-dao-hack-journalists https://www.coindesk.com/understanding-dao-hack-journalists
  - quibbler 6y ago
    Except the DAO wasn't shady, it was just buggy and got hacked. If having bugs is shady, we live in a dark world indeed.
spottybanana 6y ago
What's your point? It is high risk/high reward industry. There are loads of possible consequences. You might get insanely rich as some have gotten, or you might lose all your assets and sanity. Also jailtime is possibility, however that is still very rare in the space.
- albntomat0 6y ago
  That folks should be skeptical and perform due diligence? Many similar things have been said about the recent rise in amateur options trading on the normal stock market. It's fine if the person knows and accepts the potential consequences, which amateurs visiting a link aggregator/forum should be explicitly warned against.
dang 6y ago
"Please don't post shallow dismissals, especially of other people's work. A good critical comment teaches us something." https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
wslyvh 6y ago
I would differentiate here between crypto (yes, there's a lot of scams and shady projects out there) and blockchain. Where the latter is getting bigger and bigger. Not just for crypto and financial services.

My guide to Ethereum: don't get involved in shady, unregulated industries unless you're aware of the possible consequences are are willing to accept them gracefully

RexetBlell 6y ago

What are the consequences that you’re talking about?

albntomat0 6y ago
Rampant swings in price, fueled by exchanges getting hacked/falling apart, weird ICOs, or the sketchiness of tether.
- RexetBlell 6y ago
  There were no ICOs in the last 2 years. The community moved on from that. Decentralized non custodial exchange usage is growing, like https://loopring.org/ https://loopring.org/ that’s based on zero knowledge proofs cryptography and allows 2000 trades per second, and the people who built it can’t steal your money even if they wanted to. There are also decentralized options to protect you from volatility https://opyn.co/ https://opyn.co/ or https://www.hegic.co/ https://www.hegic.co/ There are many alternatives to Tether, for example USDc or a decentralized stable coin like DAI.
  - spottybanana 6y ago
    There are still ICO's, they are just rebranded usually to something else like IEOs or STOs.
  - Nursie 6y ago
    No ICOs? None at all? Since mid 2018? Having trouble believing that, especially as I can see evidence of hundreds of the damn things after a simple search - https://ico.tokens-economy.com/statistics/country.html?country=2019&year=2019 https://ico.tokens-economy.com/statistics/country.html?count... Sure, many of those won't be using ethereum, but they still happened. And that's before you dive into the IEOs and STOs, which appear to be more of the same.
  - albntomat0 6y ago
    Loopring is interesting, thanks for passing that along. Even with the options on ethereum, Tether alternatives, etc. involvement with cryptocurrencies has high risk for someone who doesn't have a strong understanding of how it all works at a technical level, which is what the parent comment stated.
throwaw4y-plate 6y ago
Mostly losing money, I'd suspect
dehrmann 6y ago
It's specifically trading and speculating in cryptocurrencies that's incredibly risky. There's a playbook of scams people used to pull with stocks were made illegal, but are suddenly viable again in the crypto space. There's also the risk of loss because of lax security on your part or the part of your wallet.
swagonomixxx 6y ago
Ever heard of the DAO? [1] Seriously, crypto is one of the shadiest things you can get into. Avoid it, and any exchanges, like the plague. It's interesting tech, but nothing more than that. Hugely speculative and not worth wasting hard earned money over. [1] https://www.coindesk.com/understanding-dao-hack-journalists https://www.coindesk.com/understanding-dao-hack-journalists
- quibbler 6y ago
  Except the DAO wasn't shady, it was just buggy and got hacked. If having bugs is shady, we live in a dark world indeed.

spottybanana 6y ago

What's your point? It is high risk/high reward industry. There are loads of possible consequences. You might get insanely rich as some have gotten, or you might lose all your assets and sanity. Also jailtime is possibility, however that is still very rare in the space.

albntomat0 6y ago
That folks should be skeptical and perform due diligence? Many similar things have been said about the recent rise in amateur options trading on the normal stock market. It's fine if the person knows and accepts the potential consequences, which amateurs visiting a link aggregator/forum should be explicitly warned against.

dang 6y ago

"Please don't post shallow dismissals, especially of other people's work. A good critical comment teaches us something." https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

wslyvh 6y ago

I would differentiate here between crypto (yes, there's a lot of scams and shady projects out there) and blockchain. Where the latter is getting bigger and bigger. Not just for crypto and financial services.