this post was submitted on 03 May 2022
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Cryptobros gonna cryptobro

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[–] overflow64@lemmy.ml 3 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (2 children)

Blah Blah whataboutism if you can keep spamming bullshit about some nut buying expensive jpgs voluntarily I can spam all the negative things about tradfi until now you’ve still given no response on how a person with their currency being devalued by a central bank and their property expropriated could possibly get any legal recourse or what real alternative you could give them instead of crypto or any criticism of the projects that I told you that I support

[–] rysiek@szmer.info 4 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Oh, and by the way, for the Suisse Secrets you might want the actual investigation site, linked from the press release you linked to: https://www.occrp.org/en/suisse-secrets/

I used to work for OCCRP, so thanks for bringing back good memories! 😍

You might want to read up on some more of their investigations, this tag is particularly interesting perhaps: https://www.occrp.org/en/component/tags/tag/cryptocurrencies

[–] overflow64@lemmy.ml 2 points 2 years ago (1 children)

NATIONAL CURRENCY IS BAD BECAUSE CRIMINALS ARE USING IT

[–] rysiek@szmer.info 4 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Wait I thought you were saying banks are bad because criminals are using them?

Can't have it both ways, my friend. Either misuse of the traditional financial system is a good argument against it (and thus misuse of cryptocurrencies is an argument against them), or not. 🤔

[–] overflow64@lemmy.ml 2 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Didn’t I already tell you that all banks aren’t bad and that it would be stupid of me to smear all of them like that which is why I’m constantly pointing out the stupidity of your logic using silly statements like above, when have I ever said that I have a problem with people choosing to use banks since I believe in individual responsibility and the both of them have disadvantages that are clearly communicated to users and it’s up to you to make the decision

[–] rysiek@szmer.info 3 points 2 years ago

Cool, cool.

But I am merely clearly communicating the disadvantages of cryptocurrencies/NFTs/web3 and other blockchain-based boondoggles. And that seems to frustrate you to a point of calling people names and using all-caps, for some reason. 🤔

[–] rysiek@szmer.info 4 points 2 years ago (2 children)

I never said you can't. I only said it's getting tedious. But hey, whatever floats your boat! 🤷‍♀️

[–] Catradora_Stalinism@lemmy.ml 3 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (1 children)

whataboutism? what you talking about?

[–] rysiek@szmer.info 4 points 2 years ago (2 children)

Explanation link was provided in my comment. Saying "but banks are also bad" doesn't change the fact that cryptocurrency/NFT/web3 scene is rife with scams.

[–] Catradora_Stalinism@lemmy.ml 1 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Ah, I see. Idk why they saying that, why defend crypto/NFTs? They are extremely predatory, and I can tell that from just looking in from the outside. have a nice day

[–] rysiek@szmer.info 3 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Saying "apples are horrible" does not defend oranges. Two things can be bad at the same time. This is not a competition.

[–] Catradora_Stalinism@lemmy.ml 2 points 2 years ago (2 children)

very true! The dude also has quite the shit comment history, what a load of garbage.

[–] rysiek@szmer.info 2 points 2 years ago

There is some entertainment value to this, though. Does brighten the day, in a weird way. 😄

[–] overflow64@lemmy.ml 1 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Go fuck yourself you dumb communist removed

[–] Catradora_Stalinism@lemmy.ml 3 points 2 years ago (16 children)
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[–] Ferk@lemmy.ml 1 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (1 children)

But he didn't really say that banks are bad, or that the cryptocurrency/NFT/web3 scene isn't rife with scams.

Scams also existing in fiat currency (his point) doesn't make fiat bad, in the same way as cryptocurrency/NFT/web3 having good uses doesn't mean that it cannot also be "rife with scams".

Are hammers bad because people can use them to smash skulls? imho what we need is measures to prevent, block, minimize or discourage that kind of behavior, not necessarily ban hammers.

Personally, I think the open source and p2p nature of blockchain technology can be a better way to introduce measures of control and protection in a way that is fairer and more transparent than using obscure private ledgers on the hands of more central authorities managed by humans that we have to trust..

[–] rysiek@szmer.info 4 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (1 children)

But he didn’t really say that banks are bad, or that the cryptocurrency/NFT/web3 scene isn’t rife with scams.

He dropped a bunch of links with zero context, initially. Interpretation was left to the reader.

Are hammers bad because people can use them to smash skulls? imho what we need is measures to prevent, block, minimize or discourage that kind of behavior, not necessarily ban hammers.

