| I'm not trying to stonewall here but it feels like every time this gets close to something concrete I'm thrown for a curve > crop futures on Ethereum using smart contracts Why would I do this? You mention: > The advantage over normal finance is probably akin to the advantage of Linux over Windows. You can hack Linux. You can compile everything. It is yours. What does this actually mean? Like this combination of words? I don't get it, especially "It is yours.". The best I can picture is maybe you're saying this is like owning your access vs being beholden to a brokerage, but you still need to trust some coordinating body for these futures right? Futures are covering an underlying asset, the part where you buy it is the tip of the iceberg to their functionality and the players that facilitate it still need to exist, so what's a concrete example of something new I can do by using crop futures on Ethereum that isn't self-referential to crypto? The closest I saw to that was your IFTTT example, but how does any of that rely on Ethereum? Isn't the automated marketplace the enabler here? Like what changes about your example > You could resell your games not at GameStop but on an automated marketplace on Ethereum. Just say “I want to resell this one for $40” and forget about it. One day $40 rolls into your account and the game stops loading up from steam. And that’s a simple example. if the automated marketplace is based on fiat currency vs smart contracts? You still need to trust some sort of central entity to transact these games after all Again, I know it might sound like I'm just not trying to picture this, but I really am, and it's just so ethereal to me. Every part of this I grasp ostensibly leads back to "ok but what is crypto adding here?". And the answer to that always seems to involve more crypto, which doesn't help move forward over that all important question |
At a basic level there isn’t anything you can “do” in crypto (outside of gambling / tax evasion / other crime ) that you can’t do in the banking system.
If you are looking for the “wow it can do that!”, it doesn’t really exist.
Crypto offers a way for more companies to provide the services banks and exchanges provide. I wouldn’t say anyone could do it due to the technical knowledge required.
Crop futures - this was an example. More useful stuff will come along.
My Linux analogy is that anyone who I spoke to in the 90s “I might install Linux” would laugh. Why not just use Windows. What can Linux do that Windows can’t? It’s for geeks etc. It then found a use case in powering most of the web by being the OS of choice for web servers.
I think this is a good analogy because Linux still requires you to be technical and Ethereum will require this, but companies will build services to make it easier for ordinary people to get use of the system.
Business is all about trust so a completely trustless and still useful outcome is probably not possible.
I probably am not explaining this well enough and that’s my fault. It might be a tacit thing where if you use cryptos a little bit (in a playful way, small amounts of money) and keep an open mind you start to understand. Once you’ve done an exchange of one token to another with no central party, no company involved in that exchange with the price figured out by a contract no one can manipulate, to me that’s when you feel the potential of the tech.
That said there are so many problems with crypto it has some way to go. Number one is carbon emissions, number two is scams and number three is technical difficulty. I think these could be solved longer term.