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> There really and objectively is no reason for cryptocurrencies to exist at all. Are we just destined to loop over this argument `while True`? Without byzant
by jMyles 4y ago
> There really and objectively is no reason for cryptocurrencies to exist at all.
Are we just destined to loop over this argument `while True`?
Without byzantine-fault tolerant decentralized currencies, how do you deprecate state control of economies?
If the answer is "you don't", then you are positioning yourself outside the extremely obvious long-term evolutionary path of the internet. Why would the internet, and AI, continue to abide rent-seeking central banks?
A simple litmus test is this: can you buy prohibited plants and compounds over the internet with a given currency and its ecosystem of marketplaces? If the answer is "no", then you that currency probably has more state control than the internet is likely to tolerate in the long-term.
- birracerveza 4y agoPeople are so blinded by their hatred for crypto that they do not understand that yes, crypto has been mainly been used to transact scams and ponzis and whatever it is, but we're still talking about an absolutely insane amount of value being transacted with no middleman. How is that useless? What even is your definition of useless?
- tsimionescu 4y agoThere's also a lot of value being transacted in WoW gold, FF14 Gil and other such coins - not to mention the hundreds of billions of Monopoly money being exchanged every day all around the globe, in a fully decentralized system.
- mrguyorama 4y agoFuck, half the younger people on this blog probably sold or bought Runescape accounts, that doesn't make them a useful currency.
- jMyles 4y agoWoW gold and FF14 Gil are not decentralized, and Monopoly money cannot be sent over the internet.
- tsimionescu 4y agoMy point is that "amount being transacted" is a completely irrelevant metric for the usefullness of something to society. Not to mention, the actual transaction rates (the interesting tech part) are several orders of magnitude smaller than any form of fiat money, for the bigger chains at least, with the only solution in sight being things like Lightning, also known as "let's give up all the guarantees that the blockchain offers". Finally, WoW gold at least is actually quite decentralized, since anyone can stand up their own bootleg WoW server and start transacting it. And even on the official servers, transactions are happening separately on each different server, they don't need a single centralized ledger like BTC or ETH.
- birracerveza 4y ago>Finally, WoW gold at least is actually quite decentralized, since anyone can stand up their own bootleg WoW server and start transacting it. And even on the official servers, transactions are happening separately on each different server, they don't need a single centralized ledger like BTC or ETH. Thanks for confirming that you have no idea what you're talking about.
- tsimionescu 4y agoThat was mostly tongue-in-cheek, to illustrate that "decentralized" can mean many very different things. In some senses, and especially if we include bootleg WoW servers, the WoW gold economy really is decentralized. Of course, it's actually just made up of many centralized communities, with 0 access to each other, and each being entirely ruled by 1 central authority - essentially the opposite in every way of blockchains.
- yunohn 4y ago> absolutely insane amount of value being transacted with no middleman The miners are the middleman. They literally take a cut. The only reason there’s “less delay” is because they have zero qualification or filtering process to handle any KYC/AML/Anti-fraud/Anti-scam situations and blindly accept any valid transactions.