[Lex Computer & Tech Group/LCTG] Crypto and Web3 Thoughts

Wed Feb 9 06:56:17 PST 2022

Peter --
It sort of reminds me of Tom Lehrer's song: We'll all go together when we
go.

On Wed, Feb 9, 2022 at 9:47 AM <palbin24 at yahoo.com> wrote:

> Can you buy tulips with cryptocurrency?
>
> Peter
>
> On Feb 9, 2022, at 9:36 AM, L Wittig <9423lew at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> 
> Jerry --
> I couldn't agree with you more.
>
> We had some homemade presentations back in October of 2018 on crypto.  You
> can look at http://LCTG.toku.us.  We also had some (undocumented?)
> discussions about five years ago. I rememberat the time that my feelings
> were that it was good for the first ones in, but that  individuasl could no
> longer compete with large scale mining with large rooms full of asic
> machines located where electrical power was cheap.  Since then it has only
> gotten worse. I believe China and other countries have now banned crypto.
> https://fortune.com/2022/01/04/crypto-banned-china-other-countries/
>
> Paul Krugman, Nobel laureate economist, writes in the NYTs that
> bitcoins are a *naturally occurring Ponzi scheme*. Here are a few of his
> articles:
>
> https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/27/opinion/cryptocurrency-subprime-vulnerable.html
> https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/20/opinion/cryptocurrency-bitcoin.html
> https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/29/opinion/bitcoin-bubble-fraud.html
>
> I feel that at some point the (late) investors will realize that there is
> nothing there, and the system will crash.  Some will be rich and others
> will be poor.
>
> -- Larry Wittig
>
>
>
>
>
> On Tue, Feb 8, 2022 at 2:21 PM Jerry Harris <jerryharri at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> Hello,
>> This is my first post here. My interests are more aligned with the
>> software side of technology, so I thought I'd share some research and
>> thoughts I have about the digitization of currency, assets, and economies.
>> I'm curious to hear what others think.
>>
>> Cheers,
>> Jerry
>> ---
>> Does anyone else feel like Crypto/Web3 space is a mix of Dr. Jekyll and
>> Mr. Hyde?
>>
>> Dr. Jekyll: Crypto/Web3 is surging - to the moon!
>> - VC funding is surging- >$25B in 2021 [1]
>> - NFTs sold for $14B in 2021 [2]
>>
>> Mr. Hyde: Crypto/Web3 where suckers are minted every minute.
>> - Almost $500 million has been lost in 2022 due to crypto scams and smart
>> contract exploits. [3]
>> - The FTC reports almost $770 million lost in 2021 due to social media
>> scams where cryptocurrency was involved in most of them. [4]
>>
>> Jekyll & Hyde: Crypto/Web3 is up for grabs for legitimate and
>> illegitimate uses.
>> - Twitter spats hint at a scramble to define and profit from the future
>> "crypto" market. [5]
>> - Darknet crypto markets still exist where most transactions are for
>> drugs. [6]
>>
>> What does all this *mean* though? What are these technologies and how are
>> they used and exploited: Bitcoin, blockchain, NFTs, smart contracts, meme
>> coins, DAOs? If we're in a bubble, is there anything useful to benefit
>> "normies" after it pops?
>>
>> These are some of the questions I asked myself this past summer and so
>> started to do more research. Having worked during the dot-com boom and bust
>> and resurgence - the Web1 and Web2 eras - my first inclination was to think
>> the crypto bubble will pop and Web3's intrinsic value will be re-purposed
>> in less speculative products. I don't feel this any longer. The founding
>> design principles of Bitcoin, blockchain, and smart contracts seem so
>> wildly at odds with basic requirements of a scalable[7], reliable, and
>> safe[8] ecosystem[9] in which millions can participate, that I'm not sure
>> how these technologies can be re-purposed or extended without changing
>> their fundamental nature[10].
>>
>> I am curious what others think about these topics. I included a lot of
>> links below. These 3 provide deep analysis: [7] [9] [10]
>>
>> Links:
>> [1]
>> https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/01/business/dealbook/crypto-venture-capital.html
>> [2] https://news.yahoo.com/nft-sales-hit-565-million-153901719.html
>> [3] https://web3isgoinggreat.com/
>> [4]
>> https://www.archyde.com/cryptocurrencies-drive-rise-in-online-scams-ftc-report-says/
>> [5]
>> https://twitter.com/jack/status/1473139010197508098?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
>> [6]
>> https://www.emcdda.europa.eu/system/files/publications/8347/Darknet2018_posterFINAL.pdf
>> [7]
>> https://hackernoon.com/web-30-will-not-achieve-decentralization-and-scale-heres-why
>> [8] Today (Feb 8) some crypto companies announced an industry coalition
>> to combat fraudulent schemes like pump-and-dump and wash trading.
>> https://www.protocol.com/bulletins/crypto-market-integrity-coalition
>> [9] https://moxie.org/2022/01/07/web3-first-impressions.html
>> [10] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YQ_xWvX1n9g&t=36s
>>
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