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HN has a hateboner for cryptos, which most of the time is based on purely illogical assumptions of tech they have no understanding of. Reddit is fine, but it h

by 0x64 5y ago

HN has a hateboner for cryptos, which most of the time is based on purely illogical assumptions of tech they have no understanding of. Reddit is fine, but it heavily depends on what you want. r/ethdev is good if you're interested in creating something, and r/ethfinance for quality discussion focused on what you can do on Ethereum.

radicalbyte 5y ago
It's not that - it's that a lot of us remember the time the bubble burst in 2000 and cryptocurrencies are in a very similar place right now. There are also a lot of us who are strongly against Proof of Work because it is not only extremely inefficient, it is also extremely irresponsible in the face of Climate Change. PoS will solve that - but like nuclear fusion, it is always a year away.
- anaisbetts 5y ago
  Yep, seconded. I would find cryptocurrency and NFTs merely amusing or maybe even interesting, if it weren't doing the environmental equivalent of dumping out N gallons of gasoline per transaction and setting it on fire
- 0x64 5y ago
  I agree about the energy use of PoW. On Ethereum, the PoS beacon chain has been live for almost a year now [1], with the merging of the PoW and PoS networks happening next year. We're now at the point where the specs for the merge transition are ready [2], clients are already being modified to target the release-spec [3], and the first long-lived testnet will go live by December. I'd personally expect the Merge to happen by May. [1] https://beaconcha.in https://beaconcha.in [2] https://github.com/ethereum/annotated-spec/blob/master/merge/beacon-chain.md https://github.com/ethereum/annotated-spec/blob/master/merge... [3] https://notes.ethereum.org/@djrtwo/kintsugi-milestones https://notes.ethereum.org/@djrtwo/kintsugi-milestones
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
nyxaiur 5y ago
You really ought to warm up before you stretch like that, otherwise you might get a sprain.
repomies69 5y ago
> HN has a hateboner for cryptos, which most of the time is based on purely illogical assumptions of tech they have no understanding of. Basically all online communities have hatred towards cryptos. Not because of understanding or assumptions, but because the shill army of shitcoiners that try to pump their shitcoins in every possible community there is. And of course the numerous spampots and scammers who also spread the negative image for cryptocurrencies.
tayo42 5y ago
Is there use for crypto outside of coins?
- auxym 5y ago
  ...yes? cryptography? https? ssh? password hashing?
  - tayo42 5y ago
    That can't be what's being talked about in this post. Otherwise this post wouldn't make sense. Those are fundamental tech topics. The term crypto seems overloaded
    - JohnFen 5y ago
      It's very overloaded, which is increasingly a problem for those of us who work with cryptography. I have started to have to be careful to stop saying "crypto" when I mean cryptography. Even though "crypto" has been short for "cryptography" since before cryptocurrency existed, increasingly people interpret it to mean "cryptocurrency" instead. It's a bit like the linguistic fight over the redefinition of the term "hacker": it's a lost battle.
    - auxym 5y ago
      Well, since GP said "other than coins", I interpreted it to mean "uses of cryptography other than cryptocurrency (coins)". But, well, I'm getting downvoted, so probably not.
ALittleLight 5y ago
There's a common assumption among crypto-apologists that critics just don't understand cryptocurrency. I don't think that's true. With Bitcoin for example, I could whiteboard out how it works and explain it with some technical depth. As a hobby project I once wrote a script to parse the blockchain blocks to get details about specific wallets I was interested in. There are certainly implementation level aspects I don't understand (or know about), but I bet I understand it as well or better than 90+ percent of pro-bitcoin people. My understanding of Bitcoin doesn't change the fact that it's pretty obviously a Ponzi Scheme. The only way to make money with Bitcoin is selling it to a greater fool. Bitcoin is largely not used for real transactions because it's slow and expensive to transact with. For the typical user, who is concerned with risks like losing their keys, being hacked, or being scammed, Bitcoin is vastly less secure than established banking solutions.
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
- gonehome 5y ago
  This is the best recent write up I’ve found for BTC and I basically agree with it: https://www.matthuang.com/bitcoin_for_the_open_minded_skeptic https://www.matthuang.com/bitcoin_for_the_open_minded_skepti... It sounds like you have a good understanding of the tech, but I’m not sure that’s common on HN. Imo HN mostly dismisses anything new until it’s obviously dominant (sometimes even then).
- pcthrowaway 5y ago
  Bitcoin aside, what do you know about Web3, smart contracts, defi, and decentralized applications? I'm actually in agreement that bitcoin is overvalued, and therefore largely a bubble with ponzi-like elements at this point. But I think the other things mentioned are incredibly nascent emerging technologies whose potential is still largely untapped.
evergrande 5y ago
That's because we knew about crypto early and poo poo'd it. We missed out on something life changing. We could have been a decade early to web 3 and helped shape it. We could have bought our freedom with a mere 10 dollars. But we didn't, because we thought it was stupid. Now we don't want to admit we so wrong that we didn't even invest 10 minutes or a 10 dollar bill into what may be the next evolution of the internet. Many of our brains will go to the grave never admitting this. It's too painful.

