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A comment on Crypto firm BlockFi files for bankruptcy as FTX fallout spreads. Parent comment

Re:Crypto firm BlockFi files for bankruptcy as FTX fallout s... by badpun on Monday November 28, 2022 @11:25AM (#33775591)
When designing the iPhone, one of Apple's findings was that majority of people struggle with understanding the concept of the file system (and hence, there's no visible file system in iOS). In such world, only a small minority of people will be interested in decentralized cryptocurrencies, as the bar of technical skills required is too high for most people. This is what led to the success of centralized cryptobanks.
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Re:Crypto firm BlockFi files for bankruptcy as FTX fallout s... by notyourwork on Monday November 28, 2022 @11:32AM (#33775692)
Ding ding ding! Crypto isn’t cool to majority, nor do most want to (or need to) care about it. People want to spend money and if crypto makes that happen so be it. Society had been sending money for awhile without crypto and the edge cases crypto addressed are just that, edge cases.

I’m intrigued by crypto but merely because I’m a nerd. I don’t care about crypto when it comes to my day to day life.

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Re:Crypto firm BlockFi files for bankruptcy as FTX fallout s... by A4ET8a8uTh0 on Monday November 28, 2022 @11:34AM (#33775717)
I hate how accurate this comment is. Without going too far with examples, PGP exists, but using it is simply harder so most people default to an easier email sending.

Now.. the question remains as to whether it would be the same, if it tech was not made so accessible ( some people would be forced to learn since the bar was high ). I mostly think that battle is already lost.

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Re:Crypto firm BlockFi files for bankruptcy as FTX fallout s... by api on Monday November 28, 2022 @11:47AM (#33775881)
PGP has horrible user experience for experts. Its CLI is incredibly un-intuitive and needlessly complex and integration with mail clients is poor to non-existent.
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Re:Crypto firm BlockFi files for bankruptcy as FTX fallout s... by nobody9999 on Monday November 28, 2022 @12:48PM (#33776815)
>PGP has horrible user experience for experts. Its CLI is incredibly un-intuitive and needlessly complex and integration with mail clients is poor to non-existent.

Thunderbird[0] has pretty good (see what I did there?) PGP integration[1]. The UI is decent and there is discoverability support with various key servers as well.

But that would require folks to break their addiction to web-based email and use an actual email client. As such, I won't hold my breath.

[0] https://www.thunderbird.net/

[1] https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/openpgp-thunderbird-how...

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Re:Crypto firm BlockFi files for bankruptcy as FTX fallout s... by rajup on Monday November 28, 2022 @12:04PM (#33776126)
This exactly. I recently came across a tweet explaining how Merkle trees in some new crypto would make it better or something. If with a CS degree I find it hard to understand what this remotely has to do with my money, I don't think my 80 year old granddad is going to fare any better. Which is why I believe crypto is fundamentally doomed for anything but the most niche use cases.
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Re:Crypto firm BlockFi files for bankruptcy as FTX fallout s... by LawTalkingGuy on Monday November 28, 2022 @06:28PM (#33781387)
You were never intended to craft your own blockchain transactions any more than to hand-write your network packets or interbank transfers. Wallets are/were expected to advance and handle this for users and mostly have.
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