"The tech founders who are building crypto platforms and tools, like the users who are buying and trading blockchain assets, are trying to produce wealth via rapidly appreciating speculative value."
And nothing of value is produced, it's a big zero-sum game of transferring money from greater fools to lesser ones. You just need a steady supply of greedy or desperate fools.
At least this time hopefully not the innocent tax payers will end up holding the bag like in 2008, but actual fools.
In 2009 the TARP program was the US Government buying shares of high-finance companies that were about to go bankrupt --- using taxpayer dollars. So now the American taxpayers own Lehman Brothers, Bear Stearns, and AIG? No, it didn't really work out that way, did it.
Also, the number of people who were paying a $300,000 mortgage for a house that was only worth $180,000 was incredibly high.
Hope somebody can come up with a list of ways that a dramatic crypto crash will cause harm to US taxpayers --- again.
Counter take: they are building a brand new infrastructure that will replace, little by little, the existing finance infrastructure. It is just one of the many ways that "software is eating the world".
It is very hard for someone to understand something when them drawing a salary depends on NOT understanding it. Like how desktop apps developers saw HTML then javascript being just a fad, or getting horrified at the terrible performance of say early webmail. They were right on the latter (at least initially) but dead wrong on the former! Look at v8 performance now, and see how most issues have been fixed, because it made financial sense to do so, to support new usecases. And new stuff keeps coming like webasm.
You can't fight progress. You might dislike it and wave your first at the sky, while the new generation moves along and chuckles at this foolishness.
I predict for coders who refuse to deal with crypto the same bright future that coders who refused to touch web stuff got: they will slowly make themselves irrelevant until they hit retirement age. Someone who only does MFC apps in Visual Basic might still find a job, sure! And it's good for them! But ultimately, it doesn't matter, as there will be 10x then 100x more that will have fewer moral issues using languages or framework that need work getting done, until a rewrite of the old (yet still perfectly good) stuff is decide because it's become a liability to support old tech that almost nobody understands anymore or can be hired to fix if needed.
My salary doesn't depend on Blockchain and I definitely still don't get it. But hey, if I have to learn it, I will. So far no one has asked me to build anything that involves a Blockchain.
95% of the cryptocurrency landscape is marketing, the rest is a few Rust libraries. With all the hype you would expect a renaissance period of cryptography, but it's mostly bullshit artists copypasting and most of the progress still happens outside of crypto. Crypto enthusiasts generally are not as interested in moon math or society, as they are in good old USD. This is a green pasture, so people are excited, but they are excited about Italian supercars.
"software is eating the world"
This is just an indirection used to transfer wealth. A trick as old as humanity, mysticism, a magic talisman, snake oil, and now the blockchain, all used on greedy or desperate people. Cryptocurrencies are like selling a dream to someone for their juicy steak, and we are running out of steaks, so the tricksters are out for fools. Software may be eating the world, but you can't eat software.
Progress can only happen by working together on things that matter, not by competing for dwindling resources. We will however have to compete for those resources, this will be increasingly our reality unfortunately.
The actual fools that you reference call themselves "degenerate". They consciously degrade their pride by choosing a less noble title.
Anyways, this is new technology being developped. Anyone interested or looking for solutions will adopt it. Personally, I've been living in a land where people obviously hate me as foreigner. I am an undocumented human. When I see Bitcoin, my heart races super fast. It is the only technical solution to my problem of being outcasted by financial institutions. Therefore, as a sort of struggle for financial rights, I allocate at least one hour per day to learning what it is about.
We're not equal on this Earth. My life choices will not be similar to yours because we're neighbours but don't face the same issues. Talking about the effects of the 2008 financial collapse without having lived in a third-world country destroyed by debts in foreign currencies is purely self-centered. Get out of your comfort pad and see that you've suffered a 10 degree financial burn while other had to bear a 100 degrees one. It's matter of perspectives.
What you are hoping for is that this time you will be the winner, but most people will lose. I care about most people. I care about real things that are bigger than me and my needs.
And by the way you are really attractive and you are smart. Don't sell yourself short, our future depends on people like you, outsiders with unique perspectives.
