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Comment by have_faith | Hacker News Reader

This really. Nothing against cryptos but have developed a distaste for the ecosystem in general. I was sold on the idea of a currency that could help people in third world countries with stupid banking policies but instead 99% of the money in crypto is speculation waiting to cash out to fiat.

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Why does that matter? 99% of people investing in Tesla probably don't care about whether electric cars will help reduce pollution. They care if the stock goes up and it makes them money. That doesn't mean we shouldn't discuss the merits of electric cars.

Because to benefit from an electric car you don't need to care if the stock is overvalued or volatile. To benefit from crypto as a currency, you kind of need to not lose your life savings in the space of an afternoon due to volatility.

There's definitely a lot of speculation. But much of it before the last 6 months was philosophically driven. I wouldn't say the vast majority is just waiting to cash out. A popular bitcoin meme is that once the price is high enough, you won't have to. (Because it will then itself be the currency that everyone uses and cashes out from other currencies into.)

I totally agree with you, but then again, if software doesn't solve a people problem, it's bad software. This is what you learn in your engineering career.

Cryptocurrencies are technically amazing, and yet they fall short of actually solving any problem.

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