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Can't speak for everyone naturally, but HN has a lot of skepticism on a lot of things from a lot of different angles. Personally, my skepticism on crypto has n

Can't speak for everyone naturally, but HN has a lot of skepticism on a lot of things from a lot of different angles. Personally, my skepticism on crypto has not been based on technical merits but on practical ones. Basically, there is no technical solution to a legislative problem. It's hard to trust any crypto enthusiast who focuses on dethroning fiat when fiat (i.e. governments) can just... make crypto illegal or heavily impractical. There's no technical solution to that. From the moment you have to go through rigorous KYC to onramp to crypto (as most will do these days), and EU slowly making "anonymous" crypto difficult/illegal, I feel it really loses merit as anything other than what BTC is mostly used for - an alternative asset class. That's not very interesting IMO, because then the only innovation of (the most popular) crypto is artificial, technologically enforced scarcity. Of course, there are many flavours of enthusiast and skeptic, who each prefer or dislike crypto for different reasons, so my argument might not even apply for many.

Ekaros 3y ago
And many think something being valuable just due artificial scarcity makes absolutely no sense. There is nothing actual behind it. With fiat money at least there is state demanding it as taxes. Gold, well people think it is pretty. With crypto, nothing? Just this one is better than others, because it was first? And it is valuable because more people think it will be more valuable in future? Sounds like collectibles which have crashed time after time.
- fsflover 3y ago
  > Gold, well people think it is pretty. I think that (math and tech behind) crypto is pretty.
- fragmede 3y ago
  > Gold, well people think it is pretty. $2,100 per oz of pretty? Gold has a history longer than the US dollar and there's a lot more than goes into its price than people think it's pretty. If it were just about being pretty, the market for gold would have bottomed out on the invention of gold colored paint and pyrite would be worth way more than tens of dollars an ounce.
fsflover 3y ago
> Basically, there is no technical solution to a legislative problem. Although it's definitely true, the alternative (pseudo-)solutions additionally push the legislation to improve.

Ekaros 3y ago

And many think something being valuable just due artificial scarcity makes absolutely no sense. There is nothing actual behind it. With fiat money at least there is state demanding it as taxes. Gold, well people think it is pretty. With crypto, nothing? Just this one is better than others, because it was first? And it is valuable because more people think it will be more valuable in future? Sounds like collectibles which have crashed time after time.

fsflover 3y ago
> Gold, well people think it is pretty. I think that (math and tech behind) crypto is pretty.
fragmede 3y ago
> Gold, well people think it is pretty. $2,100 per oz of pretty? Gold has a history longer than the US dollar and there's a lot more than goes into its price than people think it's pretty. If it were just about being pretty, the market for gold would have bottomed out on the invention of gold colored paint and pyrite would be worth way more than tens of dollars an ounce.

fsflover 3y ago

> Basically, there is no technical solution to a legislative problem. Although it's definitely true, the alternative (pseudo-)solutions additionally push the legislation to improve.