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> want decentralized cryptocurrencies But what for? I think for many of the rest of us, crypto continues to be a solution in need of a problem, and a field ful

> want decentralized cryptocurrencies But what for? I think for many of the rest of us, crypto continues to be a solution in need of a problem, and a field full of crooks in general. Even if it was without crooks, it would still seem like an extremely high risk proposition with tenuously far fetched value-add.

evronm 4y ago
Yeah, it really looks like that in the developed world. In the developing world, however, it solves some very real problems (think remittances), maybe not 100% effectively, but much better than what it's competing with.
- _hcuq 4y ago
  Do you have evidence that crypto is widely used for remittances?
  - jedimind 4y ago
    How is that a relevant question? It's like asking if people really widely used credit cards for payments in the early days of their development. If you study the history of credit cards there are amusing stories likes companies even mailing credit cards to households (without their request) so they are encouraged to use them. So, the better question is: are upcoming technologies doing a better job and providing benefits older technologies can't deliver? There are many factors that I personally find very appealing, like credible neutrality of the infrastructure itself.
    - _hcuq 4y ago
      [flagged]
zeroclip 4y ago
A lot of those affected by FTX are traders, investors. Taking bets on market. Or dumbly using FTX as a place to park their tokens, instead of self custody or multisig.
jl2718 4y ago
No; it's not. Cryptocurrency exists as an alternative to the government-granted monopoly on the financial sector, which consumes a huge amount of value from every transaction in the economy, causing a great deal of unneccesary misery for regular people. This is the story of financial sector parasites hijacking a legitimate hope for emancipation from them.
- AYBABTME 4y ago
  I'm just of the opinion that whatever next steady state situation we might find out on the other end of a crypto-world isn't necessarily going to be better, or relatively better enough. The more I see crypto come up, the more I become convinced that actually, perhaps it's for the best after all that the government controls the financial sector. Human in the loop sort of idea.
  - jedimind 4y ago
    >I'm just of the opinion that whatever next steady state situation we might find out on the other end of a crypto-world isn't necessarily going to be better, or relatively better enough. Oh is that so? Curious that governments are now basically salivating and trying to copy cryptocurrencies for their own CBCDs but stripping it from everything that prevents them from having full domination over their respective populations. >The more I see crypto come up, the more I become convinced that actually, perhaps it's for the best after all that the government controls the financial sector. Human in the loop sort of idea. Based on what evidence? Your inference is so backwards, because all of these fiascos have one thing in common: the human in the loop. No one can ever tell me that a biased human could do a better job than an auditable open-source smart contract refined by thousands of diverse engineers that work together to create credibly neutral infrastructure transparent and verifiable by anyone. Luddites may disagree.
    - imtringued 4y ago
      I haven't seen any government want to use blockhains or anything decentralized for their CDBCs. They are not a copy of cryptocurrencies. There are countries that issued their own cryptocurrencies and it didn't really work out. It is more appropriate to consider CDBCs to be the digital equivalent to cash. A database at the fed isn't really equivalent to cash so there have been attempts like GNU Taler to build a cash like system.

evronm 4y ago

Yeah, it really looks like that in the developed world. In the developing world, however, it solves some very real problems (think remittances), maybe not 100% effectively, but much better than what it's competing with.

_hcuq 4y ago
Do you have evidence that crypto is widely used for remittances?
- jedimind 4y ago
  How is that a relevant question? It's like asking if people really widely used credit cards for payments in the early days of their development. If you study the history of credit cards there are amusing stories likes companies even mailing credit cards to households (without their request) so they are encouraged to use them. So, the better question is: are upcoming technologies doing a better job and providing benefits older technologies can't deliver? There are many factors that I personally find very appealing, like credible neutrality of the infrastructure itself.
  - _hcuq 4y ago
    [flagged]

zeroclip 4y ago

A lot of those affected by FTX are traders, investors. Taking bets on market. Or dumbly using FTX as a place to park their tokens, instead of self custody or multisig.

jl2718 4y ago

No; it's not. Cryptocurrency exists as an alternative to the government-granted monopoly on the financial sector, which consumes a huge amount of value from every transaction in the economy, causing a great deal of unneccesary misery for regular people. This is the story of financial sector parasites hijacking a legitimate hope for emancipation from them.

AYBABTME 4y ago
I'm just of the opinion that whatever next steady state situation we might find out on the other end of a crypto-world isn't necessarily going to be better, or relatively better enough. The more I see crypto come up, the more I become convinced that actually, perhaps it's for the best after all that the government controls the financial sector. Human in the loop sort of idea.
- jedimind 4y ago
  >I'm just of the opinion that whatever next steady state situation we might find out on the other end of a crypto-world isn't necessarily going to be better, or relatively better enough. Oh is that so? Curious that governments are now basically salivating and trying to copy cryptocurrencies for their own CBCDs but stripping it from everything that prevents them from having full domination over their respective populations. >The more I see crypto come up, the more I become convinced that actually, perhaps it's for the best after all that the government controls the financial sector. Human in the loop sort of idea. Based on what evidence? Your inference is so backwards, because all of these fiascos have one thing in common: the human in the loop. No one can ever tell me that a biased human could do a better job than an auditable open-source smart contract refined by thousands of diverse engineers that work together to create credibly neutral infrastructure transparent and verifiable by anyone. Luddites may disagree.
  - imtringued 4y ago
    I haven't seen any government want to use blockhains or anything decentralized for their CDBCs. They are not a copy of cryptocurrencies. There are countries that issued their own cryptocurrencies and it didn't really work out. It is more appropriate to consider CDBCs to be the digital equivalent to cash. A database at the fed isn't really equivalent to cash so there have been attempts like GNU Taler to build a cash like system.