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The fundamental idea of implementing a cash-like currency digitally still makes sense to me. We've digitized almost everything, doing so with currency makes se

The fundamental idea of implementing a cash-like currency digitally still makes sense to me. We've digitized almost everything, doing so with currency makes sense. But the benefits of digitization are normally that it offers something better, generally higher scale, lower cost, easier use, less hassle, faster, better analytics, or other benefits over it's analog version. The truth is, crypto hasn't done so yet, so the tech just isn't there quite yet. There are some benefits over analog, mostly anonymity and lesser scrutiny. And I guess you could include investment bubble as a weird benefit right now. Maybe also easy to use for scams and Ponzi schemes. The thing is, those on their own aren't able to attract a large user base, it'll attract people who specifically want these properties, which is not most people. Eventually, I hope the tech improves, and when that happens and digital currency is truly cheaper and more convenient to use, while retaining all the benefit of analog currencies, like decentralization, point to point transactions, anonymity, etc. And also maybe adding a global non government tied currency to the mix. That's when I think it'll truly be impactful and you'll see crypto adopted by everyone.

baby 4y ago
> But the benefits of digitization are normally that it offers something better, generally higher scale, lower cost, easier use, less hassle, faster, better analytics, or other benefits over it's analog version. > The truth is, crypto hasn't done so yet, so the tech just isn't there quite yet. How do you know this BTW? What are your criterias? If you're considering integration of money, the way your bank issues you a debit/credit card, and allows you to pay at point of sale throughout the world, you're talking about something else: integration. This takes a lot of time and money. If you're talking about running a central bank that's covering the entire world, is easy to interoperate with (anyone can connect to the network and use it), is easy to build on top with (via smart contracts), and costs an infinitely smaller percentage of what it costs to run the financial world today to run? Then I would say that Ethereum and other state-of-the-art blockchains are already winning. The issue is that if someone doesn't work in the financial world, their metrics are not good to understand how to judge and compare different financial backbones.
lovvtide 4y ago
All the speculation stuff is a very wasteful distraction in my opinion. In my opinion, the goal should be a currency that is: 1) Privacy preserving 2) Scaleable (to billions of transactions per second) 3) Permissionless (global and free from government interference) 4) Stable (can function as a unit of account, not an investment vehicle) The last one seems like the hardest because it's not just an engineering problem, it's also a political problem.

baby 4y ago

> But the benefits of digitization are normally that it offers something better, generally higher scale, lower cost, easier use, less hassle, faster, better analytics, or other benefits over it's analog version. > The truth is, crypto hasn't done so yet, so the tech just isn't there quite yet. How do you know this BTW? What are your criterias? If you're considering integration of money, the way your bank issues you a debit/credit card, and allows you to pay at point of sale throughout the world, you're talking about something else: integration. This takes a lot of time and money. If you're talking about running a central bank that's covering the entire world, is easy to interoperate with (anyone can connect to the network and use it), is easy to build on top with (via smart contracts), and costs an infinitely smaller percentage of what it costs to run the financial world today to run? Then I would say that Ethereum and other state-of-the-art blockchains are already winning. The issue is that if someone doesn't work in the financial world, their metrics are not good to understand how to judge and compare different financial backbones.

lovvtide 4y ago

All the speculation stuff is a very wasteful distraction in my opinion. In my opinion, the goal should be a currency that is: 1) Privacy preserving 2) Scaleable (to billions of transactions per second) 3) Permissionless (global and free from government interference) 4) Stable (can function as a unit of account, not an investment vehicle) The last one seems like the hardest because it's not just an engineering problem, it's also a political problem.