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Linux Inventor Says He Doesn’t Believe in Crypto

  • Linus Torvalds, creator of Linux, does not believe in cryptocurrencies, calling them a vehicle for scams and a Ponzi scheme.
  • Torvalds was once rumored to be Bitcoin creator Satoshi Nakamoto, but he clarified it was a joke and denied owning a Bitcoin fortune.
  • Torvalds also dismissed the idea of technological singularity as a bedtime story for children, saying continuous exponential growth does not make sense.
db2 ,

I guess we should all get rid of our bitcoin that’s worth hundreds of times more than when we bought it, because an operating system kernel developer doesn’t like it.

Linus is awesome but he’s not a god, his opinion of things outside the Linux kernel is just the opinion of a guy. Stop worshipping him, he doesn’t even like it.

TropicalDingdong ,

https://lemmy.world/pictrs/image/bad1cbe3-e5b0-4905-9f86-ee3585289f4a.gif

tacosplease ,

Have fun playing hot potato with your savings I guess.

We don’t dislike crypto because Linus doesn’t like it. We like Linus more because he doesn’t like crypto.

Honytawk ,

If I can make value out of shit, it still stays shit.

Just because you were able to scam others out of their money doesn’t mean crypto holds any value to society.

Rustmilian ,
@Rustmilian@lemmy.world avatar

Oh yeah? Then explain this!! /s

just_another_person ,

👏.

👏.

👏.

xenspidey ,

Right, his talk about how he’s not very good at computers is pretty funny. I don’t understand the crypto hate on Lemmy. Although I guess I don’t understand a lot of why things are hated here. I guess crypto is too close to capitalism maybe? Freedom is frowned upon here.

Ciderpunk , (edited )

Crypto is hated because it’s an MLM for terminally online people.

It gains value because people want it and people want it because it gains value is both a perfect description of cryptocurrency and scams.

SchmidtGenetics ,

It gains value because people want it and people want it because it gains value is both a perfect description of cryptocurrency and scams.

Or gold, or any other precious metal, or any other currency really for that matter….

Ciderpunk ,

Tangible items can have utility in the real world, where cryptocurrencies can never be anything more than numbers on a display.

Gold can be used in electronics, and I get that people are mad that currencies are just something we all mutually agree have value, but generally speaking powerful governments back those up. Cryptocurrency is backed up by people promising it’s totally gonna be a real currency any second now. Please ignore that crypto can wildly fluctuate in value which generally a horrible thing for a currency to do.

SchmidtGenetics ,

Haven’t multiple governments accepted it as real currency at this point? The arguments are valid, but fall flat when you actually look into each.

Hell diamonds are valuable because of artificial scarcity, so that’s a wrench in every precious metal argument….

Ciderpunk ,

The only two countries that accept bitcoin as a legal tender are noted powerhouses El Salvador and the Central African Republic… not exactly world leaders.

dustyData , (edited )

Yeah, El Salvador, people from there told me quite recently that it’s not at all what the government propaganda is trying to sell. Nobody uses Bitcoin and it is only accepted by a few state institutions. As for Venezuela, we had Petros for a while, now the shitcoin has been completely phased out and discontinued since nobody but a few oligarch used it to launder money.

Rustmilian ,
@Rustmilian@lemmy.world avatar

No, no major government has completely adopted cryptocurrency as legal tender. El Salvador became the first country in the world to do so in September 2021, but there have been significant challenges :

  • Volatility: Cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin are known for their price swings, making them less than ideal for everyday purchases.
  • Consumer protection: Concerns exist about the risks faced by Salvadoran consumers, especially those unfamiliar with the complexities of cryptocurrency.
  • Business adoption: Businesses have been slow to embrace Bitcoin due to technical hurdles and a lack of customer demand.

Cryptocurrencies are still considered too volatile and risky by most governments for everyday transactions.

MeekerThanBeaker , (edited )

And crypto is more stable than some governments’ real currency. It’s been a life saver for some people.

It’s also a lot faster for transactions than normal banking when sending money to people in other countries.

It’s still in the early days… like email in the late 80s / early 90s. It should get better, but there’s so much crap and scams out there right now. It’s still very much the wild west. It’s like Wall Street on acid.

EDIT: people downvote but don’t say what was wrong. Awesome.

NotMyOldRedditName ,

They downvote the truth and/or facts when they are contrary to the hive mind.

SchmidtGenetics ,

The circlejerking and hive mind on Lemmy is shockingly worse than Reddit somehow. Not what I ever expected.

Tachikoma741 ,

Well you’re talking about a technology that can obsolete VISA and MasterCard and their predatory transaction fees!. There’s a lot of money riding on cryptographic currencies taking off or not.

NotMyOldRedditName ,

Taking on Visa and Mastercard is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to things like smart contracts.

shortwavesurfer ,

You could very well make the argument that ultimately crypto is backed by energy, which is something we all agree has value. Without energy, you can’t go to work, heat or cool your house or anything like that. If you believe that electricity is fundamental for society, then by extension, crypto is backed by the most fundamental force that there is even bigger than a government.

Ciderpunk ,

Hard disagree here, I literally cannot access a cryptocurrency without power but I can absolutely pay cash to buy some water during a power outage.

shortwavesurfer ,

Sure you can. There’s absolutely nothing stopping somebody from putting a private key on a piece of paper and loading money onto it and spending it physically as long as the private key has not been exposed. Kind of like those Amazon scratch-off gift cards. And just to prove my point, take a look at this.

en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Casascius_physical_bitcoins

Ciderpunk ,

Yes I’m sure the 7-11 cashier would love for me to try this.

shortwavesurfer ,

Depends on who the 7-11 cashier is. If they are really smart, they would gladly take your crypto and pay for your items with their fiat. You are not going to get big places using it first. You are going to get little places using it first. The Amazon’s and 7-11’s and Walmart’s of the world will come later. And trust me, they will come. There’s a natural tipping point apparently, where when 5% of the world population uses something, the other 95% generally soon follow, because it’s more useful. Crypto has already hit that 5% mark.

TheGrandNagus ,

Any day now bruh, trust me

FanBlade ,

But it’s not backed by energy.

The energy was consumed in the process of creating the crypto, that energy no longer exists and since it doesn’t exist it can’t back anything.

shortwavesurfer ,

Isn’t there a person that famously said something to the effect of energy is neither created nor destroyed, only modified? I want to say it was like Isaac Newton or something. Some big name anyway. So you’re not destroying the energy. You’re changing the energy into heat, which during the winter can heat your home as a subsidy to your furnace, and you are turning it into a digital representation that you can take and spend anywhere in the world.

FanBlade ,

Still not describing anything that indicates it backs it.

Good news though, I did reply again so feel free to condescendingly demonstrate your intelligence again.

TheGrandNagus ,

I get you’re desperately trying to sound smart, but in this context, “energy” meant electricity. Because that’s what it takes to produce cryptocurrency. Not the general definition in the realm of physics study. And electricity can most certainly be created and destroyed.

When you buy gold, you have the gold. It’s backed by the thing you have.

When you buy cryptocurrency, you don’t have the electricity that was spent in fabricating those numbers. You don’t get sent a battery in the post. You have nothing.

shortwavesurfer ,

So if I have nothing, why are people willing to give me things for it?

TheGrandNagus ,

Again trying to sound smart. You have nothing tangible. You have numbers on a screen, and for some people that’s enough to throw money at.

Nice attempt at moving the goalposts, btw.

shortwavesurfer ,

Mind telling me what most people use on a daily basis because numbers on the screen seems pretty common.

TheGrandNagus ,

Their local currency. You know, that thing we were talking about? If you’ve forgotten you could’ve just scrolled up for a quick refresher.

shortwavesurfer ,

Yes, but how do they interact with their local currency? Do they hold it in their hands? No, they don’t. It’s all numbers on a screen.

