"The Blockchain Lie"

[Pan Troglodytes]

Hi all,

I am a regular reader of Project Syndicate articles. While I don’t always agree with the authors, I find they always present an interesting view on social, economic and political aspects, sometimes the angle of the view is very unconventional, too, but the quality is high, they are always well written and the underlying research is well grounded. Nothing extraordinary here – the authors are often Noble prize winners writing in their area of expertise!

With a surprise I found a piece written on the subject interesting for us here: The Blockchain Lie by Roubini, source: https://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/blockchain-big-lie-by-nouriel-roubini-2018-10

It came with a surprise, because while (as I said in the beginning) I find the Project Syndicate content to be of high quality, that particular piece is badly researched, full of racial and gender bias, and generally full of nonsense and prejudice.

Let me serve you some quotations:

A few self-serving white men (there are hardly any women or minorities in the blockchain universe) pretending to be messiahs for the world’s impoverished, marginalized, and unbanked masses claim to have created billions of dollars of wealth out of nothing.

As should be clear, the claim of “decentralization” is a myth propagated by the pseudo-billionaires who control this pseudo-industry.

Fully 99% of all transactions occur on centralized exchanges that are hacked on a regular basis. And, unlike with real money, once your crypto wealth is hacked, it is gone forever.

While I agree with Roubini that a blockchain without a token is just a database (he uses the word “spreadsheet”), he uses the fact that “blockchain” is an overhyped word used by many to sell their ideas better (and for higher price) to generally undermine all related technologies and all cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin, which seems outright manipulation to me.

The article is one month old and it already has amassed more than one hundred comments. It would be interesting to have a discussion here in the forum too.

Please share your thoughts.

[paxmao]

I find it a bit superficial, and some of the concepts are not correctly understood by the author, particularly the concept of decentralisation. Anyway, if you put together all the problems that crypto has you will reach the same conclusion. Just as if you put together all the problem that fiat has.

I find particularly stupid the critic related of having mostly men in this space. Nobody is preventing anyone to participate, it is just a question of being attracted to it or not.

In general, I think that Project Syndicate normally has a much more polished content.

[Pan Troglodytes]

Just because they're expert/trusted on certain fields, that doesn't mean they have expertise or can be trusted on another fields. For example, can you trust lawyer with 20 years experience to do health checkup on you/your family?

Well, in principle you are right. But with that particular person's background

Roubini (...) was Senior Economist for International Affairs in the White House's Council of Economic Advisers during the Clinton Administration. He has worked for the International Monetary Fund, the US Federal Reserve, and the World Bank

you would expect him to know what he is talking about when he talks about money, even crypto-money, especially if he talks about it.

When I read such controversial information coming from people who would be expected to know what they are talking about, I always feel there may be their own hidden agenda behind their words.

[bluefirecorp_]

Bitcoin mining is centralized, owned by the mega-wealthy.

The individual poor can't compete against ASIC manufactures. Individuals with personal hardware can't mine any coins.

Really, bitcoin should have forked with a different PoW algorithm when FPGAs were coming around; but hindsight is 2020.

Blockchain is just immutable storage; which makes sense for financial transaction data. It's not a "solve all problems" solution though; which a lot of shitcoins seem to be selling.

[ABCbits]

Well, in principle you are right. But with that particular person's background

Roubini (...) was Senior Economist for International Affairs in the White House's Council of Economic Advisers during the Clinton Administration. He has worked for the International Monetary Fund, the US Federal Reserve, and the World Bank

you would expect him to know what he is talking about when he talks about money, even crypto-money, especially if he talks about it.

When I read such controversial information coming from people who would be expected to know what they are talking about, I always feel there may be their own hidden agenda behind their words.

You just prove what i'm said is right, because :
1. Most experts on same fields (with him) who voice his/her opinion about Bitcoin/Cryptocurrency clearly have no idea or don't understand about what they're talking about.
2. I doubt anonymity/pseudonymity, full-control over money,  un-censorable  & decentralization are important things in today's economy which makes those expert can't see potential of Bitcoin/Cryptocurrency