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I feel it’s almost a shame he isn’t utilizing his intellect and thoughtfulness in a domain more obviously useful for humanity, but he might have just gone to se

I feel it’s almost a shame he isn’t utilizing his intellect and thoughtfulness in a domain more obviously useful for humanity, but he might have just gone to sell ads for a FAANG if he weren’t a crypto pioneer. Also, even as someone who’s dabbled in the space and found it lacking in many areas, I can’t say with any degree of certainty that there’s no future in his particular flavor of the blockchain technology.

greyman 4y ago
What are those obviously more useful domains AND one tech person can have a very big impact in them?
- mypastself 4y ago
  Whatever Elon Musk’s shortcomings might be, he applied his intellect and skills to self-evidently useful domains such as EVs and space travel. It seems Vitalik is convinced his tech is beneficial to a similar extent, but I don’t share his enthusiasm, at least not at this point.
  - DennisP 4y ago
    But before doing all that, Elon Musk built an online payment system.
    - mypastself 4y ago
      To my understanding, he was less individually influential in that particular company, which is the reason why I omitted it in my examples. Because in my view, developing an online payment system in 2000 is a far more important project than developing a Proof-of-Stake blockchain with Turing-complete smart contracts in 2022. But your point stands: he may well go on to do much better things.
      - bmitc 4y ago
        He was kicked out of if not fired from PayPal is why you left it out.
        mypastself 4y ago
        Not sure what you’re getting at. If you think I’m trying to hide Elon Musk’s failures, I’m disappointed. There are numerous message boards where Musk is presented as either an unassailable genius whose every word is gold, or an evil Apartheid profiteer who lucked and bullied his way into any success. I expect slightly more nuanced takes from this board. You evidently do not.
    - satvikpendem 4y ago
      And before that, he and his brother built an early precursor to Google Maps.
  - Errancer 4y ago
    Genuine question but how is space travel self-evidently useful?
    - mypastself 4y ago
      Preservation of species, provided you accept that as an axiom. Also more immediate benefits such as reusable rockets, affordable satellite Internet etc.
    - ridgeguy 4y ago
      "Space travel" not so much at present. But reduced cost access to space, for sure. - geolocation (GPS, GLONASS, etc.) - communications (Starlink, Iridium, etc.) - earth sensing (weather, climate, etc.) All of these are multibillion $ activities that benefit from lowered launch costs.
    - sergiosgc 4y ago
      A couple non contestable points: 1. It has been useful so far as a challenge for technological development that finds other uses on the ground, and this is certainly not about to change; 2. It has been useful so far, in direct applications, and there are still direct uses to be covered (dangerous asteroid avoidance, as an example); 3. It tackles the SPOF we have as a species: living on a single planet; But the more important one, for me, is one that is contestable. Space faring provides humans with an aspirational goal. Without a long term goal, we are reduced to either an hedonist life, or a never-ending struggle against entropy. We are better, as individuals and as a society, when there is something to long for in the horizon.
      - bgitarts 4y ago
        The first two points can be said about cryptography
    - satvikpendem 4y ago
      NASA Spinoff Technologies: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NASA_spinoff_technologies https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NASA_spinoff_technologies 20 Inventions We Wouldn't Have Without Space Travel (actual post from NASA themselves): https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/infographics/20-inventions-we-wouldnt-have-without-space-travel https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/infographics/20-inventions-we-would...
  - bmitc 4y ago
    > Whatever Elon Musk’s shortcomings might be, he applied his intellect and skills to self-evidently useful domains such as EVs and space travel. The self-evidence of such is unknown to me.
spir 4y ago
Let me gently point out the irony of you acknowledging Vitalik's intellect while simultaneously assuming that Vitalik, as such a smart person, hasn't puzzled through why the crypto industry will end up being obviously useful for humanity. Do you think it's more likely that Vitalik is mistaken that crypto is obviously useful for humanity, or that he knows it isn't and doesn't care, or that your assessment of crypto being useless is incorrect?
- LiquidSky 4y ago
  Ha, what irony? “I am smart in one area so I am therefore smart in everything” is the original sin of crypto (and, frankly, tech in general). Go back through HN threads on the countless crypto failures and frauds and count how many times some variation of “I don’t understand, they were so smart!” comes up. Or the threads leading up to those failures where the defenders invariably trot out “there are a lot of smart people involved in this, you seriously think you know better?”
- sophrocyne 4y ago
  This. Vitalik has demonstrated an exhaustively thoughtful approach to building technology, is exceptionally humble, and seems to deeply contemplate the fifth-order implications of decisions being made. It seems absurd to me that people think someone like this has not sufficiently thought through the societal value of their life's work.
  - pessimizer 4y ago
    > It seems absurd to me that people think someone like this has not sufficiently thought through the societal value of their life's work. Is this a friend of yours? Because you have more confidence in him than I have with people I know personally. Sounds parasocial.
    - sophrocyne 4y ago
      pessimizer writes: > Is this a friend of yours? Because you have more confidence in him than I have with people I know personally. Sounds parasocial. If only! Given you've tied your identity to pessimism, which I assume implied you see it as a virtue, I think you might be somewhat more inclined to misanthropy than me. And that's ok. :)
spaceman_2020 4y ago
I really think cryptographic proof of identity tied to a wallet will become crypto’s killer app in the post-AI era.
- mrguyorama 4y ago
  Why would I want all of my logins on one easily hackable, publicly available 24/7 by tech requirement, deeply connected system? It's an advertiser's dream to have one ID that will track me through all of the internet. Fuck that.

