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Comment by latchkey

3 years ago

A comment I saw yesterday that seems oddly relevant.... https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35320208

"HN is weirdly inconsistent about digital currencies. Generally pro encryption, net neutrality, open-source software, VPNs, etc. But mention "Bitcoin," and suddenly half the commenters lose their shit about the Four Horsemen of the Infocalypse. Then they go back to commiserating with another Ask HN startup founder whose PayPal account was frozen."

31 comments

latchkey

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anigbrowl  3 years ago

It's not because of aversion to cryptocurrency per se, it's because the crypto space is absolutely full of blatant shills and they are extremely annoying people. A comment like 'I think cryptocurrencies help to mitigate this, but the flip side is that it can lead to money laundering' is insightful. Personal testimonials are basically just ads.

  • latchkey  3 years ago

    I agree. The industry needs to do a better job of weeding out the shills.

    That said, every advertisement I get for a bank or financial institution, doesn't seem much different. Instead of individuals, it is big organizations trying to shill us into letting them manage our money for us.

JohnFen  3 years ago

It might have more to do with the cryptocurrency space appearing more than a little shady than any sort of inconsistency.

  • latchkey  3 years ago

    All industries around finance attract shady actors. In Vietnam, you get the best exchange rate for VND, by going to the gold dealers. Paypal doing shady things is par for the course. Banks going under because 97% of their deposits are over the FDIC limits is normal behavior.

    Simultaneously ignoring the benefits of cryptocurrencies and the problems they are trying to solve, while only looking at the negative edges that are covered by mainstream media, seems short-sighted at best. That's the inconsistency.

    • JohnFen  3 years ago

      Yes, all industries attract bad actors. But the cryptocurrency space seems to be largely run by bad actors. Not everyone, of course, but a disturbingly large percentage.

      > Simultaneously ignoring the benefits of cryptocurrencies

      I don't actually see a lot of that happening here, though.

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