Somewhat relatedly, I’ve been wondering for a while now why so many people here are so intensely, emotionally against this tech (and consequently why so many mediocre articles on the topic with emotionally charged titles are upvoted to the front page).
Plenty of different arguments are offered by the commentariat, some of which have merit. But whether the stated reasons are environmental issues, political implications, scams, ransomware, or illicit trade, the one commonality seems anger and desire to ban and destroy all crypto.
A commenter recently stated candidly that they simply feel envy. They’re bitter about their bro-type friends and acquaintances getting rich overnight and flaunting their wealth. It clicked for me that HN commenters are more likely to personally know such people and feel resentful towards them.
That may sound like ad hominem, but I’m not addressing the arguments (many of which I agree with). I’m speculating about the reasons for the disproportionate level of ire directed against crypto on this forum, and personal resentment feels like a good candidate.
The reason I even care is that I’m hoping to read (even if not always necessarily participate in) higher quality discussions on this topic. The tech is here whether we like it or not. It might fail horribly (as many here seem to be hoping), but what definitely won’t help are the “I hope this Ponzi scam dies soon” one-liners on almost every article on the topic.
> I’m speculating about the reasons for the disproportionate level of ire directed against crypto on this forum
I don't personally know any people who became rich on cryptocurrencies and also don't feel any particular envy towards the people who I know of, via the internet, but am pretty vehemently against cryptocurrencies, so I'm a sample-size one counter-example to your thesis.
I obviously don't think that my ire against cryptocurrencies is disproportionate, since if I did, I'd scale it down until I thought it was proportionate, so I think that it's justified by the object-level issues.
If I were to speculate on why classes of people like me are more strongly opposed to cryptocurrencies than other people:
1. We are (or feel we are) more qualified to see many of its technical deficiencies, some of which have been patched over the years, others of which seem fundamental.
2. We agree with the "crypto people" on many topics, such as decentralisation or privacy, but think that their solutions are broken, and worse we feel that their philosophy and approach is a bit of a dark mirror universe of ours (to exaggerate _immensely_ imagine that both groups were religious people who agreed completely on matters of scripture, but they inexplicably decided to worship Ahriman instead of Ahura Mazda). See also "I Can Tolerate Anything Except The Outgroup"[0].
That’s fair, but your comment on the topic is significantly more measured than is customary for this forum. (If your usual comments are more along the lines of “God I hope this MLM cult crashes and burns soon”, than you fit my idea of angry anti-crypto HN commenter more closely.)
Thanks for reminding me to reread the Scott Alexander outgroup article.
I think, and this article is definitely an example, that people realize it is largely illegal under current law, but is simply not being enforced by regulatory agencies. So when people get upset, I don’t think it’s just old man nagging about the new generation, it is more them trying to warn people about traps they have seen time and time again but have been reigned in by regulation but for some reason are allowed to be setup in this new crypto space without oversight.
I've been partial to this sentiment for a while but I like a simpler expression: it's just the virgin no-coiner vs. the chad bitcoiner. Dismissive? Absolutely. But these posts and comment threads deserve to be dismissed. If I felt like being slightly more constructive perhaps it'd be worth noting that it's an over-explanation because humans just don't need much reason to become this polarized and frothy about things, see e.g. Sports or the Robbers Cave Experiment (despite the latter having issues).
The quality of these discussions could improve dramatically. At this point almost all of the possible arguments have been made. We are at the dead horse flogging point.
I certainly think that "man I wish I randomly was a megamillionaire" motivates some people. I definitely wish I bought and held a bunch of BTC back in like 2012 or whatever.
But for me this is comparable to other forms of economic criticism. I believe that the path that cryptocurrency and related systems is walking leads to an extreme hypercapitalism where everything on the planet becomes an item for speculation and no behavior is possible without access to some capitalized token. A lot of people will get rich off that process but the reason why I think that this is bad is not because other people get rich off of it. I think it is a harmful system whether or not I get to buy a yacht.
>>getting rich overnight and flaunting their wealth
Only a small fraction of early adopters became rich. Most of the suckers who joined the ponzi reading about these overnight riches have lost money. Like a typical ponzi.
That is roughly how the commenter described these people, and I have no doubt HN is far more likely than the average forum to be frequented by tech types who personally know successful early adopters.
Plenty of different arguments are offered by the commentariat, some of which have merit. But whether the stated reasons are environmental issues, political implications, scams, ransomware, or illicit trade, the one commonality seems anger and desire to ban and destroy all crypto.
A commenter recently stated candidly that they simply feel envy. They’re bitter about their bro-type friends and acquaintances getting rich overnight and flaunting their wealth. It clicked for me that HN commenters are more likely to personally know such people and feel resentful towards them.
That may sound like ad hominem, but I’m not addressing the arguments (many of which I agree with). I’m speculating about the reasons for the disproportionate level of ire directed against crypto on this forum, and personal resentment feels like a good candidate.
The reason I even care is that I’m hoping to read (even if not always necessarily participate in) higher quality discussions on this topic. The tech is here whether we like it or not. It might fail horribly (as many here seem to be hoping), but what definitely won’t help are the “I hope this Ponzi scam dies soon” one-liners on almost every article on the topic.