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Comment by echelon | Hacker News Reader

I have no stake or interest in Bitcoin, and I wrote it off some years ago. I find it kind of annoying when there are stories about it or altcoins in my news feed (in lieu of other things). It's noise in my signal. This is just my own personal feeling; I wouldn't go as far as to describe my feeling towards Bitcoin as hate.

I can't explain the feelings or motivations of those who actively detract from the technology. It's probably similar to Apple "hate". Or inverse "fanboyism".

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I saw Bitcoin as another Second Life, great for smart young programmers to have a new sandbox to play in, but not actually useful for working adults. I was similarly "annoyed" by all the Second Life media hype happening after I had written it off.

The difference is that Bitcoin/Blockchain technology really is a groundbreaking invention from a computer science perspective.

Bitcoin may or may not succeed, but something can't be un-invented.

Furthermore, it's interesting to see companies like Steam, and even Wall Street players, embracing this new technology.

> Bitcoin may or may not succeed

Thats what people were saying in 2012, 2013

The network is working fine. This is success. What is your metric of success in this statement? I find it counterintuitive.

They are waiting for bitcoin to become the number #1 currency. Just like people joke about 'the year of linux'. Guess what, linux is still around. It doesn't need to be #1. There may never be a 'year of linux', but it doesn't mean linux is a failure.

I see, I don't see it being successful at that, in trade. I see it's blockchain and consensus model being used as settlement on a broad and broader scale.

People made these same comments about the internet when it was young.

I find Apple 'hate' far more understandable because of their market share.

Bitcoin makes up a tiny portion of the market and is completely optional. I mean, it barely even exists.

Apple's activities (notably 'tivoization'), threaten general purpose computing.

Regardless I still try to come to peace with it (i think it's very important to have a positive mindset). As long as I can still buy my ARM SoC boards, x86 machines, etc, I'll be happy. If that starts looking dim, eh. We'll see.

Apple hate existed long before Apple had dominant market share.

But the elemental composition of Apple hate has changed since.

Yes: Haters gonna Hate.

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