"crypto" "currency" 

every blockchain thing must have a technical document that immediately goes into lengthy detail about one small aspect, while neglecting to even include a broad discussion of the architecture, it's properties, and tradeoffs.

it's propaganda written for investors, of course

only effective against people who aren't expecting a real protocol RFC-style doc with structured explanations.

i can't decide whether it's just intentional chaff, or if it reflects the underlying process.

"crypto" "currency" 

most of these projects are the software architecture equivalent of an acid trip. focusing on weird little details, no sense of perspective, but it feels really neat to see all the swirling bits and pieces around you.

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"crypto" "currency" 

@scanlime its free money from dummies

"crypto" "currency" 

@jookia *sigh* it's true, in this stage of capitalism we're all just fighting over the dummies' money

@scanlime what are your thoughts about Bitcoin? i'm too much of a profane to understand the technical intricacies, but i used to lurk the P2P foundation in thebearly days because it was the place where people decieved by the lack of creativity in the domain of money and economics would go. A lot of Occupywallstreet activists basically. I therefore doubt bitcoin was created to appeal investors, my impression about the sad turn it's been taking lately, is that the added layer of abstraction on top of something so rarely undertood as money attracted the usual suspects who thrive on lack of knowledge. But then again, my understanding of the underlying tech forces me to rely on the people arround me who do understand it better... Either way, the domain of money and it's circulating is still lacking creativity. Maybe these acid trips could lead open up for something bigger, more inclusive for a wider braintrust...?

@setto a better future would be less reliance on money and capitalism, not more. cryptocurrencies are just digital turbocapitalism, an attempt by existing people with one kind of power to cement another kind of power. it's not egalitarian at all, it's just grey market beanie babies powered by burning fossil fuels.

@setto oh i think the locked setting got stuck on by default, didn't really mean to do that

"crypto" "currency" 

@scanlime I'm going to go with "process, mostly" until proven wrong.

re: "crypto" "currency" 

@scanlime This tends to be common to pretty much all investment-type scams.

The scammer goes into detail about how one specific edge failure case or advantage is avoided / instantiated. But fails to paint the bigger picture.

I'm not sure this is entirely intentional. Often scammers may be deceiving themselves, and there's a Darwinian selection process by which effective scams fight it out amongst each other to survive.

The tendency is well-established. I'd run across mention of it in John Kenneth Galbraiths excellent, brief, highly-readable, and extremely informative The Crash: 1929, on the Wall Street crash leading to the Great Depression.

That's also where the concept of the #bezzle is introduced, a favourite concept of mine and apparently @pluralistic based on his numerous references to same.

re: "crypto" "currency" 

@dredmorbius @pluralistic Interesting! Thanks for giving me a few threads to pull on :)

re: "crypto" "currency" 

@scanlime My pleasure.

The relationship of complexity of investment schemes to fraud is especially prevelent. You'll see this again and again.

(I'm hunting for some good explorations of fraud and collections of scams. I think I've found a few though I'll have to dig through my library for them...)


re: "crypto" "currency" 

@scanlime OK, there's The Little Black Book of Scams, though it's a bit light:

There's Jeremy Campbell's The Liar's Tale, which I've been meaning to read for years, but goes into the whole psychology and philosophy of mistruths.

And of course, forensics accounting and auditing books, as well as crime and law enforcement, look at frauds. Numerous titles there.


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