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by jackcosgrove 1y ago

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internet_rand0 1y ago
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- neonbrain 1y ago
  lol, crypto is literally priced in fiat
- pc86 1y ago
  When I studied political science and economics in college we had a lot of really intriguing discussions around the rise of fiat currency, its pros and cons, its effect on global trade, etc. Some really well thought out opinions on both sides, from "nothing is real, who cares what this piece of paper means" to people who thought it was all a "globalist" scam and that we should be giving the grocer tiny pieces of gold in exchange for bread. This was before bitcoin existed. Post-BTC it seems like anyone who uses the term "fiat" to describe currency in any non-academic setting is about to launch into some nonsensical "bitcoin fixes this" tirade, they think everything is some jewish space laser pyramid scheme, and you wonder if they have a sovereign citizen paper license plate on their car. "Fiat is a pyramid scheme" is a dog whistle except the person blowing it doesn't know.
  - JKCalhoun 1y ago
    Hate to say it but I agree — when I see "fiat" in a post the red flags are flapping wildly.
    - pc86 1y ago
      I don't understand how but somehow "fiat currency" in a comment seems fine and "fiat" seems derogatory in that "get ready to read some crazy shit" kind of way.
  - HideousKojima 1y ago
    Eh, I'm still a goldbug who thinks fiat is a scam and I hate crypto too. I actually don't care about gold specifically, I just think currency should be backed by some sort of real good that's durable and relatively rare. The goal being to make currency harder for governments and banks to manipulate (the whole reason we backed out of Bretton Woods was because our manipulations had finally caught up to the realities of our finite gold reserves).
    - ceejayoz 1y ago
      > I just think currency should be backed by some sort of real good that's durable and relatively rare. It is! It's backed by F-35s and B-2s and big aircraft carriers.
      - HideousKojima 1y ago
        So I can exchange a fixed amount of dollars for an F-35C and a Ford class carrier?
        ceejayoz 1y ago
        "Backed by" and "freely exchangeable for" aren't the same thing.
pantulis 1y ago
Not sure if all crypto is a scam necessarily, but sure that world is chock full of scammers trying to out-scam each other.
- fullstop 1y ago
  I don't think that it's all a scam, but I do think that it gives scammers a vehicle to con people without oversight or regulation. They also end up with "real" money which can be spent.
  - askl 1y ago
    [flagged]
    - fullstop 1y ago
      You can keep telling yourself that, but there's enough utility and momentum behind it that it is not going anywhere. I'm saying this as a person with no stake in the matter, just observing from the sidelines.
      - aprilthird2021 1y ago
        What is the utility behind it? I don't see people using to actually do any transactions because of the volatility and fluctuating transaction fees. Scams can have momentum behind them
        aaronax 1y ago
        True fiscal self-sovereignty. Albeit quite volatile.
        aprilthird2021 1y ago
        You can't have this if you are a citizen of any country
hbbio 1y ago
Somehow yes, and it's quite sad. The blockchain technology itself is a marvel and the safety/security properties of properly decentralized systems are unmatched. The whole financial world would be better written using blockchain/smart contracts, same goes for voting/governance, etc. But these scammers. So many of them... Easy to smell though, but the problem we need to fix is these scammers get most of the online traction/attention, taking it from truer builders.
- airstrike 1y ago
  Somehow? The only objective value from crypto is anonymity. It only serves to incentivize shady behavior.
  - hbbio 1y ago
    I would say most current blockchains are pretty bad at privacy. Look at what onchain sleuths do. Rather, blockchains enable anyone to provably check the state of the database. Your fintech app logs you out. No proof, and frustrating customer service hell for days/weeks/months.
- ceejayoz 1y ago
  > The whole financial world would be better written using blockchain/smart contracts, same goes for voting/governance, etc. These are all scams, too. No. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_DAO https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_DAO serves as a nice concrete example. "Code is law" fell apart as soon as the code resulted in a large enough bad outcome for enough people.
- Arainach 1y ago
  >The whole financial world would be better written using blockchain/smart contracts, same goes for voting/governance, etc. Citation needed. Governance and finance absolutely need human judgment recovery edge cases such as "My house burnt down containing my ID (keys) and I need access to my bank account to rebuild it"
  - simonw 1y ago
NoOn3 1y ago
Then the fiat money scam is no less. But no one is outraged...
jakupovic 1y ago
Prove it!
akimbostrawman 1y ago
Same as email I mean most of it is scams and ads so who cares about the tech or other people actually using it not like we are in a place tech literate enough to seperate technology and its users beyond the absolute surface. Hekin upvoted kind stranger!
dang 1y ago
Ok, but please don't post unsubstantive comments to Hacker News. We want curious conversation here. That can only happen when people say new things. Generic denunciations like what you posted here not only are nothing new, they're as repetitive as it gets. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