TheGrandNagus ,

You’re not understanding. Real money isn’t only numbers on a screen. It can be physical or not, it doesn’t really matter. What matters is that it’s universally backed and usable.

Crypto isn’t. It’s just numbers on a screen without the backing of government, business, or most people.

MBM ,

In this case the heat is something data centers spend even more energy and water on to dispose of

shortwavesurfer ,

Which is why Monero’s proof of work algorithm ends up being better than Bitcoin. Because for a data center with tons of computers, it makes more financial sense to do something else with the machines rather than mine. But for a home user, it makes tons of sense to mine and get the heat to subsidize their electricity bill during the winter.

indepndnt ,

Except that’s not what “backed by” means. It consumes energy. You can never exchange cryptocurrency to get the energy that it consumed back.

shortwavesurfer ,

Have you tried running a cryptocurrency miner during the dead of winter? It makes your electricity bills quite a bit lower. That’s for certain.

ccunning ,

You could very well make the argument that ultimately crypto is backed by energy

Crypto is just evidence energy was used. It’s not stored energy.

shortwavesurfer ,

Oh, but it is, because you could exchange it for something else. As an example, I can take mine and go exchange it for groceries.

Rustmilian ,
@Rustmilian@lemmy.world avatar

You can also use it to… pay for that energy you just used… Hooray!! /s

shortwavesurfer ,

I’ve recently been hearing a lot about mining, consuming energy that either would not exist otherwise, or would be wasted. For example, places in Africa can build like a hydroelectric power station, but don’t have the money to run lines far enough for all the energy from the power station to be used, so they give most of it to a crypto mine and let the residents use the rest. If the residents ever need more power, then the crypto mine can shut down temporarily or slack off on their usage in order to provide the residents with more power.

Rustmilian , (edited )
@Rustmilian@lemmy.world avatar

You know what else they could do? Store it… in batteries… which are reliable for long term storage… and aren’t nearly as volatile… and use it on stuff that generates more value per watt consumed… For example, batteries can be used to power homes and businesses, which can help to reduce reliance on fossil fuels and improve air quality e.g. improving quality of life which generates a shit load of value. Batteries can also be used to provide backup power in case of a blackout, which can be essential for critical infrastructure such as hospitals and data centers. I just don’t see how most crypto currency can compete in this space… maybe something highly power efficient? But even then the value is extremely volatile.

Tachikoma741 ,

Also consider that many peoples (me) would like to move from the older cryptocurrencies that needs lots of power to run (proof of work) and try to advocate for newer proof of stake models.

To my understanding proof of stake models have dramatically lower power requirements.

shortwavesurfer ,

Yes, but they are also quite a bit easier to take over and destroy because governments can just print their fiat and buy up a large amount of that currency and then kill the network.

SlopppyEngineer ,

I haven’t seen an exchange where I can trade in Crypto for kilowatt-hours.

shortwavesurfer ,

Coinsbee.com allows you to purchase debit cards, which you can then use to purchase kilowatt hours.

TheGrandNagus ,

Translation: actual currencies can be used to purchase energy, but cryptocurrency cannot.

What you’re saying is precisely like saying “I know a guy that trades turnips for money. Therefore turnips are a great currency that you can buy anything with.”

shortwavesurfer ,

Sure, you can’t buy energy with crypto directly yet. But that would make total sense for a power company to accept crypto in the future.

TheGrandNagus ,

If it made sense they’d be doing it, no?

shortwavesurfer ,

Not yet, the government has their regulatory screws too deep into them, so they can’t innovate like that.

TheGrandNagus ,

Where are these laws that state energy companies cannot accept crypto as payment?

shortwavesurfer ,

I don’t know of any laws specifically against them accepting it, but I think it’s probably demand-based because only about one-fourth to one-fifth of US citizens use crypto currently. I think that number will grow over the years.

TheGrandNagus ,

So no laws them. And 25% of the US using crypto. That’s surprising. Got any proof of that? That seems remarkably high. You could even say unbelievably high.

shortwavesurfer ,

Thank you. I’m glad you pointed out my mistake. That 25% is world use of crypto, not just US.

cointelegraph.com/…/american-adult-crypto-use-dro…

TheGrandNagus ,

No they don’t lmao. Do you really believe that? That 1 in 4 people use cryptocurrency?

LotzaSpaghetti ,
@LotzaSpaghetti@sh.itjust.works avatar

Thank you Nagus for your financial insights.

TheGrandNagus ,

The only currency I give a damn about is gold-pressed latinum, damn it!

Serinus ,

Okay, go buy some of Rudy Giuliani’s gold then. Enjoy.

Lucidlethargy ,

Gold is actually used as a critical component in the creation of computers and other vitally important industries.

SkyNTP ,

It gains value because people want it and people want it because it gains value

This describes pretty much all moneys.

Cryptocurrencies have a lot of problems, but being a medium of exchange without intrinsic value is not one of them.

Ciderpunk ,

People generally don’t trade currencies as commodities or treat them as investments. When the same people promising crypto is totally a currency actually start treating it like a stable currency to exchange for goods and services and not an investment or commodity to be traded, I might revisit it. For now, the evangelists refuse to walk the walk.

Entropywins ,

A metric shit ton of people use currencies as investments. Forex trading is pretty big and been around a long time.

Ciderpunk ,

I said generally. Your parents who get paid in local currency for their job are not trading in foreign currencies. The fact that rich people can find ways to squeeze more money out of just about anything isn’t a win for cryptocurrencies.

SlopppyEngineer ,

The main test is to give cryptocurrency to my grandparents and they should be able to figure that out and do their grocery shopping. I pity the people having to explain how to use cryptocurrency to my grandparents at the cash register.

Tachikoma741 ,

Kind of the same idea as explaining how tap your card/phone or credit cards work though.

TheGrandNagus , (edited )

Not really. “Take your card out of your wallet, and instead of putting it in the machine and typing your pin, you just tap it against the screen”

Vs “well, ok. I set up a wallet for you. No it’s not a real wallet, it’s on your computer. Anyway, your wallet has this huge long code that you can’t remember, so keep it safe, because if you lose it you lose all your money, ok? Right, well before you buy anything, you’ll need to register with an exchange, there are a number of exchanges, like XYZ, so sign up with one of those, then — wait what do you mean you don’t know how? Just give them your email and whatever else they need… you don’t know your email address? Christ on a bike. Ok we’ll sort that out soon — anyway, back to the exchange… go onto their site and trade your cryptocurrency (the weird money in your wallet… no not your real wallet, grandad, your computer wallet), now you need to wait a while for the transaction to happen and you to receive your money. Now you can go to the shop and pay by card. Amazing, isn’t it? And it’ll only get better when everywhere accepts [coin], I’m sure that’ll happen any day now!”

TheBat ,
@TheBat@lemmy.world avatar

“Bank pays seller on your behalf and then you pay the bank” vs however the fuck you want to explain the clusterfuck of crypto

Tachikoma741 ,

My parents do this regularly. There are many Latino American families who regularly exchange USD to PESO and vise versa.

sazey ,

You have obviously have not heard of forex and the vast quantity of money that flows through it on a daily basis if you think currencies are not traded as commodities, nor have you heard of places like Argentina or Turkey apparently if you don’t know currencies are treated as investments.

There are many many scams in cryptoworld but there is no need to throw out the baby with the bath water as it were. Crypto can and is being used as valid alternative to fractional reserve issued currency; the thriving and resilient darknet proves it so.

TheGrandNagus , (edited )

generally

I don’t think that’s how the typical guy/gal you’d bump into on the street uses their bank balance.

sazey ,

I appreciate and applaud anything that can even attempt to separate state and money. That will imho be the best thing for humanity since the separation of state and religion.

Tachikoma741 ,

I look forward to the day VISA and MASTERCARD become obsolete! Please save my aunt’s small business from predatory transaction fees. ♥

TheGrandNagus , (edited )

I have no like of transaction fees but… you know they exist in the cryptocurrency world right? And that they’re generally higher? Those transactions take work and aren’t done out of charity.