No. But how a tool is designed influences heavily what it's good for and how it's used. A war hammer and a nail hammer are different hammers, useful for different things. One is way more useful for killing people. The other can also be used that way, but not nearly as effectively.

Same with the crypto scene. Most of the tools there are designed in such a way that they promote the power structures they claim to work against. Just look at secondary centralization of Bitcoin and Ethereum mining, how centralized wealth is in BTC and other cryptocurrencies. The scams there also don't come from nowhere and it is very telling that to deal with some of them (the Ethereum DAO thing I mentioned time and again, for example) the core promises of these very tools had to be broken (hard fork, blacklisted wallets, etc).

Just to be very clear, I am not claiming that these tools had been designed this way on purpose. Maybe, maybe not, I don't know. But that's what their design lends itself very well to.

Personally, I think the open source and p2p nature of blockchain technology can be a better way to introduce measures of control and protection in a way that is fairer and more transparent than using obscure private ledgers on the hands of more central authorities managed by humans that we have to trust…

Sure, and there are interesting projects in this scene. Nano Coin is one of them. Why? Because it explicitly acknowledges and tries to address the problems with almost all other cryptocurrency-ish projects out there.

And this is the conversation we should have had in this thread. But when somebody just knee-jerks, foams at their mouth, and keeps calling people names because they can't get over the fact that maybe their pet tech might have some problems that need to be recognized and addressed, it's hard to have such a conversation. One can either ignore such a person, or extract some entertainment value from their aggro. 😜

Yeah, I never said I'm a nice person.

[–] Ferk@lemmy.ml 1 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (1 children)

Those are fair points. But I'm used to seeing so much bad press against NFT from people who blindedly criticise it and assotiate it with any possible bad use of it.. to the point that they think "NFT=bad", and this kind of news paints that picture for anyone who doesn't know better...

It would be like highlighting in the news every crime perpetrated by someone of color and then complain about "whataboutism" when someone says that white people also commit crimes.

I'm afraid that all this demonization will make it much much harder for any fair and honest project that we ever attempt in the future related to blockchain technology (such as the one you mentioned).

[–] rysiek@szmer.info 1 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (3 children)

Those are fair points. But I’m used to seeing so much bad press against NFT from people who blindedly criticise it and assotiate it with any possible bad use of it… to the point that they think “NFT=bad”, and this kind of news paints that picture for anyone who doesn’t know better…

There is also an astonishing amount of shilling and pushing of NFTs. Media, sadly, often just prints ICO/NFT/etc projects' press releases and helps hype them, instead of doing some delving. And coinbros exploit that, extracting cold hard cash from people who see themselves as "investors", and who are in fact just participants in ponzi/pyramid schemes; crypto folk are even quite open about this sometimes:

Join a pyramid. It's not a bubble unless it bursts.

And what I find particularly damning for the whole scene is that nobody from within the scene calls such crap out! FLOSS community is not perfect, for example, but bullshit gets called out. Projects that make exorbitant claims about security (snakeoil, etc), get called out. But crypto scene acts as if that's bad for business. Can't generate "bad press", right? Because if one does, they and potentially the whole scene is NGMI, HFBP!

And frankly, I have not yet seen a single use of NFTs that is not either unnecessary (as in: whatever is being done could be done as well or better without NFTs), or outright scammy/snakeoily (most of the time). Not. One.

So this "NFT=bad" association is, sadly, well-deserved. And those negative stories are, I feel, necessary; they would not be necessary if crypto people dealt with scams and snakeoil themselves. But they don't. 🤷‍♀️

It would be like highlighting in the news every crime perpetrated by someone of color and then complain about “whataboutism” when someone says that white people also commit crimes.

I find that analogy really strained (especially in the context of all what I wrote above and the general scammyness of the whole crypto/NFT/web3 sphere) and difficult to engage with without touching on sensitive stuff related to xenophobia, racism, etc.

I’m afraid that all this demonization will make it much much harder for any fair and honest project that we ever attempt in the future related to blockchain technology (such as the one you mentioned).

It probably will. But not calling out crypto/NFT/web3 scams just to preserve the few potentially useful and non-scammy projects would be effectively aiding and abeting the scammers. If people connected to the crypto community are worried about this kind of stuff, it's high time they start calling scammers and snakeoil peddlers in that community out and otherwise dealing with it themselves, instead if pushing back against any and all criticism.

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[–] overflow64@lemmy.ml 2 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (1 children)

Post an alternative if you can trash something it must mean you know of something better

[–] rysiek@szmer.info 3 points 2 years ago (20 children)

I already linked you to a book that points towards some alternatives, but you refused to consider it. 🤷‍♀️

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