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But it's really not. Bitcoin isn't anything special. If there were any real-world use cases for it (which there don't seem to be), this would have been done lon
by marta_morena_91 6y ago
But it's really not. Bitcoin isn't anything special. If there were any real-world use cases for it (which there don't seem to be), this would have been done long ago or would have been done organically. As it stands, interest in bitcoin was largely null, until people realized that it's a great investment opportunity where everybody can get rich (tulips, anyone?)... The rest is history.
Now alt coins were popping up like mushrooms because you can make even more money when you own the coin and can keep half the stock or more for yourself.
1. There is no use case for crypto currencies, except fraud and crime.
1. There may be use cases for centralized ledgers, however it seems like people are desperately trying to "find" use cases just the same way they are trying to find machine learning use cases. It's a marketing hype.
If crypto currencies were actually "required" to solve any major use case, the implementation would follow easily from the requirements. The things its being used for right now are essentially crying out for crypto currencies and it doesn't take a genius to derive a crypt currency implementation for those requirements. However I would argue that 99% of these "use cases" are made up and would work as well or even better on a centralized architecture.
- ur-whale 6y ago> 1. There is no use case for crypto currencies, except fraud and crime. So you have found a way to protect your wealth against inflation, I guess? Would love to hear what that is.
- war1025 6y ago> So you have found a way to protect your wealth against inflation, That is generally known as investing. It's literally the entire point of buying stock instead of putting your money in a savings account.
- garethrowlands 6y agoThe rich tend to get richer, with or without BTC's help.
- zepolen 6y ago> 1. There is no use case for crypto currencies, except fraud and crime. Pornhub seems to disagree.
- louwrentius 6y agoPaying for questionable smut, yes, excellent.
- Aaronstotle 6y agoAre you aware that USD is the currency most frequently used for both fraud and crime?
- louwrentius 6y agoAt least it's actually useful and beneficial.
- ordinaryradical 6y agoThere's a world of difference between "used for" and "designed to facilitate." For instance, if USD had features designed to make life easier for counterfeiters, money launderers, and other kinds of financial criminals we would probably say that it has been designed for fundamentally the wrong ends.
- zepolen 6y agoWait how do those arguments apply to crypto, it's literally uncounterfeitable and isn't easy to launder since the blockchain is public. Cash on the other hand is a criminals dream.
- Gunax 6y agoYou're right about the economics of it, but I think seibelj is discussing something else. To give a goofy analogy: if it turned out that space travel was mostly gimmicky and used to cheat people, that would not undo the great technical achievement that it is. Crypto is one of those things that no one saw coming. I dont think most people--even rather technical and well read--even considered such an idea prior to 2007.
- shrimpx 6y agoPeople had been thinking about digital money for decades but didn’t know how to solve double spend. Proof of work was around since 2000 or so (hashcash) but it wasn’t until satoshi that these ideas were congealed together in the form of the blockchain.
- castlecrasher2 6y ago>If crypto currencies were actually "required" to solve any major use case, the implementation would follow easily from the requirements. I agree. Currently it's being treated as an investment vehicle more than a currency. I wonder if the house of cards will ever crumble.
- louwrentius 6y agoI totally agree with you, but too many HN visitors seem to be invested in Bitcoin. What I notice is that so many of the kind of posts you respond to seem to be self-serving. To generate the kind of hype and demand and awe. But there is nothing.