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I wasted years of my life in crypto

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681 points Anon84 | 4 comments | 07 Dec 25 12:57 UTC | HN request time: 0s | source
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spicyusername ◴[07 Dec 25 13:28 UTC] No.46181533[source]▶
I've never understood the initial arguments about Bitcoin, no matter how many times they've been explained to me.

The block chain is, and always was, an extremely inconvenient database. How anyone, especially many intelligent people, thought it was realistic to graft a currency on top of such a unwieldy piece of technology is beyond me. Maybe it goes to show how few people understand economics and anthropology and how dunning-krueger can happen to anyone.

Now the uninformed gambling on futuristic sounding hokum? THAT is easy to understand.

That being said, I'm sorry the author had to go through this experience, the road of life is often filled with unexpected twists and turns.

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1. grim_io ◴[07 Dec 25 13:32 UTC] No.46181550[source]▶
Ideology can be blinding. It was never about the technology.
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2. Ekaros ◴[07 Dec 25 13:35 UTC] No.46181576[source]▶
It might have been for first few months. And then it kinda got into becoming rich or kings of future world...
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3. embedding-shape ◴[07 Dec 25 13:45 UTC] No.46181645[source]▶
Or a more charitable explanation; the ecosystem was initially filled with people caring about the ideology and technology, but as money got involved, people who cared more about accumulating money started taking over more and more of the ecosystem.

The initial people still exist, although they are few compared to the money people who've infected the ecosystem.

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4. freehorse ◴[08 Dec 25 20:37 UTC] No.46197307{3}[source]▶
People cared about money from the beginning, firstmost. You do not create such a new kind of currency if money is not what you care about.

As the original article says:

> The cypherpunk ethos attracted me. I was enamored by the whole idea of Bitcoin being a private bank for wealthy individuals. Being able to walk across the border with a billion dollars in your head is and always will be a powerful idea to me.

People sure had a "cypherpunk ethos" but they built cryptocurrencies, not tor network or signal. The author's dream was to be rich and untouchable. Imo the author is not that far away from the ethos of modern crypto as they think they are.