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Genuinely asking: do people here still care about blockchain? I used to work in the space, I’m not trying to be nasty. Just that it seems the interest has vanis

Genuinely asking: do people here still care about blockchain? I used to work in the space, I’m not trying to be nasty. Just that it seems the interest has vanished

0xOsprey 1y ago
Yes https://www.cnbc.com/2025/02/04/stripe-closes-1point1-billion-bridge-deal-prepares-for-stablecoin-push-.html https://www.cnbc.com/2025/02/04/stripe-closes-1point1-billio... https://cointelegraph.com/news/tether-us-treasury-holdings-surpass-germany-q1-2025 https://cointelegraph.com/news/tether-us-treasury-holdings-s...
crq-yml 1y ago
There's a quiet rumbling left over and doing more background development, trading is still taking place. The major impasse is really with "what's the framing for this invention now" - the invention is still interesting but it isn't a good technology until you have established a motive to depend on it at scale. The flood gates are opening to do things with blockchains again in the US, although the motive for that is "more scams".
- tetrisgm 1y ago
  It feels like they are still searching for demand and a use case. Having made a lot of tech in the space and in ipfs, I find that all the things it’s good at are just more readily accepted when in web2
ycui1986 1y ago
it is because we are not at the top of this bull market. When crypto hits Hacker News front page every other day, then you it is the peak of the bull cycle. Happened every time in all past cycles.
- proxynoproxy 1y ago
  I don’t think this is anything like past cycles. Blackrock and Nations be playing this time. Stack accordingly.
  - esseph 1y ago
    Countries can have FOMO, too
sph 1y ago
It’s all AI these days. In 10 years we’ll ask the same question about LLMs when we have all moved on to **
- munksbeer 1y ago
  Completely disagree. I'm a long term bitcoin holder but as interesting as the original bitcoin whitepaper and game theory mechanisms are, it still feels like technology looking for a problem to solve. LLMs and their generative variants are far more mind blowing. It is kind of pointless to get into another debate about use cases, because that has already been done a lot, but people are producing actual real world output right now with these tools. Right now, they are at the worst they will ever be. Obviously you don't have to agree with me, but I think you are 100% incorrect about this technology. It may not exactly be LLMs in a strict definition that we interact with in 10 years, but it will be derivatives.
  - sph 1y ago
    You make a fine argument, but also crypto is a multi-trillion dollar business at this point, powered by crime or not. LLMs are all potential right now, but are no way as large and I dare say established as even just Bitcoin. As a fan of Satoshi’s creation, the impact of Bitcoin over society in the long term will be at least as large at the impact of LLMs, whether it’ll still be BTC or some other decentralised trustless digital currency powered by cryptography.
csomar 1y ago
The bubble has popped and the euphoria has tuned down. However, the stable coins market is a $1-2trillion market (https://defillama.com/stablecoins https://defillama.com/stablecoins), so there is still a long way to go/grow. Other cryptos like Bitcoin and Ethereum will continue to exist. Bitcoin mainly as an asset against the stable and Ethereum as a network to process defi transactions (you can exchange stable coins for crypto without an exchange now).
- veqq 1y ago
  Bubble popped? Bitcoin is right at its all time high, about $110,000.
  - birn559 1y ago
    As long as professional scammers (Fin and crypto FinTech) believe they can extract more money, Bitcoin will grow. As crypto currency is still an underregulated asset there will always be more ways to extract money in a shady way. Basically fast-forwarding all the reasons for the regulations of conventional assets.
  - csomar 1y ago
    Alts never recovered. Also is Bitcoin really near ATH or did the dollar devalue? Previous ATH was roughly $70k and in that period, Gold doubled. So reaching previous ATH in my math is roughly $140k. That does match, in my experience, the rising real livings costs of food, housing and services.
palmfacehn 1y ago
There are still interesting use cases for blockchain based applications and payments. I'm not sure that these uses justify the current valuations. Similar things can be said about traditional financial markets or momentum driven stocks. Cryptocurrency markets exists on the extreme end of over-financialization. Bubbles and financial mania are not unique to blockchain tech. Pets.com would be another example. These things exist downstream from easy money policies. Most of the hyper-grifters have pivoted to AI + blockchain hype.
bawolff 1y ago
Hype cycles always eventually die down. The true test of a technology is whether it survives the post-hype low point or slowly fades away. Time will tell which one blockchain is.
theywillnvrknw 1y ago
I am hoping we (humans) can build self sustaining economies around high throughput blockchains like this one - https://internetcomputer.org/ https://internetcomputer.org/
flakeoil 1y ago
Most replies relate to crypto, but blockchains can be used for so many other applications than crypto coins.
- tetrisgm 1y ago
  In theory. That’d be just a slow but decentralized database. I think people have yet to come up with a product that has demand and uses this idea

