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Given the somewhat clickbaity headline, this piece is straight to the point and surprisingly sober. I found this to be the central thesis: > If anything, cryp
by jMyles 5y ago
Given the somewhat clickbaity headline, this piece is straight to the point and surprisingly sober.
I found this to be the central thesis:
> If anything, crypto is more likely to hurt the currencies of countries that are doing very poorly, such as Venezuela. Fiat currency won’t just go away, so over the long run crypto could actually boost the value of the dollar by stifling the rise of potential competitors.
...and the author is absolutely correct: much of the crypto crowd, whether or not they understand this, seems wont to ignore it.
I view blockchain tech - and even crypto assets - as a wonderful, peaceful, transformative technology in the long-term. But I also think that the need for calm analysis, thinking about much, much longer timeframes, is sorely needed in the 'crypto crowd' today.
> A second point, oft neglected in the crypto community, is that crypto prices won’t continue to go up forever at high rates. It doesn’t matter whether money supply deflation is built into a crypto system, or that new and valuable uses will be discovered each year.
Here I again I agree, but I do want to add something important:
New and valuable uses are very important right now. I work at NuCypher, and we are very proud of having deployed proxy re-encryption as an access management tool. But nobody is using it, for two reasons: 1) gas prices, 2) there are no other "new and valuable uses" which make access management worthwhile at the moment.
Whether or not you see a rich future for blockchain tech, I hope we can all agree that solid uses - especially those which advantage groups marginalized by yesterday's internet - are the real driver of the eventual equilibrium the author describes here.
- mech422 5y agoAnyone who thinks crypto prices will continue to rise forever is not 'the crypto crowd'. 'The crypto crowd' has seen bitcoin go up and down countless times. The problem is, everyone seems to equate noobs getting suckered by Musk with the 'crypto crowd'. I feel bad for them, but it's like saying /r/wallstreetbets are 'investors'. P.S. - And where do they keep getting this 'fiat is going away' bull from? I honestly don't know anyone in crypto that thinks this? Yes, I see crap on youtube pumping stuff like this - is that now what the bar is? "I saw it on youtube" ?
- UIGYUIUYG 5y ago>is that now what the bar is? "I saw it on youtube" ? In todays society? Sadly, yes.
- mech422 5y agoI suppose...the world today seems to be driven by FOMO and FUD.. It's like the yin-and-yang of our brave new world :-(
- jcranmer 5y ago> P.S. - And where do they keep getting this 'fiat is going away' bull from? I honestly don't know anyone in crypto that thinks this? Yes, I see crap on youtube pumping stuff like this - is that now what the bar is? "I saw it on youtube" ? I've seen several comments here on Hacker News that has this WTF-level of cryptoboosterism. Certainly anyone who seriously argues "but you forgot to account for the energy cost of nuclear carriers in propping up fiat currency" gives off the same vibes as "fiat is going to crash once we realize it's all funny money."
- jMyles 5y agoI think the former is a perfectly reasonable consideration, while the latter is short-shrift. Am I wrong?
- mech422 5y agosorry - I lost track of the former and the latter... Guess I need more coffee :-) What are they referring to?
- jMyles 5y agoI think that the consequences of imperialism and warfare are reasonable understood as part of the ecological toll of the dollar for the purposes of comparisons to the carbon costs of PoW mining. (that's the former) ...while I don't think that fiat currency will suddenly crash based on a eureka moment regarding the monetary policies by which the dollar is minted and lent (the latter).