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Earlier post 2009: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=599852 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=599852 "Well this is an exceptionally cute idea, but there

Earlier post 2009: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=599852 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=599852 "Well this is an exceptionally cute idea, but there is absolutely no way that anyone is going to have any faith in this currency." Written by co-founder/CEO of Pachyderm and first employee of RethinkDB none the less.

LittlePeter 6y ago
Reminds me of the infamous dropbox comment https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9224 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9224
smt88 6y ago
I still don't think many people have faith in it. The vast majority of people who own it are speculators who never actually use it as a currency.
dang 6y ago
People love to pick out the comments of the past that seem most wrong now, because—let's be honest—it makes us feel superior. But if you go back and look at that original 3-comment Bitcoin thread, what you find is that those 3 comments span an entire spectrum: elated, skeptical, and bewildered: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=599852 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=599852. The first cryptocurrency thread on HN—about 9 months earlier—was even more interesting: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=253963 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=253963. It contains another skeptical comment: "The bigger problem is that everyone has a incentive to run their computers day and night cranking out solutions, which burns up lots of natural resources and processor time for a zero-sum result." (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=253999 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=253999), which seems astonishingly prescient now, even though the objection is still hotly (no pun intended) debated. Cherry-picking the wrongest-seeming skeptical comment from that collection of data points is a case study in survivorship bias. (I don't mean to pick on you personally! This is common of course.) The infamous Dropbox comment from 2008 is similar in that it has gotten repeated out of context in a way that is unfair to the original commenter (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23229275 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23229275). When we repeat these things, it says more about us than it does about the thing we're repeating.
- lotsofpulp 6y ago
  > People love to pick out the comments of the past that seem most wrong now, because—let's be honest—it makes us feel superior. I like to see wrong “obvious” predictions to humble myself, even if not from me.
  - dang 6y ago
    Ok, you get a pass. I'm generalizing from myself of course.
- notional 6y ago
  Ho boy looking up Xinjiang then reading this comment was a trip. Any ways Dropbox is pretty great and seeing the differences in sentiment towards TSLA stock compared to Bitcoin over the years has been great. Can't pick all the winners.
- julienchastang 6y ago
  What this also shows to me is just how difficult it is to predict the future. Here is another thought experiment: There is probably a wonderful technology / opportunity, perhaps lying in plain sight, that we will be kicking ourselves in ten years for not having gotten involved in. But what is it? "Every day brings new opportunities to become very rich, most of which we are bound to miss" [1] [1] https://www.wsj.com/articles/missed-teslas-12-551-rise-dont-feel-so-bad-11607606318 https://www.wsj.com/articles/missed-teslas-12-551-rise-dont-...
- myth_drannon 6y ago
  It's just humbling. Others and me, everyday we miss out hundreds of opportunities, it's a good reminder of life complexity. Things like that should be printed and posted on an office wall. Also from a creator's perspective it's important to see these cases of once in a generation invention (good or bad) and the comments on it.
- derangedHorse 6y ago
  Not really a superiority thing for me. I just think it’s funny how much perceptions change over time and how reasonable assumptions can be proven wrong
laurent92 6y ago
At the time it felt astonishing that central banks allowed non-state currencies to exist on national ground, for the first time. It still feels astonishing.

LittlePeter 6y ago

Reminds me of the infamous dropbox comment https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9224 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9224

smt88 6y ago

I still don't think many people have faith in it. The vast majority of people who own it are speculators who never actually use it as a currency.

dang 6y ago

People love to pick out the comments of the past that seem most wrong now, because—let's be honest—it makes us feel superior. But if you go back and look at that original 3-comment Bitcoin thread, what you find is that those 3 comments span an entire spectrum: elated, skeptical, and bewildered: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=599852 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=599852. The first cryptocurrency thread on HN—about 9 months earlier—was even more interesting: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=253963 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=253963. It contains another skeptical comment: "The bigger problem is that everyone has a incentive to run their computers day and night cranking out solutions, which burns up lots of natural resources and processor time for a zero-sum result." (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=253999 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=253999), which seems astonishingly prescient now, even though the objection is still hotly (no pun intended) debated. Cherry-picking the wrongest-seeming skeptical comment from that collection of data points is a case study in survivorship bias. (I don't mean to pick on you personally! This is common of course.) The infamous Dropbox comment from 2008 is similar in that it has gotten repeated out of context in a way that is unfair to the original commenter (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23229275 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23229275). When we repeat these things, it says more about us than it does about the thing we're repeating.

lotsofpulp 6y ago
> People love to pick out the comments of the past that seem most wrong now, because—let's be honest—it makes us feel superior. I like to see wrong “obvious” predictions to humble myself, even if not from me.
- dang 6y ago
  Ok, you get a pass. I'm generalizing from myself of course.
notional 6y ago
Ho boy looking up Xinjiang then reading this comment was a trip. Any ways Dropbox is pretty great and seeing the differences in sentiment towards TSLA stock compared to Bitcoin over the years has been great. Can't pick all the winners.
julienchastang 6y ago
What this also shows to me is just how difficult it is to predict the future. Here is another thought experiment: There is probably a wonderful technology / opportunity, perhaps lying in plain sight, that we will be kicking ourselves in ten years for not having gotten involved in. But what is it? "Every day brings new opportunities to become very rich, most of which we are bound to miss" [1] [1] https://www.wsj.com/articles/missed-teslas-12-551-rise-dont-feel-so-bad-11607606318 https://www.wsj.com/articles/missed-teslas-12-551-rise-dont-...
myth_drannon 6y ago
It's just humbling. Others and me, everyday we miss out hundreds of opportunities, it's a good reminder of life complexity. Things like that should be printed and posted on an office wall. Also from a creator's perspective it's important to see these cases of once in a generation invention (good or bad) and the comments on it.
derangedHorse 6y ago
Not really a superiority thing for me. I just think it’s funny how much perceptions change over time and how reasonable assumptions can be proven wrong

laurent92 6y ago

At the time it felt astonishing that central banks allowed non-state currencies to exist on national ground, for the first time. It still feels astonishing.