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It's so weird to me that here, on hacker news people have such a hatred of coinbase. Coinbase is a YC company, and if some of the predictions are accurate, wil

by blhack 6y ago

It's so weird to me that here, on hacker news people have such a hatred of coinbase. Coinbase is a YC company, and if some of the predictions are accurate, will be the highest valued YC company so far.

seibelj 6y ago
This is standard operating procedure for HN. Even when the market proves you wrong, continue parroting the same bullshit about tech you know absolutely nothing about.
- quickthrower2 6y ago
  The market doesn’t prove anything other than the price of something.
hanniabu 6y ago
It's because they view crypto like people viewed the internet/computers back in the day. "It'll never work it's too complicated. No need for it, mail workers just fine. It's just used for illegal activity. Why do I need a productivity boost when I have my assistant to do everything. "
- anonymousab 6y ago
  > It'll never work it's too complicated It usually seems far more nuanced to me. People seem somewhat skeptical on some finer points of cryptocurrencies, blockchains and distributed ledger ideas. But then they see supporters trumpeting 'this is good for Xcoin' on every piece of news, good or bad, and can't help but get a snake-oil-salesman-y feeling from that. Everything in life has many ways in which it can or does suck, and you won't want to trust people who handwaive away or dismiss the sucky parts. So... partially reasonable technical and idea concerns, and partially a PR problem that anything with a particularly large and vocal fanbase will have.
  - fastball 6y ago
    I love HN but I think you're giving it too much credit on this one. Many (most?) of the conversations I see on here around crypto are copiously littered with straight FUD. Very little arguing on the actual nuances and intricacies of crypto. Seemingly low understanding / imagination of the possibilities allowed by the underlying concepts. Histrionics about power consumption in every thread. Disclosure: I liquidated my crypto positions last year, and currently hold $0 worth of cryptocurrency.
    - dodobirdlord 6y ago
      I think the general perspective of Bitcoin specifically around here meshes with the general stance on a lot of topics. Bitcoin is the 1.0 cryptocurrency. It was groundbreaking, but it has technological deficiencies that are/were being addressed by improvements in the general technology of cryptocurrencies. But the Bitcoin protocol itself has demonstrated to be impossible to modernize, as even the most trivial change like a block size increase is not taken up, so progress in this space is happening in the form of other cryptocurrencies. But there are a lot of people, including in the comments of HN, who have a big stake not in the technology or in cryptocurrencies in general but in Bitcoin specifically. They’re perfectly happy to see this area of technology stagnate and be held back by being forced to layer innovation over Bitcoin itself, as with the Lightning network, when much better solutions are available by moving on from Bitcoin. So when I see someone advocating for Bitcoin specifically they come off as transparently self-serving and having no real interest in the technology. I see a lot of parallels to projects refusing to migrate off of Python 2, except in this case Bitcoin enthusiasts are compelled to actively evangelize the inferior technology instead of just sticking to it as the rest of the technology space moves along.
      - jsutton 6y ago
        Why does Bitcoin need to modernize? There are other crypto projects that can fill in the holes that Bitcoin leaves (tx fees, slow, etc). Bitcoin is a fully secure, fully self-sufficient, global monetary system. It doesn't need to be lightning fast or super cheap. It needs to WORK, and work very well, which it has demonstrated.
- tyre 6y ago
  People keep making this parallel to “well they said this about the internet.” People also said that about pets.com, about bloodletting, about horoscopes and communism and hydroxyclorquine and Lizardpeople. It doesn’t replace mail, it isn’t used mainstream for anything but illegal activity and casino speculation, and I’m not sure what productivity boost we are talking about here. At some point you don’t get to make the internet or the “Henry Ford said they’d ask for a faster horse” comparison. At some point you have to deliver the goods. Has coinbase made a shitload of money, sure. Has blockchain done any of the things its prophets have promised? Nope.
  - deleted 6y ago
    [deleted]
  - another_sock 6y ago
    Bloodletting and horoscopes are real.
ghego1 6y ago
With this IPO the portfolio of YC is ridiculously successful.
freewilly1040 6y ago
Why does being on this site imply a rooting interest in YC’s portfolio?
orky56 6y ago
Might get downvoted but HN opinions are based on a minority of people who are more technical and well informed to the point of elitism IMO. When something becomes too mainstream and doesn't cater to the HN demographic, its success is irrelevant and potentially a liability.
dang 6y ago
HN is not universally friendly toward YC. As the person who has to keep tabs on this relationship I'd say it's a tricky one.

