It’s a tech site; there’s a whole tech industry devoted to what is basically securities fraud, and it’s annoying. I work in smart contracts trying to build an ambitious global network, so I’m not exactly some Luddite afraid of the future.
If I read an article about people artificially inflating the price of something in a pump and dump scheme, I pattern match that to crypto. I’m tired of hearing about it, too, but I to stop hearing about it because someone regulated the fraudsters out of business, not because defrauding unsophisticated people became a norm we don’t criticize.
Yeah, no thank you, I don't come to Hacker News for crypto talk, the bias is comical and the talking points are recycled as a new article every week (scams!, speculation!, hype!, wasted electricity!, tether!)
All of those have rebuttals, but I don't want to get into the politics of it, there's plenty of that already. Can we please talk about the fucking tech here? I'm talking about what's made with it, not some sort of philosophical debate about how authoritarian we should be to protect people we deem gullible, or who can spend electricity on what, or who is allowed to speculate.
For those who actually are interested in the tech and not some faux moral crusade, here's better "awesome" lists, that are actually awesome, not toxic.
serious question, why do you hate crypto (bitcoin, ethereum, etc..) so much? I see your username in a lot of places, from hacker news to wikipedia, always doing your best to criticize or stop these sort of technologies. I don't understand this obsession. I don't like say... angular.. but I don't go around trying to sabotage or bad mouth the project as I prefer to spend time on more productive things.
Author here. It's hardly ruining my business, it's just a nuisance. I have long denounced cryptocurrencies since well before this incident, including on HN:
I like the design of the website, too bad the content is so dumb. How are you not tired of regurgitating the same FUD for 10 years? If you don't like crypto that's ok, its not for you, just don't buy in and leave us alone.
Undeniably, there’s a large sub-set of the crypto space that’s incredibly annoying and toxic. I do my best to avoid them as it’s just noise that does very little to help the cause.
I appreciate that crypto trading is offering a conduit for the less educated sections of society to enrich themselves in the new economy, but bucket shop articles like this should relegate themselves to /r/wallstreetbets and Tim Sykes's web site. Not a tech/business news aggressor.
I've been reading hacker news for years and I can't recall any piece of technology that seems to attract such vitriol and disdain from the community here.
Certain bitcoin criticisms are understandable, but painting the block chain and the whole crypto industry with a broad brush of 'scam', 'shady', 'useless' is just down right moronic and embarrassing.
Many of you claim to be technologists that leverage the power of technology to benefit humanity. Yet you can't plainly see how various projects in the space like ethereum, nano, chain link, cardano etc. have useful applications that will change the landscape of finance and economics forever.
I built my startup around one of the few uses of blockchain tech I see that really has utility — timestamping without a trusted source. I'm not anti-crypto, and I own a small amount myself.
That said, all these posts are absolute horseshit. We've had John McAfee anticipating million dollar Bitcoins for the last few years, we've had Novogratz spewing more unsubstantiated price predictions, and now someone writing a blog post is doing the same. Maybe it will happen. Maybe. But there's no point speculating on it like this. I could do the same with nearly any other asset or idea, like virtual reality or artificial intelligence or some other buzzword.
This just fuels FOMO and hype and does little to advance the cause of decentralization and cryptocurrencies.
This is not to mention Bitcoin's biggest problem, which is its distribution. People like Roger Ver and Brock Pierce will not (and probably should not) be the richest people on Earth.
Look at this thread... the only thread on this entire submission, all stemming from the same post. I’m not the one posting flamebait, and I wasn’t the first to react with incredulous disgust.
If you want to improve this site, I’d start to crack down on non-technical submissions about cryptocurrency. They’re as bad as stories about Trump for predictable bullshit, and equally predictable squabbles along ideological or self-interested lines. It’s a cross between boring and grotesque that so much time is spent here saying essentially nothing about the latest ICO scams or currency forks. What part of this is intellectually satisfying or engaging?
Worse, the daily dozen+ front page stories about this crap displace genuinely interesting submissions and discussions.
They're associated with bitcoin, and bitcoin business is quite shady.
You may not like or agree with the reasoning, but I guarantee you that a lot of normal, non-tech people are going to be thinking like that.
This is also in addition to the fact that I just don't want to make another money account. Especially for something I'm probably not going to use outside of this.
It's a subject that I am interested in and involved in yet I will never discuss it on Hacker News again. The attempts I made to genuinely interact related to crypto have been terrible on this website. It's unfortunate because I feel there is a very good discussion there regardless on whether you are for or against it but we don't get to see that discussion.
Up front: I hate crypto. I think it is stupid and any use case it has can be solved much more efficiently with existing tools.
To me this blog reads like post-breakup copium. Dude just spent two years of his life and who knows how much money trying to find a market, only to realize there isn’t one. But he is sure someone else will find it! The technology is good!
No it isn’t. And no they won’t. Admit when you are wrong and serve as a lesson to others.
It’s irritating to constantly read so many articles devolve into attacks on the blockchain itself, indirectly blaming the proof of work algorithm and the amounts of energy it uses. It’s always the same theme, oh this stuff is silly, oh and it’s destroying our planet too, what a terrible thing. The tone comes off as we’re here to tear down a side effect of decentralized authenticity and once exposed as a sham, we’ll go ahead and attack the technology itself.. it’s frustrating is all and counterproductive if you ask me. FWIW, I think the value of NFTs are ridiculous but the idea is cool. It just sucks seeing tabloid bullshit driving discussions about a ingenious technology and what’s left is a bunch of thrashing comment threads expressing for or against, for or against.. gets old.
If I read an article about people artificially inflating the price of something in a pump and dump scheme, I pattern match that to crypto. I’m tired of hearing about it, too, but I to stop hearing about it because someone regulated the fraudsters out of business, not because defrauding unsophisticated people became a norm we don’t criticize.
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