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Comment by zpeti | Hacker News Reader

Your only legitimate point about them being really stupid is that they are slow.

But this evolving and improving. It's the only hurdle to crypto having all the properties of a real currency. And it will be fixed.

On the other side you have technology that has now been working for 10 years. Have scammers used it? Yes. But that doesn't mean the technology doesnt work.

Is it deflationary? Yes. So was almost all currency before the 1970s. Do you stop buying TVs and electronics because they'll be cheaper in a few years? Not many people do. Deflationary currencies can work too.

Well done on the ad hominem attack of crypto people being anti vaxxers though. Very good. Why not add trumper in as well? That will really scare people away.

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Ok, so I disagree with everything else you posted but this is the most egregious.

> Is it deflationary? Yes. So was almost all currency before the 1970s.

Currency was not deflationary before the 1970s. It stopped being redeemable for gold at the end of Bretton Woods. That's not the same thing. You can see rates as high as +15% and as low as -12.5% in the early 1900s using CPI as a benchmark [1]. Gold isn't deflationary in the Austrian sense either, it continues to be mined meaning the supply continues to grow, and central banks could and in fact continue to adjust their supply.

> Do you stop buying TVs and electronics because they'll be cheaper in a few years? Not many people do. Deflationary currencies can work too.

That's simply not the case. [2]

[1] https://www.in2013dollars.com/current-inflation-rate

[2] https://www.investopedia.com/terms/d/deflationary-spiral.asp

> Your only legitimate point about them being really stupid is that they are slow.

And only really relevant to those that are reliant upon nakamoto consensus…

Even the former SEC head[0] trying to get in on the "scams"

[0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28271199

Former top officials seem to have a nose for this. [1]

> Former acting Comptroller of the Currency Brian Brooks has resigned as the CEO of Binance U.S. after just over three months. He cited “differences over strategic direction.” Meanwhile, Binance is facing regulatory scrutiny worldwide, including in the U.K., Malaysia, Japan, Cayman Islands, Hong Kong, Thailand, Germany, and Lithuania. [editors note: that list has since grown]

> And only really relevant to those that are reliant upon nakamoto consensus…

Regarding speed and efficiency, yes, they principally apply to PoW coins.

[1] https://news.bitcoin.com/binance-us-ceo-steps-down-crypto-ex...

> Former top officials seem to have a nose for this. [1]

They must see it all the time with all the rehypothication going on with sovereign paper on clearing house desks (and that's just what they see in their jurisdiction), so what's another "scam" on their resume.

> Regarding speed and efficiency, yes, they principally apply to PoW coins.

There are PoW chains that don't use nakamoto consensus algos…

> There are PoW chains that don't use nakamoto consensus algos…

Curious to learn more if you have some links!

I came across this[0] back in april, still doesn't address state growth (not many do except for the zk only contract capable chains i've seen under dev) but was the first PoW chain not using nakamoto consensus I saw (and I haven't been looking closely for non nakamoto consensus PoW stuff).

[0] https://developer.confluxnetwork.org/docs/introduction/en/co...

> Is it deflationary? Yes. So was almost all currency before the 1970s.

Do you have a source on that? As I recall deflation is associated with economic depressions, and from what I'm seeing it looks like the inflation rate has been almost always positive since the 40s.

> Is it deflationary? Yes

No, it isn't. A deflationary currency doesn't lose 50% of its value in one evening, as Bitcoin did recently.

On the timescale of a fruit fly yes. The price of Bitcoin was 10k a year ago. I think people will be fine right now at 50k.

So, your point is that bitcoin is deflationary because sometimes its price goes up and sometimes it goes down? Go look up what delation means.

> Your only legitimate point about them being really stupid is that they are slow.

There are significantly more hurdles.

> It's the only hurdle to crypto having all the properties of a real currency. And it will be fixed.

It won't. The real value of a currency (and any other tech, really) is enforcement. Cryptocurrencies don't have that and won't have that.

> Yes. But that doesn't mean the technology doesnt work.

Yes, it works. For scammers.

On cryptocurrencies in particular and on blockhains in general these two posts are evergreen: https://medium.com/@kaistinchcombe/ten-years-in-nobody-has-c... and https://medium.com/@kaistinchcombe/decentralized-and-trustle...

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