> Sure, there are lots of scammers and con artists in the cryptocurrency world . . . but the fundamental technologies are indeed interesting, potentially and actually useful and also something that real world people who don't live in privileged bubbles of sound government regularly do use in many parts of the world.
I'm sick of hearing about how "interesting" and "potentially . . . useful" the tech is when the vast majority of real-world uses are speculative bets or outright scams.
There may well be good uses in narrow circumstances outside of developed countries. But people still try to steer so many conversations towards cryptocurrency not because of those uses, but because they want to drive the value of the currency higher.
>I'm sick of hearing about how "interesting" and "potentially . . . useful" the tech is when the vast majority of real-world uses are speculative bets or outright scams.
There may well be good uses in narrow circumstances outside of developed countries. But people still try to steer so many conversations towards cryptocurrency not because of those uses, but because they want to drive the value of the currency higher.
Why does it matter if you're sick of hearing it? It remains true, for the technology, taking all the misueses by companies and people aside. You don't address that for one, the normal financial world is rife with abuses, and two, that those people in developing countries that you flippantly mention in passing make up hundreds of millions of individuals with major problems in their domestic governing systems.
Furthermore, somebody creating a crypto-related scam doesn't affect me personally if im not involved. Increasingly restrictive financial laws and algorithmic, arbitrary cancellations of accounts and transactions by major banking and finance institutions do on the other hand affect me whether I want them to or not. Sadly, one depends on these systems still, and an alternative would definitely be a useful thing.
I'm sick of hearing about how "interesting" and "potentially . . . useful" the tech is when the vast majority of real-world uses are speculative bets or outright scams.
There may well be good uses in narrow circumstances outside of developed countries. But people still try to steer so many conversations towards cryptocurrency not because of those uses, but because they want to drive the value of the currency higher.