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I don’t think there’s a bifurcation between “good” and “bad” people in crypto, the real world is a lot more grey, and how people behave doesn’t depend so much o

I don’t think there’s a bifurcation between “good” and “bad” people in crypto, the real world is a lot more grey, and how people behave doesn’t depend so much on their character, but on culture and incentives. These days, we painfully observe the culture of crypto in every single online medium that isn’t very carefully moderated, for example Twitter. And about incentives, I think it’s very hard not to become some kind of “evangelist” or “shill” when a significant fraction of your net worth is invested in a digital item whose sole value depends on enough other people also believing in the project. You need to spread the hype. In my opinion, all of this would be fun and games if it weren’t for the massive negative externalities all of this cause in terms of environmental damage and accelerating the climate catastrophe. This is completely evident, which doesn’t stop some crypto holders from denying it with all kinds of illogical arguments. That’s understandable — see previous paragraph.

asterix_pano 4y ago
You have many cryptos with completely negligible environmental impact, thanks to smarter consensus mechanisms. It's a really new tech field, and as almost everything in tech, it improves over time.
- JumpCrisscross 4y ago
  > as almost everything in tech, it improves over time This doesn't describe crypto over the past decade. It's become more pervasive, more corrupt, more destructive (from environmental impact to its role in facilitating hacking) and, with NFTs, more slot machinesque.
  - asterix_pano 4y ago
    You seem pretty biased. You now have cryptos that allow you to transact with anyone in the world, instantly and without fees, while consuming barely any energy. And all of that, while remaining 100% in control of your money. You have others that let you lend or borrow assets in a permission-less fashion, without many intermediaries. More and more companies are using it as a backbone for their operations, for example in IoT settings or in financial situations. If you look a bit more, you will see many interesting development. But like everything in tech, there are good and bad things.
HideousKojima 4y ago
>I don’t think there’s a bifurcation between “good” and “bad” people in crypto "The line separating good and evil passes not through states, nor between classes, nor between political parties either — but right through every human heart." and "If only it were all so simple! If only there were evil people somewhere insidiously committing evil deeds, and it were necessary only to separate them from the rest of us and destroy them. But the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being." -Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
NoGravitas 4y ago
> In my opinion, all of this would be fun and games if it weren’t for the massive negative externalities all of this cause in terms of environmental damage and accelerating the climate catastrophe. The climate externalities are significant, but they're not the only problem. If the whole cryptocurrencies space shifted to Proof of Stake tomorrow, cryptocurrencies would still have a tremendously bad effect by increasing wealth inequality (because just as with Proof of Work, it's baked in to the code).
nix0n 4y ago
> I don’t think there’s a bifurcation between “good” and “bad” people in crypto Right, there's only bad people. The bifurcation is between money laundering people and Ponzi scheme people.

asterix_pano 4y ago

You have many cryptos with completely negligible environmental impact, thanks to smarter consensus mechanisms. It's a really new tech field, and as almost everything in tech, it improves over time.

JumpCrisscross 4y ago
> as almost everything in tech, it improves over time This doesn't describe crypto over the past decade. It's become more pervasive, more corrupt, more destructive (from environmental impact to its role in facilitating hacking) and, with NFTs, more slot machinesque.
- asterix_pano 4y ago
  You seem pretty biased. You now have cryptos that allow you to transact with anyone in the world, instantly and without fees, while consuming barely any energy. And all of that, while remaining 100% in control of your money. You have others that let you lend or borrow assets in a permission-less fashion, without many intermediaries. More and more companies are using it as a backbone for their operations, for example in IoT settings or in financial situations. If you look a bit more, you will see many interesting development. But like everything in tech, there are good and bad things.

HideousKojima 4y ago

>I don’t think there’s a bifurcation between “good” and “bad” people in crypto "The line separating good and evil passes not through states, nor between classes, nor between political parties either — but right through every human heart." and "If only it were all so simple! If only there were evil people somewhere insidiously committing evil deeds, and it were necessary only to separate them from the rest of us and destroy them. But the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being." -Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

NoGravitas 4y ago

> In my opinion, all of this would be fun and games if it weren’t for the massive negative externalities all of this cause in terms of environmental damage and accelerating the climate catastrophe. The climate externalities are significant, but they're not the only problem. If the whole cryptocurrencies space shifted to Proof of Stake tomorrow, cryptocurrencies would still have a tremendously bad effect by increasing wealth inequality (because just as with Proof of Work, it's baked in to the code).

nix0n 4y ago

> I don’t think there’s a bifurcation between “good” and “bad” people in crypto Right, there's only bad people. The bifurcation is between money laundering people and Ponzi scheme people.