Genuinely asking: do people here still care about blockchain? I used to work in the space, I’m not trying to be nasty. Just that it seems the interest has vanished

0xOsprey 1y ago

Yes https://www.cnbc.com/2025/02/04/stripe-closes-1point1-billion-bridge-deal-prepares-for-stablecoin-push-.html https://www.cnbc.com/2025/02/04/stripe-closes-1point1-billio... https://cointelegraph.com/news/tether-us-treasury-holdings-surpass-germany-q1-2025 https://cointelegraph.com/news/tether-us-treasury-holdings-s...

crq-yml 1y ago

There's a quiet rumbling left over and doing more background development, trading is still taking place. The major impasse is really with "what's the framing for this invention now" - the invention is still interesting but it isn't a good technology until you have established a motive to depend on it at scale. The flood gates are opening to do things with blockchains again in the US, although the motive for that is "more scams".

tetrisgm 1y ago
It feels like they are still searching for demand and a use case. Having made a lot of tech in the space and in ipfs, I find that all the things it’s good at are just more readily accepted when in web2

ycui1986 1y ago

it is because we are not at the top of this bull market. When crypto hits Hacker News front page every other day, then you it is the peak of the bull cycle. Happened every time in all past cycles.

proxynoproxy 1y ago
I don’t think this is anything like past cycles. Blackrock and Nations be playing this time. Stack accordingly.
- esseph 1y ago
  Countries can have FOMO, too

sph 1y ago

It’s all AI these days. In 10 years we’ll ask the same question about LLMs when we have all moved on to **

munksbeer 1y ago
Completely disagree. I'm a long term bitcoin holder but as interesting as the original bitcoin whitepaper and game theory mechanisms are, it still feels like technology looking for a problem to solve. LLMs and their generative variants are far more mind blowing. It is kind of pointless to get into another debate about use cases, because that has already been done a lot, but people are producing actual real world output right now with these tools. Right now, they are at the worst they will ever be. Obviously you don't have to agree with me, but I think you are 100% incorrect about this technology. It may not exactly be LLMs in a strict definition that we interact with in 10 years, but it will be derivatives.
- sph 1y ago
  You make a fine argument, but also crypto is a multi-trillion dollar business at this point, powered by crime or not. LLMs are all potential right now, but are no way as large and I dare say established as even just Bitcoin. As a fan of Satoshi’s creation, the impact of Bitcoin over society in the long term will be at least as large at the impact of LLMs, whether it’ll still be BTC or some other decentralised trustless digital currency powered by cryptography.

csomar 1y ago

The bubble has popped and the euphoria has tuned down. However, the stable coins market is a $1-2trillion market (https://defillama.com/stablecoins https://defillama.com/stablecoins), so there is still a long way to go/grow. Other cryptos like Bitcoin and Ethereum will continue to exist. Bitcoin mainly as an asset against the stable and Ethereum as a network to process defi transactions (you can exchange stable coins for crypto without an exchange now).

veqq 1y ago
Bubble popped? Bitcoin is right at its all time high, about $110,000.
- birn559 1y ago
  As long as professional scammers (Fin and crypto FinTech) believe they can extract more money, Bitcoin will grow. As crypto currency is still an underregulated asset there will always be more ways to extract money in a shady way. Basically fast-forwarding all the reasons for the regulations of conventional assets.
- csomar 1y ago
  Alts never recovered. Also is Bitcoin really near ATH or did the dollar devalue? Previous ATH was roughly $70k and in that period, Gold doubled. So reaching previous ATH in my math is roughly $140k. That does match, in my experience, the rising real livings costs of food, housing and services.

palmfacehn 1y ago

There are still interesting use cases for blockchain based applications and payments. I'm not sure that these uses justify the current valuations. Similar things can be said about traditional financial markets or momentum driven stocks. Cryptocurrency markets exists on the extreme end of over-financialization. Bubbles and financial mania are not unique to blockchain tech. Pets.com would be another example. These things exist downstream from easy money policies. Most of the hyper-grifters have pivoted to AI + blockchain hype.

bawolff 1y ago

Hype cycles always eventually die down. The true test of a technology is whether it survives the post-hype low point or slowly fades away. Time will tell which one blockchain is.

theywillnvrknw 1y ago

I am hoping we (humans) can build self sustaining economies around high throughput blockchains like this one - https://internetcomputer.org/ https://internetcomputer.org/

flakeoil 1y ago

Most replies relate to crypto, but blockchains can be used for so many other applications than crypto coins.

tetrisgm 1y ago
In theory. That’d be just a slow but decentralized database. I think people have yet to come up with a product that has demand and uses this idea