A lot of Silicon Valley VCs honestly seem to think that crypto failed as a useful technology because of the Biden administration. I am having second hand embarrassment.
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It couldn't have been because of a lack of government regulation, a trenchant dearth of understanding of basic economics amongst adopters, and just plain greed, right? Right??
I made a quick rant talking about this a while ago. Crypto is a scam. A clever one at that. But why do you think the creator has hidden his identity? Probably so he doesn’t go to prison. Crypto is just a scam. Seriously. https://youtu.be/TApmB-qulD4
The technology is being used as a volatile speculative asset. Instead of using blockchain technology to enhance the internet and other digital technologies its being mined for crypto bros to go to the moon. Not Biden’s fault everybody and their mom has a currency similar to the dot com bubble
Honestly the blockchain as a concept is really interesting and can be applied so broadly that I’m not convinced it’s 100% useless. But I’ve yet to hear a proposal for a where it can be implemented that isn’t just “thing that already exists but worse and more complicated”
like 90% of every application I have ever heard anyone say that blockchain would be great for, it would actually be terrible for and would be much better served by simply using some goddamned version control.
We use “blockchains” all the time; git (version control system) is a blockchain, at protocol (bluesky’s internals) is a blockchain, etc; but cryptocurrency? as currently understood?
I had really high hopes for it's application within Encryption and Data Security. Maybe even more effective password management software and apps. Alas, it's still just a way to move dark money into and out of countries.
I think it's best put as a solution looking for a problem. It's conceptually an interesting idea and I could see how it might streamline some things but it's imperfect and wasteful so it's been solved in better ways just about everywhere it could be applied.
A simple example is removing borders from finances, etc. You find that crypto use is highest in countries where either a) the local currency is very volatile, b) it's very hard/expensive to move money in/out of the country.
The technology has great potential. It's too bad there are so many grifters
I'd like to see blockchain being used for ownership in an increasingly digital world with an emphasis on implementation and messaging (i.e. less crypto bros to the moon)
Merkle trees, digital signatures, and multiple parties keeping each other honest are the useful parts. But nobody needs Blockchain per se. Fully decentralized + Zero-trust is very uncommon requirements combo. So then you don't need proof-of-work/stake.
Gov't could put land deeds in a Merkle tree.
Yeah, pretty much from the get go most have just dispensed with any semblance of the currency part of it, which a good one is stable, boring and is highly regulated
Maybe there could've been something specialized there, but it's the "to the moon" types long dominating that have nixed that for good
I feel like it'll eventually fragment out into three areas. Unregulated crypto-speculation, arms-length transactions of digital goods between strangers (eg event tickts), and places where the cost of institutional trust is very high.
But none of these are technically interesting; just business.
There's some performance problems and cryptographic puzzles in the speculation side of the market, I suppose. But performance hunts just aren't that appealing to me as a technologist.
It all comes down to ease of use. People's eyes glaze over the moment the moment they're told they need to setup a bitcoin wallet. That's even before they learn crypto can't be used to pay for their mortgage/rent, gas, or groceries.
Indeed that’s a factor but there is a lot more to it like that like it being an ecological catastrophe with ridiculously long resolution times and having a wildly fluctuating value which makes it wholly unsuitable as a form of currency
Weird, I thought it failed because it was too volatile and people would rather hold it than spend it. Kind of like the US dollar during periods of inflation.
my man, you want second hand embarrassment. I'm a canadian and my colonial sibling to the south just announced it was getting a DOGE branch of government.
I actually just talked yesterday about how part why crypto bros were so adamant about its viability is because crypto works basically the same as the stock market does, just on a smaller more independent level. Both are scams, one is just a privately owned and funded scam!
I knew that AI was gonna collapse and they'd find some other tech bubble to use their warehouses full of graphics cards for, but I thought it would be something new, not bitcoin mining again.
If your currency grows more valuable over time, pretty much the entire capitalist system collapses. It's like, catastrophically bad. It's just as bad as the hyper-inflation that makes you have to spend $600 for a gallon of milk. Maybe worse.
The crypto bros seem to think they're gonna have bitcoin as the world currency or something AND their bitcoin holdings are going to keep going up and uh... I don't know how to explain the simplest of all economic concepts the living Dunning-Kruger golems.
i recommend the book ‘the price of tomorrow’ by jeff booth. we are in a deflationary world (and getting more and more so), some how thinking that a mildy inflationary currency is a necessity. So we can spend and not save? so we can buy things before we really need them? so we can keep ppl in jobs?
But let's be honest here... We all can see DJT peddling bullshit as a crypto scammer... My god I can even see the TV commercial:
Him standing awkwardly in front of a yearbook photo background saying in his monotonous teleprompter voice tone: "Hello fellow americans I come to offer you ..."
Yeah from crypto and every vc backed buzz since they lack acceptance of bad investment and fail to provide proof or need in the market it's kind of sad that the biggest thing in the 2020s has been outselling snake oil
Oh, I was so wrong then. VCs are always right after all. I thought it was the slow transaction times, insanely high energy usage, and the idea that a decentralized financial system tied to the United States Dollar effectively means it's a speculative meme asset.
the bad economy is why it’s gaining traction though. no young person can buy a house at a reasonable price, saving for a deposit is a joke, inflation is 8% per year when calculated properly, purchasing power has gone down.
They poured billions into Republican candidates and they're already spending money on the midterms. It's insane how they think deregulation will somehow make people care about crypto.
Yes, the newest coin taking the world by storm is the Tulipmania . I just invested my entire retirement in it and I’m so pumped. Already picking out my Maserati.