TheBat ,
@TheBat@lemmy.world avatar

I look forward to the day VISA and MASTERCARD become obsolete!

Compares transaction speed of credit card vs buttcoin

Lmao

Tachikoma741 ,

Buttcoin is pretty slow. To my understanding many other coins have already evolved past Bitcoin’s slow ass speed.

Tachikoma741 ,

How does this working into Foreign Exchange? This also sounds a lot like trading USD to PESO like my aunt does…

Empricorn ,

If crypto had pivoted to freedom and prioritized mass-adoption, it would have been great. Instead, almost everyone who invested got more people to buy in, dumped it, and got their payday. So yes, very much like capitalism.

db2 ,

Shitcoins yes, bitcoin no. If you fell for Craig Wright’s scams you’d fall for any other kind of scam also.

Rustmilian ,
@Rustmilian@lemmy.world avatar

Really, the only crypto that comes anywhere near :

If crypto had pivoted to freedom and prioritized mass-adoption

Is Monero. Unfortunately, it falls short when it comes to mass-adoption. Still, it’s just as volatile as any other crapto-currency, so using it as an investment vehicle is a bad idea. It seems almost like crapto-currency is fundamentally incompatible with stock market style investments.

shortwavesurfer ,

I agree with you. I think people are using it wrong. It’s a currency for a reason. It’s meant to buy and sell goods and services. I should be able to buy a house with it. I should be able to buy a car with it. I should be able to go to the doctor and pay the doctor with it or buy some eggs from the farmer’s market with it. But instead, people want to treat it like a stock market thing. And that’s not what it was designed to be. It was designed to be an ultimate check on the government’s authority to steal from their citizens through inflation. And anybody who tells you different is either a damn liar or has an agenda.

Rustmilian , (edited )
@Rustmilian@lemmy.world avatar

It was designed to be an ultimate check on the government’s authority to steal from their citizens through inflation. And anybody who tells you different is either a damn liar or has an agenda.

Unfortunately that’s just not how most crypto currency is designed. Really, most crypto currency are essentially an extremely volatile private bank with a user-federated money printer.
Most are just an obfuscation of global inflation and yet still highly influenced by governments.
Allowing governments to track the transactions makes crypto basically just a crappy version of credit cards.

shortwavesurfer ,

I completely agree. Most cryptocurrency is a stupid mess and I would never ever get involved in it. That word most is the keyword, though. That implies that there are some that are actually valuable for their own sake. And I believe that to be Monero, which is why I personally use it. Monero does not allow the government to see your finances at any time and so they absolutely hate it and try to demonize it at every chance they get.

Rustmilian ,
@Rustmilian@lemmy.world avatar

Completely agree. By obfuscating the blockchain transactions, monero is essentially digital cash (at least when it comes to monero-to-monero transactions); what craptocurrency is supposed to be. That’s why governments hate it so much, it’s hard to tax transactions they can’t see and it’s hard to regulate something you can’t control or track. That’s why governments opted to ban it outright.

Still, the whole “being used as a stock market” is a problem for monero too. To a lesser degree than other cryptos, monero still was heavily impacted by the crypto bubble-pop. Monero has a lot of technical merit, unfortunately it’s being soiled by the failure of competing cryptos.

shortwavesurfer ,

You don’t get into Monero for mad gains, which is what people don’t seem to get. They are in cryptocurrency for number go up, and I absolutely despise them for it. Monero is growing in adoption, even with the government adversity towards it. It is still growing. In fact, a decentralized exchange called Haveno just launched last Tuesday which will make it completely impossible to ever actually kill Monero’s Fiat 2 Monero Exchange

Rustmilian ,
@Rustmilian@lemmy.world avatar

Got some sources? Sounds interesting.

shortwavesurfer ,

monero.town/post/3143272

Rustmilian ,
@Rustmilian@lemmy.world avatar

From your source :

Haveno & Haveno-reto (fork)…

👆
👇
💾

shortwavesurfer ,

Haveno is the base software where Haveno-reto is the live network based on it. Currently they have to fork it and put keys directly into the source code to be able to change networks, although that should be fixed in a future update.

shortwavesurfer ,

I would like to introduce you to my friend Monero. It actually gets used as a currency and has people who believe in human freedom using it, which is why the government’s hate it so much and purposely try to get it delisted from as many exchanges as they possibly can because they do not want normals like us to have it.

Empricorn ,

I have a long day of paying rent, then buying groceries, coffee, and fast food tomorrow. If you can detail how I will accomplish that with Monero, I am on your side. And keep in mind, “expensive, inconvenient currency-switching” may work for me, but it won’t work for most people. Be realistic.

shortwavesurfer ,

coinsbee.com, monerica.com.

I have personally been purchasing my groceries every month with Monero for a year and a half now since January of 2023. I also actively search out companies that take Monero and purposely buy from them whenever possible.

Dudewitbow ,

the idea of crypto on its not bad on its own, its just there are a lot of bad actors agressively trying to prop up the value of some arbitrary crypto without actually selling a good or service in order to make a quick buck.

at least teams like the one behind Axie Infinity offered a product/service. Most don’t, which is the problem.

if your marketing essentially has to relate to other people buying into buying it, then theres a big problem.

shortwavesurfer ,

Which is primarily the reason that I will only use Monero. It actually offers something that other cryptocurrencies do not. And that’s privacy. If you need to see which crypto to buy or use, look at the government’s efforts. The government has Wall Street accepting Bitcoin and put in people’s retirement accounts. Why? Because they can control it. Where with Monero, they’re trying to purposely get it delisted from every single exchange they can possibly get away with. Why would they be so willing for you to have Bitcoin? But not willing at all for you to have Monero? Simple. Because with Bitcoin, they can see everything you spend at all times and see your balance at all times. Where with Monero, they can’t control it and they know it. Monero is what Bitcoin people thought they bought.

shortwavesurfer ,

Exactly. These people seem to have no idea what they’re talking about and or flip flop on issues. As an example, they flocked to open source software. The minute a billionaire bought the company they previously used, because in open source software, they finally see that no billionaire can buy it and control it like they can a closed source system. But yet, oh no, we can’t have open source money. That doesn’t make any sense.

squid_slime ,

Open source isn’t a buzz word that brings people flocking over, its a definition of key features. Shit products can still exist in that space.

Syrc ,

The minute a billionaire bought the company they previously used, because in open source software, they finally see that no billionaire can buy it and control it like they can a closed source system.

I’m genuinely struggling to understand what this sentence means. Is it badly worded or am I just brainfarting?

shortwavesurfer ,

Oh, sorry. I was using voice dictation to type that and it put a period in the wrong place. That is not the beginning of a nuisance. I was intending to say that they flock to open source software the minute that a billionaire buys the thing they were using because they realize that a billionaire can’t buy open source software.

Syrc ,

Oh, that makes sense.

I think “open source money” is a great idea and I’m sure many here do too, but as others pointed out in the replies, cryptocurrency has a lot of issues at the moment for that to be viable.

Also, a lot of the hate probably comes from all the people shilling for it and the whole “get rich with this!!!” narrative around it.

shortwavesurfer ,

Yeah, I’m not in it for those get rich quick reasons and I despise people who are. I am in it for the tech and the potential to increase human freedom around the world.

circuscritic , (edited )

Because it went from being a novel decentralized payment method, into a speculative asset, and finally a Wall Street commodity.

Yes, I know there are projects where that core ethos is still relatively intact, but those aren’t what come to mind whenever people publicly discusses “crypto”.

ShittyBeatlesFCPres ,

I hate it in part because its adherents seem intent to relearn all the mistakes of the free banking era and constantly evangelize long-debunked economic theories. It’s like the goldbuggism of libertarian cranks of yore.

Also, for Bitcoin specifically, the extra demand for electricity raises rates for nearby residents. It’s essentially a transfer of wealth from ratepayers. A lot of them are in Texas and if you think Texas has “excess capacity,” then explain why they literally pay bitcoin miners an absurd amount not to mine when there’s a cold snap or heat wave.

I could go on about fraud and money laundering but I think being dumb as shit and raising electricity bills is plenty reason to hate it.

squid_slime , (edited )

I dislike crypto for the grift but also that people had repackaged it as a form of DRM in NFT’s, it became commercialisation in the extreme promoting materialism.

Also Cryptos relation to libertarianism makes it very off putting.

AIhasUse ,

If you were not living in a powerful first world country, you would like it a hell of a lot more. It is such a luxury to not have to constantly be worried about your currency collapsing. In places like Turkiye, crypto is massively popular because their currency is constantly devaluing. There are many countries like this that many Americans and Europeans seem to forget even exist.

It probably won’t be too long until even the spoiled nations will want to be able to hold value somewhere that isn’t free falling as well. The US is now paying more to service their debt than they are to the military. Not everyone can afford to hold their wealth in real estate and successful businesses.

squid_slime , (edited )

Please get fucked on assuming where i live and inturn my life style.

If capitalism died we wouldn’t have first world countries feeding on third world countries. Crypto won’t help with this issue, you will still have american companies drilling oil out of third world countries paying workers fuck all, sweat shops will still need to be somewhere too and the capitalist would prefer it away from they’re first world country. If anything crypto will only shield the exploiters but at least the libertarian can be happy whilst getting fucked by daddy bazos.

AIhasUse ,

Read my comment again, you entirely missed the point. This has nothing to do with anything you pointed out. I guarantee you don’t live In a poor country because there isn’t a chance that you would have no idea how much they are benefiting from bitcoin. I’m sorry you’re so offended, but you were your ignorance so prominently that it isn’t hard to see at all. I’m also in the 1st world, but I desire to understand the whole picture enough to be able to tell. Use your anger over something you know nothing about as a guide of where to educate yourself.

squid_slime ,

I saw the point you where trying to make, diminishing my knowledge in the matter due to your presumption of my privileges.

Then railroading off with how its good as poor countries are forced to invest in these schemes.

Do you know much of rune scape gold farming? Gold farming in rune scape was very profitable. Westerners would pay slave wages to poor countries to play and farm in run scape working 60 hours, this was eventually broken up which also didn’t lead to a good outcome as a large community lost the financial structure they depended, essentially chewing up and spitting out the disadvantaged.

Similar instances have popped up since crypto where again it has created a work force built on shaky ground which doesn’t just exploit but creates a dependency on something liable to fail.

So again no crypto will not fix third world problems as it allows for massive exploitation.

AIhasUse ,

Oh my. Hold your horses buddy. Nobody is forcing poor people to buy bitcoin. People are just faced with a choice, they can hold their value in fiat currencies that corrupt governments are printing like crazy, or they hold their value in a decentralized currency that nobody has control over and nobody can print on a whim. Just because you feel like you missed out on a good investment and so you are bitter towards an entire growing industry doesn’t matter at all to people who are using it to escape corruption.

It really isn’t nearly as complex or evil as you think it is. It really is just a way for people who have repeatedly been screwed over by corrupt politicians to escape corruption. It’s just a matter of time until more and more people around you realize the same, and eventually you will join in, albeit a bit late due to your ignorant bitterness. You do yourself no favors by being against something simply because you don’t take the time to understand it.

squid_slime , (edited )

like nobody is forcing the poor to drink dirty water or go without food…

Just because you feel like you missed out on a good investment and so you are bitter

you make a lot of assumptions. next you’ll be calling me a basement dweller.

capitalism isn’t evil, guns aren’t evil, physical currencies aren’t evil, they are instead an easily manipulated vehicle that intern can be used for evil. crypto has proven itself with the sheer amount of scams to be easily manipulated. i don’t see crypto as complex, i have followed it since 2013 and have a good understanding of encryption and decentralized systems as well as economics.

the main reason i don’t like or see use for crypto is that i am a socialist, crypto goes against core socialist economic values. it also pollutes as the oil cost is high, it promotes commercialization, its abusive to human psychology with fomo, it feeds into libertarianism.

AIhasUse ,

Poor people all over the world are less poor because they have used bitcoin to escape predatory devaluing fiat currencies. Go check out much of Africa, much of South America, Turkey, Georgia, and Southeast Asia. There are literally people eating better food and drinking cleaner water thanks to the fact that they can maintain their hard-earned value with bitcoin.

Nobody said capitalism is bad. Nobody said guns are bad, I have no idea why you would feel the need to conflate issues. I get that you can read headlines, but dig a bit deeper, and you will actually be able to argue from thought-out stances. The crypto oil thing was a scare tactic that got thoroughly disproven many years ago. Mining is rapidly ushering in the transition to renewable energy sources. It is also preventing waste of energy that would just dissipate.

The information is out there. It’s just up to yourself to put in the work to educate yourself. I don’t mean run around trying to find anything that will agree with your original hunches or whatever to try to guard your ego. I mean, look at it with fresh eyes and be willing to expand your view after critically analyzing the situation without bias. It is actually a good thing to be capable of arguing from both sides so that you are able to honestly weigh the situation. Right now you are just spewing old headlines that you once saw and not even attempting to make a coherent argument.

It will only help you to educate yourself. It’s not nearly as daunting as it seems. The next step is to quit trying to defend a stance that you don’t understand and to spend some time researching and asking questions. If you had understood what bitcoin was in 2013, then you would be in a much different situation than you are in right now.

squid_slime ,

Speaking about guns, capitalism and currency were to give examples, and thus context. And if you can show me evidence that crypto has improved so many live in impoverished counties, maybe a crypto GDP study I would love to see it.

I speak of gas prices as I had mined bitcoin and monero and know for a fact that my GPU was 100%, my electricity bill went up. and the crypto miner I repaired PC components for would have a repaste job every few months.

AIhasUse ,

Bitcoin Brought Electricity to Countries in the Global South

Cryptocurrency Adoption in Developing Countries

Bitcoin Spurs Major Renewable Projects From Ocean Thermal To Hydro

BTPI will research relationship between Bitcoin and financial freedom

A great way to really understand just how much Bitcoin and maybe some stablecoins are impacting the lives of people in poorer nations is to just go and talk to people. Spend a few weeks in Tbilisi or similar places and just walk around and talk to average people. Bitcoin is so popular amongst the average people there that many random little shops are even selling socks or Tshirts with the Bitcoin icon on them. So many lives have been saved, and the people there genuinely love Bitcoin.

There is a huge difference between crypto and Bitcoin. There are many shitcoins that try to pretend to be the next Bitcoin or whatever, but literally 99.9% of them are absolute garbage. Luckily, they are drying up and blowing away. For people who this stuff really matters for, they are able and willing to look deep enough to see the benefits of Bitcoin and are much less likely to fall into the BS traps of CyberCoin or whatever.

It is often the uneducated outsider that hasn’t lived the horrendous harm of horrible government currencies that are so vehemently opposed to Bitcoin. It just screams privilege, like when some spoiled trust fund kid gets mad at homeless people because they won’t just go home. When people are struggling to not drown and they find a life raft, they simply don’t care if people in yachts tell them it looks tacky.

If you genuinely want to give this a fair shake, then Google things like “bitcoin encourages renewable energy after:2023” or “Bitcoin adoption in poor countries after:2022”. Get recent information and be open to having your mind changed. Bitcoin threatens the imbalance of power, and this is why there is a push to get people in powerful countries to not think deeply about how much it is helping the less fortunate right now. It’s just a matter of time though. Knowledge naturally spreads.

Beaver ,
@Beaver@lemmy.ca avatar

Smart man!

