[kolev]

Yeah, but people are stupid and especially so when greed kicks in! I always explore Internet phenomenons and try to put myself in the shoes of the affected. I've spent days playing Mafia Wars to see what the hell makes people waste so much time with that crap and I think got it. I did everything a Bitcoiner does for a few months, BitcoinWisdom.com charts are now burnt into my retina, I had nightmares about crashes (some were real when I woke up), and I know first-hand how your mindset changes. Anyway, everybody's in for a quick lazy profit! I got totally disgusted by Bitcoin thanks to people like Barry Silbert (this guys is like an open book), the Winklevii, potheads like Chalie Shrem (http://www.vocativ.com/12-2013/night-bitcoin-millionaire-pro...) who some are now trying to turn into a hero, and even Fred Wilson who was totally arrogant and deceitful during the NYDFS hearing.

We, the startupers, of course, like to make money, too, but we know it is not easy, it's actually a lot of work, skills, and luck, and money is almost never top priority - it's just a nice added bonus, a reward if we do good! We want to change the world, but not to change the world so that we get rich from the hoarded coins!

I do like the innovation that Bitcoin brought, I like that it brought the attention to some of the problems it's claiming to solve (almost many are false promises - like micropayments), but I don't think it can be sustained for much longer!

[Carltonian]

I agree. It wasn't so much a pro Bitcoin statement as it was angst with the world economy at large. People just want to make money, and I know people have to make money, but people don't have to just want to make money. Startupers want to make money, but it's like you say, they want to do so in being innovative, productive, creating valuable things (not to generalize - I'm sure there are some people here just for the money). There are people like this in the cryptocurrency community too, but the accessibility of Bitcoin attracted plenty of asshats as well. It will prove to be a game changing experiment somehow, but if it doesn't become a world-saving currency or whatever, I won't care or be surprised.