>Yet every day there are stories (such as this article) showing crypto becoming more deeply ingrained in mainstream circles.
Depends what you claim to be mainstream. Most of these "stories" are either 1/ speculation related (this one is) or 2/ some pipe dream it's-totally-going-to-work-guys technology that's going to cure cancer and solve world hunger through the power of SHA-256 and healing crystals (see IOTA, 99% of all ICOs, the "De Beers" crystal blockchain, the Kodak chain etc...). Now beyond all of that noise, maybe there's actual value somewhere.
I'm definitely in the camp of the "unbelievers" but I really don't think I'm being unreasonable. I think I understand how cryptocurrencies work (probably better than 99% of crypto zealots judging by the average technical level of cryptocurrency discussions online). They're great for buying illegal stuff online and timestamping documents. Every single other use case I've seen so far involves such a heavy amount of hand waving that I wonder if crypto-enthusiasts suffer from RSI more than the general population. It either simply falls apart after the smallest amount of scrutiny or ends up being so much more inefficient than "centralized" alternatives that you end up wondering who would use that (again, outside of doing illegal stuff online).
So frankly I don't think it's fair to oppose both camps like this. Either the technology is useful or it's not. If it is it shouldn't be difficult to explain how it is. Not by making fancy marketing slides but by explaining what problem it solves and how and why it's better than the alternative.
I could make a long post explaining why I believe that "public key cryptography is dumb and useless" and nobody would care because it's pretty damn obvious that it's actually very useful. It doesn't cease to exist if you stop believing in it. For the "Blockchain" (whatever that is) I'm not so sure.
Furthermore remember that cryptocurrency enthusiasts often own cryptocurrencies, so they have a clear incentive to "pump" the technology whereas unbelievers don't really have anything to gain either way (although you could argue that some are jealous of the bitcoin millionaires I suppose).
> although you could argue that some are jealous of the bitcoin millionaires I suppose
I would argue that technologists who missed out not only are jealous but feel ashamed since it's "their" area and they should have known. I personally think this is as big driving force as the holders wanting to pump the price. That's why I can't take any side serious.
Should've known what exactly? Cryptocurrencies are a huge success as a speculative asset but beyond that I see a lot of whitepapers and marketing pamphlets but very few actual results. I suspect the average speculator doesn't even use the technology themselves, instead keeping their coins on a centralized exchange for safety and convenience.
When's the last time you've actually used a Blockchain? What is there even to use in the wild today? There are a few Dapps PoCs that rely on 3rd party cloud storage services like Azure because storing data on-chain is too expensive, have a rather dubious business model and probably fewer actual users than lycos.com. Given the amount of money poured into cryptocurrencies these past years I'm not impressed, if anything every passing day without a Blockchain killer app reinforces my belief that it's mostly wind.
Bitcoin is terrible to buying illegal stuff. Now that exchanges have become somewhat legitimate businesses, the authorities can track bitcoins all the way back to the buyers.
If you're a good citizen who has nothing to hide it's true, you make "simple" A->B transactions that are out in the open for all to see. If you're doing something shady and are worried about being tracked there are ways to launder your coins by mixing them, converting them to other currencies, going through multiple exchanges under different jurisdictions etc... It's probably not as easy now than it used to be, it's true, but it's still way easier than anything else (well, except cash, but that doesn't work so well in the virtual world).
That's why it's kind of the worst of both worlds, if you're a law abiding citizen your company can see that you're moving some money they paid you to the wallet of dragondildos.com, meanwhile if you're a drug dealer you can launder money internationally with relatively little risk using Tor and Monero.
So I maintain that bitcoin is the best way to do illegal stuff online. It's not perfect but it's safer and more convenient than all the alternatives I can think about.
Depends what you claim to be mainstream. Most of these "stories" are either 1/ speculation related (this one is) or 2/ some pipe dream it's-totally-going-to-work-guys technology that's going to cure cancer and solve world hunger through the power of SHA-256 and healing crystals (see IOTA, 99% of all ICOs, the "De Beers" crystal blockchain, the Kodak chain etc...). Now beyond all of that noise, maybe there's actual value somewhere.
I'm definitely in the camp of the "unbelievers" but I really don't think I'm being unreasonable. I think I understand how cryptocurrencies work (probably better than 99% of crypto zealots judging by the average technical level of cryptocurrency discussions online). They're great for buying illegal stuff online and timestamping documents. Every single other use case I've seen so far involves such a heavy amount of hand waving that I wonder if crypto-enthusiasts suffer from RSI more than the general population. It either simply falls apart after the smallest amount of scrutiny or ends up being so much more inefficient than "centralized" alternatives that you end up wondering who would use that (again, outside of doing illegal stuff online).
So frankly I don't think it's fair to oppose both camps like this. Either the technology is useful or it's not. If it is it shouldn't be difficult to explain how it is. Not by making fancy marketing slides but by explaining what problem it solves and how and why it's better than the alternative.
I could make a long post explaining why I believe that "public key cryptography is dumb and useless" and nobody would care because it's pretty damn obvious that it's actually very useful. It doesn't cease to exist if you stop believing in it. For the "Blockchain" (whatever that is) I'm not so sure.
Furthermore remember that cryptocurrency enthusiasts often own cryptocurrencies, so they have a clear incentive to "pump" the technology whereas unbelievers don't really have anything to gain either way (although you could argue that some are jealous of the bitcoin millionaires I suppose).