| For the life of me I don't understand blockchain and crypto. Is there a hood for dummies? Are they connected to the decentralized web? People I hang with throw around these words and I want to understand! Anyone have a good source for a 101 primer? |
| I think blockchain and crypto is exclusively for dummies. |
Post of the day |
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Blockchain is just a public decentralized record of transactions. No company or server owns this record or can ever easily get full control.
Etherium began a trend of a blockchain being programmable. This has led lots of newer trends like NFTs. Basically a piece of programming or data that resides on the blockchain and is transferable/sellable. The economics get quite complicated and are easily manipulated why so many are against it. But basically if you “own” crypto you own a piece of a vast network on the internet. This network has value therefore crypto has value. The term crypto currency is very misleading though. Obviously it is not money backed by a govt. |
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These may not be what you had in mind, but I actually think they’re informative:
John Oliver on Cryptocurrencies https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=g6iDZspbRMg Here’s Bill Maher on Cryptocurrency where he discusses “mining” for cryptocurrency https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=HaJpYjO136o |
Crypto is, blockchain is not. |
Blockchain could end up as a niche technology with some very good specific uses cases, but most of the transformative uses that the crypo faithful talk about seem like solutions in search of a problem |
| Don't do it. Be a better person than that. |
🎯 |
As others have said, blockchain is a technology - a solution looking for a problem. It's nothing magical, not revolutionary, doesn't make possible anything that wasn't possible before. Blockchain was used to implement crypto - a currency that was envisioned to provide the benefit of anonymity, and decentralized control. Note that crypto has failed on both of these core missions. Transactions using crypto is *NOT* anonymous and there is a lot of centralized control in the crypto world. In fact, they are begging for more of it in the form of government regulations. Crypto has none of the benefits of government-backed currency and does not mitigate any of its problems. It's a good dream for a nerd, but has no other redeeming value. There are two types of people that buy crypto: idiots, and those that are taking advantage of idiots. If you are not transacting crypto to take advantage of idiots... |
| Quantum computing will kill blockchain. I wouldn't bother spending a lot of time trying to learn tech that will be obsolete very soon. |
No, no. That's not quite right. There's also the money launderers, the sex traffickers, the narco dealers/black market traders, the kidnappers, the scammers, and others involved in illicit activities as well as those that are seeking tax evasion (as opposed to tax avoidance). Just consider this every time you wonder who is on the other side of that crypto purchase or sale because the AML (anti-money laundering) and KYC (know your customer) rules don't really apply here. But anonymity is great, amirite?! /s https://gfintegrity.org/cryptocurrency-and-the-rise-of-new-illicit-financial-flows/ https://medium.com/technicity/crypto-exchanges-were-the-biggest-recipients-of-illicit-bitcoin-in-2019-616ca79a7ef2 |
Agree! |
| Personally, I have never invested in crypto but from Fall to Summer I mine on my video cards. This mining is how transactions are confirmed. Miners (mining pools) get rewarded to confirming transactions by receiving credits known as crypto currencies. I have made about $4000 during the last two recent big runs and basically heat my house as a side benefit. |