AlexWIWA ,

The modern tech industry needs the old Linus to pay it a visit. Too many grifts

cmbabul , (edited )

I for one would love for Linus, probably Woz, and a third party yet to be decided(this would be Aaron Schwartz in a better world) to be given free reign to gut the whole industry and rebuild it into something isn’t wholly based on ad revenue and grift

Edit: a bunch of good suggestions of people I need to read about for position three. If anyone can think of a digital equivalent to Marshall McLuhan I think we desperately needs input of that sort

kelargo ,

John Gilmore is around

AlexWIWA ,

Old Linus with Woz and Schwartz is a dream.

I understand why Linus wanted to clean up his act with people he works with. That is a good and admirable thing to do. I wish he would have kept his smoke for companies though.

swordgeek ,

Bill Joy.

grue ,

Stallman.

very_well_lost ,

I’d just like to interject for a moment. What you’re refering to as Stallman, is in fact, GNU/Stallman, or as I’ve recently taken to calling it, GNU plus Stallman. Stallman is not a man unto himself, but rather another free component of a fully functioning GNU system made useful by the GNU corelibs, shell utilities and vital system components comprising a full OS as defined by POSIX.

dohpaz42 ,
@dohpaz42@lemmy.world avatar

I lack the creativity, but someone please come up with a recursive acronym for Stallman.

micka190 ,

All you need to do is make the S stand for “Stallman”, and you’ll get a stack overflow before ever reaching the other letters (so you don’t need to think of a value for them).

baatliwala ,

Asked ChatGPT

Stallman Tenaciously Advocates Liberation, Leading Movements Against Non-freedom

debil ,

STALLMAN: Stallman The Almighty, Living Legend… Man… Anon… Null…

ArbiterXero ,

The only possible correct answer

No matter what crazy shit he says, give it a few years and he will be right . And I really hate that

betheydocrime ,

Maybe Cory Doctorow?

cmbabul ,

I definitely considered just saying him outright but I don’t know quite enough about him outside of a few articles I’ve read to be certain I wanted to be so bold

everett ,

Be so bold.

captainlezbian ,

I feel like he’s definitely the person to sit in Schwartz’s seat.

mox ,

I wonder if those three would get along. Collaborative chemistry can be an elusive thing, even if the individuals’ principles are mostly aligned.

Either way, I’ll bet it would be interesting.

cmbabul ,

It’s certainly possible they wouldn’t get along, I feel like their shared enthusiasm for tech, plus the fact that Woz can get along with even the largest and stinkiest of assholes would help

mox ,

I’ve never met Woz, but yes, I’ve long had the impression that his humility and sincerity reach depths seldom seen in humans, let alone in tech. Sadly, I also suspect these traits have made him easy to take advantage of in the past.

cmbabul ,

You are very correct, and even sadder the state of tech today is very much a result of the success of his primary exploiter

Agent641 ,

Ballmer, for comedy relief

100_kg_90_de_belin ,

And coke.

cmbabul ,

Can you have one without the other?

ArbiterXero ,

Richard stallman is the only answer.

I really hate everything he says, but so far on a lot enough timescale he has been fucking right about everything

maegul , (edited )
@maegul@lemmy.ml avatar

It’s interesting to see Torvalds emerge as a kind of based tech hero. I’m thinking here also of his rant not long ago on social.kernel.org (a kernel devs microblog instance) that was essentially a pretty good anti-anti-leftism tirade in true Torvalds fashion.

EDIT:

Torvalds’s anti-anti-left post (I was curious to read it again):

I think you might want to make sure you don’t follow me.

Because your “woke communist propaganda” comment makes me think you’re a moron of the first order.

I strongly suspect I am one of those “woke communists” you worry about. But you probably couldn’t actually explain what either of those words actually mean, could you?

I’m a card-carrying atheist, I think a woman’s right to choose is very important, I think that “well regulated militia” means that guns should be carefully licensed and not just randomly given to any moron with a pulse, and I couldn’t care less if you decided to dress up in the “wrong” clothes or decided you’d rather live your life without feeling tied to whatever plumbing you were born with.

And dammit, if that all makes me “woke”, then I think anybody who uses that word as a pejorative is a f*cking disgrace to the human race. So please just unfollow me right now.

Ledivin ,

It’s interesting to see Torvalds emerge as a kind of based tech hero.

It’s just that almost everyone else that could do it ended up being fucking ghouls of people.

Torvalds can be… brusque, sure. But he doesn’t support child labor, he doesn’t cheat on his wife, and he isn’t some crazy cult leader waging a war against workers’ rights.

huginn ,

he doesn’t cheat on his wife

he doesn’t cheat on his wife so far.

Lost_My_Mind ,

Well, we all know he beats his wife…

…in monopoly! Give me those brown properties!!!

Serinus ,

Why’s it gotta be the brown properties?

Mercury ,

The man loves going to brown town, what’s wrong with that?

Lost_My_Mind ,

They’re the cheapest to aquire, put hotels on, and they’re right at the start of the board. If you overshoot go, you’re PAYING $250 instead of recieving $200 if you land on baltic. And you, as the owner of the brown properties would either get $250 or $450 everytime.

All for just $610 to buy both, and upgrade them both to hotels.

Kushan ,
@Kushan@lemmy.world avatar

Statistically, the best properties to have are the ones just after jail. Everyone who passes go still has to pass them, while those who get sent to jail also have I pass them. The organge properties are the best, because the average dice roll is 7 and from jail that lands you right on them.

Coasting0942 ,

He’ll live long enough to end up on the wrong side of the polygamy rights fight. But I’d like to be surprised.

thisbenzingring ,

I imagine he will be an old and gray man and someone will ask him his opinion and it will probably be like

What? Are you fucking with me? I didn’t give a shit what people did behind closed doors 40 years ago, what fuckin made you think I would care now? Are you fucking mental? Did your daddy not love you enough? Get the fuck out of here, your making my blood pressure spike…

VerticaGG ,

Polygamy: Mormons, etc. generally opposes womens rights.

Polyamory: Ideally places noone above another, elevates everyone to have the healthy connections such that noone is a “3rd wheel” or more disposable. Less about “polycules” recruiting new members, and more about individuals pairing with new partners, and existing partners (initially at least) gaining a metaphor. Mileage may vary and the point is everyone’s needs are a bit different and shouldnt feel pressured to fit neatly into a nuclear box.

Just fyi.

rooroo ,

The fuck is that even supposed to mean

Coasting0942 ,

Five guys and five gals will be arguing they have a right to share DNA amongst each other and make a single kid, giving them all parental rights. Religious right will have their scheduled stroke. Most of the population won’t care. Internet trolls will be screaming how it’s a United Nations plan to depopulate the planet.

Or basically any legal recognition for polygamy.

Syrc ,

Five guys and five gals will be arguing they have a right to share DNA amongst each other and make a single kid

…Is that even possible? I thought humans could only have exactly two parents biologically? If I didn’t misunderstand, I’m legit curious about this.

Coasting0942 ,

We’ve already reached two lesbians with their combined dna being carried by a surrogate (which has extra dna effects as the carrier). With further dna advancements it should be possible to mix up multiple parents dna.

Syrc ,

Is it this one? I’m far from an expert but it seems like they used a different part of DNA from each woman, I doubt it’s possible to go beyond 3 parents with the same method.

huginn ,

Polyamory isn’t cheating though.

Cheating is, by definition, sex with another person against your partner’s will.

RizzRustbolt ,

Healthy relationships have ridiculous hall-passes that share at least one person in common.

huginn ,

It’s not cheating if it’s consensual.

maegul ,
@maegul@lemmy.ml avatar

Yea. It’s almost like caring about your craft and being motivated chiefly to just make good things and fix things … aren’t terrible character traits?!?

jj4211 ,

Another interesting thing to consider.

To be clear, he is rich. But he’s not crazy crazy rich, like nowhere near billionaire status.

