from Hacker News

Ask HN: What uses will crypto currency continue to see?

by ziont on 1/9/19, 12:16 AM with 7 comments

I think it's pretty clear that there has been zero major adoption that we define here as significant.

However, now my opinion is leaning towards that certain markets will continue to thrive and that anonymity focused crypto currencies will certainly be in use.

For instance, drugs, gambling, anything of that nature anonymous cryptocurrency I believe will survive.

What do you think about this argument? I don't think we will see public ICO but I see some sort of dark venture capitalism.

ex. you are a drug manufacturer but need seed capital

As long as there are people trading something for a medium which allows cash liquidation, even if it's unstable and open to attacks as well as centralization via miners.

Am I correct? I used to believe crypto currencies were largely garbage but I do see it's continued usage, it's just that its nowhere as near going to anywhere like we've seen up to 2018 but I believe markets which benefit greatly from a non-fiat based online wallet and ledger.

  • by altairiumblue on 1/9/19, 11:22 AM

    - illegal activities can benefit from anonymous and cashless transactions, but those assets still need to be converted to cash and/or laundered at some point

    - exchanges, trading platforms and payment platforms benefit from faster and cheaper protocols that are at least as secure as the existing ones. These protocols don't have to be related to cryptocurrencies in any way. If anyone offers a solution that beats banks'/visa's/forex's/paypal's/... current protocol, that protocol will eventually be adopted - most likely adopted by the companies that are already market leaders so very little will change from the user's perspective

    - any relatively stable asset can be viewed as a store of value - no cryptocurrency meets this requirement at the moment

    - economies cannot run on a deflationary currency - a government controlled inflationary currency will always be the main means of exchange

    - decentralization exists in a fraction of the existing crypto projects and, when it exists, it's of little to no benefit

    So I expect to see some illegal activity, some interesting work in research/protocols/software development, no mass disruption of any industry and, of course, the continued speculation that mass disruption is just around the corner.

  • by patatino on 1/9/19, 10:43 AM

    I think of it as a tool (framework) and not a solution which will or will not replace something.

    Many banks have still old systems in place and for example, an internal cryptocurrency could replace their current system for transactions. It's cheaper and safer than most of the current systems. A friend works at a big Swiss bank and they still transfer text files over SFTP with transactions. They have over 1000 people working in IT and I think they could easily lay off a couple hundred people if new, simpler and safer tools are working. That could also thrive adoption.

    I also like the idea of a bitcoin being a store of value, makes more sense than physical gold. And yes, anonymous money is always something there will be a need for.

  • by companyhen on 1/9/19, 7:15 PM

    Possibly sending money border to border for international workers. I have a friend in Thailand who sends money back to her family in Philippines every month and she gets hammered by fees. One day a stablecoin type crypto may be available with a < 1% fee.

    Also banking the unbanked. There are a couple billion people without access to traditional banking. Most these people now have mobile phones, where instead of signing up at a bank, they could download an app where these people can store their value traditionally for the first time.