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Comment by chx | Hacker News Reader

Note:

> For now, virtual currencies such as Bitcoin pose little or no challenge to the existing order of fiat currencies and central banks. Why? Because they are too volatile, too risky, too energy intensive, and because the underlying technologies are not yet scalable. Many are too opaque for regulators; and some have been hacked.

This I can fully accept: there can be a future where some cryptocurrency becomes the world standard. Sure. Doesn't change all my critiques about the current situation which are so often downvoted.

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The problem is that every single article about crypto has people like you coming out of the woodwork and commandeering the thread to "critique" cryptocurrency. Not everyone who uses or is interested in crypto claims it is perfect or will save humanity.

The incessant criticism with every thread is about as sensible as complaining about python's general shortcomings in every article about a new python library.

It's a healthy to do this as otherwise there would be just too much hype posts on cryptocurrency. I am actually quite interested in blockchain and have been observing the Bitcoin and other crypto space for years now but it gets quite frustrating to read some of the hype articles written in order to pump prices. So in those cases I try to balance the discussion with some valid critique.

This article isn't the equivalent of talking about a new Python library though. It's the equivalent of "W3C Head Foresees the End of Programming and the Triumph of Python".

I agree actually. I'm just explaining why the person gets downvoted in other threads.

A good analogy.

What do you expect? It's a natural reaction to evangelism and hype. When everywhere you go someone is extolling the virtues of X and how everyone should be using X and X is so much greater than everything else and you're an idiot for not using X, you're going to get people who push back against it.

See: Linux Desktop, Rust, and The Cloud.

AI, VR, Augmented Reality, Functional Programming, etc...

Except functional programming has its uses already (actually it is probably the future) while Bitcoin currently is... well, it doesn't have any legal uses. (And yes we had this discussion one too many times, no, money transfer is unusable because the recipient needs to jump through hoops to get their money, you can't ask that from normal people.)

> doesn't have any legal uses.

That statement just demonstrates your total ignorance and completely nullifies your opinion.

I have had this conversation so many times and I have yet to hear about a legit use, one that ordinary people can and want to use.

No, noone claims python was a conspiratory pyramid scheme designed to track users and beat privacy. That's not a meaningful analogy although pythons are poisonous.

well, this is funny, my comment was removed and resubmission is nuked as well. Now I'm just testing how secure the automation is: original comment:

>No, noone claims python was a conspiratory pyramid scheme designed to track users and beat privacy. That's not a meaningful analogy although pythons are poisonous.

commandeer v. To force into military service. v. To seize for military use; confiscate. v. To take arbitrarily or by force. See Synonyms at appropriate.

Who is forcing whom?

That's a common English idiom, meaning the same thing as "co-opt".

From the little that I've managed to learn, it seems like cryptocurrencies have immense potential but, beside the natural opposition from those who prefer the "conservative way of doing things" (due to a variety of reasons, some legitimate and some less so), it seems that the blockchain (as ingenious as it is) does not really scale well to handle a global economy. There are ongoing efforts and solutions to solve this but I think they are all essentially equivalent to a person trying to do crazy contortions in order to wear in a badly made suit. There are a few projects that propose interesting and scalable alternatives to blockchain but once the herd has decided then I assume more money will be poured on making a wrong solution workable than making a right solution the standard.

There are a few projects that propose interesting and scalable alternatives

Any examples?

The most ambitious one imho is qbitcoin[1]. It's based on quantum teleportation and quantum digital signatures. That gives it quite a low Technology Readiness Level[2], but hey, we see articles about actual implementation of quantum teleportation everyday, so who knows?

1. https://arxiv.org/abs/1708.04955

2. https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technology_readiness_level

I can't decide if this is a joke or not :)

Two examples I know of are: https://github.com/metacurrency/holochain/wiki/FAQ and http://bitlattice.org/

Although I'm far from being knowledgable enough to know the disadvantages of these methods in relation to blockchain nor whether they can really deliver on their claims. From what I've learned, my intuition says they're more suited to the task - could be a wrong impression though, hope someone here more knowledgeable on the subject could expand on it.

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