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Comment by cletus | Hacker News Reader

This to me is another example of Crypto Andys so often just not understanding the financial system. I like this tweet [1]:

> Honestly I think we emphasize flashy defi things that give you fancy high interest rates way too much. Interest rates significantly higher than what you can get in traditional finance are inherently either temporary arbitrage opportunities or come with unstated risks attached.

Put another way: there's no such thing as a free lunch.

[1]: https://twitter.com/VitalikButerin/status/127444312437552332...

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"Free lunch" was the same idiom that came to my mind when I read the parent comment about "no-loss lotteries," as if the electricity for hashing was clean and free.

The responsibility and risk of maintaining wallet keys seems on par to me with storing literal gold bullion. Laypeople aren't qualified. I'm not even convinced most programmers are qualified.

The house takes (Sportbook, track, casino) takes between 9-25% of every bet. So, yes, relative to those options, crypto lotteries/gambling can be set up to be practically free. That is, one can (and have) set up lotteries where there is no take (provably so) save for the cost of the transaction, which on proof of stake chains or L2s, are very very cheap.

There are many aspects of blockchain that just don't make sense, but the opportunities in providing more equitable gambling opportunities are, in a word, staggering.

It is unfortunate that the one useful thing I have found about blockchain to be true is that it is great for gambling

Been using DeFI protocols quite successfully for over 2 years now. Have created and read many of Smart Contracts. Yes, there is no free lunch, you need to spend lots (and LOTS) of time to understand how all of this magic works. But you'll be regretting that you didn't. I can tell you that for sure.

I won't regret it, all of this is just more complicated ways of turning money into more money and is totally unnecessary. If working for a living isn't enough and I have to start spending time on DeFI or crypto to stay afloat then I would just rather die, this stuff is dystopian.

>But you'll be regretting that you didn't. I can tell you that for sure.

You have financial interest in spewing propaganda like this.

> But you'll be regretting that you didn't. I can tell you that for sure.

FOMO statements like this do not at all help the cause of trying to show that this stuff isn't a giant scam.

There are a number of industries where I could indeed make a huge amount of money by applying software to extract value from a system without providing anything. I'm not super interested in working in one of them.

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