greyman 4y ago

What are those obviously more useful domains AND one tech person can have a very big impact in them?

mypastself 4y ago
Whatever Elon Musk’s shortcomings might be, he applied his intellect and skills to self-evidently useful domains such as EVs and space travel. It seems Vitalik is convinced his tech is beneficial to a similar extent, but I don’t share his enthusiasm, at least not at this point.
- DennisP 4y ago
  But before doing all that, Elon Musk built an online payment system.
  - mypastself 4y ago
    To my understanding, he was less individually influential in that particular company, which is the reason why I omitted it in my examples. Because in my view, developing an online payment system in 2000 is a far more important project than developing a Proof-of-Stake blockchain with Turing-complete smart contracts in 2022. But your point stands: he may well go on to do much better things.
    - bmitc 4y ago
      He was kicked out of if not fired from PayPal is why you left it out.
      - mypastself 4y ago
        Not sure what you’re getting at. If you think I’m trying to hide Elon Musk’s failures, I’m disappointed. There are numerous message boards where Musk is presented as either an unassailable genius whose every word is gold, or an evil Apartheid profiteer who lucked and bullied his way into any success. I expect slightly more nuanced takes from this board. You evidently do not.
  - satvikpendem 4y ago
    And before that, he and his brother built an early precursor to Google Maps.
- Errancer 4y ago
  Genuine question but how is space travel self-evidently useful?
  - mypastself 4y ago
    Preservation of species, provided you accept that as an axiom. Also more immediate benefits such as reusable rockets, affordable satellite Internet etc.
  - ridgeguy 4y ago
    "Space travel" not so much at present. But reduced cost access to space, for sure. - geolocation (GPS, GLONASS, etc.) - communications (Starlink, Iridium, etc.) - earth sensing (weather, climate, etc.) All of these are multibillion $ activities that benefit from lowered launch costs.
  - sergiosgc 4y ago
    A couple non contestable points: 1. It has been useful so far as a challenge for technological development that finds other uses on the ground, and this is certainly not about to change; 2. It has been useful so far, in direct applications, and there are still direct uses to be covered (dangerous asteroid avoidance, as an example); 3. It tackles the SPOF we have as a species: living on a single planet; But the more important one, for me, is one that is contestable. Space faring provides humans with an aspirational goal. Without a long term goal, we are reduced to either an hedonist life, or a never-ending struggle against entropy. We are better, as individuals and as a society, when there is something to long for in the horizon.
    - bgitarts 4y ago
      The first two points can be said about cryptography
  - satvikpendem 4y ago
    NASA Spinoff Technologies: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NASA_spinoff_technologies https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NASA_spinoff_technologies 20 Inventions We Wouldn't Have Without Space Travel (actual post from NASA themselves): https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/infographics/20-inventions-we-wouldnt-have-without-space-travel https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/infographics/20-inventions-we-would...
- bmitc 4y ago
  > Whatever Elon Musk’s shortcomings might be, he applied his intellect and skills to self-evidently useful domains such as EVs and space travel. The self-evidence of such is unknown to me.

spir 4y ago

Let me gently point out the irony of you acknowledging Vitalik's intellect while simultaneously assuming that Vitalik, as such a smart person, hasn't puzzled through why the crypto industry will end up being obviously useful for humanity. Do you think it's more likely that Vitalik is mistaken that crypto is obviously useful for humanity, or that he knows it isn't and doesn't care, or that your assessment of crypto being useless is incorrect?

LiquidSky 4y ago
Ha, what irony? “I am smart in one area so I am therefore smart in everything” is the original sin of crypto (and, frankly, tech in general). Go back through HN threads on the countless crypto failures and frauds and count how many times some variation of “I don’t understand, they were so smart!” comes up. Or the threads leading up to those failures where the defenders invariably trot out “there are a lot of smart people involved in this, you seriously think you know better?”
sophrocyne 4y ago
This. Vitalik has demonstrated an exhaustively thoughtful approach to building technology, is exceptionally humble, and seems to deeply contemplate the fifth-order implications of decisions being made. It seems absurd to me that people think someone like this has not sufficiently thought through the societal value of their life's work.
- pessimizer 4y ago
  > It seems absurd to me that people think someone like this has not sufficiently thought through the societal value of their life's work. Is this a friend of yours? Because you have more confidence in him than I have with people I know personally. Sounds parasocial.
  - sophrocyne 4y ago
    pessimizer writes: > Is this a friend of yours? Because you have more confidence in him than I have with people I know personally. Sounds parasocial. If only! Given you've tied your identity to pessimism, which I assume implied you see it as a virtue, I think you might be somewhat more inclined to misanthropy than me. And that's ok. :)

spaceman_2020 4y ago

I really think cryptographic proof of identity tied to a wallet will become crypto’s killer app in the post-AI era.

mrguyorama 4y ago
Why would I want all of my logins on one easily hackable, publicly available 24/7 by tech requirement, deeply connected system? It's an advertiser's dream to have one ID that will track me through all of the internet. Fuck that.