bendtheblock

7 ms·

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by bendtheblock 10d ago
I am the author... long time HN reader (2009).... Eager to get other founder's feedback and thoughts experiences building an AI-first company today.
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Hail, Orchestrator(webtwoboomer.com)
12 points by bendtheblock 10d ago|3 comments
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Developers could owe fiduciary duty to Bitcoin owners(thetimes.co.uk)
2 points by bendtheblock 4y ago|1 comments
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by bendtheblock 4y ago
Molly White, David Gerard and a few other academics and researchers did a 'correction' of a recent NY Times fluff piece from March 2022 here. https://www.mollywhite.net/annotations/latecomers-guide-to-c... It
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Software Is No Longer Eating the World(webtwoboomer.com)
7 points by bendtheblock 4y ago|2 comments
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by bendtheblock 4y ago
That was price fixing - nothing to do with the bank's ledger. https://www.investopedia.com/terms/l/libor-scandal.asp
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by bendtheblock 4y ago
That wasn't a change in the ledger - it was the misselling and fraudulent opening of accounts. And it was remediated, there was a change in the leadership and settlements to the victims. You're proving my point, as a system we do
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by bendtheblock 4y ago
A better title would be Ledgers in historical perspective. The hypothetical he ends with (what if ledgers could be decentralised) is a classic example of blockchains looking for a problem. In recent history have there been examples of ban
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by bendtheblock 4y ago
what's wrong with this comment?! that it's anti-crypto? currency needs to be a medium of exchange, unit of account, and store of value. Given its volatility, Bitcoin could only ever realistically be useful for the latter, and only
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by bendtheblock 4y ago
but what's the benefit of these? - decentralised: why is this good? - trustless: I trust the companies I use, it works - censure resistance: OK, fringe case for most - pseudonymous: why do I want anyone to be able to see my transaction
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by bendtheblock 4y ago
Due to blockchain's architectural shortcomings, you need to do the transactions off chain. Fine... But crypto-"currencies" are actually highly speculative assets (as South Africa declared today [1]). No bro will spend them -
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by bendtheblock 4y ago
The centralized nature of these oligopolies is a property of capitalism, i.e. capital consolidates power. You are saying that search, storage etc are centralised because of the tech? Why are they any more centralised than the other (pre-int
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by bendtheblock 4y ago
I think you're right about online fraud being much reduced with public private key tech, but if it's such a good idea why has no one been able to do it?
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by bendtheblock 4y ago
it does imply that the value doesn't stick - in fact that's exactly what I'm saying. there is no value beyond the expectation that another greater fool will buy it from you in future.
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by bendtheblock 4y ago
all money is political. good starting point: https://washingtonspectator.org/paranoia-on-parade/
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by bendtheblock 4y ago
What about JP Morgan and the Railroad Trusts? The big 4 accounting firms? Big pharma? The Magic Circle of Law Firms? I could keep going.
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by bendtheblock 4y ago
My question to you is: what's the problem? On the few times I've lost money to online fraud, the bank returned it to me. Why does having a huge public web of transactions on the slowest ledger ever created help? What happens to yo
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by bendtheblock 4y ago
Flowers are used for decoration, dies, teas, scents. Sometimes they may be overvalued. Crypto doesn't have any underlying value. It's just greater fool investing, there is no underlying cashflow, asset or company. Future cash flo
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by bendtheblock 4y ago
not cryptographically no (and would be nice to see, but crypto is not the answer). But as a consumer when I shop online I never worry - if I am defrauded the (centralised) bank will give me the money back, that's the solution and it wo
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by bendtheblock 4y ago
this is a pithy phrase with about as much logic as "Live, Laugh, Love"
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by bendtheblock 4y ago
nice rebuttal - but the "profitable and stable flower industry" is the trade of an underlying commodity with utility value i.e. the flowers. there is no such underlying asset with crypto. the part that is parallel is the rife spec
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by bendtheblock 4y ago
the history of this type of speculation and others like it, that leaves many bust, was documented in Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds published in 1841 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extraord
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by bendtheblock 4y ago
I don't follow the automatic assumption that giving the info to centralised entity like a bank is bad? What is that you are fearing? And why is that more likely than Crypto sinking or going to zero, you losing your wallet key or someon
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by bendtheblock 4y ago
agreed, but consolidation in this way is a property of _capitalism_, not of tech
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by bendtheblock 4y ago
but why? what advantage is there to using the slowest ledger ever created?
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by bendtheblock 4y ago
your last point isn't true - EMV cards with a chip (modern credit cards) use public key cryptography and don't reveal more than they need to to the merchant. Typing in the card numbers (or swiping it) will slowly stop in the US, a
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by bendtheblock 4y ago
For anything to work efficiently in crypto it always needs to be centralised e.g. OpenSea, Coinbase. Both of which hilariously are backed by a16z. As Scott G says... "meet the new boss... it's your old boss" More examples: Me
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by bendtheblock 4y ago
Ok - the non crypto bit of fintech. Basically anything else but this
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by bendtheblock 4y ago
Me again - lom this is the experiment you’re talking about: https://moxie.org/2022/01/07/web3-first-impressions.html
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by bendtheblock 4y ago
Regulation can’t come soon enough. These are risky assets at best. People are getting hurt. Just think how much real tech talent has been wasted on this pointless experiment. This could have gone into fintech, greentech, healthtech, proptec

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