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Comment by rp1 | Hacker News Reader

Allowing people to bet on inflation would be complicated. You’d need to take payments, hold their money like a brokerage, and have the ability to payout. The blockchain let’s you implement such a scheme in a few lines of code. Definitely simpler to do on a blockchain.

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This is a completely absurd take. There are bilions of dollars of inflation trades every single day in interest rates markets. It’s enormous.

The reality is that most crypto proponents have zero experience in capital markets and its plumbing. Your assertion that it’s simpler to do on blockchain is wrong is almost every single facet, and I’m happy to enumerate them if you’re interested.

I frequently find myself in talks with web3 people. The talking points are usually - this system is broken; blockchain addresses this! - fiat is made out of thin air; blockchain has scarcity!

All the arguments fail when you start prodding actual implementations / use cases that are used today. Outside of 3rd world countries where prepaid calling cards were a store of value not long ago, I don’t think crypto would address anything that we couldn’t do and do well today.

I try to be as open minded as possible. I fully accept that web3 has enough people who are thrashing about that it’s not likely to disappear, and they may even find a usecase.

But I despise people who pontificate with obviously zero experience about incredibly complex topics like rates markets. I spent most of my career as a hedge fund trader, and it boils my blood when people with zero experience speak with authority.

And this coming from a person who has just spent the past few months building an enterprise oracle network. I’m not against crypto, but just don’t misrepresent so called “legacy” solutions because anyone with actual knowledge will eviscerate your argument.

> Outside of 3rd world countries where prepaid calling cards were a store of value not long ago

This is still a huge market

I think we're talking about different things. I was responding under the assumption the commenter wanted to build their own market for trading inflation bets. If someone already did the work to accept money, make the market, and handle payouts then great, leverage that. That betting market exists because enough people wanted to bet on inflation prior to blockchains existing. However, there will be new things in the future that people want to bet on, and those new markets will be easiest implemented on a blockchain.

Just a for instance, I can create a betting market based on how many times my dog licks her butt during the day very easily on the blockchain. How can I do that using traditional means?

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