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Here are some things that people miss when having arguments like these. * Blockchain is not Bitcoin. Bitcoin is the first (and quiet primitive) PoC implementat

by vvpan 6y ago

Here are some things that people miss when having arguments like these. * Blockchain is not Bitcoin. Bitcoin is the first (and quiet primitive) PoC implementation of the technology. * Blockchain is not "cryptocurrency". Blockchain is just numbers and an ability to trustlessly and safely flip those numbers. What those numbers mean to people is secondary. * To build on the previous point. Blockchain is being used to record much more than monetary value. The Baseline protocol for example aims to use blockchain as a protocol for inter-business communication. So basically offload paperwork onto blockchain. This hasn't happened with more traditional technology because it makes the middlemen too powerful. (Here's a presentation by Paul Brody of EY on the topic https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QAmNjJRtLGo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QAmNjJRtLGo) * Blockchain is a technology in it's infancy and is experiencing a lot of research on all fronts: scalability, anonymity, UX, decentralization, resilience, etc. For example ZK Rollups, which would cover a few of those nice-to-haves, are just being investigated. Now, on to money. If this is an emerging and potentially revolutionary technology how do you capitalize on it? Or should you? Well, it is up to you to figure those out, that is beyond the point. The argument I (and many other people) want to make is that blockchain right now is like internet in the 80s - usable mostly by the power user but will alter the tech and social landscape tremendously. And people cannot hear that argument over stories of pump-and-dump schemes.

teryyy 6y ago
This. So many things are enabled by blockchain which is just the beginning of what will probably be a Cambrian explosion of new decentralized ecosystems - eg. look at Zora, Foundation, NBA TopShot, GRT, Chainlink, etc.
Jimmc414 6y ago
Exactly. What people don't seem to realize is that blockchain isn't even about cryptocurrency, its primary use case and probably why it is so maligned, is that it will eliminate the middlemen who act as the fiduciary for financial transactions and replace them with algorithms. One reason the SEC has not come after Bitcoin or Ethereum is because they are NOT investments and are not sold as such.
- vvpan 6y ago
  Well put. I think people don't understand how many people and systems are involved in making any kind of financial transaction. That it works relatively seamlessly is because there are hundreds of thousands of people, centuries of experience and relationships of trust behind the scenes making sure it's all smooth. Also, I think it pays to keep in mind that 1.7 billion people (according to world bank) are unbanked and have no access to any kind of financial products at all. So for all the age and convenience of the system it's reach is faitly limited.
worik 6y ago
Did you read the article? All of the use cases of blockchain have other solutions. Blockchain is just not that interesting, except as a social phenomenon. So many smart people so confused. This is not so much a emerging technology as a giant Ponzi or Pyramid scheme. The only way to get your investment back is if a "bigger fool" buys you out.
- noname120 6y ago
  Extract from the guidelines[1]: > Please don't comment on whether someone read an article. "Did you even read the article? It mentions that" can be shortened to "The article mentions that." [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
  - worik 6y ago
    Fair enough Touché
- vvpan 6y ago
  > So many smart people so confused. That's because the argument that "All of the use cases of blockchain have other solutions." is wrong. There in no technology that can achieve the basic primitive interaction that Bitcoin whitepaper describes, which is make a cryptographically provable transaction from one person to another with no middlemen while mitigating a double-spend attack. In other words a trustless one-time digital transaction whether of value or some other information.

by vvpan 6y ago

teryyy 6y ago

This. So many things are enabled by blockchain which is just the beginning of what will probably be a Cambrian explosion of new decentralized ecosystems - eg. look at Zora, Foundation, NBA TopShot, GRT, Chainlink, etc.

Jimmc414 6y ago

Exactly. What people don't seem to realize is that blockchain isn't even about cryptocurrency, its primary use case and probably why it is so maligned, is that it will eliminate the middlemen who act as the fiduciary for financial transactions and replace them with algorithms. One reason the SEC has not come after Bitcoin or Ethereum is because they are NOT investments and are not sold as such.

vvpan 6y ago
Well put. I think people don't understand how many people and systems are involved in making any kind of financial transaction. That it works relatively seamlessly is because there are hundreds of thousands of people, centuries of experience and relationships of trust behind the scenes making sure it's all smooth. Also, I think it pays to keep in mind that 1.7 billion people (according to world bank) are unbanked and have no access to any kind of financial products at all. So for all the age and convenience of the system it's reach is faitly limited.

worik 6y ago

Did you read the article? All of the use cases of blockchain have other solutions. Blockchain is just not that interesting, except as a social phenomenon. So many smart people so confused. This is not so much a emerging technology as a giant Ponzi or Pyramid scheme. The only way to get your investment back is if a "bigger fool" buys you out.

noname120 6y ago
Extract from the guidelines[1]: > Please don't comment on whether someone read an article. "Did you even read the article? It mentions that" can be shortened to "The article mentions that." [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
- worik 6y ago
  Fair enough Touché
vvpan 6y ago
> So many smart people so confused. That's because the argument that "All of the use cases of blockchain have other solutions." is wrong. There in no technology that can achieve the basic primitive interaction that Bitcoin whitepaper describes, which is make a cryptographically provable transaction from one person to another with no middlemen while mitigating a double-spend attack. In other words a trustless one-time digital transaction whether of value or some other information.