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kobasa commented on US SEC sues Coinbase, one day after suing Binance   reuters.com/legal/us-sec-... · Posted by u/jen20
acdha · 2 years ago
> I don't know what it is about crypto that makes HN commentators want to make the most ridiculous, put-downy statements without evidence to back it up.

HN has many people who understand how technology work and a smaller but still large number of people who understand economics. Cryptocurrency has a few people like that but also a ton of get-rich-quick types who think their best work is making random claims until someone buys whatever they’re selling. We’re a decade and a half into that, with billions of dollars of real money pumped in and almost no benefit outside of some early investors being able to cash out before the inevitable dip.

At this point, the onus is on anyone promoting cryptocurrencies to show up front why they’re different than their waves of predecessors. One big challenge here is the inherent conflict of interest: unlike other things which have come in and out of popularity, someone who tries cryptocurrency but realizes it’s not really useful to them doesn’t have an option for getting out without a financial loss which doesn’t involve finding a buyer for something they know isn’t really worth the price. If you backed MongoDB a decade ago, you can just switch to Postgres without either eating a loss or finding someone to buy your old Mongo server.

This also leads me to your next sentence: for years, the claim was that cryptocurrency was going to transform the financial world and beyond. Sales guys went on at length about how you’d use blockchains to buy coffee and a ride to work, make sure the farmer who grew your coffee beans was organic, store your software licenses, record the deed to your house, etc. They couldn’t explain how any of that would work and dismissed criticism, and were especially upset if people said the only real use cases seemed to be illegal transactions. Now, in 2023 we’re back to the primary use being breaking laws, hoping that the government in question chooses not to monitor cryptocurrencies?

> Crypto is not mostly useless, it is just that people don't like the uses. crypto is absolutely massive for avoiding capital controls in countries with inflation, etc.

kobasa · 2 years ago
>Cryptocurrency has a few people like that but also a ton of get-rich-quick types

There are literally hundreds of millions of people who're into cryptocurrencies...and you clearly don't have a clue what kind of people are into it and to what degree. I'd suggest not to make up statements like this if you want your opinion to be taken seriously. FYI bypassing capital controls with cryptos does not necessarily mean "breaking the law". Learn a thing or two if you're going to spout nonsense.

kobasa commented on Tell HN: Crypto/web3 grifters are Now AI/ML grifters    · Posted by u/alsodumb
braingenious · 3 years ago
Do you have an example of a non-crypto web3 project or are you literally just here to contribute “I don’t like you”?
kobasa · 3 years ago
What are you asking for exactly? Projects that see use but don't have a cryptocurrency/token behind them? Metamask, Opensea, Ledger, Oncyber..
kobasa commented on What in the Ethereum application ecosystem excites me   vitalik.ca/general/2022/1... · Posted by u/anonu
XajniN · 3 years ago
Maybe your friends, but most people were buying the ordinary US dollars.
kobasa · 3 years ago
And store it in a local bank with the economy on the verge of collapse and the government being what it is? You have no idea wtf you're talking about sir.

Dead Comment

kobasa commented on Keep the web free, say no to Web3 (2021)   yesterweb.org/no-to-web3/... · Posted by u/memorable
spicybright · 3 years ago
That sounds objectively much worse than what we have now.

> POAPs are NFTs that function of digital badges to prove you attended an event

Save your ticket stub. Buy a t-shirt from the event. It's not even valid proof if the event organizer can hand them out to anyone.

> Using POAPs benefits event organizers by creating a direct line of communication with attendees, allowing more interactive, more responsive events and a more reliable way of building relationships with guests and followers

How does an NFT work better than emails/organizing website?

> POAPs benefit individuals by creating a completely personalized story of a person’s life, linking them with moments in time without sharing any data with big centralized platforms

Oh good, so instead of posting things on facebook, now facebook can just read the public chain to get that automatically. Brilliant.

kobasa · 3 years ago
"That sounds objectively much worse than what we have now."

I love the nft haters who think they're sounding smart but sound like absolute morons to anyone who's done at least a few hours of oBjEcTiVe research into the space. And normally I'd take the time to educate but with attitude like this and a made up mind, nah hfsp.

kobasa commented on Ask HN: Is anyone else glad the crypto market is crashing?    · Posted by u/blueberrychpstx
IAmWorried · 3 years ago
It's less that I'm glad the market is crashing, and more that I'm glad that the insufferable crypto bros are finally getting a punch to the mouth. Seriously, these people are the worst. Your average "crypto investor" has no skills, no mathematical foundations, nothing. Except for pure stupid luck, and the ability to spew inane crypto babble 24/7. And yes, they think they are much smarter than you, because they achieved better financial results than you did while only doing 1/1000 of the work to get there. I truly hate the fact that these people are so rich. It makes me want to move to Alaska and just try to ignore society for the rest of my days.

This came off as pretty bitter. I apologize, but I am bitter, and I'm having a shit couple weeks.

kobasa · 3 years ago
https://www.bitcoinisdead.org/ - have fun staying poor, cope, etc..
kobasa commented on ‘We’re a Cult’: Inside Bitcoin’s Shameless Hypefest   thedailybeast.com/inside-... · Posted by u/throwaway4good
mjburgess · 3 years ago
Reposting my comment (which is leaf'd off a dead one):

Crypto is "cult by design" in much the way all greater-fool scams are. Namely, since coins are incredibly deflationary, wealth accumulates to a small number of early-stakers whilst the long-tail people buying-in provide their liquidity (/cash) so they can exit at an extreme multiple of buy-in. Everyone is relying on "more fools" to create a longer-tail from their stating position so they can exit higher. Meaning, whatever position you enter at, you have to evangelise like crazy.

I dont think anyone has ever yet explained how this is meant to function as a currency. Indeed, crypto people are dead-set on explaining everything except how this works as a currency. Long-and-short of it: extremely deflationary assets are terrible currencies.

One reason they're terrible is they transfer power over the economic system to early-stakers, as they have all the wealth. This is just feudalism where land=coin. So crypto people, sitting on a lot of coins, who urge adoption arent trying to "free" the economy, they're trying to own it.

It is just a bigger-fool scam, so it wont work -- at some point the tail won't be long enough, and it'll collapse (but this could take decades, as some scams do keep finding enough people to sustain them). So I dont think there's much danger in it -- but, lets be clear: any corporation which accepts bitcoins is thereby recognising an essentially feudal type of economic power.

Most holders of coin-wealth didn't earn it, they are taking it from the fools currently buying-in. Accepting crypto as currency, means giving early-stakes a way of exiting the scam at incredible multiples.

kobasa · 3 years ago
>I dont think anyone has ever yet explained how this is meant to function as a currency.

It's a store of value. Worked fucking great for people who were fleeing shitty places on earth but most people on this board wouldn't know a god damn thing about that.

>Most holders of coin-wealth didn't earn it..

You're an idiot. You don't know how investments work and how it has nothing to do with "earning it".

kobasa commented on Real Problems That Web3 Solves, Part 1   billprin.com/2022/01/03/r... · Posted by u/waprin
threeseed · 4 years ago
> still forces you to rely on a single central provider as your "root"

So what ? I am still struggling to understand what immediate and painful need users have with trusting Apple, Facebook, Google etc with their identity.

If people had some issue with this then users would simply not use OAuth and default to creating an account for each service they use.

kobasa · 4 years ago
>I am still struggling to understand what immediate and painful need users have with trusting Apple, Facebook, Google etc with their identity.

Are you actually serious right now?

u/kobasa

KarmaCake day15January 13, 2019View Original