[HN Gopher] Crypto Theses for 2022 [pdf]
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       Crypto Theses for 2022 [pdf]
        
       Author : dustingetz
       Score  : 26 points
       Date   : 2021-12-12 20:34 UTC (2 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (messari.io)
 (TXT) w3m dump (messari.io)
        
       | clpm4j wrote:
       | This sentence summed it up for me:
       | 
       | "Today there is still no scalable, decentralized, widely
       | integrated protocol that moves value and data between blockchains
       | without relying on trusted third parties."
       | 
       | There is absolutely nothing technical or interesting from an
       | engineering perspective in this pdf, but if you want a summary of
       | the crypto-VC-twitterVerse then you might find it entertaining.
        
       | cryptown wrote:
       | > Whether you're here as a missionary or a mercenary, you'll find
       | that one of the primary unifying forces behind this movement is
       | the belief that decentralized technologies with embedded
       | financial incentives (a good shorthand for Web3) offer a
       | compelling, often lucrative, alternative to our decaying legacy
       | institutions
       | 
       | The only reason people are interested in these "lucrative"
       | alternatives is because our "decaying legacy institutions" have
       | incentivised wealth. I've yet to read a compelling argument as to
       | why making a bunch of nerds (like myself) rich is not just a
       | continuation of capitalism. An alternative to capitalism is
       | something that removes financial incentives from life.
        
         | timdaub wrote:
         | > I've yet to read a compelling argument as to why making a
         | bunch of nerds (like myself) rich is not just a continuation of
         | capitalism.
         | 
         | Yes, crypto is a continuation of capitalism.
        
           | screye wrote:
           | If anything, crypto is about explicitly enabling and
           | exploiting the best of what capitalism has to offer.
           | 
           | Open access and competition at every step is when capitalism
           | is at its best. It tries to structurally avoid the emergent
           | problem of institutional capture that we're all too familiar
           | with in the US. Finance is probably the best example of
           | institutional capture. So, I see the value of an alternate
           | system.
           | 
           | It reminds me of the development of ML. ML has allowed
           | statisticians, supply chain folks and industrial engineers to
           | market themselves as AI people and implement much needed
           | solutions that existed before the AI boom, but never had the
           | clout or funding needed to push ot through.
           | 
           | Crypto is the Trojan horse. Inside are important traditional
           | solutions whose only shortcoming was lack of a cool factor.
           | So they've hopped on the crypto bandwagon to attract talent
           | and resources needed to make these academic solutions a
           | reality.
        
             | cryptown wrote:
             | but is "capitalism at its best" the same as "humanity at
             | its best" or even "humanity at its pretty goodest"? Does
             | the average person without capital want capital, or do they
             | want... to live a happy, stress-free life? right now,
             | obtaining capital is a way to achieve that _because_
             | capital is so unevenly distributed, but it's not the end
             | game of humanity. caveat: I'm not an academic so I could be
             | missing a very obvious piece of nuance in what "capitalism"
             | means in the context of this discussion.
        
       | KarlKemp wrote:
       | _" The alpha in this report is free, and many have gleaned
       | insights from past reports that helped them make money, but
       | nothing herein is investment advice. Be an adult."_
       | 
       | I don't know why but just the choice of words here made me
       | nauseous.
        
       | xenocratus wrote:
       | While I understand that it's the title of the document and the
       | hip way to read it, I would've preferred the "crypto" in the
       | title to be expanded to "cryptocurrency". I read it and got
       | excited that it might be about cryptography... :[
        
       | [deleted]
        
       | whoisninja wrote:
       | web3 is BS
       | 
       | everything runs on centralized servers, where are the peers in
       | these p2p networks?
        
         | wegwerfbenutzer wrote:
         | one is running next to me (geth + lighthouse)
        
         | diveanon wrote:
         | Pretty bold claim with 0 evidence.
        