by 0x64 5y ago

radicalbyte 5y ago

It's not that - it's that a lot of us remember the time the bubble burst in 2000 and cryptocurrencies are in a very similar place right now. There are also a lot of us who are strongly against Proof of Work because it is not only extremely inefficient, it is also extremely irresponsible in the face of Climate Change. PoS will solve that - but like nuclear fusion, it is always a year away.

anaisbetts 5y ago
Yep, seconded. I would find cryptocurrency and NFTs merely amusing or maybe even interesting, if it weren't doing the environmental equivalent of dumping out N gallons of gasoline per transaction and setting it on fire
0x64 5y ago
I agree about the energy use of PoW. On Ethereum, the PoS beacon chain has been live for almost a year now [1], with the merging of the PoW and PoS networks happening next year. We're now at the point where the specs for the merge transition are ready [2], clients are already being modified to target the release-spec [3], and the first long-lived testnet will go live by December. I'd personally expect the Merge to happen by May. [1] https://beaconcha.in https://beaconcha.in [2] https://github.com/ethereum/annotated-spec/blob/master/merge/beacon-chain.md https://github.com/ethereum/annotated-spec/blob/master/merge... [3] https://notes.ethereum.org/@djrtwo/kintsugi-milestones https://notes.ethereum.org/@djrtwo/kintsugi-milestones
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]

nyxaiur 5y ago

You really ought to warm up before you stretch like that, otherwise you might get a sprain.

repomies69 5y ago

> HN has a hateboner for cryptos, which most of the time is based on purely illogical assumptions of tech they have no understanding of. Basically all online communities have hatred towards cryptos. Not because of understanding or assumptions, but because the shill army of shitcoiners that try to pump their shitcoins in every possible community there is. And of course the numerous spampots and scammers who also spread the negative image for cryptocurrencies.

tayo42 5y ago

Is there use for crypto outside of coins?

auxym 5y ago
...yes? cryptography? https? ssh? password hashing?
- tayo42 5y ago
  That can't be what's being talked about in this post. Otherwise this post wouldn't make sense. Those are fundamental tech topics. The term crypto seems overloaded
  - JohnFen 5y ago
    It's very overloaded, which is increasingly a problem for those of us who work with cryptography. I have started to have to be careful to stop saying "crypto" when I mean cryptography. Even though "crypto" has been short for "cryptography" since before cryptocurrency existed, increasingly people interpret it to mean "cryptocurrency" instead. It's a bit like the linguistic fight over the redefinition of the term "hacker": it's a lost battle.
  - auxym 5y ago
    Well, since GP said "other than coins", I interpreted it to mean "uses of cryptography other than cryptocurrency (coins)". But, well, I'm getting downvoted, so probably not.

ALittleLight 5y ago

There's a common assumption among crypto-apologists that critics just don't understand cryptocurrency. I don't think that's true. With Bitcoin for example, I could whiteboard out how it works and explain it with some technical depth. As a hobby project I once wrote a script to parse the blockchain blocks to get details about specific wallets I was interested in. There are certainly implementation level aspects I don't understand (or know about), but I bet I understand it as well or better than 90+ percent of pro-bitcoin people. My understanding of Bitcoin doesn't change the fact that it's pretty obviously a Ponzi Scheme. The only way to make money with Bitcoin is selling it to a greater fool. Bitcoin is largely not used for real transactions because it's slow and expensive to transact with. For the typical user, who is concerned with risks like losing their keys, being hacked, or being scammed, Bitcoin is vastly less secure than established banking solutions.

deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
gonehome 5y ago
This is the best recent write up I’ve found for BTC and I basically agree with it: https://www.matthuang.com/bitcoin_for_the_open_minded_skeptic https://www.matthuang.com/bitcoin_for_the_open_minded_skepti... It sounds like you have a good understanding of the tech, but I’m not sure that’s common on HN. Imo HN mostly dismisses anything new until it’s obviously dominant (sometimes even then).
pcthrowaway 5y ago
Bitcoin aside, what do you know about Web3, smart contracts, defi, and decentralized applications? I'm actually in agreement that bitcoin is overvalued, and therefore largely a bubble with ponzi-like elements at this point. But I think the other things mentioned are incredibly nascent emerging technologies whose potential is still largely untapped.

evergrande 5y ago

That's because we knew about crypto early and poo poo'd it. We missed out on something life changing. We could have been a decade early to web 3 and helped shape it. We could have bought our freedom with a mere 10 dollars. But we didn't, because we thought it was stupid. Now we don't want to admit we so wrong that we didn't even invest 10 minutes or a 10 dollar bill into what may be the next evolution of the internet. Many of our brains will go to the grave never admitting this. It's too painful.