by blhack 6y ago

seibelj 6y ago

This is standard operating procedure for HN. Even when the market proves you wrong, continue parroting the same bullshit about tech you know absolutely nothing about.

quickthrower2 6y ago
The market doesn’t prove anything other than the price of something.

hanniabu 6y ago

It's because they view crypto like people viewed the internet/computers back in the day. "It'll never work it's too complicated. No need for it, mail workers just fine. It's just used for illegal activity. Why do I need a productivity boost when I have my assistant to do everything. "

anonymousab 6y ago
> It'll never work it's too complicated It usually seems far more nuanced to me. People seem somewhat skeptical on some finer points of cryptocurrencies, blockchains and distributed ledger ideas. But then they see supporters trumpeting 'this is good for Xcoin' on every piece of news, good or bad, and can't help but get a snake-oil-salesman-y feeling from that. Everything in life has many ways in which it can or does suck, and you won't want to trust people who handwaive away or dismiss the sucky parts. So... partially reasonable technical and idea concerns, and partially a PR problem that anything with a particularly large and vocal fanbase will have.
- fastball 6y ago
  I love HN but I think you're giving it too much credit on this one. Many (most?) of the conversations I see on here around crypto are copiously littered with straight FUD. Very little arguing on the actual nuances and intricacies of crypto. Seemingly low understanding / imagination of the possibilities allowed by the underlying concepts. Histrionics about power consumption in every thread. Disclosure: I liquidated my crypto positions last year, and currently hold $0 worth of cryptocurrency.
  - dodobirdlord 6y ago
    I think the general perspective of Bitcoin specifically around here meshes with the general stance on a lot of topics. Bitcoin is the 1.0 cryptocurrency. It was groundbreaking, but it has technological deficiencies that are/were being addressed by improvements in the general technology of cryptocurrencies. But the Bitcoin protocol itself has demonstrated to be impossible to modernize, as even the most trivial change like a block size increase is not taken up, so progress in this space is happening in the form of other cryptocurrencies. But there are a lot of people, including in the comments of HN, who have a big stake not in the technology or in cryptocurrencies in general but in Bitcoin specifically. They’re perfectly happy to see this area of technology stagnate and be held back by being forced to layer innovation over Bitcoin itself, as with the Lightning network, when much better solutions are available by moving on from Bitcoin. So when I see someone advocating for Bitcoin specifically they come off as transparently self-serving and having no real interest in the technology. I see a lot of parallels to projects refusing to migrate off of Python 2, except in this case Bitcoin enthusiasts are compelled to actively evangelize the inferior technology instead of just sticking to it as the rest of the technology space moves along.
    - jsutton 6y ago
      Why does Bitcoin need to modernize? There are other crypto projects that can fill in the holes that Bitcoin leaves (tx fees, slow, etc). Bitcoin is a fully secure, fully self-sufficient, global monetary system. It doesn't need to be lightning fast or super cheap. It needs to WORK, and work very well, which it has demonstrated.
tyre 6y ago
People keep making this parallel to “well they said this about the internet.” People also said that about pets.com, about bloodletting, about horoscopes and communism and hydroxyclorquine and Lizardpeople. It doesn’t replace mail, it isn’t used mainstream for anything but illegal activity and casino speculation, and I’m not sure what productivity boost we are talking about here. At some point you don’t get to make the internet or the “Henry Ford said they’d ask for a faster horse” comparison. At some point you have to deliver the goods. Has coinbase made a shitload of money, sure. Has blockchain done any of the things its prophets have promised? Nope.
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
- another_sock 6y ago
  Bloodletting and horoscopes are real.

ghego1 6y ago

With this IPO the portfolio of YC is ridiculously successful.

freewilly1040 6y ago

Why does being on this site imply a rooting interest in YC’s portfolio?

orky56 6y ago

Might get downvoted but HN opinions are based on a minority of people who are more technical and well informed to the point of elitism IMO. When something becomes too mainstream and doesn't cater to the HN demographic, its success is irrelevant and potentially a liability.

dang 6y ago

HN is not universally friendly toward YC. As the person who has to keep tabs on this relationship I'd say it's a tricky one.