a thoughtful web.
Good ideas and conversation. No ads, no tracking.   Login or Take a Tour!
comment by elizabeth
elizabeth  ·  752 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Y'all we gotta talk about FTX.

It’s the best time to be hanging in Mexico with a dude from cali deep into the crypto game, with the never ending twitter memes. I get the insider play by play - but still not buying the perspective since he’s a die hard orange piller.

It all feels like a bunch o kids playing banker. I’m having a hard time assessing the real impact of this, since it really doesn’t even break news in any of my regular circles/news outlets. A Macdonald s bankruptcy would be more newsworthy. But it’s also reveling so much shady dealings we all knew were going on in the rich circles, and now they’re undeniable. Wonder if it’s gonna matter tho, doesn’t feel like anyone is paying attention besides a few techies…





kleinbl00  ·  751 days ago  ·  link  ·  

You know? that's the first time I've heard the phrase "orange pill."

It is a bunch o'kids playing banker, except they're doing it with realreal money. They're blowing up a lot of grownups, and they're doing it in a truly florid fashion. And I think it's going to matter, and it's going to matter a lot.

There are two groups in crypto. There's the group of nerds who are into all the cool things you can do with it, and there's the group of bros who are into the fact that they bought it before you and can sell it to you for a profit. The former group has definitely taken a back seat for the past couple years, despite the fact that absolutely seismic developments are taking place. Did you know that the Federal Reserve started a central bank digital currency pilot? PBS just released a Nova about crypto that blithely points out that as far as on-chain activity, it's been Ethereum and only Ethereum for quite a while. They spend time on ridiculous energy wastage and then go "oh and Ethereum drops that by 99.95%." It's fucking boring, as most major advances are.

The latter group is anything but boring, and is 100% of the "crypto is a ponzi" "I hate NFTs" "progress bad" mentality that is absolutely the conventional wisdom right now. They need to be punished. They need their air taken away. They need to be roped into the exact same kind of stringent regulation we do with everything else that touches money, and we need to do it in 2015.

'cuz that's the thing. Ethereum delayed nine months while they sorted out regulatory. They wanted to make sure what they were doing was legal, was not going to face any headwinds, and could not be stopped by injunction once it launched so they could use their momentum to build. And that was the first and last time anybody did that. Compare and contrast with Paypal: yeah it was illegal, who cares we're rich. Uber: yeah it was illegal, who cares we're rich. AirBnB: yeah it was illegal, who cares we're rich.

I think we might have just landed at a crux where the Republicans get to beat up Democratic operatives for being shady fux. And here's the thing about being Democrats: you aren't allowed any scandals. This thing is basically Pizzagate for money except it's true. There will be a purging. It will matter.

thenewgreen  ·  750 days ago  ·  link  ·  

My advice to anyone that would ask, for the past 5 years, has been to buy Ethereum and hold it in cold storage. Don’t trade. No other coins. Just eth. I still think it’s very good advice. There are earnest people, ethical people building interesting projects and companies on Ethereum. I remain bullish.

Watching the MSM’s reporting on this has been telling. It may be the straw that breaks the camels back regarding my total distrust of media. No longer do I just think they can be lazy and click-baity, I think they’re a propaganda tool. M

Also, hi KB. It’s been a minute. Hope you all are well.

elizabeth  ·  751 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Yeah, that’s what they call bitcoin maximalists from what I gather. Saying btc is better than Eth cause of the proof of work/stake difference? “Meritocracy “ vs “stakeholder power” apparently? And that Eth enabled the technology for scammers to scam easier since shit coins are built on top? I think I’ve learned more in the past week about crypto with this whole thing unfolding, but still have a pretty basic understanding of it all. Certainly made following this shitshow of news more exciting.

kleinbl00  ·  750 days ago  ·  link  ·  

lol

I have amassed a reasonable collection of personalities to follow on Twitter. They were, to a man, deeply arrogant and self-confident. Now? Now they're mostly silent. Some of them have been very performatively, heart-rendingly skint.

You start to realize that these people with 100,000 followers were nine years old when Mt.Gox went down.