5 ms·

I just hope that this is the beginning of the end for the whole crypto space. Good riddance. This fraud galore has no legal basis for existing.

api 4y ago
Don't forget the utterly insane amounts of both financial and human capital that have been invested in this space with virtually nothing to show for it. The whole thing is an infinite sinkhole. Cryptocurrency kind of reminds me of that Star Trek episode where they were going to destroy the Borg by giving them this impossible n-dimensional object to ponder. It had no solution but was infinitely interesting so they would ponder it, and ponder it, enlisting more and more minds in the collective until the entire Borg were occupied doing nothing but considering this shape. Cryptocurrency kind of seems to have done that to hacker culture. It's infinitely technically fascinating and pushes all the right cyber-libertarian buttons so it sucks in more and more resources forever but amounts to nothing.
- danrocks 4y ago
  This comment hits the nail on the head. Just this morning when I saw FTX and BlockFi's news I thought to myself "yeah all the electricity spent on this is bad, but the real problem is how many hours of human thought have been spent on coming up with these schemes just for them to blow up on our faces". Crypto is like the mental virus in the movie "Pontypool" [0] - people are infected by it and cannot think about anything else. [0] - https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/pontypool https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/pontypool
  - mrbombastic 4y ago
    Is there a term for this type of highly interesting problem that is ultimately a waste of time? I have been calling it a “brain sink”in my head, it is deeply sad to me how many smart people have jumped on the bandwagon and what they could have done otherwise with their potential.
    - shuckles 4y ago
      XKCD: https://xkcd.com/356/ https://xkcd.com/356/
    - api 4y ago
      Now that the world is hyper connected we should expect an increasing number of increasingly virulent memetic plagues like this to emerge. Be skeptical out there.
- nerf0 4y ago
  If crypto didn't exist, these people would either go to wallstreet, or play poker.
  - zbentley 4y ago
    I wish that were true. But sadly I think crypto's gravitational pull has yanked in plenty of folks that could have accomplished great things (for themselves or others). The potent mix of greed, exclusivity, and novelty applied at the right time someone's life can ruin just about anyone.
    - Ekaros 4y ago
      On other hand we might have more gig economy companies... Making everything worse on average...
jusonchan81 4y ago
I’m still amused by how much investment still VCs make into this space. If the industry shakes the bad apples out that would be truly great for the entire economy.
- HPMOR 4y ago
  The industry IS a bad apple. There are zero legitimate use cases STILL of any crypto related product.
  - ridgeguy 4y ago
    Might even be an existential risk. One possible solution to the Fermi Paradox is that they invented crypto and it wrecked them.
    - tomcatfish 4y ago
      The thing it's trendy to hate on is probably just like other things it's been trendy to hate on, and claiming otherwise looks pretty silly. Unless flavored vapes are also a potential filter event, that is.
    - WalterSear 4y ago
      Crypto's mostly gamed and fanciful market cap is still smaller than Apple's actual market cap.
  - Bubble_Pop_22 4y ago
    Finance is a legit use case. If you think it's not then by extension you have to write off the legacy financial system as well. Think about something like private/public pensions, annuities etc. A cogitating being knows that they are getting older and will need money for retirement, but they also should know that there are essentially just 4 ways to make an investment grow without any labor input from the investor: the bond market, the stock market, the real estate market and private lending to companies or individuals. Now with the possible exception of private lending a citizen can do all the above, and remember they also know that they will need money for retirement. So tell me again why do they need public/private pensions and annuities? And why we allow such actors to operate given they redundacy considering the fact that they are preying on people's fears that they won't be able to make it in the future? If crypto preys on people's greed then the legacy financial system preys on people's fears. They are 2 equally bad behaviors.
psychlops 4y ago
Pretty sure that requiring all new products to have a "legal basis" before invention would be a very bad idea.
andirk 4y ago
All coins are scams? Wow that's quite a bold statement and clearly from someone who has researched all the top 500 projects in the space and clearly not some1 who is bitter they didnt get in at the beginning despite being there and not pulling the trigger.
- zbentley 4y ago
  This is such a tiresome common refrain, and a very telling one. Critical? Then you must not have gotten rich/must not be money material! This is quite literally the line used by "energy deregulation" MLM hucksters. It's OK to admit that you're enthusiastic about something because you think it'll make you rich. Heck, it's even OK to promote it because you think that will help pump things in some small way (or a large way, depending on which sketchy Telegram chats you're pumping it in). But don't BS others, or yourself, about your reasons for doing this. The music's been fading out for a bit. The world changing innovations didn't happen, the grand plans were very nearly all vaporware, and the few that were even arguably real have come to naught. It doesn't take any bitterness to come to an overwhelmingly negative opinion about this entire area and anyone even somewhat bullish on it.
  - andirk 4y ago
    Project devs often have next to nothing to do with pricing. They're building whatever product with a public ledger and a currency type of thing involved with it. Please stop blanket statements of this is a scam! One can say the valuation is grossly inflated, there are a lot of bad actors, etc. but my god this idea that internet money (but of course not that inflation-ridden bombs-not-gold-backed USD!) Is a scam by definition is childish. Tether? Scam. Ripple? Scam. Most shitcoins? Scam. Crypto as a technology? It's just code, and open source (usually) and you personally can get involved by submitting a PR. People buy stonks with VERY little understanding of what makes it worth something. Same shit

api 4y ago

Don't forget the utterly insane amounts of both financial and human capital that have been invested in this space with virtually nothing to show for it. The whole thing is an infinite sinkhole. Cryptocurrency kind of reminds me of that Star Trek episode where they were going to destroy the Borg by giving them this impossible n-dimensional object to ponder. It had no solution but was infinitely interesting so they would ponder it, and ponder it, enlisting more and more minds in the collective until the entire Borg were occupied doing nothing but considering this shape. Cryptocurrency kind of seems to have done that to hacker culture. It's infinitely technically fascinating and pushes all the right cyber-libertarian buttons so it sucks in more and more resources forever but amounts to nothing.

