MESSAGE
| DATE | 2017-05-29 |
| FROM | Ruben Safir
|
| SUBJECT | Subject: [Hangout of NYLXS] Cryptography currencies in the real world
|
I was at a Bodega in the Soundview section of the Bronx last week, at
Rosedale Avenue and Randall Avenue and it had a bitcoin dispensing
machine where one could buy from a vending machine bitcoins sent
directly to you cellphone.
This location was strategically located just opposite a huge house
project. I'm not sure who the intended customer base is, purhaps drug
dealers?
Regardless, this is an example of the increasing visibility of
electronic money and their has been a rumbling of news about it of late
and a number of different kinds, which can't be good, I would think.
See this article that outlines some prognostication of your bitcoin future:
https://techcrunch.com/2017/05/28/double-double-cryptocoin-bubble/?ncid=rss&utm_source=tcfbpage&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Techcrunch+%28TechCrunch%29&sr_share=facebook
Blockchains are the new Linux, not the new Internet
I understand the appeal of this narrative. I’m no blockchain skeptic.
I’ve been writing about cryptocurrencies with fascination for six years
now. I’ve been touting and lauding the power of blockchains, how they
have the potential to make the Internet decentralized and permissionless
again, and to give us all power over our own data, for years. I’m a true
believer in permissionless money like Bitcoin. I called the initial
launch of Ethereum “a historic day.”
But I can’t help but look at the state of cryptocurrencies today and
wonder where the actual value is. I don’t mean financial value to
speculators; I mean utility value to users. Because if nobody wants to
actually use blockchain protocols and projects, those tokens which are
supposed to reflect their value are ultimately … well … worthless.
Bitcoin, despite its ongoing internal strife, is very useful as
permissionless global money, and has a legitimate shot at becoming a
global reserve and settlement currency. Its anonymized descendants such
as ZCash have added value to the initial Bitcoin proposition.
(Similarly, Litecoin is now technically ahead of Bitcoin, thanks to the
aforementioned ongoing strife.) Ethereum is very successful as a
platform for developers.
But still, eight years after Bitcoin launched, Satoshi Nakamoto remains
the only creator to have built a blockchain that an appreciable number
of ordinary people actually want to use. (Ethereum is awesome, and
Vitalik Buterin, like Gupta, is an honest-to-God visionary, but it
remains a tool / solution / platform for developers.) No other
blockchain-based software initiative seems to be at any real risk of
hockey-sticking into general recognition, much less general usage.
With all due respect to Fred Wilson, another true believer — and, to be
clear, an enormous amount of respect is due — it says a lot that, in the
midst of this massive boom, he’s citing “Rare Pepe Cards,” of all
things, as a prime example of an interesting modern blockchain app. I
mean, if that’s the state of the art…
--
So many immigrant groups have swept through our town
that Brooklyn, like Atlantis, reaches mythological
proportions in the mind of the world - RI Safir 1998
http://www.mrbrklyn.com
DRM is THEFT - We are the STAKEHOLDERS - RI Safir 2002
http://www.nylxs.com - Leadership Development in Free Software
http://www2.mrbrklyn.com/resources - Unpublished Archive
http://www.coinhangout.com - coins!
http://www.brooklyn-living.com
Being so tracked is for FARM ANIMALS and and extermination camps,
but incompatible with living as a free human being. -RI Safir 2013
_______________________________________________
Hangout mailing list
Hangout-at-nylxs.com
http://www.nylxs.com/mailman/listinfo/hangout
|
|
