1Password Legitimizing Blockchain | Hacker News Reader

1Password Legitimizing Blockchain

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63 pointswilliamsmj22 comments

That's one read on it.

Another read is that people use 1Password to safely secure their passwords and other credentials, and it's not 1Password's job to decide what they store. But it is their job to make sure the experience is safe and simple, and that's what they've done.

I don't even like crypto, and this article is crazy.

This author based its entire argument around the idea that crypto is a scam, but then says I’m not going to explain why crypto is a scam. Whether you think it’s a scam or not, it’s just not good writing.

Really weird article.

It's disappointing to see so many people arguing all crypto is a scam by saying it's been written about exhaustively and then linking to a gigantic list of articles written by people making the same mistakes over and over. People are having a very hard time distinguishing "this has properties that have attracted lots of scammers" from "every project is a scam."

I'm a crypto skeptic, but I don't feel exceptionally informed of the other side of the argument(s). Can you recommend any posts/articles/summaries about the mistakes you're referring to?

I work with blockchain, but I stay the hell away for anything related to selling tokens or investing for future , sadly that excludes 95% of the blockchain world as it is today. But in that 5% there’s some really promising awesome projects.

We all understand the importance of databases and in general storing state. Do you know any other paradigm/system where a database is not controlled by a ‘root’ user with god powers?

That’s what blockchain is. If people are going nuts using it to create currencies and selling each other JPGS, that’s their business. Doesn’t deny the usefulness of the underlying paradigm.

Mind sharing what those use-cases are? Most of what I've heard of blockchains for non-cryptocurrency, non-token things are either cases where the blockchain is still permissioned (with some sort of root-like user with god powers), or could just as well be a DHT (like ipfs & bittorrent), or are things that sound interesting as a thought experiment but could never scale to their intended use-case, or something that is already solved by much simpler tech.

I'm open to the idea that blockchains are interesting as a tech but I have yet to see what they would be the best solution for besides illegal activity or speculation.

> But in that 5% there’s some really promising awesome projects.

This is exactly how I feel. Its very likely someone will someday create something uniquely awesome with the tech that really is transforming. I just don't think we've seen it yet

There's no mistake: the only uses of crypto so far are wild speculation and scams.

Anyone who gets involved crypto is going to fall into one of these two. I wish it turned out differently, but it's time we stop pretending crypto will change anytime soon and will bring anything good.

> Russia orders people and companies to sell 80% of their revenue in foreign currencies, forcing them to buy the ruble

We have headlines like this running today and HN is still on its anti-crypto kick? Like there still isn't any chance of self-custodied digital bearer assets having any real utility?

Hate to get flamey on here and I hope that's not how this comes off, but at some point it verges on caricature (and I say this as someone who is also disheartened by all the financial grift in crypto).

I don’t know which I am more concerned about: the possibility for stagflation caused by the federal reserve or for crypto to harm the broader economy with its volatility. Both are going to cause “harm to others”.

https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/M2SL (see 5Y graph)

> Also, to get this out of the way now: cryptocurrency is a scam.

Well, if you start with this premise, of course anything any person, company, government, institution, etc. does in relation to this - other than banning it and throwing enthusiasts in prison - will make you seethe in anger.

I'm not surprised that 1Password is doing this, they've been on a affiliate/partnership/advertising blitz for several years. That they'd jump on the crypto and NFT wagon is just another Tuesday.

I'm also not surprised that this post is [flagged] and several comments are downplaying or attacking the author. Many HN users are 1Password users and would prefer to ignore criticisms about it.

Yes, blockchain money is scam (with no intrinsic value. Its value only comes from its potential for someone to voluntarily give me something useful in return).

But: modern central bank money has the same problem. The only difference: a government could force someone to exchange something useful for some paper.

The scam aspect have nothing to do with the fact that it is not backed by some collateral. Trying to equate it to fiat money in that regard is not helpful

Instead Blockchain is a scam because, among other things, the prices are highly manipulated, with a series of pump and dumps.

By that argument, stocks, especially penny stocks, are a scam.

The only actual guarantee of fiat currencies is to be acceptable for taxes payment. That's all. No one - in theory and except some cases like "national interests" - can be forced to sell something for dollars or else.

>The only difference: a government could force someone to exchange something useful for some paper.

That's a rather big difference. That's the difference between money and monopoly money.

I think crypto enthusiasts skip the “except” part for government legal tender.

At a minimum, central bank notes are required to pay taxes. The type of currency doesn’t really matter - when gold was the medium, most trade was silver, and the volatile nature of silver made life hard for constituents like farmers.

Crypto works as a transfer mechanism, unfortunately money laundering, finance schemes, and organized crime are the biggest use case.

Ah, it’s someone who believes, literally, that “cryptocurrency is a scam”. So if you don’t believe that, there’s nothing of value here.

If you do believe that, then presumably you find it problematic that your favourite brand is signal-boosting it.

That’s your tl;dr. Article contains nothing else. M

The author then continues: “I’m not going to argue the case for that here” and then uses this entire article to try and argue that cryptocurrency is a scam and it’s ramifications.

My personal belief is that 1Password building the muscle memory that people should store private secrets in secure ways is good.

Great insight into a truly deranged mind.

tl;dr he’s saying crypto is a scam and therefore 1Password should not be supporting anything to do with it.

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