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internet_rand0 1y ago

[flagged]

neonbrain 1y ago
lol, crypto is literally priced in fiat
pc86 1y ago
When I studied political science and economics in college we had a lot of really intriguing discussions around the rise of fiat currency, its pros and cons, its effect on global trade, etc. Some really well thought out opinions on both sides, from "nothing is real, who cares what this piece of paper means" to people who thought it was all a "globalist" scam and that we should be giving the grocer tiny pieces of gold in exchange for bread. This was before bitcoin existed. Post-BTC it seems like anyone who uses the term "fiat" to describe currency in any non-academic setting is about to launch into some nonsensical "bitcoin fixes this" tirade, they think everything is some jewish space laser pyramid scheme, and you wonder if they have a sovereign citizen paper license plate on their car. "Fiat is a pyramid scheme" is a dog whistle except the person blowing it doesn't know.
- JKCalhoun 1y ago
  Hate to say it but I agree — when I see "fiat" in a post the red flags are flapping wildly.
  - pc86 1y ago
    I don't understand how but somehow "fiat currency" in a comment seems fine and "fiat" seems derogatory in that "get ready to read some crazy shit" kind of way.
- HideousKojima 1y ago
  Eh, I'm still a goldbug who thinks fiat is a scam and I hate crypto too. I actually don't care about gold specifically, I just think currency should be backed by some sort of real good that's durable and relatively rare. The goal being to make currency harder for governments and banks to manipulate (the whole reason we backed out of Bretton Woods was because our manipulations had finally caught up to the realities of our finite gold reserves).
  - ceejayoz 1y ago
    > I just think currency should be backed by some sort of real good that's durable and relatively rare. It is! It's backed by F-35s and B-2s and big aircraft carriers.
    - HideousKojima 1y ago
      So I can exchange a fixed amount of dollars for an F-35C and a Ford class carrier?
      - ceejayoz 1y ago
        "Backed by" and "freely exchangeable for" aren't the same thing.

pantulis 1y ago

Not sure if all crypto is a scam necessarily, but sure that world is chock full of scammers trying to out-scam each other.

fullstop 1y ago
I don't think that it's all a scam, but I do think that it gives scammers a vehicle to con people without oversight or regulation. They also end up with "real" money which can be spent.
- askl 1y ago
  [flagged]
  - fullstop 1y ago
    You can keep telling yourself that, but there's enough utility and momentum behind it that it is not going anywhere. I'm saying this as a person with no stake in the matter, just observing from the sidelines.
    - aprilthird2021 1y ago
      What is the utility behind it? I don't see people using to actually do any transactions because of the volatility and fluctuating transaction fees. Scams can have momentum behind them
      - aaronax 1y ago
        True fiscal self-sovereignty. Albeit quite volatile.
        aprilthird2021 1y ago
        You can't have this if you are a citizen of any country

hbbio 1y ago

Somehow yes, and it's quite sad. The blockchain technology itself is a marvel and the safety/security properties of properly decentralized systems are unmatched. The whole financial world would be better written using blockchain/smart contracts, same goes for voting/governance, etc. But these scammers. So many of them... Easy to smell though, but the problem we need to fix is these scammers get most of the online traction/attention, taking it from truer builders.

airstrike 1y ago
Somehow? The only objective value from crypto is anonymity. It only serves to incentivize shady behavior.
- hbbio 1y ago
  I would say most current blockchains are pretty bad at privacy. Look at what onchain sleuths do. Rather, blockchains enable anyone to provably check the state of the database. Your fintech app logs you out. No proof, and frustrating customer service hell for days/weeks/months.
ceejayoz 1y ago
> The whole financial world would be better written using blockchain/smart contracts, same goes for voting/governance, etc. These are all scams, too. No. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_DAO https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_DAO serves as a nice concrete example. "Code is law" fell apart as soon as the code resulted in a large enough bad outcome for enough people.
Arainach 1y ago
>The whole financial world would be better written using blockchain/smart contracts, same goes for voting/governance, etc. Citation needed. Governance and finance absolutely need human judgment recovery edge cases such as "My house burnt down containing my ID (keys) and I need access to my bank account to rebuild it"
- simonw 1y ago

NoOn3 1y ago

Then the fiat money scam is no less. But no one is outraged...

jakupovic 1y ago

Prove it!

akimbostrawman 1y ago

Same as email I mean most of it is scams and ads so who cares about the tech or other people actually using it not like we are in a place tech literate enough to seperate technology and its users beyond the absolute surface. Hekin upvoted kind stranger!

dang 1y ago

Ok, but please don't post unsubstantive comments to Hacker News. We want curious conversation here. That can only happen when people say new things. Generic denunciations like what you posted here not only are nothing new, they're as repetitive as it gets. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html