Ask HN: Why Hacker News readers are so against cryptocurrencies?

2 points by hal9000xp 7 years ago | 7 comments

I noted strong tendency that majority of Hacker News readers hate cryptocurrencies. Every single time I touched this topic as a supporter of crypto I've got very swiftly downvoted.

But today, I've got it too much. I've posted a comment which was very quickly downvoted and then flagged:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18218901

In this comment, I gave a link to interview hosted by YCombinator:

https://blog.ycombinator.com/blockchain-investing-with-olaf-carlson-wee-and-aaron-harris/

In this interview Olaf Carlson-Wee, a founder of Polychain Capital, discussed MakerDAO, a decentralized stablecoin. I mentioned MakerDAO in context of controversy aroung Tether. Namely, I suggested that decentralized stablecoin could be alternative.

I've not just mentioned that I feel very enthusiastic about decentralized stablecoins. I also mentioned concerns about their viability. For example, British Pound crash during Black Wednesday of 1992.

Hacker News readers implicitly told me today - you are scammer and you advertise yet another pump-and-dump scheme.

In other comments I suggested that ICOs are not always scam. A good example is Tezos. A perfectly valid project with good intentions despite all legal controversy around it. It was also mentioned in interview with Olaf.

It should be still possible to protect retail investors from scammers without barring them from such early-stage investments. One of my ideas was to have some government approved platform where projects should pass some due diligence before fundraising.

I've got swiftly downvoted every time I mentioned that.

I'm aware that we are currently in a big cryptocurrency bubble. There are lots of questionable projects and outright scam. I would say that 90% of cryptocurrencies and ICOs are junk.

If most of HN readers share views of Roubini who call cryptocurrencies as "Mother of All Scams", then I'm out of HN.

Tomte 7 years ago |

> If most of HN readers share views of Roubini who call cryptocurrencies as "Mother of All Scams", then I'm out of HN.

I don't know about "most", but many do. So do I.

And if I may be so blunt: I won't miss those comments. You have every right to post them, but I will downvote them. :-)

You may want to make this the hill you die on, like I regularly take my downvotes for strongly suggesting that the 1st and 2nd Amendments to the US Constitution are braindead. Or you may decide that you won't face the crowd on this.

But you will not convince the crowd.

Reading tip: "Attack of the 50ft Blockchain"

qohen 7 years ago | |

Reading tip: "Attack of the 50ft Blockchain"

That book's author, David Gerard, has a blog [0], where you can get his take on cryptocurrencies, and he's on Twitter [1] too (there's a tweet linking to his popular blog posts there, which might be helpful in getting started [2]).

[0] https://davidgerard.co.uk/blockchain/

[1] https://twitter.com/davidgerard?lang=en

[2] https://twitter.com/davidgerard/status/1051585096988467200

madeuptempacct 7 years ago |

My perspective is that I don't know whether or not crypto will take off. I am guessing people who are even a little more skeptical get tired of all the pumping. Also, dramatic phrases like your "If most of HN readers call crypto a scam, then I’m out of HN." tend to turn people off. Though I would miss you - you are probably the only person on HN I remember by username. In fact, I recognized you by post style, and looked at your name after reading.

minimaxir 7 years ago |

> In other comments I suggested that ICOs are not always scam.

> There are lots of questionable projects and outright scam. I would say that 90% of cryptocurrencies and ICOs are junk.

That's damning by faint praise.

Your comment was likely downvoted/killed because it was heavy in link spam.

spectec 7 years ago |

>If most of HN readers call crypto a scam, then I’m out of HN.

Oh no. Whatever will we do without you.

On a serious note, I can’t speak for everybody but as it currently stands 99.99% of crypto are scams bent on “replacing something” but really end up doing nothing. And the .01% of crypto that aren’t scams/worthless are being used to buy drugs.

And as a last edit, there are so many buzzwords being thrown around in the cryptouniverse it makes my eyes bleed. “Stablecoin” is one of those.

dang 7 years ago | |

> Oh no. Whatever will we do without you.

That's mean, and exactly the wrong way to respond to a question like this. Maybe you don't feel you owe better to the questioner. But you definitely owe better to the community you're presuming to represent here.

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

mygo 7 years ago | |

> And the .01% of crypto that aren’t scams/worthless are being used to buy drugs.

fiat currency is being used to by drugs as well...

Is there no better measure for the utility of a currency than people actually using it to trade for things?

Now I start to wonder, when people first shifted from barter to currency, who were the early adopters? were they also criminals?

By the way I have no opinion about crypto one way or another. If it succeeds, cool. If it doesn't, cool.