Hacker Newsnew | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submitlogin

Ah yes, the "technology". Any day now. Won't know what hit them. Around the corner really, alongside cold fusion and the chewing gum that replaces toothbrushes.


We take credit cards for granted. Look into when and how they were invented, if you are really curious about technology.

Credit cards have a really peculiar, fascinating and turbulent history. The original credit card was nothing like what we have today. Yet here we are.

I can easily see everyone rolling their eyes at and being dismissive of the original credit card idea.

Can crypto follow the same path?

What will it be in 20 years? 50?


Bitcoin is a terrible replacement for our current payment systems and credit cards on every metric.


Sure, but the guy you responded to said crypto not Bitcoin.


The same criticism applies, a global distributed consensus is fundamentally flawed as a payment system, and the current ad-hoc organically grown mess of different centralised payment systems interoperating is somehow still more suited to processing payments quickly and reliably than ‘crypto’.

Fast transfers, trusted partners, regulation, audits, identity verification, fraud prevention, backing, sound money. All these things are important and valuable, and while our current system is really flawed in some ways (in particular the control of politicians over money supply and the monetisation of debt), cryptocurrencies do not offer a solution to the most pressing problems and introduce too many of their own.


How are credit cards not the most terrible thing ever? Some random number with an expiry date and an additional number is the key to your wealth (subject to a lot of terms and conditions)? I would rather go with a cryptography based solution, where all the terms and conditions are open source code, all day


There is near zero risk of a consumer loosing out with credit card fraud.


*losing


It's only been 12 years! I'm sure someone will come up with the killer blockchain app soon.


Censorship resistant, non state, hard money than can be transferred over a communication channel is the killer app. Was there from day zero.


Yeah, like online shopping. Remember that fad? Luckily the .com crash showed us that the critics were right and nobody ever got rich from that dumb idea again.


Don't remember anyone saying online shopping was a fad, just that a lot of companies were massively over valued.


I’m certain I’ve seen examples akin to “people want to touch and see the products before they’ll consider buying them”.

I think the difference with crypto is that over time as more people look under the veil the number of naysayers grow, whereas with online shopping the naysayers have gone extinct (maybe RMS uses only cash or something).

Last night I stumbled across a group freestyle rapping and hung out for a bit. At one point one of the rappers talked about putting money into AMC and how it was a bumpy rollercoaster of a ride.

It really put a face on the other side of a lot of these cryptos and meme stocks. It’s entirely possible the fellow was a savvy investor (he certainly could freestyle very well) however judging by how his posture went from exuberant and confident to deflated as soon as he mentioned AMC in his own freestyle I’m fairly confident he bought in at the top.

And it certainly didn’t surprise me that at my local stomping grounds I’d be hearing the dismayed crewing of the fleeced.


Oh blockchain! What a silly pipe dream.




Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: