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And here we see why crypto cannot replace the real money system for mainstream consumers. Real people reuse passwords. They forget passwords. They accidentally
by mabbo 4y ago
And here we see why crypto cannot replace the real money system for mainstream consumers.
Real people reuse passwords. They forget passwords. They accidentally get a virus on their computer. They get tricked by fraudsters.
Crypto's main selling point- complete decentralization- means there is so fixing mistakes, no means to undo fraudulent transactions. Real people don't want that.
- shanebellone 4y agoCrypto's use cases are mostly illegal. Ironically, if crypto was stable, it would better appeal to the general public. However, it would lose ground with its current user base. The paradigm is incorrect. This generation of crypto will all, eventually, fail.
- highduc 4y agoWell if power groups block it or make it harder to use you're going to be left with the people who don't care about said rules. Keep something illegal long enough and you're going to have some people breaking the law. Simple to point the finger at them after the fact and go "see? only criminals are doing that" Also the fact that they use it means that it's working, if anything. I also can't see a simple way for people who can control the value of money to just give up that power.
- shanebellone 4y agoThis is entirely incorrect. For any currency to have utility it must exchange for a predictable amount of goods. Otherwise, it unequivocally fails its stated use case. Crypto, as it stands, is an investment (*gambling) opportunity. Frankly it takes the inconvenience of cash and couples it with technology the vast majority of its users could not accurately describe. If that's not enough, it's unusable for peer-to-peer payments without an immediate cash-out. Crypto must be built around utility. Utility leads to stability. Stability leads to adoption. I'm not anti-crypto. I'm anti-whatever-the-fuck-this-is.
- nix23 4y agoA friend of mine clean houses from deceased peoples, sometimes they find 1000's of euros and even Deutschmark...so much for forgetting passwords ;)
- detrites 4y agoThey also wire money to Nigerian fraudsters, get duped into bad house loans and crash their cars. Should we condemn everything as well? The solution for all these and crypto, is education.
- mabbo 4y ago> The solution for all these and crypto, is education. I disagree. Educated people still make mistakes, and still become victims of fraud or viruses. A blanket statement like "we just need to educate people" is a nice way to say "no one would have this problem if they were as smart as I am". But the reality is you're just as vulnerable to a zero day or a well-executed scam. There are many solutions. None are perfect. If you ask me, demanding everyone never make mistakes is a very poor solution compared to using systems that have failsafes.
- detrites 4y agoI agree with your statement in some sense, but still ultimately disagree. There are always going to be people who have bad things happen as a result of being misinformed, as much as there are always going to be failsafes that yet still fail. In both cases, more and better education is a positive force.
- kryogen1c 4y ago> real people There's a lot of braindead crypto hate on HN, but these are very real and salient points. I work in IT. I have to reset people's passwords after a 3day weekend. The other day, an employee typed their password into a phishing email because the real person they were emailing got compromised in the middle of their email exchange. Crypto banking is simply a nonstarter for these people. There was an article on HN about how scammers cost 10B$ last year. A bank where mistakes are permanent and irreversible will never be mainstream.