> It has to be stressed that in the midst of the market mania in which we find ourselves, the cult-like fervour behind cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin has become untethered.
Wow, imagine choosing that last word unwittingly...
> they like their technobabble because it makes it seem more interesting than it actually is
Yeah cults love their lingo, that's how you can tell they're cults. All this overspecialised vocabulary, and of course a massive reliance on endless recruiting which crypto achieves through FOMO and stuff like 'ngmi', 'stay poor' and all the usual BS that cults use.
Bitcoin, I think, achieved a purpose. The latter cryptos... I mean, when you look at some of the stuff they're including and their complexity, they seem to have been written entirely for the purposes of scamming people and obfuscating the fact they're being scammed.
> Bitcoin as cult, financial fraud, criminal scam, and religion.
So here you are on HN, where most people love complaining about crypto since 2009 -- but they still have a dayjob they sure love to bitch about (even in FANGs!), while those of us who worked on crypto without any specific feelings are early retirees.
> I like this guy.
Me too, but I try to leave aside opinions and focus on interesting content.
> cryptocurrency stuff is the closest I've ever felt today to the spirit of the old internet
Cryptocurrency feels like the exact opposite of the old internet to me - it feels like a bunch of anonymous bros looking for the next sucker to scam out of money and get rich quick.
> Examples here are (again) the cryptocurrency scene which has been pretty good at othering critics as “no-coiners” or lately with the phrase “have fun staying poor”.
I’m somebody that spends a good deal of time thinking deeply on cryptocurrencies and the implications to society. I believe they a positive, revolutionary step in the right direction of human liberty. And I’ll gladly acknowledge that it’s still speculative until it’s not.
But crypto, like any other movement, attracts total scumbags. It’s unfortunate because people who speak negatively only serve to undermine their group - whether it’s crypto or a social cause group etc. and often they, themselves, are the insecure ignorant one that don’t even deeply understand what they’re fighting for.
> We all started off enthused about cryptocurrency and then the Wolf of Wall Street types co-opted it and ruined it for everyone pulling off the most sophisticated Ponzi schemes in history.
I mean, plenty of people were pointing out that trying to rewind finance to the era of privately-issued money without controls would lead to a recurrence of all the problems that that has historically produced and is the reason why that’s no longer a norm, while the entusiasts were just chanting “zero-trust” and “outside of government control”. We weren’t all enthused, or surprised with “the Wolf of Wall Street types”. (And I doubt very much the pioneers in the field were historically ignorant enough to not know exactly what they were creating.)
> then called him a luddite for not being ok with it.
yeah, my jaw dropped. Holy shit.
Every time I enter the crypto twittersphere, I'm more convinced it's all just a huge cult. Half zealots and true believers and half trolls. Much like QAnon. "You don't understand it's the future!" No, no I'm quite capable of understanding. The internet brought a lot of like-minded people together under a shared mass delusion.
> Crypto has become a very polarizing topic with people...
Certain people. I was involved from the beginning, and most of the OGs just shrug at the present day noise - the convert zeal being long exhausted by all the complaints about how PoW makes Mother Gaia cry. The people who have a crazy level of investment are the tech journalists that took very public positions badmouthing bitcoin. That is probably also true of anyone else who can't resist calculating how much their mistake cost them when they compared bitcoin to beanie babies at $150.
> ...which certainly needs to happen for it to have a future too, but governments...
Firing first in a duel, global economy style - that is why the foot dragging has been so protracted.
>My intense skepticism of cryptocurrencies is probably the issue on which I am most in disagreement with many close friends, professional acquaintances, and some of the smartest people I know. That is part of the reason why the hobby of peeling back onion layers here is so engrossing: people really, passionately believe that there is something here. I’m intellectually curious. The thing people have told me exists should smash my interest buttons: programmable money! How could I not look!?
Excellent way to summarize how I've felt about Bitcoin since the first mention. Thought I was the only one!
> Both crypto and the anti-monopoly movement are reactions to the destruction wrought by neoliberalism.
Such a weird statement, given that crypto represents the financialization of everything, and has the exact same rich-get-richer dynamics as neoliberal capitalism.
I guess satoshi was just wrong about how it would play out.
I feel this is a self-serving cynical take that's in line with the pump-and-dump aspect of crypto: there's this despair in trying to portray all crypto as legitimate investments and businesses when they are all far from it.
I think he was right. My criterion for whether someone's in a cult is that eerie feeling talking to them, where they get angry at any challenge, they can never quite seem to explain why they're as invested (metaphorically and literally) as they are, and so forth. It's that sense that they themselves don't know why they do it, and there's a lot of emotional pathology that goes into shutting off from the outside world and protecting their obsession from reality. That absolutely typifies Bitcoin/crypto obsessives I've met.
> I guess I just don’t understand why it gets people so riled up in either direction.
NFTs are fashionable right now and some people love to attack fashions. Multiply that sentiment by the fact that many (most?) don’t understand crypto or at least the attraction to it. Raise that to the power of the tribal dynamics this issue has assumed under increasing media and political scrutiny. An issue ripe for the obsessions of our time.
Wow, imagine choosing that last word unwittingly...
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