[JohnJamesRambo]

Bitcoin broke all time high a few weeks ago. :)

Rats leaving the sinking ship that is the US dollar and all fiat currency seems to be happening very quickly. I hear almost everyone talking about it now, it isn't the loonies anymore. Money that isn't tied to whatever stupid policies your government has implemented will always be attractive. No one asked me if I wanted to prop up the stock market by printing ~25% of all US dollars that have ever been printed, in 2020.

https://digitalik.net/btc/

[michaelyoshika]

I really don’t understand why a hacker community would consistently downvote crypto currency related comments. Can anyone explain it to me? Like, folks can build their own cpu so not to be controlled by big companies, but they all like using money controlled by some big banks?

[JohnJamesRambo]

I've been surprised by this as well. I've always chalked it up to the fact that the average Hacker News commenter is likely a very rich Silicon Valley dev type that has a lot of USD stacked now and doesn't like to hear uncomfortable truths about money alternatives (no matter how cool and techy and decentralized and open source crypto is), now that they have a lot of it.

[alasano]

Probably a mix of things.

People who appreciated the technology initially but changed their minds seeing it being driven by what people often consider a toxic community who hides behind the pretense of technology to make money.

People who think Bitcoin itself, despite the technology, is no good for it's stated initial purpose of being a peer to peer electronic cash system. Whether that's true even with additional layers like lightning remains to be seen perhaps.

People who either missed out on the rise, sold early or lost money trading it in the past. Frustrated or bitter perhaps, wanting to be right about Bitcoin so much that they've shut out any possibility that it will succeed.

And I guess people who don't quite understand the technology, purpose or possibilities Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies bring to the table.

And obviously all the "tether scam" people.

There is positive and negative to cryptocurrencies, same as there is with the internet itself. Do we wish for the internet to fail (if somehow that were even possible) because it enabled mass manipulation of people through social media? Well maybe some people do but I think the vast majority take the good with the bad and some are working to try and solve these problems.

Will Bitcoin fail? I don't think it can at this point to be honest. Genie is out of the bottle, interest is there and it's getting more legitimized every day, whether it's through the direct actions taken by individuals, companies or institutions to further the entire space or through the inaction of governments who don't want to stifle innovation or possibly don't see it as the threat to the monetary system it could (potentially)_be.

Time will tell!

[MrRadar]

Don't forget another type (of which I count myself among): those who think "proof of work" cryptocurrencies are an environmental disaster. Recent estimates place the energy used to mine Bitcoins at around the same as the entire energy use of Switzerland[1] and as each new generation of miner is created the previous generations become mountains of e-waste.

[1] https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-48853230

[alasano]

Indeed! Very common as well, thanks for the reminder.

[phyalow]

What if I told you it was 64.5% not 25% https://twitter.com/NorthmanTrader/status/133808592857801932...

[JohnJamesRambo]

Ugh my information was not updated and I'm not sure I wanted to know that haha.