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Why don't people just build decentralized smart contracts these days? Why worry about all these liabilities?

by EGreg 1y ago

llbbdd 1y ago
Because crypto is a liability itself and nobody normal likes interacting with it.
- AnthonyMouse 1y ago
  Is there no way to improve the user experience for this? Company A sells cryptocurrency in country A. Company B is a payment processor in country B. You in country A go to the country B merchant's website and enter your card info to buy something. Your card gets charged by company A to buy cryptocurrency, the merchant gets the money through company B and the transfer of cryptocurrency from company A to company B happens in software on a server somewhere and the user doesn't have to do anything. Why is this either not happening or not sufficient?
  - EGreg 11mo ago
    You are right and HN has no answer other than “crypto is bad”. We are building exactly this at Intercoin. I hate that most of crypto is zero-sum games. https://intercoin.org/currencies.pdf https://intercoin.org/currencies.pdf Also Stripe is launching Tempo blockchain, USDC is launching Arc blockchain. Cool things are coming!
    - llbbdd 11mo ago
      It's not even that crypto is bad, it's that it's not good. The user experience is bad universally. I say this as a tech person that didn't care about it as a technology and had to deal with it anyway and I can't stand it. The first crypto service to actually, God forbid, go study Stripe, Shopify, Google Pay, Apple Pay, please understand, actually understand how people pay for things and compete with their actual competitors in a real way, is going to steal the show I'm sure. Until then it's crypto scammers competing for crypto users and crypto dollars and again no normal people want to put up with this shit at all because it's a stupid game and we're just trying to buy things. EDIT: I clicked on the PDF out of a sense of good faith interest and curiosity and I regret it. I hope you find something else to do.
  - llbbdd 11mo ago
    Because one of the functions of government currency is keeping things like prices stable for the sanity of normal people buying food and gas, against the type of upheaval and reactionary change that a global currency is susceptible to. Bitcoin/crypto enthusiasts have historically pretended that stable prices are not important, keeping alive the traditional HN-lauded attitude that any insufficiently solved social problem is merely awaiting heroic overhaul via a Messianic technical spec.
nine_k 1y ago
Simple answer: gas is expensive, cashing out is, too. Not prohibitively, but credit cards are so much easier, while also possibly cheaper to accept.

Why don't people just build decentralized smart contracts these days? Why worry about all these liabilities?

by EGreg 1y ago

Why don't people just build decentralized smart contracts these days? Why worry about all these liabilities?

llbbdd 1y ago

Because crypto is a liability itself and nobody normal likes interacting with it.

AnthonyMouse 1y ago
Is there no way to improve the user experience for this? Company A sells cryptocurrency in country A. Company B is a payment processor in country B. You in country A go to the country B merchant's website and enter your card info to buy something. Your card gets charged by company A to buy cryptocurrency, the merchant gets the money through company B and the transfer of cryptocurrency from company A to company B happens in software on a server somewhere and the user doesn't have to do anything. Why is this either not happening or not sufficient?
- EGreg 11mo ago
  You are right and HN has no answer other than “crypto is bad”. We are building exactly this at Intercoin. I hate that most of crypto is zero-sum games. https://intercoin.org/currencies.pdf https://intercoin.org/currencies.pdf Also Stripe is launching Tempo blockchain, USDC is launching Arc blockchain. Cool things are coming!
  - llbbdd 11mo ago
    It's not even that crypto is bad, it's that it's not good. The user experience is bad universally. I say this as a tech person that didn't care about it as a technology and had to deal with it anyway and I can't stand it. The first crypto service to actually, God forbid, go study Stripe, Shopify, Google Pay, Apple Pay, please understand, actually understand how people pay for things and compete with their actual competitors in a real way, is going to steal the show I'm sure. Until then it's crypto scammers competing for crypto users and crypto dollars and again no normal people want to put up with this shit at all because it's a stupid game and we're just trying to buy things. EDIT: I clicked on the PDF out of a sense of good faith interest and curiosity and I regret it. I hope you find something else to do.
- llbbdd 11mo ago
  Because one of the functions of government currency is keeping things like prices stable for the sanity of normal people buying food and gas, against the type of upheaval and reactionary change that a global currency is susceptible to. Bitcoin/crypto enthusiasts have historically pretended that stable prices are not important, keeping alive the traditional HN-lauded attitude that any insufficiently solved social problem is merely awaiting heroic overhaul via a Messianic technical spec.

nine_k 1y ago

Simple answer: gas is expensive, cashing out is, too. Not prohibitively, but credit cards are so much easier, while also possibly cheaper to accept.