With that in mind, his kernel is a key component of RedHat’s, SuSE’s and Canonical whole business, with at least two of those being multi billion dollar businesses.

His kernel is a key component of Android phones, which represent over 50 billion a year in hardware spend, and a bunch of software money on top of that.

His kernel is foundational to most hosting/cloud services with just mind blowing billions of revenue quarterly.

It’s used in almost every embedded device on the planet, networking gear, set top boxes, thermostats, televisions, just nearly everything.

People with a fraction of that sort of relevance are billionaires several times over. A number of billionaires owe much of their success to him. Yet he is not among their numbers.

Now there’s more to things than just a kernel to be sure, but across the hundreds of billions of dollars made while running Linux, there was probably plenty of room for him to carve out a few billion for himself were he that sort of person, but he cares about the work more than gaming the dollars. I have a great deal of respect for that.

Means that while he may not always be right, but I at least believe his assessments are sincere and not trying to drive some grift or cover some insecurity about being left behind.

sudo , (edited )

git is a way more important contribution to the world that the linux kernel IMO. Its basically the assembly line of almost all modern software production. And Linus actually wrote most of the initial code for it. With Linux he organized the project but was almost immediately not a major contributor. He developed git in the process of maintaining the linux repo.

RecluseRamble ,

I disagree. Git is great but we’d have done fine with Subversion or whatever. Could you imagine the whole internet running on Windows Server though? The thought alone makes my skin crawl.

emptiestplace ,

You probably need to learn a bit more about VCS fundamentals if you think Subversion would’ve been fine.

RecluseRamble ,

Well, I don’t know what you mean, so possibly? I just briefly used SVN in a small team for about half a year and would never claim to be an expert. It’s alive and kicking though, so regardless what you say I don’t believe it’s a complete clusterfuck and a world without git would be doomed.

emptiestplace ,

Torvalds didn’t create git because he was passionate about version control systems, he created it because the existing solutions were not adequate.

Git is a distributed version control system (DVCS) that facilitated a fundamental shift in how people collaborate on software projects in general. So, comparing it to SVN and downplaying the significance of Git suggests you’ve kind of missed the point.

Edit: with you on the other thing though - fuck Windows.

RecluseRamble ,

Geese, then take whatever else if working in a remote location without upstream access is important to you (note that I originally wrote “Subversion or whatever”). It’s just version control, not rocket science.

I’m a git devotee myself, love it despite its growing redundancies. But I am able to imagine a world without it and don’t tremble in fear. That’s all I said here.

emptiestplace ,

You’re thinking in terms of a single dev using revision control, but the person you responded to was referring to the higher level aspects of software development that git facilitates. In other words, you’ve completely missed the point.

As for the Linux kernel, if it hadn’t come along, we’d likely be living in FreeBSD-dominated world. Or, perhaps Hurd would’ve received more attention.

Kushan ,
@Kushan@lemmy.world avatar

I’m old enough to remember the SVN days (he’ll, even the CVS and…dare I say it… source safe days).

Git is fantastic. It’s pretty universally uses because it’s the best dvcs out there and it’s free. It wipes the pants with the likes of mercurial.

In certain industries (such as gaming) there’s still a strong hold by perforce but we can ignore that as it’s proprietary and a bit specialised.

Anyway, as great as git is for making things easier and cleaner when dealing with distributed development, it by no means makes something impossible “possible” - it just makes it a hell of a lot easier.

The Linux kernel on the other hand enabled a lot of impossible things. Remember back in the day there wasn’t anything free and open source in the operating system world, it was all proprietary and licensed. If you wanted to create your own operating system, you basically had no option but to spend a fortune either writing your own kernel or licensing someone else’s (and the licensing part means you cannot distribute it for free).

The fact that the FSF has always wanted to write their own OS and never been able to achieve it without the Linux Kernel, in spite of them essentially writing “everything else” that makes up an operating system, shows just how nontrivial this is.

emptiestplace ,

Do you think the existence of the Linux kernel might’ve had an effect on how Hurd was prioritized? Also, FreeBSD wasn’t too far behind, chronologically.

I’m not saying Linux is unimportant (or even less important), but I think some folks here are pretty clueless about the significance of widespread DVCS adoption.

iopq ,

Pijul and similar patch-based systems are a lot better. They match my understanding of independent changes combining. git does the stupidest thing and just compares states - which means it has less information to automatically merge correctly

Ledivin ,

lol. I’m old enough to have worked with SVN (and many others) as part of my day job, and I promise you that 99% of git users use literally the same exact workflow as they did/would have under any other VCS. Git’s fine, but it’s neither revolutionary nor important from a user’s perspective.

iopq ,

Free software would be just using freebsd or whatever, it wouldn’t be that different

Zekas ,

Can’t two things both be important in different ways? Why must we always relativise?

iopq ,

git is why we can’t have nice things

There’s many better VCS, but everyone just goes on GitHub and uses git.

I dread ever having to touch it. The CLI is unintuitive, the snapshot system is confusing, and may God have mercy on your soul if you mix merging and rebasing

sudo ,

Mercurial or darcs?

iopq ,

Pijul, actually

sudo ,

darcs_rs

yogurtwrong ,
@yogurtwrong@lemmy.world avatar

Well, I think Linus Torvalds is one of the rare rich people who actually “deserves” being rich.

I think the main motive behind leftism should be stopping 8 people from owning the 50% of the world’s wealth, not to distribute Linus Torvalds’ 50 million dollars which a well deserved amount of wealth for someone who created the OS which runs the modern world.

Besides, what Linus owns is not even a droplet compared to billionaires like Bezos, Musk or Bill Gates

jj4211 ,

I think it’s a shining example of the ‘right’ sort of rich. Despite a significance that overwhelmingly exceeds usual billionaire level, he’s not nearly so ‘rich’ and yet he has enough to just not worry about money, but he has earned it.

nilloc ,

It’s a contribution thing. He contributed enough to society to deserve to not worry about money for the rest of his life. It’s rare though since we have a bunch of billionaires who skim the rewards from huge swaths of the population who also have contributed their part.

The financialization of retirement is a huge part of the problem for the middle class (or what’s left of it, upper-lower-class is probably more accurate). We have to invest in these assholes in order to save for retirement. The harder workers in services, laborers, and fields don’t even get that.

captainlezbian ,

He just seems frustrated. And I respect that. I’m a nerd who’s often frustrated as well.

IronKrill ,

Or we could just… not glorify people we barely know and invariably be disappointed when it comes out they’re flawed some way or another.

possiblylinux127 ,

Its good to see some antileftism once in a while. We need some other perspectives. I didn’t think we’d get it from Linus but here we are.

ikidd ,
@ikidd@lemmy.world avatar

You might want to re-read that.

Serinus ,

Maybe it’s just really lazy spin? I could see it as a creative tactic poorly executed by AI.

ABCDE ,

You don’t know what you’re on about and you cannot read.

SoleInvictus ,

WHOOOOSH

bulwark ,

I wonder what direction the Linux kernel will go once he’s gone. Obviously it will continue to go on and Torvalds should get a statue somewhere if he doesn’t already have one.

maegul ,
@maegul@lemmy.ml avatar

I don’t follow thinigs closely at all, but I’m under the impression he’s already starting to kinda take his hands off of the wheel? If so, maybe that picture is emerging now, at least behind the scenes.

Rustmilian ,
@Rustmilian@lemmy.world avatar

Linus hasn’t written kernel code in years at this point, however he still is the final gate keeper of what gets merged and an active code reviewer, he manages the entire direction of the project.

As of what will happen when Linus passes, that’s already been decided. The position of projects leader will go to his most trusted project co-maintainer, which we have a good idea of who that is.

Andrenikous ,

For the uninformed, who is that?

