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It is surprising and discouraging that a forum that is meant to be about start-ups, disruption, innovation and new ideas is so blind to one so revolutionary as

It is surprising and discouraging that a forum that is meant to be about start-ups, disruption, innovation and new ideas is so blind to one so revolutionary as cryptocurrencies. Yes there are scams, but that is not exclusive to the cryptocurrency world, and nobody is defending those. Yes there is too much price speculation, but there are also thousands of developers, companies and DAOs working on useful projects. We want cryptocurrencies and blockchains to be useful to people, let's focus on that. Yes scalability is insufficient at the moment, but there are multiple blockchains with concrete and plausible roadmaps to improve it while keeping enough decentralization. Let's not focus on the limitations of today, but on the possibilities of the future. Otherwise it would be like failing to imagine Youtube in the era of dial-up modems. It's unbecoming of Hacker News. I would like people in general, and even more here, to think twice and keep an open mind. If so many people are excited and dedicating their lives to it, isn't it possible that you missed something important?

piva00 4y ago
I was very excited for Bitcoin in 2012, I mined a few on my gaming rig that was also being used for some Seti@Home and Folding@Home calculations when idle. I imagined that at some point it'd be an useful technology. We are 10 years in, I've followed the whole scene from the outside, not really engaged in it but always keeping tabs on developments, exciting things popping up, etc. I'm thoroughly convinced the current crop of cryptocurrencies/cryptofinance should die. I dislike the apologisers bringing up that "scams are not exclusively to cryptocurrency", yes, of course, there are scams everywhere but very few technologies live in this crossroads of lack of control and perverse incentives for greedy people to rob others. The amount of money circulating in it freely available to be scammed is also on a level different than most others. The enabling of scams with this technology is absurd. 10 years in and I still haven't really found a use-case that could come close to compensate for the amount of money that naive people have lost, I've seen complete assholes that I personally know become filthy rich, quickly, just by not having any moral compass and being enabled by this technology to steal from others. No, I won't focus on the possibilities of the future knowing the amount of damage it creates in the present, I don't live with a Machiavellian moral of "the ends justify the means". The current means suck and there is no big push from the cryptocurrency scene to address those properly because it's been co-opted by the scammers through and through. Does the technology itself still have some exciting features? Yes. Do I believe that it'll eventually evolve to something that is actually useful and not hostile? No, I don't believe that, not the current crop of people working on it. > If so many people are excited and dedicating their lives to it, isn't it possible that you missed something important? Isn't it possible that those people have misguided (or mischievous) motivations? It's not because a lot of people fall into a hype that it makes the hype validated. Even less a hype that is completely and absolutely created by pure greed.
automatic6131 4y ago
>there are also thousands of developers, companies and DAOs working on useful projects. It's been 10 years, and nothing useful has been made. Merely things that really promise us could be, one day, perhaps, useful. Sorry bruv, we'll only listen to that argument for so long. And I think it's been long enough. >We want cryptocurrencies and blockchains to be useful to people, let's focus on that. No, you have it backwards. We want things useful to people - if that's cryptocurrency and blockchain, then we want them, but if they're NOT then we don't. There's nothing intrinsic about them we want.
sbf501 4y ago
> It is surprising and discouraging that a forum that is meant to be about start-ups, disruption, innovation and new ideas is so blind to one so revolutionary as cryptocurrencies. This is what happens when you put beliefs above facts. Just because you believe something doesn't make it true. If you ask a bunch of domain experts to review something, and they say it is bogus, then you are the one acting in bad faith, not them. Don't blame them for giving you the answer you didn't want. Instead, go be that crazy visionary and prove them all wrong. That's how science works.

piva00 4y ago

I was very excited for Bitcoin in 2012, I mined a few on my gaming rig that was also being used for some Seti@Home and Folding@Home calculations when idle. I imagined that at some point it'd be an useful technology. We are 10 years in, I've followed the whole scene from the outside, not really engaged in it but always keeping tabs on developments, exciting things popping up, etc. I'm thoroughly convinced the current crop of cryptocurrencies/cryptofinance should die. I dislike the apologisers bringing up that "scams are not exclusively to cryptocurrency", yes, of course, there are scams everywhere but very few technologies live in this crossroads of lack of control and perverse incentives for greedy people to rob others. The amount of money circulating in it freely available to be scammed is also on a level different than most others. The enabling of scams with this technology is absurd. 10 years in and I still haven't really found a use-case that could come close to compensate for the amount of money that naive people have lost, I've seen complete assholes that I personally know become filthy rich, quickly, just by not having any moral compass and being enabled by this technology to steal from others. No, I won't focus on the possibilities of the future knowing the amount of damage it creates in the present, I don't live with a Machiavellian moral of "the ends justify the means". The current means suck and there is no big push from the cryptocurrency scene to address those properly because it's been co-opted by the scammers through and through. Does the technology itself still have some exciting features? Yes. Do I believe that it'll eventually evolve to something that is actually useful and not hostile? No, I don't believe that, not the current crop of people working on it. > If so many people are excited and dedicating their lives to it, isn't it possible that you missed something important? Isn't it possible that those people have misguided (or mischievous) motivations? It's not because a lot of people fall into a hype that it makes the hype validated. Even less a hype that is completely and absolutely created by pure greed.

automatic6131 4y ago

>there are also thousands of developers, companies and DAOs working on useful projects. It's been 10 years, and nothing useful has been made. Merely things that really promise us could be, one day, perhaps, useful. Sorry bruv, we'll only listen to that argument for so long. And I think it's been long enough. >We want cryptocurrencies and blockchains to be useful to people, let's focus on that. No, you have it backwards. We want things useful to people - if that's cryptocurrency and blockchain, then we want them, but if they're NOT then we don't. There's nothing intrinsic about them we want.

sbf501 4y ago

> It is surprising and discouraging that a forum that is meant to be about start-ups, disruption, innovation and new ideas is so blind to one so revolutionary as cryptocurrencies. This is what happens when you put beliefs above facts. Just because you believe something doesn't make it true. If you ask a bunch of domain experts to review something, and they say it is bogus, then you are the one acting in bad faith, not them. Don't blame them for giving you the answer you didn't want. Instead, go be that crazy visionary and prove them all wrong. That's how science works.