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I'd rather waste my brainpower on crypto than advertising or in-app purchases.

bilbo0s 4y ago
If you spend your brainpower on crypto, cheer up! You're likely one of the contributors to the allocation of brainpower on advertising in-app purchases of crypto as well!
puranjay 4y ago
if every single crypto dApp was erased from the world overnight, absolutely nothing about how you live your life would change. That's how much impact crypto has had on the world in 15 years.
- netr0ute 4y ago
  If the iPhone was never released in 2007, Android would have picked up the smartphone slack.
  - puranjay 4y ago
    if the iPhone was released in 2007 but in 2022, you couldn't use it to make calls, browse the web, and chat with friends. Instead, it could only run a bunch of Candy Crush clones, but with real money. Would you call that a successful product?
  - heretogetout 4y ago
    And given how bad Android is with its plurality or majority market share, how much worse would it be without iPhone competition? I wonder how few years Android devices would be supported if iPhones didn't set the bar so high.
- asenna 4y ago
  Bitcoin is 13 years old. The "crypto" that you're most likely referring to is Smart contracts based dApps, 7 years old. The Internet in early 1990s was still over a decade old but had it disappeared overnight then, absolutely nothing about anyone's life would've changed back then.
  - puranjay 4y ago
    Crypto usage is entirely tied to the market. If the market is doing well, dApp usage collapses. Google search volume doesn't collapse if the stock market isn't doing well. You still send emails even in a recession. No one uses crypto outside of speculation. Even the dApp with the most "mainstream" use case, OpenSea, has collapses in usage as soon as the market turns bearish. Why? Because no one wants to buy "digital art" when there is no bigger fool to sell it to. I haven't even logged into my Metamask for weeks now.
    - asenna 4y ago
      My point above is still relevant to your response as well - the Internet in the 1990s was in a similar state. No one was buying things online and it was too slow to replace TV shows. > No one uses crypto outside of speculation. Same old argument while closing your eyes to actual use cases. You have this technology where - leaving aside free cross-border trustless payments to anyone, you can have an immutable record of data to store, unhackable, solves spam and you actually still think this is all about speculation? You're on Hacker News, really recommend putting on your hacker hat and re-evaluating it. --- On a slightly different note, Opensea is not a true dApp and it's a little centralized in places. But yes of course NFTs right now are extremely speculative. Look elsewhere, ENS domains usage is at an all time high and rapidly growing (even after the recent price correction), Uniswap recently crossed a trillion $ in total transaction volume in its lifetime. Blockchain tech is an extremely powerful tool, it's a shame most hackers on HN are hostile to it which makes them miss real use-cases happening under the surface.
      - puranjay 4y ago
        Man, I've been in the crypto hole for two years straight. There's not a protocol that I haven't tried yet. And there's not a protocol that I now use outside of speculation. Even ENS domain usage has been going up because of the speculative frenzy around valuable domain names (look up the race to register all 3-letter ENS names). You can start off by naming three projects that you actually use regularly outside of speculative investments. Because for the life of me, I can't.

If you spend your brainpower on crypto, cheer up! You're likely one of the contributors to the allocation of brainpower on advertising in-app purchases of crypto as well!

puranjay 4y ago

if every single crypto dApp was erased from the world overnight, absolutely nothing about how you live your life would change. That's how much impact crypto has had on the world in 15 years.

netr0ute 4y ago
If the iPhone was never released in 2007, Android would have picked up the smartphone slack.
- puranjay 4y ago
  if the iPhone was released in 2007 but in 2022, you couldn't use it to make calls, browse the web, and chat with friends. Instead, it could only run a bunch of Candy Crush clones, but with real money. Would you call that a successful product?
- heretogetout 4y ago
  And given how bad Android is with its plurality or majority market share, how much worse would it be without iPhone competition? I wonder how few years Android devices would be supported if iPhones didn't set the bar so high.
asenna 4y ago
Bitcoin is 13 years old. The "crypto" that you're most likely referring to is Smart contracts based dApps, 7 years old. The Internet in early 1990s was still over a decade old but had it disappeared overnight then, absolutely nothing about anyone's life would've changed back then.
- puranjay 4y ago
  Crypto usage is entirely tied to the market. If the market is doing well, dApp usage collapses. Google search volume doesn't collapse if the stock market isn't doing well. You still send emails even in a recession. No one uses crypto outside of speculation. Even the dApp with the most "mainstream" use case, OpenSea, has collapses in usage as soon as the market turns bearish. Why? Because no one wants to buy "digital art" when there is no bigger fool to sell it to. I haven't even logged into my Metamask for weeks now.
  - asenna 4y ago
    My point above is still relevant to your response as well - the Internet in the 1990s was in a similar state. No one was buying things online and it was too slow to replace TV shows. > No one uses crypto outside of speculation. Same old argument while closing your eyes to actual use cases. You have this technology where - leaving aside free cross-border trustless payments to anyone, you can have an immutable record of data to store, unhackable, solves spam and you actually still think this is all about speculation? You're on Hacker News, really recommend putting on your hacker hat and re-evaluating it. --- On a slightly different note, Opensea is not a true dApp and it's a little centralized in places. But yes of course NFTs right now are extremely speculative. Look elsewhere, ENS domains usage is at an all time high and rapidly growing (even after the recent price correction), Uniswap recently crossed a trillion $ in total transaction volume in its lifetime. Blockchain tech is an extremely powerful tool, it's a shame most hackers on HN are hostile to it which makes them miss real use-cases happening under the surface.
    - puranjay 4y ago
      Man, I've been in the crypto hole for two years straight. There's not a protocol that I haven't tried yet. And there's not a protocol that I now use outside of speculation. Even ENS domain usage has been going up because of the speculative frenzy around valuable domain names (look up the race to register all 3-letter ENS names). You can start off by naming three projects that you actually use regularly outside of speculative investments. Because for the life of me, I can't.