[earnesti]

I've never understood crypto, however I'm long term Bitcoin fan and user, and don't consider it "crypto". I think Bitcoin is pretty much opposite what the typical crypto project is.

[kanbankaren]

It has proven neither to be a store of value nor medium of exchange though it is being used extensively for criminal activities.

[atomic128]

Monero is used for criminal activities, not Bitcoin. How do I know? I monitor crime, mostly but not exclusively drug crime, on Tor's hidden services: https://rnsaffn.com/zg4/ Monero is the cryptocurrency of choice.

[jobs_throwaway]

How has it not been a store of value?

[jadbox]

I worked in crypto for five years, and this resonates. Sure, you can make money hustling some hype coin, but chances are you are more likely to lose money/time in the process. Outside of very specific supply chain blockchains, 99% of the actual value I see in order of value: 1) Stablecoins [faster than ACH!], 2) Bitcoin, and in certain places, 3) Ethereum has its uses.

Even Bitcoin though is not a panacea though, as without REAL transactional use-cases, it is also prone to sudden major drops. Until people in your home state can buy a car, house, and groceries using bitcoin directly (WITHOUT a Visa bridge), the real value will be highly subjective to the whims of the market.

[alternatex]

How is it opposite. In my mind they all fall under the same libertarian fantasy umbrella.

The post mentioned the idea of casually sending a billion dollars. Was that ever possible with Bitcoin? AFAIK it's less ergonomic to send money using Bitcoin than it is using traditional banking.

[efnx]

It pretty easy. I personally think it’s much easier than in traditional banking.

The hard part is that for day to day things you still need an on ramp and off ramp, but that is changing as merchants accept crypto directly.

[TZubiri]

Ethereum seems useful as well. But that's about it

[theplatman]

the problem with ETH at its peak is that the gas fees made cost of doing anything real too costly

if there was a real use case it would have manifested itself at this point

i think the abstraction needs to be much higher to end user for this stuff to have value. having to manage your own wallet doesn't make sense.

[amrocha]

Tell me a single useful real world use case that Ethereum is being used in today, a decade after its creation

If I can solve that problem with another simpler, older technology it doesn’t count as useful. I don’t care if you can pay for things using ethereum when I can just use my credit card instead.