Rustmilian , (edited )
@Rustmilian@lemmy.world avatar

There are a few candidates, the most prominent are probably :

  • Greg Kroah-Hartman: Played a pivotal role in stabilizing the memory management subsystem and enhancing block I/O performance, both critical areas for system stability and performance.
  • Sage Sharp (formally Sarah Sharp) : Instrumental in the development and maintenance of the networking subsystem and the ARM architecture code, ensuring compatibility and efficient networking for various ARM-based devices.
  • Git Junio Hamano: Maintainer of Git, the version control system that underpins Linux development. His leadership in maintaining Git ensures smooth collaboration and efficient code management for the vast kernel developer community.

Greg Kroah-Hartman is speculated to be the most likely candidate, but it also depends on a few factors. Like, if Linus dies suddenly vs dying slowly or just stepping down, there’d be a big difference in selection process.

Ofc, things may change in the future and there’s many other talented developers who can be considered. Nothing is set in stone.

Andrenikous ,

Thanks for the details. With things heading more and more towards arm architecture I’m surprised Sarah Sharp isn’t the leading candidate. But this is all new to me so what do I know lol

Rustmilian , (edited )
@Rustmilian@lemmy.world avatar

It’s not like they couldn’t be chosen, they have some serious stake in it. Consider their achievements and read the following :

Here are some key qualities a potential successor should possess :

  • Deep understanding of the Linux kernel: Intimate knowledge of the kernel’s codebase, architecture, and development process is essential.
  • Proven leadership skills: The ability to effectively guide a large team of developers with diverse technical backgrounds and priorities.
  • Strong communication and collaboration: Excellent communication skills to bridge the gap between developers, and foster a collaborative development environment.
  • Technical merit and reputation: A well-established reputation within the Linux community for technical contributions and code quality.
  • Vision for the future: A clear vision for the future direction of the kernel, ensuring it remains relevant and innovative.

I’d say they meet most if not all of them. All of the potential candidate’s are amazingly talented and determined individuals.

PhlubbaDubba ,

He did rule that Rust can be included in the kernel code a bit ago, but IIRC that’s the last big thing he did with Linux as of late.

thejoker954 ,

They should do something like GNU from discworld in the code.

AFC1886VCC ,

Chaddiest Chad to ever Chad

grrgyle ,

I remember this. That was a great day to be on the internet.

Neato ,
@Neato@ttrpg.network avatar

That guy seems pretty rad.

Pacmanlives ,

Yeah, I would say he has stayed in line with Finnish politics based on how I know of them

diffusive ,

deleted_by_author

    •
    dubyakay ,

    Are you replying to the right comment?

    diffusive ,

    Clearly misread the tone of the comment 😃 nvm

    abbadon420 ,

    For a rant, that made complete sense. It missed all of the unhinged outcries, alternative facts and illogical reasoning we’ve come to expect of modern day rants.

    JTskulk ,

    Why does the headline say “Crypto” but then snippet says “cryptocurrencies”? Do people not realize these are not the same thing? The inventor of Linux does believe in crypto, that’s why it’s in Linux!

    SkyNTP ,

    They don’t. Just like “AI” has been co-opoted to mean “algorithm”.

    Large groups of humans turn everything they touch into shit.

    apfelwoiSchoppen ,
    @apfelwoiSchoppen@lemmy.world avatar

    I’m old enough to remember when algorithm was co-opted to be a fancy word replacement for “computer programming” or “software”.

    Lost_My_Mind ,

    Algorithm??? I can understand not coming up with “Artificial Intelligence”, but if “Al” is “algorithm”, then that means they think its A L, with the L lowercase. So, that means they aren’t pronouncing it “aye eye” or “aye el” they’re pronouncing it “Al”. Like the first name Al.

    Which just makes me think of a reboot of Married with Children. Except it’s just Peggy surrounded by cyborgs made to look and sound like the original characters.

    So now Peggy wants sex, and she says “OOOOHHHHH AAAAAALLLLLLL!!!”

    Followed by a robot drinking a beer, and sticking his hands down his pants. Somehow even artificial Al looks defeated.

    TheBat ,
    @TheBat@lemmy.world avatar

    Username checks out

    Gsus4 ,
    @Gsus4@mander.xyz avatar

    It’s the most annoying thing of these enthusiasts: they glorify cryptocurrencies and blockchain while glossing over the massively important and actually useful cryptography discipline in the background.

    Rustmilian ,
    @Rustmilian@lemmy.world avatar

    “Crypto” has become a widely used abbreviation for “cryptocurrency,” even though “crypto” itself refers to the general field of cryptography and its encryption techniques. This informal usage reflects how cryptocurrencies have become the most recognizable application of cryptography for most people.

    zeppo ,
    @zeppo@lemmy.world avatar

    Seems like it should be SSL.

    SpaceNoodle ,

    To the general public?

    zeppo ,
    @zeppo@lemmy.world avatar

    Yes, because people were trained to look for the lock icon, though pretty much every site has it now, whether it’s something that necessitates security vs just privacy benefits. Maybe looking for the lock is outdated, idk, but it was emphasized a lot a few years ago.

    SpaceNoodle ,

    You are drastically overestimating the technical competence of the general population.

    zeppo ,
    @zeppo@lemmy.world avatar

    In what way? And they supposedly have any clue what crypto currency actually means?

    SpaceNoodle ,

    There’s a lot more publicity surrounding cryptocurrency than SSL.

    Rustmilian ,
    @Rustmilian@lemmy.world avatar

    Https is more recognized.

    zeppo ,
    @zeppo@lemmy.world avatar

    True, I wouldn’t expect people to know the terms ssl or tls. My point is, it’s a far, far more common application of cryptography than cryptocurrency.

    Rustmilian ,
    @Rustmilian@lemmy.world avatar

    Yes, a more common application, but not the most recognizable for most people.

    zeppo ,
    @zeppo@lemmy.world avatar

    I’m amazed people are acting like they think nobody has ever heard of this. I suppose it was more a 2010-2015 thing.

    jmanes ,
    @jmanes@lemmy.world avatar

    Based

    possiblylinux127 ,

    Yep, this is news worthly

    chunkystyles ,

    Unlike you, he has contributed greatly to society and people care what he thinks.

    shortwavesurfer ,

    Well, I guess big name figures have a right to be wrong. Surprising since he is the creator of such a foundational piece of open source software that he would not like another piece of open source software just seems a bit hypocritical in my opinion

    match ,
    @match@pawb.social avatar

    inventor of sushi hates my “crumbly strawberry queso” idea? just seems a bit hypocritical imo

    shortwavesurfer ,

    Maybe I’m thinking more Richard Stalman than Linus Torvalds. But if he made Linux to promote freedom from corporates, then it seems like he should like cryptocurrency because it’s open source as well and permits freedom from government inflation. Humanity has never had a money not controlled by governments, except for gold and silver, and those are not easily sent over the internet.

    match ,
    @match@pawb.social avatar

    In that case, though, why should it matter if Linus Torvalds promotes it? Something is a money if it is generally accepted as payment; gold and silver have self-evident value to people, and governments can use violence to ensure the value of money, but celebrity endorsement is hardly a reason to accept something as money.

    shortwavesurfer ,

    Exactly. In Linux, he is God. In the rest of the world, he’s just your average dude. It doesn’t matter what he thinks.

    ABCDE ,

    he should like

    Just because it’s open?

    shortwavesurfer ,

    Being open source is a big deal.

    ABCDE ,

    What’s the point there? No one has to like something just because it is open.

    shortwavesurfer ,

    Fair enough, that should be a point in its favor though, at the very least. Our entire banking system runs on closed source proprietary software that people cannot inspect for vulnerabilities on generally closed source operating systems that people cannot inspect for vulnerabilities.

    stinerman ,
    @stinerman@midwest.social avatar

    He (Linus Torvalds) made Linux as a hobby during his time in college/university to teach him about operating system design. Because it was the part of the operating system called the kernel that the GNU project didn’t have yet (more on this in a moment), it became very popular. Richard Stallman created the GNU project because he believed that every person should have the right to study and share the software that runs on their computer.

