[neiman]

The comments here show, again, that this is maybe the most charged topic in hackernews.

Why is this topic so charged? Is it because the environmental damage (but then PoS should change it)? or because there's money involved (but then ENS+IPFS are poor, so should be good)? Or is it just because it's complex and takes a lot of effort to understand?

[jagger27]

It's because of the non-stop barrage of bullshit projects that don't solve actual problems besides "I wish I bought Bitcoin at $100 so here's my attempt to recreate that magic".

TFA makes a solid argument about the limited problem space where blockchain tech is useful.

> Or is it just because it's complex and takes a lot of effort to understand?

Look, I see that you're deep into the ecosystem and you're excited about it. The core ideas of blockchain are not that complex. It's the human factors surrounding all of it that make it so fucking tiresome thread after thread.

[kkjjkgjjgg]

"It's the human factors surrounding all of it that make it so fucking tiresome thread after thread."

But that is also what makes it so interesting. Nobody forces people to use and assign value to Bitcoin. It all happens only because people want it. No government mandates, nothing.

[nhinck]

Very similar energy to homeopathy/chiropracty.

[kkjjkgjjgg]

I don't think it is very similar at all, but if you think so... Homeopathy is about the placebo effect, which is people's minds affecting their own bodies. Bitcoin is about transactions between people. Most modern civilization is just a construct of the mind, but that doesn't make it like homeopathy.

[kkjjkgjjgg]

Could be envy of people who saw other people get rich.

[john_alan]

Precisely, it upsets the pseudo-intellectuals.

[magicjosh]

I would like to read a more thorough and thoughtful analysis of this perspective.

Am I indeed inside the bubble of a giant pyramid scheme? If so, what does that say about me and my judgement?

On the flip side, what if all this blockchain/Bitcoin/web3 stuff is the next big thing? Does it mean HN has passed its prime and innovative people at the cutting edge move elsewhere? I wonder what someone like Brian Armstrong from Coinbase would say, being in both worlds.

The OP article itself is banal, it reads like a high school book report. How is this at the top of the ranks?

From "Hacker News: Welcome" [0]: "HN is an experiment. As a rule, a community site that becomes popular will decline in quality. Our hypothesis is that this is not inevitable—that by making a conscious effort to resist decline, we can keep it from happening."

[0] https://news.ycombinator.com/newswelcome.html