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I don't think its fair to say it's "the only thing", although I'll give it that its the most popular aspect that it's talked about. The truth is excitement and

by 627467 6y ago

I don't think its fair to say it's "the only thing", although I'll give it that its the most popular aspect that it's talked about. The truth is excitement and hype around price is the lowest common denominator for people interested in cryptocurrency so naturally it would be the most visible topic. Tech around this is still very... technical, young non-vital, niche. I understand why people worry and even discard the value of price-obsession, but (at least for bitcoin) price of the token (along with other variables that indicate adoption) is crucial for security and growth of the platform. Even Satoshi recognized that hype-cycles would be important for adoption of bitcoin.

xur17 6y ago
> The truth is excitement and hype around price is the lowest common denominator for people interested in cryptocurrency so naturally it would be the most visible topic. Echoing this, I'm involved in several more technical cryptocurrency groups, and there is little reference to the price, even today. Pretty much all of the discussion is around the technology itself, and what it can do.
- ackbar03 6y ago
  What can it do exactly though? A lot of talk about decentralization and distributed database and Yada Yada Yada. I'd love to find a good use case for blockchain but so far it's elusive
  - xur17 6y ago
    Cash on the internet. Basically, the ability to send money to someone else without any intermediary, in the same way that you can hand cash to someone else when selling something on craigslist, etc. This is particularly helpful in cases like gift cards where fraud is a problem, and margins are thin, and industries that are blocked by other payment processors [0]. We can argue about whether or not all of the opportunities are a good thing for society or not, but crypto does solve a problem for them. [0] https://www.cnn.com/2020/12/14/business/mastercard-visa-discover-pornhub/index.html https://www.cnn.com/2020/12/14/business/mastercard-visa-disc...
    - spurgu 6y ago
      Prime example with Pornhub right there, along with all other things Visa/Mastercard has decided to block over the years (Wikileaks comes first to mind). > We can argue about whether or not all of the opportunities are a good thing for society or not, but crypto does solve a problem for them. Agreed. I'd argue that being able to buy drugs online is a great solution, but there are good arguments against it as well. Crypto is also immune to confiscation of funds, due to whatever reasons (tax fraud investigation, whatever), this can also be argued whether it's a good thing or not. Many countries have banks and governments that most certainly can't be trusted. The bottom line with crypto is what I would expect Americans in general to appreciate - freedom/choice.
      - microtherion 6y ago
        And yet, in the same week that Bitcoin hit an all time high, Pornhub (a) changed its policies radically within days, spurred by the threat of being dropped by credit card processors (thus demonstrating that they had no faith in cryptocurrency picking up nearly sufficient slack). (b) those changes were almost universally considered to be for the better (a crackdown on non-consensual porn), so if cryptocurrency HAD succeeded in stepping in, it arguably would not have been a social good.
  - keymone 6y ago
    Bitcoin is the use case for blockchain.

by 627467 6y ago

xur17 6y ago

> The truth is excitement and hype around price is the lowest common denominator for people interested in cryptocurrency so naturally it would be the most visible topic. Echoing this, I'm involved in several more technical cryptocurrency groups, and there is little reference to the price, even today. Pretty much all of the discussion is around the technology itself, and what it can do.

ackbar03 6y ago
What can it do exactly though? A lot of talk about decentralization and distributed database and Yada Yada Yada. I'd love to find a good use case for blockchain but so far it's elusive
- xur17 6y ago
  Cash on the internet. Basically, the ability to send money to someone else without any intermediary, in the same way that you can hand cash to someone else when selling something on craigslist, etc. This is particularly helpful in cases like gift cards where fraud is a problem, and margins are thin, and industries that are blocked by other payment processors [0]. We can argue about whether or not all of the opportunities are a good thing for society or not, but crypto does solve a problem for them. [0] https://www.cnn.com/2020/12/14/business/mastercard-visa-discover-pornhub/index.html https://www.cnn.com/2020/12/14/business/mastercard-visa-disc...
  - spurgu 6y ago
    Prime example with Pornhub right there, along with all other things Visa/Mastercard has decided to block over the years (Wikileaks comes first to mind). > We can argue about whether or not all of the opportunities are a good thing for society or not, but crypto does solve a problem for them. Agreed. I'd argue that being able to buy drugs online is a great solution, but there are good arguments against it as well. Crypto is also immune to confiscation of funds, due to whatever reasons (tax fraud investigation, whatever), this can also be argued whether it's a good thing or not. Many countries have banks and governments that most certainly can't be trusted. The bottom line with crypto is what I would expect Americans in general to appreciate - freedom/choice.
    - microtherion 6y ago
      And yet, in the same week that Bitcoin hit an all time high, Pornhub (a) changed its policies radically within days, spurred by the threat of being dropped by credit card processors (thus demonstrating that they had no faith in cryptocurrency picking up nearly sufficient slack). (b) those changes were almost universally considered to be for the better (a crackdown on non-consensual porn), so if cryptocurrency HAD succeeded in stepping in, it arguably would not have been a social good.
- keymone 6y ago
  Bitcoin is the use case for blockchain.