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0 pointsflaque4y ago0 comments

This argument has two issues:

- it has a moving goal post on what “a real problem” is

- it creates an arbitrary start date and end date

Or in other words, it’s not falsifiable.

What would count as a “real problem”? Why does “money” not count? Why does “1000x cheaper storage compared to s3” (filecoin) not count?

The argument implies that, if some important use case is new and just getting off the ground now, then it’s inception is predated 10 years ago, and is judged as such.

The equivalent would be to say “space has had 70 years to get us to mars, therefore the 2030 missions to mars will fail” only to follow up with “if the 2030 missions succeed, then space must explain why it has not gotten us to Jupiter”.

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ForHackernews4y ago

On the contrary, you and other crypto-boosters forever claiming "we're still early" is what's completely unfalsifiable. When will you admit that it's a failure? 2030? 2050?

I think my argument is very clear:

- It took 5 years to get from a working proof-of-concept of a satellite to something that has absolutely inarguable utility. No one can make a good-faith claim that transatlantic radio and television broadcasts are pointless.

- Cryptocurrency has had 13 years and the only genuine use-case I can see is evading regulation, buying drugs or paying for ransomware. Everything else is hand-waving vaporware bullshit "well maybe we could track X on the blockchain"[0]

[0] https://twitter.com/liron/status/1533214640460574720

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