I'm a semi-big fan of cryptocurrencies and I've swallowed a sip of the koolaid. Still, it's a bit of a stretch to call them "investment banking." The various DAOs have delivered mixed results. It's hard enough to write bug-free code in regular life. Imagine trying to write a bug-free digital contract that will be immortalized forever on the blockchain.
So no. It's not investment banking. Maybe it's the beginnings of a payments network.
12 comments
[ 2.7 ms ] story [ 34.3 ms ] threadAnd nothing of value is produced, it's a big zero-sum game of transferring money from greater fools to lesser ones. You just need a steady supply of greedy or desperate fools.
At least this time hopefully not the innocent tax payers will end up holding the bag like in 2008, but actual fools.
Also, the number of people who were paying a $300,000 mortgage for a house that was only worth $180,000 was incredibly high.
Hope somebody can come up with a list of ways that a dramatic crypto crash will cause harm to US taxpayers --- again.
It is very hard for someone to understand something when them drawing a salary depends on NOT understanding it. Like how desktop apps developers saw HTML then javascript being just a fad, or getting horrified at the terrible performance of say early webmail. They were right on the latter (at least initially) but dead wrong on the former! Look at v8 performance now, and see how most issues have been fixed, because it made financial sense to do so, to support new usecases. And new stuff keeps coming like webasm.
You can't fight progress. You might dislike it and wave your first at the sky, while the new generation moves along and chuckles at this foolishness.
I predict for coders who refuse to deal with crypto the same bright future that coders who refused to touch web stuff got: they will slowly make themselves irrelevant until they hit retirement age. Someone who only does MFC apps in Visual Basic might still find a job, sure! And it's good for them! But ultimately, it doesn't matter, as there will be 10x then 100x more that will have fewer moral issues using languages or framework that need work getting done, until a rewrite of the old (yet still perfectly good) stuff is decide because it's become a liability to support old tech that almost nobody understands anymore or can be hired to fix if needed.
That's a hilarious spin on the fact that every crypto spammer is pushing the crypto propaganda solely because they have financial stake in it.
95% of the cryptocurrency landscape is marketing, the rest is a few Rust libraries. With all the hype you would expect a renaissance period of cryptography, but it's mostly bullshit artists copypasting and most of the progress still happens outside of crypto. Crypto enthusiasts generally are not as interested in moon math or society, as they are in good old USD. This is a green pasture, so people are excited, but they are excited about Italian supercars.
"software is eating the world"
This is just an indirection used to transfer wealth. A trick as old as humanity, mysticism, a magic talisman, snake oil, and now the blockchain, all used on greedy or desperate people. Cryptocurrencies are like selling a dream to someone for their juicy steak, and we are running out of steaks, so the tricksters are out for fools. Software may be eating the world, but you can't eat software.
Progress can only happen by working together on things that matter, not by competing for dwindling resources. We will however have to compete for those resources, this will be increasingly our reality unfortunately.
Anyways, this is new technology being developped. Anyone interested or looking for solutions will adopt it. Personally, I've been living in a land where people obviously hate me as foreigner. I am an undocumented human. When I see Bitcoin, my heart races super fast. It is the only technical solution to my problem of being outcasted by financial institutions. Therefore, as a sort of struggle for financial rights, I allocate at least one hour per day to learning what it is about.
We're not equal on this Earth. My life choices will not be similar to yours because we're neighbours but don't face the same issues. Talking about the effects of the 2008 financial collapse without having lived in a third-world country destroyed by debts in foreign currencies is purely self-centered. Get out of your comfort pad and see that you've suffered a 10 degree financial burn while other had to bear a 100 degrees one. It's matter of perspectives.
https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fbloc.2021.7301...
What you are hoping for is that this time you will be the winner, but most people will lose. I care about most people. I care about real things that are bigger than me and my needs.
And by the way you are really attractive and you are smart. Don't sell yourself short, our future depends on people like you, outsiders with unique perspectives.
So no. It's not investment banking. Maybe it's the beginnings of a payments network.