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Comment by Godel_unicode | Hacker News Reader

I'm extremely skeptical that this silent majority exists because I don't see crypto being used for anything other than hodl-ing. Do you have indicators you can point to of cryptocurrency being used as a real currency?

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Whether or not you think NFTs are stupid and totally worthless, there's a fairly extensive economy based around fine art NFTs where collectors (who view them more as consumption goods than investments) buy and sell in ETH. And despite wild fluctuations in ETH<>USD, people's mental accounting is generally denominated in ETH.

I'm unconvinced that most people who buy NFTs are doing it for non-gambling reasons. Where's the market in smart displays you can hook up to your wallet and show you your NFTs? Other than Twitter hexagons, are people doing anything with their NFTs?

I have seen very few people talking about the price of something in ETH without a parenthetical giving the current USD value.

As I said, I'm not trying to convince you that they aren't stupid and worthless here -- just that there's a flourishing and highly functioning ecosystem built around them, which couldn't really exist in any other context.

Also, there are plenty of smart display companies popping up. Check out Infinite Objects or Atomic Forms.

its only real use cases are in transferring money internationally and buying drugs off the darknet

It’s not particularly great for that, either. Every transaction is traceable and publicly visible.

Some big yacht dealers take BTC as well.

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