3 ms·

There seems to be two camps amongst my tech friends when it comes to block chain. The first thinks it's going to change the world and are fully invested in the

by ciguy 6y ago

There seems to be two camps amongst my tech friends when it comes to block chain. The first thinks it's going to change the world and are fully invested in the whole block chain ecosystem, from Bitcoin to Decentralized Finance systems, Identity etc.... Most of them got into Bitcoin early and made some money and have been chasing that success ever since. The second camp believes that block chain is cool technically but has very little real world use. I'm in the second camp. The tricky part about this is that every new technology looks this way at first - cool but of limited utility - until it's not. I think at this point tho that block chain has had it's chance to be useful and has mostly failed.

emerged 6y ago
I consider Block Chain to be analogous to the first Linked-List. It's obviously a powerful and interesting thing, and has useful purposes. But the culture around Block Chain is an entirely different thing, and it's incredibly disconnected from any fundamental usefulness of the chain itself.
ashtonkem 6y ago
The only people I personally know in the former group were ideologically pre-aligned towards any currency that promises anti-government or anti-inflation capabilities. The people I’m thinking of were either libertarians, gold bugs, or both. I don’t actually know anyone who was persuaded by the merits of bitcoin or similar.
- ciguy 6y ago
  I know some that bought some Bitcoin in the very early days because a friend said so or something and ended making a lot of money. They're now Bitcoin fanatics despite not really understanding it. The logic is that they got rich from it so everyone else can do the same. But yes, the majority are more libertarian or anarchist leaning for sure and that's how they were introduced to Bitcoin early.
michaelchisari 6y ago
> The tricky part about this is that every new technology looks this way at first - cool but of limited utility - until it's not The really tricky part is that a lot of promising-at-first-but-ultimately-useless technologies look exactly the same way.

by ciguy 6y ago

emerged 6y ago

I consider Block Chain to be analogous to the first Linked-List. It's obviously a powerful and interesting thing, and has useful purposes. But the culture around Block Chain is an entirely different thing, and it's incredibly disconnected from any fundamental usefulness of the chain itself.

ashtonkem 6y ago

The only people I personally know in the former group were ideologically pre-aligned towards any currency that promises anti-government or anti-inflation capabilities. The people I’m thinking of were either libertarians, gold bugs, or both. I don’t actually know anyone who was persuaded by the merits of bitcoin or similar.

ciguy 6y ago
I know some that bought some Bitcoin in the very early days because a friend said so or something and ended making a lot of money. They're now Bitcoin fanatics despite not really understanding it. The logic is that they got rich from it so everyone else can do the same. But yes, the majority are more libertarian or anarchist leaning for sure and that's how they were introduced to Bitcoin early.

michaelchisari 6y ago

> The tricky part about this is that every new technology looks this way at first - cool but of limited utility - until it's not The really tricky part is that a lot of promising-at-first-but-ultimately-useless technologies look exactly the same way.