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Good-faith business failure is fine. It's excellent, insofar as it's a byproduct of something very good: taking risks in a world of convex payoff. Associating

Good-faith business failure is fine. It's excellent, insofar as it's a byproduct of something very good: taking risks in a world of convex payoff. Associating with a Bitcoin startup is a different story. Bitcoin is a sleazy scam designed to enrich people who got in early and sold at the top. It's not a problem of making a call that fails. That's going to happen in this business. It's the taste issue. Unless they were something else in their YC application and became a Bitcoin startup, they should have known better.

SkyMarshal 14y ago
>Bitcoin is a sleazy scam designed to enrich people who got in early and sold at the top. That's quite an accusation. Is there some smoking gun evidence we should all be aware of? Let's assume for a minute you're right, and it is a sleazy scam. How do you see it playing out and ultimately Disclaimer: I think it's certainly possible, but not a certainty.
- tptacek 14y ago
  Let's count all the ways 'michaelochurch is being fatuous here: * Even if you agree with him that Bitcoin is a scam, as I do, YC does not necessarily agree * Similarly, Coinbase doesn't have to agree with us, in which case they're also not willfully furthering a scam * None of his points have anything to do with the thread, which isn't about intrinsic problems with Bitcoin but instead stability problems at Coinbase.
  - SkyMarshal 14y ago
    Fwiw I'm genuinely curious how people who are convinced BTC is a scam see it playing out. Generally, once a scam is exposed, it collapses, so what does that look like with bitcoin? But if that's too OT, I'll save it for another thread.
    - tptacek 14y ago
      Early entrants in the market extract profits, leave the "currency" to deflate back to Flooz valuations. At a certain point in the life cycle of things like BTC, trading takes on a life of its own. I'm sure tulip traders could have given you an impassioned defense on the intrinsic long-term value of tulip bulbs during that bubble, too.

SkyMarshal 14y ago

>Bitcoin is a sleazy scam designed to enrich people who got in early and sold at the top. That's quite an accusation. Is there some smoking gun evidence we should all be aware of? Let's assume for a minute you're right, and it is a sleazy scam. How do you see it playing out and ultimately Disclaimer: I think it's certainly possible, but not a certainty.

tptacek 14y ago
Let's count all the ways 'michaelochurch is being fatuous here: * Even if you agree with him that Bitcoin is a scam, as I do, YC does not necessarily agree * Similarly, Coinbase doesn't have to agree with us, in which case they're also not willfully furthering a scam * None of his points have anything to do with the thread, which isn't about intrinsic problems with Bitcoin but instead stability problems at Coinbase.
- SkyMarshal 14y ago
  Fwiw I'm genuinely curious how people who are convinced BTC is a scam see it playing out. Generally, once a scam is exposed, it collapses, so what does that look like with bitcoin? But if that's too OT, I'll save it for another thread.
  - tptacek 14y ago
    Early entrants in the market extract profits, leave the "currency" to deflate back to Flooz valuations. At a certain point in the life cycle of things like BTC, trading takes on a life of its own. I'm sure tulip traders could have given you an impassioned defense on the intrinsic long-term value of tulip bulbs during that bubble, too.