Ask HN: Why are you pro/anti Bitcoin?
I’m a tech person who can’t understand if Bitcoin is just a fad that has no underlying value or if it’s the next internet. When it comes to transferring money I’m fairly happy with PayPal, Transferwise & stripe.
I’ve been following Bitcoin since 2013 but never made a serious investment as I’m not a believer. At the same time I can’t rule it out completely. Will fiat last forever or will it be replaced? Is crypto that replacement? Maximalists would have us believe that the USD will hyper inflate and Bitcoin is a hedge. But is it?
I’m using Bitcoin interchangeably with crypto. If you are for other crypto and not Bitcoin can you tell us why? If you are against it all can you tell why?
Just trying to get different opinions on why people believe / don’t believe in Bitcoin(or crypto in general)
51 comments
[ 4.9 ms ] story [ 107 ms ] threadOther developing countries could use wallets too I guess? What volume of crypto is actually used by people without a bank account? What are they buying with it? Why do I mostly see rich tech people championing for it on Twitter?
The second order effects of course were much worse.
I don’t belong to three of four of those groups.
I wouldn't be surprised at all if the majority of crypto owners and crypto enthusiasts are younger white males who are better than average financially, probably #2 being Asian males of the wealthier countries/ethnicities of Asia.
I suspect if a major mass media outlet popularized a story on the inequities of who wins and loses with cryptocurrency, the cancel culture people would be out in force, backed by environmentalists.
- Not suitable as an asset.
- Not suitable as a currency.
- Bad for the environment.
- “Community” is rife with scams and illegality.
Negative on the way crypto has become a financial instrument. Most of the issues you’re seeing come from the fact that coins are being used to make money, not from the inherent nature of digital currencies.
Ambivalent on Bitcoin in particular. All it really has going for it is first mover advantage. Other options like Cardano or Ethereum have far less issues. However, they still seem to be largely shaped by a small group of people, which largely defeats the purpose.
So, in sum: still waiting for the real killer cryptocurrency. It needs to be both stable and have good reasons to be adopted that aren’t, “I’ll make money from this as an investment.”
And in that regard, I find something like Monero, which specifically has anonymity as a feature, more appealing. And then all the "smart contract" / "programmable money" aspects of things like Ethereum also have some appeal, but not enough to date to where I've bothered actually buying any.
All of that said, I want a viable crypto-currency - that functions primarily as a currency - to exist, as something that's outside of government control, and ideally something that allows for anonymous transactions. I'm just not sure we have it yet. Maybe it's Monero, or maybe we're still waiting for The One. I don't spend enough time on this topic to be sure.
That said I find the speculative nature totally ridiculous and it basically keeps me from ever touching it as currency. Same for the high transaction costs. And the fact so much energy goes into it is also quite irritating. Mining should eventually not make economic sense (which is good), but with the never ending price growth it seems like we'll just keep mining forever.
See: Filecoin, Chainlink, etc
I’d like to see the market settle and begin treating coins based on the tech behind them and the future value instead of gambling chips. I see the value in some but there’s no telling if the current market will recognize that before a better competitor arrives.
Ban startups and collections.
Yeah, I don’t like altcoins either. Stick to bitcoin. Hardest money ever.
All non-crypto-currency based methods require permissions, and are politically gated.
Thus despite the negatives, i think crypto-currency can help connect the world.
Or you can ignore it, earn 4% on your index funds, retire after 40 years and have a simple life. I’ve chosen something else…
On paper, they are very, very rich.
In reality, they can very quickly and easily crash bitcoin by flooding the market.
No thanks.
That said all of my millennial friends that have gained some wealth without working at google or being a high profile accountant/lawyer all gained it via bitcoin and alt-coin speculating, in some ways it seems to be the only viable method to do so right now, but I believe governments will crack down on it and regulate it soon, which will likely stabilize it enough to keep any massive gains from happening in the future. Also it could just be one of those hot potato style bubbles like the .com crash where whoever is left holding the expensive bag gets a loss while those who sold just before ended up rich.
For me, I am anti-crypto:
* Seen many bad examples of abuse, e.g. MLMs, scams, laundering, cyber crimes, etc.
* Bad impression with early users. Most are driven by greed with vanity more than productivity or strong values.
* Wasting so much energy for "copy and paste" with no real use case. This hurts environment a lot.
Is the price of crypto/BTC versus USD going to go up or down? No one knows for sure and there is little helpful discussion to come from that question.
Is BTC going to "replace" USD? Almost surely not (US cannot control BTC sufficiently).
Is crypto going to "replace" USD? USD may at some point acquire some features of crypto but not without years of advance notice, massive debates in Congress, etc. Crypto will almost surely not replace USD without US government adoption. Simplest explanation is that the US government only accepts USD for payment (IRS or any other department). The US government is by far the largest player in the world monetary system.
But from people I know, behind all that is just wanting to get rich quick. The majority of people just hold on Coinbase, a centralized exchange, and tell other people to buy it too so the price can go up.