All you need to do is spend 10 minutes on CryptoTwitter to figure this out. It's immediately apparent that it's a relatively unregulated stock market on steroids. Glorified gambling.
For every 1 part honest decentralization, it's 9 parts greed.
"Using the same standards that categorize 90% of science fiction as trash, crud, or crap, it can be argued that 90% of film, literature, consumer goods, etc. is crap. In other words, the claim (or fact) that 90% of science fiction is crap is ultimately uninformative, because science fiction conforms to the same trends of quality as all other artforms"
That's not really the same thing, the parent says that all cryptocurrencies are 90% greed, not that 90% of cryptocurrencies are only about greed. If it turns out that even 10% of cryptocurrencies are actually not crap it will be huge news. I'm not holding my breath.
Yes... in sci-fi (and other arts and media and consumer goods) you can mostly recognize the crap when you see it and avoid it without doing a lot more than ignoring it. That's why the 90% crap doesn't matter.
With bitcoin though -- and other crytocurrencies and blockchain products generally -- you can't ignore that almost everyone around you is trying their best to get your money.
With sci-fi you can separate the good from the bad without too much trouble. Not so with blockchains.
Normal stock markets facilitate investment in real ventures that provide goods and services to customers with some gambling as a side effect. It remains to be seen if crypto provides much beyond the gambling.
That's how they should be, or how they used to be. It seems that has has reversed (in the 80's?) where stock markets now facilitate gambling with investment in real ventures that provide goods and services to customers as the side effect.
Bitcoin needs to disconnect from the 'cryptocurrency' and 'blockchain' buzzwords.
Like it or not, Bitcoin is already used worldwide and is relatively stable if not positive. (No need to tell me of bandwagoners who bought at All Time Highs)
IMO Bitcoin needs to store value to be useful, not necessarily increase in value.
Look at any forum discussing any cryptocurrency (including bitcoin). Everything is discussed through the filter of "will it pump the value and make us rich?" and there's hardly any in-depth technical discussion because most participants are here to become rich, not to learn about technology or economy.
It also means that any criticism of the technology will be immediately attacked as being "paid shills" with an ulterior motive. It's hard enough to have constructive discussions online, it's almost impossible when people have a financial incentive to defend their position to the bitter end.
Just FYI: The full version of that phrase is the exception that proves the rule false. The idea that the existence of exceptions prove a rule true is, of course, utter nonsense. A rule which is true in some cases but not others is no rule at all.
It's not really true for any forum. It's true that most people are interested in the getting rich part, and I wouldn't expect anything much more different, considering how many(not too many) people incline toward libertarianism and/or are technically competent enough to understand cryptocurrencies and various nuances.
There's probably good discussion on bitcoin mailing lists, and I know there is good discussion on bitcoincore IRC/Slack. Probably some other places I'm missing seeing how I'm not all that involved besides reading some stuff here and there.
For every 1 part honest decentralization, it's 9 parts greed.