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When Bitcoin plunges, Buttcoin cheers: the community praying for end of crypto (theguardian.com)
16 points by sandebert on Sept 9, 2022 | hide | past | favorite | 12 comments



Bitcoin is too entrenched to disappear.

The only way Bitcoin and other crypto's will implode is if the underlying encryption is broken.


Bitcoin is also upgradable, it wouldn't be hard to convince miners to accept a hardfork to save their mining investments and holdings by switching to safe algorithms.

It is also much more reactive in this regard than most of the banking and other cryptography-dependant sectors (think major encrypted protocols) which also rely on many of the encryption that you suggest would be broken... not sure Bitcoin will be the main worry at that point.

Obviously if we are talking about SHA256 being broken then miners will lose on the mining equiment. I'm still not sure Bitcoin would disappear, but it would be catastophic... and not just for Bitcoin as suggested above.


Or when, a few decades from now, the block subsidy has became insignificant after repeated halvings. If you then having a period without lots of high fee paying transactions, Bitcoin could fall victim to a 51% attack double-spending huge amounts.

The immutability of the 21M limit that is Bitcoin's essence could also prove its long-term downfall.


It will not easily disappear, but there is a clear negative sentiment around crypto, even more with the current heat waves and energy crisis. I don't think it looks good on the balance sheet of institutions, and institutional buy-in was a major driver of the recent crypto bull run.


A cult praying for the end of all of crypto. When Bitcoin goes up, the Bitcoin maximalists cheer. There is no difference between the fundamental cultism between the two.


One side feels more righteous because "Bitcoin wastes energy and if you care about climate, you should pray for crypto to crash tomorrow."

It's a valid concern taken to such extreme that it's used as a political slogan anyone can hide behind and forces laymen to pick a side, it's the tech equivalent of putting your fingers in your ears and shouting "I can't hear you! Bitcoin causes climate change!" If you hate climate change, you MUST hate Bitcoin or you're an hypocrite.

The discourse has fallen off a cliff on the side of maximalists and cryptohaters alike. It's just idiots shouting at each other and probably one of the biggest intellectual voids on HN today: there is no intelligent discussion about crypto that can be made in here since 2018 or so when they all decided to pick a side and turn their brains off.

Whatever happened to "intellectual curiosity" and hacker spirit? Sign of the times I guess.


One side is trying to build something, agree with them or not, they put work into something they believe in, based on computer science/cryptography/technology and they contribute to these fields.

The other is wishing the destruction of the builders goal (and at times the builders themselves for the most extreme "cultists")... seems like a fundamental difference.


One is long and the other is short.


People in buttcoin are definitely not short. The only reward they get if bitcoin performs poorly is schadenfreude.


The end of all crypto and the 100% collapse of all cryptocurrencies, and projects constantly parroted by the extreme anti-crypto crowd for years has been greatly exaggerated. Otherwise it would have happened already.

It is no different or delusional to the crypto maximalists also parroting their alternative belief that all cryptocurrencies and projects will replace the current financial system.

Whether if one is long and the other is short is beside the point since you after the 'end' of crypto which should have happened a long time ago. Both of these absolutist camps are unrealistic in their ultimate end goals.

The only absolute is that there is none. Only some cryptocurrencies and projects will survive, and not all of them will.



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