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This is often not necessarily the case. For web3 - I'm still waiting to figure out what problem it can solve meaningfully.

tehjoker 5y ago
If you want to retain your sanity and finances, unless someone can explain in one sentence a clear and obvious use for the technology, all of crypto can be explained as unhinged speculation and rug pulls. We're over ten years in at this point with insane investment and nothing has appeared. My guess is that this is where the next financial crash will come from since it's totally unregulated and the "shadow banks" were mostly banned after 2008. All the shadow money just goes to crypto.
- vanusa 5y ago
  We're over ten years in at this point with insane investment and nothing has appeared. You can't dismiss the $69 million Beeple sale as "nothing". Truly, it is a watershed moment in human history.
ehsankia 5y ago
That's more or less what the GP said. "If the technology is good" applies both to how well it works, but also how useful it is. Neither of those has a good answer yet. But the best way to see it being useful is to actually create an MVP and show it in practice, not through fancy words.
- closetnerd 5y ago
  Was talking about "it'd sell itself". Good technology often doesn't sell itself.
threeseed 5y ago
> I'm still waiting to figure out what problem it can solve meaningfully Money laundering and other criminal behaviour. Many of the things we spent decades trying to remove from the financial system will come roaring back in. Of course it will come courtesy of young, wealthy, educated IT guys who are the least exposed to any financial shocks.
- Lordarminius 5y ago
  If you want to hate on crypto, that's your prerogative but stop using the old, tired, false argument about money laundering. It is easier to launder money through the legacy financial system than through cryptocurrency. In fact, financial institutions and businesses do it all the time.
  - threeseed 5y ago
    > It is easier to launder money through the legacy financial system than through cryptocurrency I work for a bank and this is a flat out lie. We have a significant number of controls (regulated by government agencies) for managing money laundering risk. We try to identify source/destinations who hide behind shell companies through beneficial ownership methods. We enforce domestic and international sanctions. We identify and provide data on suspect fraudulent transactions to authorities. None of this happens with crypto. None.
    - Lordarminius 5y ago
      The issue is not how many ineffective pro-forma controls banks have. It's whether they stop the activity. Even the Economist agrees that money laundering through the lagacy financial system is out of control. https://www.economist.com/finance-and-economics/2021/04/12/the-war-against-money-laundering-is-being-lost https://www.economist.com/finance-and-economics/2021/04/12/t...
    - shazzdeeds 5y ago
      And yet the vast majority of money laundering still happens through traditional banking channels. If crypto was such a panacea for laundering all the traffic would have switched over by now.
      - threeseed 5y ago
        a) At some point you have to re-enter the traditional banking system. People after all want to do things with their laundered money like buy yachts, cars, companies, football teams etc. And so if you are sophisticated at money laundering then crypto is largely unnecessary. b) Traditional financial system is 1000s of times bigger than crypto so of course you will see proportionally more money laundering happening there.

tehjoker 5y ago

If you want to retain your sanity and finances, unless someone can explain in one sentence a clear and obvious use for the technology, all of crypto can be explained as unhinged speculation and rug pulls. We're over ten years in at this point with insane investment and nothing has appeared. My guess is that this is where the next financial crash will come from since it's totally unregulated and the "shadow banks" were mostly banned after 2008. All the shadow money just goes to crypto.

vanusa 5y ago
We're over ten years in at this point with insane investment and nothing has appeared. You can't dismiss the $69 million Beeple sale as "nothing". Truly, it is a watershed moment in human history.

ehsankia 5y ago

That's more or less what the GP said. "If the technology is good" applies both to how well it works, but also how useful it is. Neither of those has a good answer yet. But the best way to see it being useful is to actually create an MVP and show it in practice, not through fancy words.

closetnerd 5y ago
Was talking about "it'd sell itself". Good technology often doesn't sell itself.

threeseed 5y ago

> I'm still waiting to figure out what problem it can solve meaningfully Money laundering and other criminal behaviour. Many of the things we spent decades trying to remove from the financial system will come roaring back in. Of course it will come courtesy of young, wealthy, educated IT guys who are the least exposed to any financial shocks.

Lordarminius 5y ago
If you want to hate on crypto, that's your prerogative but stop using the old, tired, false argument about money laundering. It is easier to launder money through the legacy financial system than through cryptocurrency. In fact, financial institutions and businesses do it all the time.
- threeseed 5y ago
  > It is easier to launder money through the legacy financial system than through cryptocurrency I work for a bank and this is a flat out lie. We have a significant number of controls (regulated by government agencies) for managing money laundering risk. We try to identify source/destinations who hide behind shell companies through beneficial ownership methods. We enforce domestic and international sanctions. We identify and provide data on suspect fraudulent transactions to authorities. None of this happens with crypto. None.
  - Lordarminius 5y ago
    The issue is not how many ineffective pro-forma controls banks have. It's whether they stop the activity. Even the Economist agrees that money laundering through the lagacy financial system is out of control. https://www.economist.com/finance-and-economics/2021/04/12/the-war-against-money-laundering-is-being-lost https://www.economist.com/finance-and-economics/2021/04/12/t...
  - shazzdeeds 5y ago
    And yet the vast majority of money laundering still happens through traditional banking channels. If crypto was such a panacea for laundering all the traffic would have switched over by now.
    - threeseed 5y ago
      a) At some point you have to re-enter the traditional banking system. People after all want to do things with their laundered money like buy yachts, cars, companies, football teams etc. And so if you are sophisticated at money laundering then crypto is largely unnecessary. b) Traditional financial system is 1000s of times bigger than crypto so of course you will see proportionally more money laundering happening there.