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You're right, but is this news? I understand the whole point of crypto is the future bet that centralisation/regulation by state actors will eventually be _les

You're right, but is this news? I understand the whole point of crypto is the future bet that centralisation/regulation by state actors will eventually be _less_ trustable. This one hack means $600MM lost, but how much has been routinely lost to bad governance, inflation or corruption? How much value has been destroyed in the 2008 housing crisis? In the long run, the crypto market can professionalize enough while remaining decentralised, such that the risk/reward is attractive compared to holding 100% fiat – this seems to be people's bet, not that crypto is inherently safe.

IfOnlyYouKnew 5y ago
While I understand how inflation may, in theory, be something that could change with some breakthrough in economics (even though I don't buy that inflation is actually a problem, or that cryptocurrencies represent such a breakthrough), I have no idea how they would be of help fighting "corruption and bad governance". Which is the problem with that community: they seem to have these extremely naive yet cynical view of politicians just being "stupid", money being wasted, everyone being corrupt etc. And that, somehow, their funny little hashes are the silver bullet to solve these issues.
- diamond559 5y ago
  I think the Bitcoin community give the rest of the space a bad name. There are too many people with fringe libertarian views in that space that dominate the narrative. Ethereum, I've found is a much more interesting space. It's valuable because you can actually use the blockchain for things more complicated than just sending coins around. As stupid as many of the NFTs are right now, they have the potential to completely change how the art, music and gaming industries are monetized. Defi has a huge potential to make banking more efficient and provide banking services to underserved areas as long as they have an internet connection.
lottin 5y ago
Bitcoin is an attempt to redesign the international monetary system by people who are clueless about economics. The result speaks for itself. A payment system that doesn't work and can't work, and a currency that would sink any country adopting it into a deep depression. Defi is to finance what bitcoin is to currency. A bunch of kids who wanted to "do finance" without actually knowing anything about finance. They still haven't figured out that you can't do finance with unconfiscatable assets. The main problem isn't lack of professionalism, but the fact that it's broken by design.
- diamond559 5y ago
  There is about 80 billion being used in defi right now and growing, I'd say that they are "doing finance" pretty well. The scams are outliers, comparable to the number of scams pulled over the internet in general. Calling them kids is just rude, save your ad hominem attacks for another site.
  - lottin 5y ago
    That's a lot of money being used in defi (whatever that means) but do you have a single example of financing through defi? Financing means providing borrowers with resources (such as money) that they don't already have. I think you'll have a hard time finding examples, because it turns out financing requires the ability to seize assets from a defaulting borrower, an ability which defi lacks.
    - diamond559 5y ago
      That's just untrue, all borrowers from defi apps are required to be overcollateralized. The ability to pull from their collateral in case of a default is built into the smart contract.
      - lottin 5y ago
        Of course, but that's not financing. If they post more collateral than the amount they're borrowing, the net amount borrowed is < 0.

IfOnlyYouKnew 5y ago

While I understand how inflation may, in theory, be something that could change with some breakthrough in economics (even though I don't buy that inflation is actually a problem, or that cryptocurrencies represent such a breakthrough), I have no idea how they would be of help fighting "corruption and bad governance". Which is the problem with that community: they seem to have these extremely naive yet cynical view of politicians just being "stupid", money being wasted, everyone being corrupt etc. And that, somehow, their funny little hashes are the silver bullet to solve these issues.

diamond559 5y ago
I think the Bitcoin community give the rest of the space a bad name. There are too many people with fringe libertarian views in that space that dominate the narrative. Ethereum, I've found is a much more interesting space. It's valuable because you can actually use the blockchain for things more complicated than just sending coins around. As stupid as many of the NFTs are right now, they have the potential to completely change how the art, music and gaming industries are monetized. Defi has a huge potential to make banking more efficient and provide banking services to underserved areas as long as they have an internet connection.

lottin 5y ago

Bitcoin is an attempt to redesign the international monetary system by people who are clueless about economics. The result speaks for itself. A payment system that doesn't work and can't work, and a currency that would sink any country adopting it into a deep depression. Defi is to finance what bitcoin is to currency. A bunch of kids who wanted to "do finance" without actually knowing anything about finance. They still haven't figured out that you can't do finance with unconfiscatable assets. The main problem isn't lack of professionalism, but the fact that it's broken by design.

diamond559 5y ago
There is about 80 billion being used in defi right now and growing, I'd say that they are "doing finance" pretty well. The scams are outliers, comparable to the number of scams pulled over the internet in general. Calling them kids is just rude, save your ad hominem attacks for another site.
- lottin 5y ago
  That's a lot of money being used in defi (whatever that means) but do you have a single example of financing through defi? Financing means providing borrowers with resources (such as money) that they don't already have. I think you'll have a hard time finding examples, because it turns out financing requires the ability to seize assets from a defaulting borrower, an ability which defi lacks.
  - diamond559 5y ago
    That's just untrue, all borrowers from defi apps are required to be overcollateralized. The ability to pull from their collateral in case of a default is built into the smart contract.
    - lottin 5y ago
      Of course, but that's not financing. If they post more collateral than the amount they're borrowing, the net amount borrowed is < 0.