Reddit is fine, but it heavily depends on what you want. r/ethdev is good if you're interested in creating something, and r/ethfinance for quality discussion focused on what you can do on Ethereum.
My understanding of Bitcoin doesn't change the fact that it's pretty obviously a Ponzi Scheme. The only way to make money with Bitcoin is selling it to a greater fool. Bitcoin is largely not used for real transactions because it's slow and expensive to transact with. For the typical user, who is concerned with risks like losing their keys, being hacked, or being scammed, Bitcoin is vastly less secure than established banking solutions.
It sounds like you have a good understanding of the tech, but I’m not sure that’s common on HN. Imo HN mostly dismisses anything new until it’s obviously dominant (sometimes even then).
I'm actually in agreement that bitcoin is overvalued, and therefore largely a bubble with ponzi-like elements at this point. But I think the other things mentioned are incredibly nascent emerging technologies whose potential is still largely untapped.
There are also a lot of us who are strongly against Proof of Work because it is not only extremely inefficient, it is also extremely irresponsible in the face of Climate Change. PoS will solve that - but like nuclear fusion, it is always a year away.
We're now at the point where the specs for the merge transition are ready [2], clients are already being modified to target the release-spec [3], and the first long-lived testnet will go live by December. I'd personally expect the Merge to happen by May.
[1] https://beaconcha.in [2] https://github.com/ethereum/annotated-spec/blob/master/merge... [3] https://notes.ethereum.org/@djrtwo/kintsugi-milestones
Basically all online communities have hatred towards cryptos. Not because of understanding or assumptions, but because the shill army of shitcoiners that try to pump their shitcoins in every possible community there is. And of course the numerous spampots and scammers who also spread the negative image for cryptocurrencies.
Even though "crypto" has been short for "cryptography" since before cryptocurrency existed, increasingly people interpret it to mean "cryptocurrency" instead. It's a bit like the linguistic fight over the redefinition of the term "hacker": it's a lost battle.