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I used to think cryptocurrency was a solution in search of a problem, but the Robinhood fiasco has made me think otherwise. I find their clearing house explanat
by waprin 6y ago
I used to think cryptocurrency was a solution in search of a problem, but the Robinhood fiasco has made me think otherwise. I find their clearing house explanation woefully insufficient in details, and open to the possiblity of being technically the truth but misleading (for example, they gave mass margin to lots of new accounts so they technically lacked collateral, but if they stopped new signups then cleared cash non-margin accounts would have been able to freely trade).
Some might call me a conspiracy theorist, but the fact remains there’s no good way to verify any of what they’re telling us is true, other than to trust people with billion dollar reasons to mislead, or rely on an SEC which has repeatedly failed to do its job and stand up to big institutions (see Moody’s subprime ratings, or Robinhood already getting fined by SEC but for trivial amounts).
There’s certainly pump and dumps, fraud and manipulation in crypto, but some could argue a lot of stocks exist right now with terrible fundamentals but huge market caps that nobody labels a pump and dump because “serious” institutions say the valuations are “forward looking.”
All this is to say, finance is a game with massive incentives to deceive and manipulate. We see that in the traditional finance space and in the crypto space . But long term, Id argue in many ways the decentralized nature of crypto lends itself to far more transparency than our traditional systems.
Now, that doesn’t mean it makes sense to buy coffee with crypto, or that a specific coin is the solution, especially one with the type of technical challenges BTC has. But in a broader sense, I do think decentralized finance is starting to look more and more like the future, if the alternative is to continually put trust into institutions that repeatedly betray that trust.
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- anythingdude321 6y agoso nice to see the hackernews crowd finally figuring it out! i totally agree with you. i feel that if you keep digging, you'll find yourself convinced over time that BTC's "technical challenges" are not the flaws that they originally appear, and that in the long run crypto does make sense as a currency itself, in addition to a financial infrastructure.
- nexthash 6y agoCall me back when crypto is being used for anything normal - buying groceries, homes, pay checks, etc rather than trading and speculation. As of now, if my job attempts to pay me in DogeCoin I will quit and file a complaint with the NLRB. The thing is, no matter how much you think the current financial system is crooked, there is always a way to settle disputes through courts and regulators. The worst financial hiccups happen in areas without regulation. There were no rules on selling subprime mortgages or shorting more stock than exists, but unlike in the cryptoverse if something blows up it can be patched with legislation and restitution to victims. If your crypto gets stolen or a coin gets pumped and dumped, there is no recourse. With no connection to the real world comes no trust and no mercy.
- ball_of_lint 6y agoDogecoin is designed to have massive amounts of inflation and would never be seriously considered. Bitcoin is being used for normal things. Want to buy a Tesla?
- herbst 6y agoIn switzerland both our national amazon alternative (relatively huge) and main food delivery network accept bitcoin and several other crypto currencies. Including weird stuff like Tron and Monero. I spend more in crypto some months than other currencies.
- MrMan 6y agoThis is some kind of astroturfing
- dang 6y agoThis is against the site guidelines. Would you mind reviewing https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html and sticking to the rules when posting to HN? We'd appreciate it. As they say, if you're worried about abuse, the thing to do is to email hn@ycombinator.com so we can look into it. For many past explanations on this issue, see https://hn.algolia.com/?sort=byDate&dateRange=all&type=comment&storyText=false&prefix=true&page=0&query=by:dang%20astroturf https://hn.algolia.com/?sort=byDate&dateRange=all&type=comme.... Also, could you please stop posting unsubstantive comments generally? You've unfortunately been doing a ton of that lately. We're trying for something a bit different than that on this site—if you'd optimize more for signal/noise in your HN comments, we'd appreciate it.