The same qualities that tank cryptocurrencies also explain why they refuse to die

I feel like mainstream media is doing a 180 lately. It was all about crypto, couldn't get enough of it. But then it became popular to hate on it (probably because of the downturn) and now article after article talks about it being a Ponzi scheme.

I think it probably is a Ponzi scheme tbh. I just find it interesting watching how Big Media takes advantage of situations for clicks.

He says:

"All of these things where “we've got a use case for blockchain” it's this strange function that we could totally do without blockchain"

..and seems to completely miss the point about decentralisation. Any software engineer knows that you cannot replicate all the behaviours and guarantees of a blockchain with solutions that came before. That's the reason blockchains exist in the first place!! It is a decentralised option to something that was previously centralised.

One obvious use case for crypto is in cases of Ethereum where ETH is used as a kind of currency to buy compute (run smart contract functions). Again, any software engineer would understand the potential value of that. And, of course, the many engineers who are working to evolve the space believe it.

This general discussion about blockchain and cryptocurrency going around the web has a revealing parallel with the Russia-Ukraine crisis and COVID-19. Everyone's an expert despite not having any experience or without having even bothered to take a cursory glance at the material.

AUTHOR David Gerard obviously has taken more than a cursory look, which is why I find his view particularly perplexing considering he doesn't once mention crypto as compute for decentralised systems.

I bought a tiny bit of bitcoin about a decade ago, then sold it because it was too risky. Would be worth a heck of a lot right now. I'll be honest, I regret that. But that said, I'm not about to buy more crypto right now — things are way top\o shaky.