On Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong and what he calls “crypto’s destiny”: “While pitching crypto as a tool for economic opportunity to the rubes in Congress, he harbors radical ideas about crypto’s true purpose. He believes the United States is in “slow decline” and embraces the Network State, a cultish tech movement that ultimately seeks to end countries as we know them—to decentralize governance in the same way that crypto seeks to decentralize finance.”
technanonymous on
Ya… screw these guys. Sounds like something from a cyberpunk novel like Snow crash from Neal Stephenson.
No, the world is not going to degrade into digital nation states. No, crypto is not going to kill off centralized fiat currencies. crypto is not anything of value beyond what the market assigns it. If anything, it’s much weaker than fiat currency. It feels like a Ponzi scheme. I do know some people who became very wealthy with crypto, but that doesn’t mean anything for the market. Regulation is kicking in and will likely expand. Until generic citizens can use it like today’s currencies, it will remain a niche.
It’s funny how committed the decentralization folks are. Not everything form SciFi will come true.
FairyPenguinz on
Is this guy like Peter Thiel? The idea of the Network State sounds like Próspera and Praxis and the NYC Crypto guys who hang out and are trying to make those things happen.
Also, didn’t Thiel back JD Vance?
It would be interesting ro see how these guys feel about the guys who have been in the game longer, like Koch and Mercer and Prager.
TheRexRider on
Techbros and proposing dystopia societies as the ideal future. What else is new?
Pezdrake on
The unspoken part of all these ideas is that youve got to get rid of anything resembling democracy to make it all work.
dasdas90 on
These guys all think they are the lords and saviors because they got lucky making an app.
Nausk on
This is like when someone that smokes weed makes it their entire identity but for crypto, and crazier lol
Trumpswells on
Another billionaire out to save us from ourselves. Damn Citizen United for hobbling us with these dark intellects.
anengineerandacat on
I mean, guess he ain’t too wrong… US is in a slow decline it’s just so slow it won’t be seen for several more generations.
Crypto currencies won’t really take off due to the already established and fairly deep fragmentation though, no open standard for issue a transaction and high costs to actually perform a transaction in many of the popular ones.
Also, zero controls for auditing and fraud along with fraud detection and rollback.
Purchasing with Crypto is akin to performing a wire transfer in terms of how secured the actual “transaction” is.
You can do classical techniques like leverage escrow services and such but that’s a royal PITA and slow.
Lastly, the perceived value of each currency is only as good as it’s backing national currency.
If all the governments cease to exist “someone” has to be the new traded home currency.
It’s an intermediate good as far as I am concerned, no different than if someone was trying to sell you lemonade; only as valuable as your desire to have it.
tonetheman on
I believe Trump is pushing crypto now and I already knew all of it was a scam. Now it is just easy to prove.
itsalonghotsummer on
In summary, he doesn’t like paying tax and poor people are just such a drag.
sgtkellogg on
he’s a blowhard and owns no crypto himself; coinbase is a terrible and predatory company, and he’s the beating black heart of it
12 Comments
On Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong and what he calls “crypto’s destiny”: “While pitching crypto as a tool for economic opportunity to the rubes in Congress, he harbors radical ideas about crypto’s true purpose. He believes the United States is in “slow decline” and embraces the Network State, a cultish tech movement that ultimately seeks to end countries as we know them—to decentralize governance in the same way that crypto seeks to decentralize finance.”
Ya… screw these guys. Sounds like something from a cyberpunk novel like Snow crash from Neal Stephenson.
No, the world is not going to degrade into digital nation states. No, crypto is not going to kill off centralized fiat currencies. crypto is not anything of value beyond what the market assigns it. If anything, it’s much weaker than fiat currency. It feels like a Ponzi scheme. I do know some people who became very wealthy with crypto, but that doesn’t mean anything for the market. Regulation is kicking in and will likely expand. Until generic citizens can use it like today’s currencies, it will remain a niche.
It’s funny how committed the decentralization folks are. Not everything form SciFi will come true.
Is this guy like Peter Thiel? The idea of the Network State sounds like Próspera and Praxis and the NYC Crypto guys who hang out and are trying to make those things happen.
Also, didn’t Thiel back JD Vance?
It would be interesting ro see how these guys feel about the guys who have been in the game longer, like Koch and Mercer and Prager.
Techbros and proposing dystopia societies as the ideal future. What else is new?
The unspoken part of all these ideas is that youve got to get rid of anything resembling democracy to make it all work.
These guys all think they are the lords and saviors because they got lucky making an app.
This is like when someone that smokes weed makes it their entire identity but for crypto, and crazier lol
Another billionaire out to save us from ourselves. Damn Citizen United for hobbling us with these dark intellects.
I mean, guess he ain’t too wrong… US is in a slow decline it’s just so slow it won’t be seen for several more generations.
Crypto currencies won’t really take off due to the already established and fairly deep fragmentation though, no open standard for issue a transaction and high costs to actually perform a transaction in many of the popular ones.
Also, zero controls for auditing and fraud along with fraud detection and rollback.
Purchasing with Crypto is akin to performing a wire transfer in terms of how secured the actual “transaction” is.
You can do classical techniques like leverage escrow services and such but that’s a royal PITA and slow.
Lastly, the perceived value of each currency is only as good as it’s backing national currency.
If all the governments cease to exist “someone” has to be the new traded home currency.
It’s an intermediate good as far as I am concerned, no different than if someone was trying to sell you lemonade; only as valuable as your desire to have it.
I believe Trump is pushing crypto now and I already knew all of it was a scam. Now it is just easy to prove.
In summary, he doesn’t like paying tax and poor people are just such a drag.
he’s a blowhard and owns no crypto himself; coinbase is a terrible and predatory company, and he’s the beating black heart of it