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Comment by fmvab | Hacker News Reader

Another point I’d add: isn’t it telling that we haven’t come up with use cases for crypto that aren’t in some way speculation in the last decade plus?

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ENS [0] seems to be a use case here [1][2] and even the concept can be used by merchants for users to donate / pay towards verified names e.g: (myshopname.eth) rather than 0x123..cdef. That still isn't an example?

I mean, I can even see that in reputable payment services like Stripe, BitPay and Coinbase Commerce in the future.

[0] https://ens.domains

[1] https://www.skiff.org/updates/skiff-ens

[2] https://www.skiff.org

Thanks for sharing, we totally agree with the utility in collaboration and sharing.

ENS/wallets give users a lot of utility on Skiff - it makes logging in to privacy-first platforms easier (manage on secret key/seed phrase), sharing easier (ENS vs. an address), and decentralized storage can be nice if you don't want your data hosted on big tech.

What other way do you have to do this?

First sentence of the Bitcoin whitepaper: "A purely peer-to-peer version of electronic cash would allow online payments to be sent directly from one party to another without going through a financial institution."

Except that's a lie because you need a middleman to process the transaction (mining group). And in reality it ends up having another company like coinbase in the middle as well. So now you're in a worse position than before.

Actual cash moves quite easily.

I’d say that’s a feature but what I’m talking about is real in-use projects

Crypto enables illicit transactions.

Only because they haven't yet been regulated. That has already changed in China and is about to change in the US. Then that use case goes away.

Maybe, maybe not. Certainly some people who are doing this will continue to do so despite regulation. In any case disproves the comment I was replying to.

I mean this argument falls apart easily on the debate about use cases for crypto.

I'd stay away from making statements like this without backing them up.

What’s your counterexample?

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30730243

Or the fact that you trustlessly trade a virtual currency to any other virtual currency. The fact that thats possible is insane.

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