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Ask HN: Where are all the crypto companies?

6 points by chrisfrantz ↗ HN
It’s a been few years since the big ICO craze and some companies raised hundreds of millions. I saw Filecoin just launched but I’m curious, are there any active companies with customers that are using crypto as a necessary component of their business?

Excluding exchanges

9 comments

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api
AFAIK Filecoin and Sia are the only ICOs that have actually shipped anything, and neither has shipped something really compelling for their problem domain.

The vast majority of ICOs were scams or ill-conceived projects doomed to failure. It was an absolutely incredible amount of money flushed down the toilet.

Ihfhcub
The only purpose of the ICO structure is to run a scam. Was true from the beginning and is true now
snisarenko
Blockchain solves 1 problem, and 1 problem ONLY

It allows any individual to own PURELY DIGITAL floating point numbers in a "distributed spreadsheet", and to issue a command to transfer a part or all of the that number to another "person", and NO ONE can reverse that command (and NO ONE except you can change the floating point numbers that you own). The system that prevents the reversal has a caveat. There MUST be a liquid market for the floating point numbers (i.e. you should be able to exchange it for currency).

But that creates a paradox. Why would anyone buy numbers in some "distributed spreadsheet"? Well the ONE and ONLY reason to buy them is if you can use those numbers themselves as currency.

Lets summarize. block-chain can only work if somebody buys the numbers for real money. People would only buy the numbers if they are a useful currency (and non-reversibility is a useful property for a currency, so some people determine it valuable and buy it).

That's it. That's block-chain in a nutshell.

Anything that exists in physical world is absolutely pointless to "put on the block-chain".

there is one more small use-case that's a side effect of block-chain existing. You can prove that a piece of digital information existed at some point in the past.

edit: Also forgot to mention. The other MUST have requirement for block-chain to work is there must be a physical resource that is difficult to monopolize, easy to obtain, and easy to prove that you have it. (CPU power is so far the only resource that exists that has those properties).

nallo
You can use the same argument for money except it does not have the dependency internet, it has a lot of other dependencies though
throw51319
So basically it's like a list to an exclusive nightclub. There's 500 limit. You pay money to get your name on the list early, and then you can sell your spot later for more.

This is what a "store of value" is. A way to capture your value and preserve it.

If the blockchain is truly immutable, then Bitcoin could end up being a store of value with the early adopter effect.

Honestly I think that USD or whatever will always have value because you have to pay taxes in it.

A government will always have ultimate control of it's country. When Bitcoin becomes a problem for the US, China, or whatever ultimate power there is in the world... if it comes down to it they can just use their supercomputer to take control of the blockchain and invalidate it.

martinni
Blockchain is a solution looking for a problem. So many failed to find a good fit.