         | whoisninja wrote:
         | yes, because this is buzzword marketing using VC dollars so
         | that they can pump and dump some stupid tokens on retail around
         | the world without any oversight from regulatory authorities
         | 
         | there's nothing p2p in these networks, for instance 75% nodes
         | in Ethereum are running on hosting service
         | https://www.ethernodes.org/network-types
         | 
         | Solana requires 128GB min. of RAM to run a validator node lolol
         | 
         | Messari is a retarded company, look at this pdf: v2s, v3s,
         | defi, cedefi - i mean it's like they're trolling everyone
         | 
         | a16z got a goldmine ponzi in their hands, they gonna milk it as
         | long as they can
        
       | vingt_six wrote:
       | woaw i don't know what is this and i don't understand anything
        
       | Tangokat wrote:
       | I think the report is pretty good. It has an obvious bias towards
       | crypto/web3 being great but when you put so much money into it I
       | suppose it kinda has to be that way.
       | 
       | As someone who sorta accepts some parts of the crypto narrative
       | and use it on a daily basis the chapter about NFTs just does not
       | make sense to me. All these people high on play-to-earn games and
       | buying non existant land in a game/virtual place that doesn't
       | really yet exist. The world just isn't there yet, this is a
       | classic overhype situation and will have to go through years of
       | winter before maybe actually working.
       | 
       | Could you see virtual land being worth something in a world where
       | the Ready Player One Oasis exists? Yes sure.. but we're so far
       | from that and I think a lot of these finance guys don't
       | understand the gaming/technical challenges to get there.
        
         | diveanon wrote:
         | I agree that play-to-earn is still very early, but there are
         | several projects in the space making significant progress
         | towards making it a reality.
         | 
         | I view investing in these projects no differently than my TSLA
         | positions. Over hyped for sure, but the potential upside is
         | massive and I am unwilling to sit on the sidelines.
         | 
         | Right now I am active in a few communities and it's been a lot
         | of fun watching these games evolve on a near weekly basis. I
         | relate it to Kickstarter but you actually own a part of the
         | company.
        
       | timdaub wrote:
       | - Read 3 pages and Balaji was mentioned 6 times
       | 
       | - Top 10 crypto people to watch is mostly VCs, ok
       | 
       | - Links to some big claims are direct links to tweets
       | 
       | - "It's inaccurate to call Tether a fraud."
       | 
       | - TIL: Balaji backed Worldcoin (Worldcoin is the retina-scaning
       | dystopia Sam Altman crypto startup)
       | 
       | - They call OHM an unpegged stablecoin, but it's actually a
       | ponzi: "However, judging by the number of forks it has spawned,
       | OlympusDAO may be the year's most important new project, and non-
       | pegged stablecoins may be the best bet this industry has when it
       | comes to de-pegging from the US dollar." Wow, let's see how that
       | statement will age...
       | 
       | - Have I mentioned that Balaji is cool?
       | 
       | Actually, it's pretty entertaining to read.
        
         | user-the-name wrote:
         | For reference, Balaji is the guy who promised a massive project
         | to put bitcoin miners in all of your household appliances so
         | they could get bitcoins to make microtransactions with. This
         | was somehow pitched as both desirable and possible, two things
         | which is most certainly wasn't.
         | 
         | Having raised large amounts of money for this, he then
         | proceeded to deliver absolutely nothing except an outdated
         | mining chip duct-taped to a Raspberry Pi, and then pivoted
         | to... paying people to answer surveys?
         | 
         | Everyone in the cryptocurrency sphere thinks he is a genius and
         | visionary.
        
           | timdaub wrote:
           | Can confirm. But hey Peter Thiel then recommended him to
           | Trump for like some government positions.
        
         | batman-farts wrote:
         | I already feel sorry for the future historians who are going to
         | have to parse thousands of broken Twitter threads when they
         | study this stuff.
        
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       (page generated 2021-12-12 23:01 UTC)