3 ms·
It's not a critique of financial investment or speculation. It's calling all of it what it is - financial investment and/or speculation. If someone claimed they
by kkielhofner 4y ago
It's not a critique of financial investment or speculation. It's calling all of it what it is - financial investment and/or speculation. If someone claimed they were participating in changing the world and building the future of everything by shuffling Euros around on some forex platform and taking it home as USD you would be skeptical, correct? How is trading BTC any different?
You misunderstand me. Many people trade crypto but this doesn't equate to actual use. Crypto exchanges run order books just like a forex exchange or other investment platform with a SQL or whatever backend.
Do you really consider people speculating on insert-random-coin-ticker-on-exchange-here as use? It moves on an internal order book, it doesn't touch the blockchain itself. That is not use. That is people investing or speculating with an asset just like any other asset. It has nothing to do with the underlying technology or use. Nothing.
Looking at the chains themselves you will see that very few people actually transact off exchanges on actual blockchains (real use). This is what I mean when I say cryptocurrency USE is irrelevant. Buying and selling BTC to take it home in USD to buy a Lambo is not USE of BTC. It's financial investment/speculation on some random asset and USE of USD.
- bowsamic 4y agoI do consider it a use of crypto, in this case it is a highly volatile speculative investment that can be moved into a hardware wallet where it can be kept safe from theft, and also transferred into fiat. Even if crypto never becomes more than that, I still think this is a valuable thing. With DeFi things get more interesting
- kkielhofner 4y agoI suppose we'll just have to agree to disagree on use. I'm still of the position that trading cryptocurrency on an exchange and never using the underlying technology or touching the network isn't use of that cryptocurrency. The ironic aspect of this debate is I'm on my second blockchain startup for a reason - I believe there are plenty of use cases where it makes sense. I just don't think the cryptocurrency/blockchain communities are doing themselves a favor operating under the mass delusion that crypto is a big thing (while still being early?) when all available real data says otherwise. Trying to pump the underlying cryptocurrency by shoehorning the tech into anything and everything (and doing so poorly) will backfire as well (and already is). Blockchain and cryptocurrency advocates need to look inwards to identify blockers to mass adoption and address them while identifying real world use cases where blockchain/cryptocurrency provides real value and utility.