This is kind of like when we all tricked Sony into rereleasing Morbius into theatres, except instead of embarrassing a multibillion dollar company, it’s just going to bankrupt a hundred thousand middle class people.
No this time it’ll work! I swear this time it’ll work! All we need is a new president, a different day of the week, Mercury in retrograde, different wallpaper…
Maybe this is dumb take but crypto failed because of too little regulations. By regulating crypto, it will turn decent. Unfortunately, the current crypto enthusiast want to use it because of no regulation. Absolute criminal mentality.
Can we agree if they start paying celebs again to hock their scams like they did with nft’s that we instantly block whatever celeb agrees to used like that for $$?
I'm convinced that venture capitalists don't understand how anything in the world works outside of investments, so a currency that doesn't work as currency, but does work as an investment, sounds like a slam dunk to them.
Hey Hank, I'm a long time Vlogbrothers fan. I understand where you're coming from, but I think that blockchain is a very interesting technology that needs to be understood separately from all the hype and scams. I highly recommend Vitalik Buterin's podcast on Lex Fridman to understand the good side:
As a former tech person, the computer tech industry is absolutely fucking shameful in so many ways. I have constant second-hand embarrassment intertwined with just an overt hatred for the industry.
They forgot that the Blockchain is a solution looking for a problem, that brings with itself more problems, and that, for every problem it *can* solve, there were already plenty of better solutions
It hasn't failed as a useful technology at all. It's being used every day by many for a variety of reasons, including providing financial freedom to the unbanked.
Crytpo is a pyramid scheme as things currently stand. The primary reason people buy it or hold it is they think it's going to go up in value, and that only happens if more people buy it. There's no underlying interest, dividend, asset base and the utility as a currency has thus far not materialised.
Seems like they're just trying to restart the grift with a scapegoat. I know there are some true believers, but it always felt like most folks were in it exclusively to pump and dump
When are we getting Hank coin Hank? Please make a coin that's similar to crash course coin so that I can own funny Hank green coin and fund a little crash course at the same time.
The business perverts on the all in podcast are so universally fraudulent that appearing on that podcast should get you barred from swift like the Russian government. Let them have their crypto shell games
It's not just Silicon Valley, but we built the brain worm machines huh? And the ones with the money bags are no longer just cynics or grifters, they're also _believers_.
Cryptos use is purely as a method of illicit transactions for criminal activity. That's the base value. Any additional worth is simply speculation. The investment of crypto billionaires into politics is them cyclically wanting a bailout when it crashes as to transfer the speculative money to real
The stock market and possibly crypto market function as feudalistic system if we continue to bail out companies after their bad investments. Transferring taxed money from us commoners to the hands of state funded oligarchs.
The stock market shouldn't exist, but if it is to continue to exist and not be a inherently feudalistic system, there should be reform to it, like a minimum investment guarantee. If someone wants to invest in a company they should have to guarantee their money to it for a minimum of a year
Did it have a genuine use-case to begin with? When it was growing in popularity, I was still uninformed about a lot of things, so all I ever heard about crypto was people using it as Money 2.
I would argue that much of AI is a solution in search of a problem. Private equity asking boards “what are you doing with gen AI” and all of the sudden, the dev team is working on some worthless product.
People need to face facts about crypto: it's a trust machine. If you don't NEED a trust machine you don't need crypto. Most of us get by just fine (thanks) trusting institutions to do this job.
Consequently, crypto is niche. It's valuable in that niche, but no one wants it for buying groceries.
It's always the same grifters who move from one thing to another. The same people who pushed NFTs pushed crypto who pushed AI who pushed web 3.0. It's like Ed Edd n Eddy with a new scam everyday
It is insane how bad the tech bros and tech investment is. It is actually insane how much they cripple the development of actual new technology, they are an actual anchor.
I think Crypto had (still has) genuine potential. The issue is all the grifters, rug pulls, and shit-coins. Crypto could have been awesome. But I digress, I make some decent money off of swinging Bit and Eth.
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https://youtu.be/TApmB-qulD4
I said something very similar in some hellish place and got throttled for it
The technology has great potential. It's too bad there are so many grifters
I'd like to see blockchain being used for ownership in an increasingly digital world with an emphasis on implementation and messaging (i.e. less crypto bros to the moon)
Gov't could put land deeds in a Merkle tree.
That last part is critical. A huge chunk of the crypto space right now is based around taking money from newbies who show up looking for a quick buck.
Maybe there could've been something specialized there, but it's the "to the moon" types long dominating that have nixed that for good
But none of these are technically interesting; just business.
You want an investment asset to grow more valuable over time. You want currency to grow LESS valuable over time (slowly and steadily).
It's not going to work; they were always dumb.
Him standing awkwardly in front of a yearbook photo background saying in his monotonous teleprompter voice tone: "Hello fellow americans I come to offer you ..."
This is Biden’s fault
If personal responsibility ever becomes a thing, do let me know.
He also has an amazing post on how to fund public goods:
https://vitalik.eth.limo/general/2019/12/07/quadratic.html
I'd say anything coming from him is absolutely legit stuff.
Even facebook is more useful than crypto. A random gandpa can use it.
The smell and the aroma. It is so peaceful.
Crypto is all about regulation regulation regulation
anyways, midwit take enjoy being wrong in X years
The blockchain is also really impressive tech but the bros, scams, and con artists destroyed any chance these technologies had…
That's scary.
They are the welfare queens
Consequently, crypto is niche. It's valuable in that niche, but no one wants it for buying groceries.