Crypto is a system of perfect logic built on the foundation of a few flawed assumptions.
Relying on YouTube videos that anyone can create is highly suspect and should be easily recognized as a logical discrepancy/potential fallacy by otherwise intelligent technical people.
The fact that it is not points out a huge hole in their education, reasoning and thinking process. It is the end result of being highly trained but poorly educated in my opinion. Quite simply, many crypto cultists failed to grasp the overall limits of their own knowledge and control and paid a heavy price for it.
The illusion of knowledge about crypto is very dangerous. People get this stuff wrong all the time and introducing more examples with really bad mistakes will only make the situation work.
Cryptos have become more like a cult than actual tech. Don't get me wrong, some of them are legitimate but try pointing out their deficiencies in their communities and you'll get attacked from all angles. Most people involved in crypto aren't there for the tech, they only care about money they are making from it.
Articles like this all read the same way. Sure he can frame his student as some kind of expert, but clearly if she is referencing youtube videos about price action in crypto she doesn't really have an understanding worth framing your criticism around. For all of these articles, it feels everyone's idea of crypto does not extend beyond dunking on stuff dumb retail meme traders (who have no idea what is going on) say on twitter instead of the people actually building the technology. I'm not even an expert but even I can see the way everyone approaches it in such poor faith is like building a caricature of what they think crypto is to justify their feelings towards it.
You have to understand that tech people possess no qualifications to see the abstract value crypto brings. “Bitcoin is just public key cryptography and hashing, it’s not that clever!”
Crypto is a technology, but the innovation innate in it is economic in nature, not technical. This misconception leads to a whole cohort of tech people who knew about Bitcoin, never bought, and now have to rationalize as those less technically literate than them are more and more starting to believe and starting to profit.
They should not have this expectation to understand crypto, anymore than an economist should be expected to understand what makes online banking secure, but everyone (including themselves) puts that expectation on them, causing them to rationalize by claiming that crypto is all a scam and completely useless. The more they try and understand it technically, the less they see what’s important.
I just feel most people who are obsessed with crypto that I’ve come across in my personal life are some of the least financially responsible/educated people I’ve ever met
that and r/bitcoin comment sections are very delusional cult to me
Unfortunately this is HN were people want to believe in "hard science" and rationality.
But if you want to understand crypto you're better off studying history, sociology and psychology.
Do you think it is possible that at least some part of crypto, was once or will be, at least partly, not a scam?
Because if you do, you already agree with me.
And if not, you're going to have to explain how you know literally everything about 1000s of projects with a billion users...
That's the problem with the ultra extreme position the article and many many people here take.
I'm not here to defend crypto. I am not a true believer. I just find it strange that such a huge complex thing with so many users etc apparently is not just 99.999% scam, but 100%. And some how people have discovered this and know if for fact. And yet are unable to share their sources, or methods...
It's almost like such people have no more idea what is happening than the true believers...
Crypto mania really highlighted how gullible the average user is in buying into the hype. Worse yet, people peddling things that are objectively regressive versus existing solutions.
I think there is great irony in the fact that probably 90% of the people involved in crypto don't understand the math behind the systems they trust so much. They could swear these systems are more trustworthy than traditional banks cause decentralization, smart contracts, cryptography, etc. But all of these are just abstract concepts for them in which they just chose to place their trust, because of vibes or smth.
You are confusing the enthusiasts with the people who understand crypto. Both groups existed, but the enthusiasts group made many claims that anyone who had even minimal understanding didn't believe.
Refuting crypto is an exercise in futility, because there are only two types of people in that space: True believers who act like literal cultists and who are beyond the reach of rational arguments and hustlers who understand that it is nonsense, but will never admit that, because they are just there to make money from the first group.
I think the technical jargon (a mix of crypto, distributed systems, and finance) leads people to believe that what's going on in crypto is smarter than it is.
It's what P.T. Barnum might have called "flim flam"; ~ "if you can't dazzle them with brilliance, baffle them with bullshit."
Relevant discussion in the "Line Goes Up" Youtube video that's very good but extremely long (2h!)
Most people in crypto do not understand anything about economics. They understand ponzi/ greater fool theory and how to obfuscate to the public and regulators to pull the wool over someone's eyes.
Welcome to the crypto “space”. It is a bunch of people who don’t understand math, finance, politics, monetary policy, legislation, government, economics, computer science, or seemingly life itself. All sit around and rediscover why society is shaped the way it is...
Relying on YouTube videos that anyone can create is highly suspect and should be easily recognized as a logical discrepancy/potential fallacy by otherwise intelligent technical people.
The fact that it is not points out a huge hole in their education, reasoning and thinking process. It is the end result of being highly trained but poorly educated in my opinion. Quite simply, many crypto cultists failed to grasp the overall limits of their own knowledge and control and paid a heavy price for it.
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