danrocks 4y ago
This comment hits the nail on the head. Just this morning when I saw FTX and BlockFi's news I thought to myself "yeah all the electricity spent on this is bad, but the real problem is how many hours of human thought have been spent on coming up with these schemes just for them to blow up on our faces". Crypto is like the mental virus in the movie "Pontypool" [0] - people are infected by it and cannot think about anything else. [0] - https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/pontypool https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/pontypool
- mrbombastic 4y ago
  Is there a term for this type of highly interesting problem that is ultimately a waste of time? I have been calling it a “brain sink”in my head, it is deeply sad to me how many smart people have jumped on the bandwagon and what they could have done otherwise with their potential.
  - shuckles 4y ago
    XKCD: https://xkcd.com/356/ https://xkcd.com/356/
  - api 4y ago
    Now that the world is hyper connected we should expect an increasing number of increasingly virulent memetic plagues like this to emerge. Be skeptical out there.
nerf0 4y ago
If crypto didn't exist, these people would either go to wallstreet, or play poker.
- zbentley 4y ago
  I wish that were true. But sadly I think crypto's gravitational pull has yanked in plenty of folks that could have accomplished great things (for themselves or others). The potent mix of greed, exclusivity, and novelty applied at the right time someone's life can ruin just about anyone.
  - Ekaros 4y ago
    On other hand we might have more gig economy companies... Making everything worse on average...

jusonchan81 4y ago

I’m still amused by how much investment still VCs make into this space. If the industry shakes the bad apples out that would be truly great for the entire economy.

HPMOR 4y ago
The industry IS a bad apple. There are zero legitimate use cases STILL of any crypto related product.
- ridgeguy 4y ago
  Might even be an existential risk. One possible solution to the Fermi Paradox is that they invented crypto and it wrecked them.
  - tomcatfish 4y ago
    The thing it's trendy to hate on is probably just like other things it's been trendy to hate on, and claiming otherwise looks pretty silly. Unless flavored vapes are also a potential filter event, that is.
  - WalterSear 4y ago
    Crypto's mostly gamed and fanciful market cap is still smaller than Apple's actual market cap.
- Bubble_Pop_22 4y ago
  Finance is a legit use case. If you think it's not then by extension you have to write off the legacy financial system as well. Think about something like private/public pensions, annuities etc. A cogitating being knows that they are getting older and will need money for retirement, but they also should know that there are essentially just 4 ways to make an investment grow without any labor input from the investor: the bond market, the stock market, the real estate market and private lending to companies or individuals. Now with the possible exception of private lending a citizen can do all the above, and remember they also know that they will need money for retirement. So tell me again why do they need public/private pensions and annuities? And why we allow such actors to operate given they redundacy considering the fact that they are preying on people's fears that they won't be able to make it in the future? If crypto preys on people's greed then the legacy financial system preys on people's fears. They are 2 equally bad behaviors.

psychlops 4y ago

Pretty sure that requiring all new products to have a "legal basis" before invention would be a very bad idea.

andirk 4y ago

All coins are scams? Wow that's quite a bold statement and clearly from someone who has researched all the top 500 projects in the space and clearly not some1 who is bitter they didnt get in at the beginning despite being there and not pulling the trigger.

zbentley 4y ago
This is such a tiresome common refrain, and a very telling one. Critical? Then you must not have gotten rich/must not be money material! This is quite literally the line used by "energy deregulation" MLM hucksters. It's OK to admit that you're enthusiastic about something because you think it'll make you rich. Heck, it's even OK to promote it because you think that will help pump things in some small way (or a large way, depending on which sketchy Telegram chats you're pumping it in). But don't BS others, or yourself, about your reasons for doing this. The music's been fading out for a bit. The world changing innovations didn't happen, the grand plans were very nearly all vaporware, and the few that were even arguably real have come to naught. It doesn't take any bitterness to come to an overwhelmingly negative opinion about this entire area and anyone even somewhat bullish on it.
- andirk 4y ago
  Project devs often have next to nothing to do with pricing. They're building whatever product with a public ledger and a currency type of thing involved with it. Please stop blanket statements of this is a scam! One can say the valuation is grossly inflated, there are a lot of bad actors, etc. but my god this idea that internet money (but of course not that inflation-ridden bombs-not-gold-backed USD!) Is a scam by definition is childish. Tether? Scam. Ripple? Scam. Most shitcoins? Scam. Crypto as a technology? It's just code, and open source (usually) and you personally can get involved by submitting a PR. People buy stonks with VERY little understanding of what makes it worth something. Same shit