4 ms·

This kind of response is exactly what I would expect of someone who is totally clueless about the industry. Being completely unaware of what dapps exist, what f

This kind of response is exactly what I would expect of someone who is totally clueless about the industry. Being completely unaware of what dapps exist, what fintech startups there are, what protocols have been created, the research that has been funded due to blockchain technology, and more. As I said: completely ignorant with all criticism based on the news headlines you've read.

Apocryphon 3y ago
So does any of that activity actually generate value for regular people or does it just redistribute wealth from investors and speculators
jjulius 3y ago
Care to embody the spirit of what HN tries to put forth by expanding on those points in a constructive, educational manner that may actually help us to better understand, or do you just want to flippantly say that everyone's stupid and you're the only person who gets it?
vlovich123 3y ago
Well, my brother joined a fintech startup in Europe that started with blockchain but pivoted back to boring software building. That particular niche they're in is seeing all the blockchain startups failing because they're not actually solving the use-case. So sure, there's maybe been a lot of research value created in terms of ideas explored and protocols built, but it's not clear any of that actually has practical value outside of building more blockchains. Merkle trees are probably the main cryptocurrency tech I've seen outside of cryptocurrency (& even then in limited use), and that's not even from cryptocurrency but a pretty old data structure concept from 1979. If you're familiar with R&D ideas generated by the blockchain researches that have been applied successfully outside of the blockchain, please enlighten me as I'm eager to fill the gaps in my knowledge and go down a reading rabbit hole. Look, I'm not discounting out of hand that there's maybe been some research and market value created. What I tried to communicate is I'm not convinced it's been a net positive vs all the costs that came with it (investments lost, pollution, opportunity cost lost). That's why I said market value is a measure, but humans in general struggle to figure out holistic ways of computing value, especially when looking at it as a hypothetical opportunity cost vs what else we could be spending our time on. If you're wondering why you got downvoted, I suspect it's because you wrote an emotional response attacking me and calling me ignorant without actually engaging in a thoughtful discussion.

Apocryphon 3y ago

So does any of that activity actually generate value for regular people or does it just redistribute wealth from investors and speculators

jjulius 3y ago

Care to embody the spirit of what HN tries to put forth by expanding on those points in a constructive, educational manner that may actually help us to better understand, or do you just want to flippantly say that everyone's stupid and you're the only person who gets it?

vlovich123 3y ago

Well, my brother joined a fintech startup in Europe that started with blockchain but pivoted back to boring software building. That particular niche they're in is seeing all the blockchain startups failing because they're not actually solving the use-case. So sure, there's maybe been a lot of research value created in terms of ideas explored and protocols built, but it's not clear any of that actually has practical value outside of building more blockchains. Merkle trees are probably the main cryptocurrency tech I've seen outside of cryptocurrency (& even then in limited use), and that's not even from cryptocurrency but a pretty old data structure concept from 1979. If you're familiar with R&D ideas generated by the blockchain researches that have been applied successfully outside of the blockchain, please enlighten me as I'm eager to fill the gaps in my knowledge and go down a reading rabbit hole. Look, I'm not discounting out of hand that there's maybe been some research and market value created. What I tried to communicate is I'm not convinced it's been a net positive vs all the costs that came with it (investments lost, pollution, opportunity cost lost). That's why I said market value is a measure, but humans in general struggle to figure out holistic ways of computing value, especially when looking at it as a hypothetical opportunity cost vs what else we could be spending our time on. If you're wondering why you got downvoted, I suspect it's because you wrote an emotional response attacking me and calling me ignorant without actually engaging in a thoughtful discussion.