4 ms·

Because the intersection of the stated goals and the actual goals is essentially empty. The actual goal isn't to be useful, it's to make the early adopters rich

Because the intersection of the stated goals and the actual goals is essentially empty. The actual goal isn't to be useful, it's to make the early adopters rich.

dandare 5y ago
That's brilliantly said! The argumentation of typical crypto fan is like the motte and bailey fallacy mounted on a helicopter rotor, constantly oscillating between some noble goals (decentralisation, freedom, privacy, anti-inflation, anti-fractional banking) and the "have fun staying poor" snark.
TillE 5y ago
It's such a bizarre industry because I think the technical issues are really interesting and the potential for cryptocurrency is huge, but in practice it's 99% about speculators trying to get rich quick. That's really boring!
- leppr 5y ago
  It is, but there's probably more actual interesting development and design activity going on than you realize. There's simply a real discovery problem, because of the aforementioned gold rush. Participants have too many incentives to bury accurate information that speaks against their investment, spread misinformation that embellishes it, suppress information about projects they want to invest in but didn't yet, ...
- astrange 5y ago
  "The technical issues are really interesting" is how you know it's a scam. It's like working for Facebook; they keep everyone interested by having them write unnecessary but interesting projects like new build systems and new PHP runtimes. Except that every contribution makes the price of ETH go up, and FB pays you.
  - edrxty 5y ago
    I...think you just described society
_alex_ 5y ago
that's an ignorant statement. There is a ton of development and deployment happening to make the Lightning Network be a high-throughput, low cost way to move bitcoin around the world. A lot of people are working to make bitcoin more useful to more people.
- wmf 5y ago
  Even with Lightning, Bitcoin won't ever be good digital cash because it won't have stable value and it isn't as private as, say, ZCash.
- freebuju 5y ago
  To be fair, we have given Bitcoin more than enough time to mature into the ideals Nakamoto had envisioned. Can we just call it a failed project and move on to cryptos that actually deliver on the promise.

Because the intersection of the stated goals and the actual goals is essentially empty. The actual goal isn't to be useful, it's to make the early adopters rich.

dandare 5y ago

That's brilliantly said! The argumentation of typical crypto fan is like the motte and bailey fallacy mounted on a helicopter rotor, constantly oscillating between some noble goals (decentralisation, freedom, privacy, anti-inflation, anti-fractional banking) and the "have fun staying poor" snark.

TillE 5y ago

It's such a bizarre industry because I think the technical issues are really interesting and the potential for cryptocurrency is huge, but in practice it's 99% about speculators trying to get rich quick. That's really boring!

leppr 5y ago
It is, but there's probably more actual interesting development and design activity going on than you realize. There's simply a real discovery problem, because of the aforementioned gold rush. Participants have too many incentives to bury accurate information that speaks against their investment, spread misinformation that embellishes it, suppress information about projects they want to invest in but didn't yet, ...
astrange 5y ago
"The technical issues are really interesting" is how you know it's a scam. It's like working for Facebook; they keep everyone interested by having them write unnecessary but interesting projects like new build systems and new PHP runtimes. Except that every contribution makes the price of ETH go up, and FB pays you.
- edrxty 5y ago
  I...think you just described society

_alex_ 5y ago

that's an ignorant statement. There is a ton of development and deployment happening to make the Lightning Network be a high-throughput, low cost way to move bitcoin around the world. A lot of people are working to make bitcoin more useful to more people.

wmf 5y ago
Even with Lightning, Bitcoin won't ever be good digital cash because it won't have stable value and it isn't as private as, say, ZCash.
freebuju 5y ago
To be fair, we have given Bitcoin more than enough time to mature into the ideals Nakamoto had envisioned. Can we just call it a failed project and move on to cryptos that actually deliver on the promise.