    There is nothing specifically anti-corporate in either of their motivations.

    Tachikoma741 ,

    archive.org/details/RevolutionOS_201610

    JaN0h4ck ,

    Being open source does not make it good by default.

    The ledger being visible to every node makes it pretty bad. You can figure out the identity of users just by circumstantial evidence.

    And just because it’s not controlled by the government doesn’t mean, there aren’t powerful corporate people inside that can and will enact control over the chain. Otherwise Ethereum classic wouldn’t exist and Jordan Belford or Peter Thiel wouldn’t be fans of crypto.

    p000l ,

    Nice mind gymnastics you got going there.

    Limonene ,

    I fucking guarantee that Linus Torvalds DOES believe in cryptography. Stop calling cryptocurrency “crypto”, because “crypto” is short for cryptography, not cryptocurrency.

    match ,
    @match@pawb.social avatar

    Linux Inventor Does Not Believe In Currency

    Default_Defect ,
    @Default_Defect@midwest.social avatar

    shut the fuck up, nerd.

    slurpinderpin ,

    Meh, I’m still making a shit load off of cryptocurrency I’ve held for a while, idgaf

    shortwavesurfer ,

    See, you are the reason that most everybody here hates cryptocurrency. Number go up is not the reason to be in the technology. The reason to be in the technology is for human freedom and privacy and liberty. I may be mischaracterizing you, and if I am, I’m sorry. But that’s how this comment comes off.

    slurpinderpin ,

    Who gives a fuck? I’m rich.

    explodicle ,

    I give a fuck

    Honytawk ,

    And these my friends, are the only people who use crypto currencies: people who want to get rich from it

    It isn’t being used to buy anything useful, it isn’t designed to make the world a better place.

    It is only designed and used to increase profits.

    And the only way these make profit is by converting everyone they can using any method they can. Lies, manipulation, scams. All just so they can increase the number and cash out on other peoples money.

    All in a days work for a crypto bro.

    slurpinderpin ,

    Don’t want to, already did. Stay poor bro

    Lost_My_Mind ,

    Like…he doesn’t think it exists?

    Imgonnatrythis ,

    He believes in nothing!

    whotookkarl ,
    @whotookkarl@lemmy.world avatar

    Equivocating cryptocurrency, block chain tech, and bitcoin is disingenuous to say none of that exists like fairies or Santa Claus. It exists just as much as PGP or AES or the deficit does. It’s dumb to think any of that is going to launch you to extreme wealth or solve everyone’s problems, but it is a good way to try to prevent governments from using that currency issuance power in ways their citizens would prefer they did not.

    Even if you don’t agree with the politics it is a pretty interesting technology for consensus building between potentially adverse participants. Someone with experience maintaining open source repos could at least appreciate that aspect.

    SpaceCowboy ,
    @SpaceCowboy@lemmy.ca avatar

    it is a good way to try to prevent governments from using that currency issuance power in ways their citizens would prefer they did not.

    And instead it should be hedgefunds that have that power?

    There is a need for currency and someone is going to have control over the value of that currency. At least with the government you can vote the bastards out.

    whotookkarl ,
    @whotookkarl@lemmy.world avatar

    I don’t think anything we’ve seen yet solves wealth inequality, but whether that becomes a property of a currency or not may change.

    I agree voting is important for governance but what if citizens held that specific power by default instead of the government, and if the government wanted to use that power they would require asking for it? It’s the same people doing the voting but for a specific measure instead of a representative. I didn’t think we’re there yet but that being a possibility seems hopeful.

    JaN0h4ck ,

    It already exists without crypto tokens and it’s called a referendum.

    Different countries use it to different extents. The Swiss Country does a lot of it, for example.

    But referendums are not always a good idea and are extremely prone to manipulation by the media and populism (see Brexit). Minorities are also underrepresented in referendums, which poses a real problem with these things.

    Having an elected government with separation of power is definitely always better, than whatever DAOs are doing.

    Tachikoma741 ,

    In the United States you cannot vote for the people who issue currencies. The Federal Reserve are a bunch of privately owned banks.

    AIhasUse ,

    Nobody has to have control of the production of money, it is especially bad when corrupt people have the power to generate it into their pockets. I know it is hard to understand how generating money for one’s self is theft from everyone with money, but it is the case, you just have to try a bit harder to wrap your head around it.

    Honytawk ,

    Money needs to be backed by someone for it to hold value.

    If there is no control of the production of money, then everyone can produce money, making it completely useless.

    AIhasUse ,

    Yes, if everyone can produce as much of it as they want, then it would lose value. However, someone doesn’t need to back something for it to have value. The most common currency in all of history was seashells. Nobody backed the seashells. Gold has had value for a long time and still does. Nobody backs gold. The reason these things had/have value is for a number of reasons, but possibly the most important reason is what you said, that nobody can just produce as much of if as they want. This is also a fundamental reason why Bitcoin has been steadily increasing in value, nobody can produce as much of it as they want. This is a major flaw that is inherent in fiat currencies(usd, euro, lira…), they can be produced as much as somebody(governments, counterfeiters) wants.

    This is very simplistic, there are other reasons that various things are good ways to hold value. Divisibility and transportability are two big ones, both which Bitcoin excels at.

    itsmect ,

    At least with the government you can vote the bastards out.

    In theory. In reality all parties serve the same lobbyists.

    TexasDrunk ,

    Equivocating cryptocurrency, block chain tech, and bitcoin is disingenuous to say none of that exists like fairies or Santa Claus.

    You know good and god damned well that’s not what he was saying.

    whotookkarl ,
    @whotookkarl@lemmy.world avatar

    I definitely made some assumptions, I’d probably do well to read a bit more and comment a bit less. No harm just down votes let me know there’s plenty more to learn

    deathbird ,

    theblockchainsocialist.com

    andrew_bidlaw ,

    Most of bad rep is generated by insufferable hype train enthusiasts we started to call cryptobros and big tech CEOs trying to capitalize on putting this edgy technology everywhere, just like with LLMs right now. Many people who escape shit states in recent years legitly use cryptocurrencies to bring their unconvertable money abroad and that’s more reliable than a suitcase of precious metal bars, lol. This tech is no Jesus or Devil, it just needs to mature and overcome the initial fascination, with most bad realizations and schemes dying off. In ten years this discourse would be very different.

    YtA4QCam2A9j7EfTgHrH ,

    I fucking hate that the crypto currency ghouls have captured the word “crypto”. When I first read this I was wondering why in the fuck would Linus not like cryptography. My brain is old and crypto will always mean cryptography.

    grrgyle ,

    We just got to wait it out. Gods willing, it’ll come back to meaning cryptography again.

    Syrc ,

    Still waiting for the Swastika/Manji to be de-nazified. Probably not gonna see it in my lifetime, unfortunately.

    YtA4QCam2A9j7EfTgHrH ,

    Behind the Bastards had a great few episodes about how a group of indigenous Americans chose to give up their sacred symbol that looked like a swastika because of the Nazis. Pretty sad but i guess fascists ruin everything.

    RecluseRamble ,

    Absolutely. That’s why I always write “crypto-tokens” instead. It’s a bit longer and more annoying to write but I feel we owe it to the respectable field of cryptography.

    PlexSheep ,

    I’m still a student, same for me.

    BigDanishGuy ,

    I still haven’t warmed up to using it for currency either, for me it’s a command on Cisco’s IOS. Which, BTW, I have to make clear is made by Cisco and make my phone write with a capital i.

    I understand that the world evolves, and that languages do as well … but I do have a problem with the speed which it evolves with, as well as it seems like the ignorant use of existing terminologies, is the main evolutionary factor these days.

    Mango ,

    It uses cryptography. It’s kinda like how electro is a genre of electronic music.

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