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For f**'s sake, when will people with money stop funding every stupid idea just because it involves (blockchain|token|social|web3.0)? This whole ecosystem star

For f**'s sake, when will people with money stop funding every stupid idea just because it involves (blockchain|token|social|web3.0)? This whole ecosystem starts to really remind me of Ponzi schemes.Im quite curious why regulators don't see the same thing.

loceng 6y ago
It does mimic an MLM-Pyramid and Ponzi scheme, and this is exactly why they keep investing - they need to keep it moving - creating tools for people to use, even though competitively they cost more - but for early adopters using their early bought Bitcoin (etc) they've already gained profit and aren't spending their initial investment, they are also re-investing to perpetuate the appearance of adoption and usefulness. Nowhere have I ever seen a "this is how much this costs vs. current options" in pitch decks for these companies though - price competitiveness since the beginning of time being the most important factor for competition (aside from governance which we'll eventually get back to). Edit to add: I 100% expect all of my counter-narrative posts to get downvoted as Bitcoin "army of HODLers" is financially incentivized to suppress anything negative about their scheme.
- Nextgrid 6y ago
  In this case it indeed seems like a Ponzi scheme, but in a lot of cases where businesses suddenly decide to (re)do a solved problem with blockchain, it's more in an attempt to raise VC funding or buy-in from large clueless companies rather than from crypto people.
- meowface 6y ago
  Don't worry, I think the majority of HN readers essentially share your opinion. Possibly even the vast majority. The people who get downvoted are the ones who say cryptocurrencies - as a technology - serve absolutely no purpose to humanity other than scams, fraud, laundering, drug trafficking, and other criminal activity, as well as useless zero-sum speculation and shuffling around of funny money, at the cost of country-level electricity use dedicated solely to generating and hashing pseudorandom numbers all day. (Which isn't that far off the mark, but it elides the genuinely interesting aspects of the technological and cryptographic innovations, as well as the full potential of general-purpose decentralized smart contracts and all the current legitimate use cases. Plus the fact that Proof of Stake, if successful, basically eliminates the electricity and environmental problems.)
- CynicusRex 6y ago
  >It does mimic an MLM-Pyramid and Ponzi scheme It does so because it is.
jancsika 6y ago
> For f*'s sake, when will people with money stop funding every stupid idea just because it involves (blockchain|token|social|web3.0)? I feel exactly the same way-- investors would do way better with ideas that involve (blockchain&(token|social|web3.0)) If we go that route regulators will be too busy making money hand over fist to even think about becoming crony capitalists.
Sebb767 6y ago
Aren't we at web 4.0 now? (slightly sarcastic, but honest question)
ValentineC 6y ago
You forgot NFTs, which are what I would consider to really be like the tulip mania [1] of old. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tulip_mania https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tulip_mania
solosoyokaze 6y ago
Investors always pour into spaces and make a ton of bad bets. How many photo sharing apps got funded? Social networks? Podcast things? Most investments are bad and most investors aren't very good. The crypto stuff is just the latest investment trend, but not really different than what came before it.
dageshi 6y ago
Cause they made a ton of money on some equally daft idea in the past?

loceng 6y ago

It does mimic an MLM-Pyramid and Ponzi scheme, and this is exactly why they keep investing - they need to keep it moving - creating tools for people to use, even though competitively they cost more - but for early adopters using their early bought Bitcoin (etc) they've already gained profit and aren't spending their initial investment, they are also re-investing to perpetuate the appearance of adoption and usefulness. Nowhere have I ever seen a "this is how much this costs vs. current options" in pitch decks for these companies though - price competitiveness since the beginning of time being the most important factor for competition (aside from governance which we'll eventually get back to). Edit to add: I 100% expect all of my counter-narrative posts to get downvoted as Bitcoin "army of HODLers" is financially incentivized to suppress anything negative about their scheme.

Nextgrid 6y ago
In this case it indeed seems like a Ponzi scheme, but in a lot of cases where businesses suddenly decide to (re)do a solved problem with blockchain, it's more in an attempt to raise VC funding or buy-in from large clueless companies rather than from crypto people.
meowface 6y ago
Don't worry, I think the majority of HN readers essentially share your opinion. Possibly even the vast majority. The people who get downvoted are the ones who say cryptocurrencies - as a technology - serve absolutely no purpose to humanity other than scams, fraud, laundering, drug trafficking, and other criminal activity, as well as useless zero-sum speculation and shuffling around of funny money, at the cost of country-level electricity use dedicated solely to generating and hashing pseudorandom numbers all day. (Which isn't that far off the mark, but it elides the genuinely interesting aspects of the technological and cryptographic innovations, as well as the full potential of general-purpose decentralized smart contracts and all the current legitimate use cases. Plus the fact that Proof of Stake, if successful, basically eliminates the electricity and environmental problems.)
CynicusRex 6y ago
>It does mimic an MLM-Pyramid and Ponzi scheme It does so because it is.

jancsika 6y ago

> For f*'s sake, when will people with money stop funding every stupid idea just because it involves (blockchain|token|social|web3.0)? I feel exactly the same way-- investors would do way better with ideas that involve (blockchain&(token|social|web3.0)) If we go that route regulators will be too busy making money hand over fist to even think about becoming crony capitalists.

Sebb767 6y ago

Aren't we at web 4.0 now? (slightly sarcastic, but honest question)

ValentineC 6y ago

You forgot NFTs, which are what I would consider to really be like the tulip mania [1] of old. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tulip_mania https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tulip_mania

solosoyokaze 6y ago

Investors always pour into spaces and make a ton of bad bets. How many photo sharing apps got funded? Social networks? Podcast things? Most investments are bad and most investors aren't very good. The crypto stuff is just the latest investment trend, but not really different than what came before it.

dageshi 6y ago

Cause they made a ton of money on some equally daft idea in the past?