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by dmitriid 1887 days ago
> which absolutely befuddles me for the foundational societal concepts it modernizes

There are literally no fundamental societal aspects that cryptocurrencies modernize. Unless you call speculation "not modern".

1 comments

I disagree with you. Some coins like tezos and cardano or a similar coin will be a creative destructive force for many institutions. They allow for truly decentralized authority. Think passports without an issuing country. Think money without a central bank. They are building the systems to be all the things that Taleb laments in Bitcoin.
> Some coins like tezos and cardano or a similar coin will be a creative destructive force for many institutions. They allow for truly decentralized authority. Think passports without an issuing country. Think money without a central bank.

These are all just words that amount to nothing but marketing. To be all that these coins need to painstakingly re-create all the institutions that make passports, money etc. possible: laws, courts, trust systems, enforcement etc.

There's literally nothing in the "fundamental societal concepts" that they modernise.

I remember thinking thoroughly about stuff like this in 2009 as I was very interested in political and economical philosophy back then - and back then the core idea of Bitcoin - a token that can be sent to anyone, semi-anonymously, completely out of governmental control - would be laughed out of the room, a silly theory pondered by Austrian school economists. That is a fundamental societal concept it introduced and tested at large, and fundamental development of the society.
> a token that can be sent to anyone, semi-anonymously, completely out of governmental control - would be laughed out of the room, a silly theory

You realize that this a) doesn't constitute a fundamental societal concept and that b) sending secrets outside of government control isn't even a novel idea?

> and fundamental development of the society.

There's still nothing new or fundamental introduced by cryptocurrencies, and they rely on existing concepts old as time to even function outside their bubble.

Why does every feature implementation feel like the Manhattan Project for the crypto guys? So many of these stories were told in 2017, and in 2021 we're still talking about future updates and 'will be', rather than working products.

Eth 2.0 for example was talked about for years, I'm still here getting wrecked on fees.

Lightning network for reducing BTC fees is another beauty we hear less about now days.

> Think money without a central bank.

Wondering what's the chance of it becoming the speculative anything-goes plaything of the entire big biz financial world without a central bank to keep them (at least marginally) in check.. and with lotsa money of the 'small people' on the line?