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> It solves a problem for almost nobody You're missing the big problems it solves, the main reasons many smart people have bought into it: Cryptocurrencies ar

> It solves a problem for almost nobody You're missing the big problems it solves, the main reasons many smart people have bought into it: Cryptocurrencies are the ONLY liquid assets in the world that you can prove, from first principles, 1) how much of it exists, and 2) that you actually own it. As long as you know what you're doing, you don't have to concern yourself with 1) fraud, 2) hidden stockpiles, 3) someone stealing it, and 4) political instability. These are good things for society. Some of us realized these things when we started buying into it, and when we see people poo-pooing it and completely ignoring these benefits, I can see why people tend to get dismissive.

cletus 6y ago
This is some serious white-washing of the downsides and risks of crypto. Reversible transactions for traditional currencies, for example, are often touted as a negative but they are for the most part a positive. It's what protects individuals from fraud. I hazard to think how the average person would manage a wallet without losing it to poor security or malware. And if you use something like Coinbase, you have pretty much the exact same risk profile as using a bank. Also, proving you own it gets real murky if the network itself is compromised. Attacks aside there have been various forks of different cryptos. My point is the immutability of the blockchain is essentially an optimistic exercise of faith. As for hidden stockpiles and knowing how much is out there, that isn't quite true either. For something like Bitcoin, you know the upper bound of how much is out there but you don't actually know how much is out there. There are numerous cases of lost wallet keys, for example, where you can consider the coins irrecoverable (short of a fork). But how many of these just haven't been transacted? Some of these stockpiles are huge too. Take the rumoured ~1.1M BTC associated with Satoshi. Are these lost or have they just not been used? It's impossible to say.
- fragsworth 6y ago
  "Serious white-washing" is quite misleading. I only responded to a comment to point out that you and others are completely ignoring some obvious and important benefits. Sure, there are disadvantages. I'm not going to disagree with them, they exist, but let's put them in perspective with how the rest of the world works. But include the real benefits as part of the context. If you ignore those benefits, and pretend they don't exist, you will end up getting dismissed by those of us who figured everything out, and invested in it. You should keep in mind that those of us who invest in it are not in any way "stuck with a bag", we can sell at any time if we thought your arguments were convincing enough. The fact is, despite reading plenty of these arguments, we still actually believe it will ultimately succeed, and have yet to see convincing enough arguments against it. On the other hand, those who missed out have a very strong tendency to want the world to adjust in ways that make their decisions correct. There is a lot of pain in admitting that you were wrong and paying the cost (which would be investing in it), and a lot of aversion to feeling like you have to make that choice. Believe me, I know this is a thing, because I went through that process myself.

cletus 6y ago

This is some serious white-washing of the downsides and risks of crypto. Reversible transactions for traditional currencies, for example, are often touted as a negative but they are for the most part a positive. It's what protects individuals from fraud. I hazard to think how the average person would manage a wallet without losing it to poor security or malware. And if you use something like Coinbase, you have pretty much the exact same risk profile as using a bank. Also, proving you own it gets real murky if the network itself is compromised. Attacks aside there have been various forks of different cryptos. My point is the immutability of the blockchain is essentially an optimistic exercise of faith. As for hidden stockpiles and knowing how much is out there, that isn't quite true either. For something like Bitcoin, you know the upper bound of how much is out there but you don't actually know how much is out there. There are numerous cases of lost wallet keys, for example, where you can consider the coins irrecoverable (short of a fork). But how many of these just haven't been transacted? Some of these stockpiles are huge too. Take the rumoured ~1.1M BTC associated with Satoshi. Are these lost or have they just not been used? It's impossible to say.

fragsworth 6y ago
"Serious white-washing" is quite misleading. I only responded to a comment to point out that you and others are completely ignoring some obvious and important benefits. Sure, there are disadvantages. I'm not going to disagree with them, they exist, but let's put them in perspective with how the rest of the world works. But include the real benefits as part of the context. If you ignore those benefits, and pretend they don't exist, you will end up getting dismissed by those of us who figured everything out, and invested in it. You should keep in mind that those of us who invest in it are not in any way "stuck with a bag", we can sell at any time if we thought your arguments were convincing enough. The fact is, despite reading plenty of these arguments, we still actually believe it will ultimately succeed, and have yet to see convincing enough arguments against it. On the other hand, those who missed out have a very strong tendency to want the world to adjust in ways that make their decisions correct. There is a lot of pain in admitting that you were wrong and paying the cost (which would be investing in it), and a lot of aversion to feeling like you have to make that choice. Believe me, I know this is a thing, because I went through that process myself.