Ethereum Co-Founder Says Cryptocurrencies Are 'a Ticking Time Bomb' (bloomberg.com)

randomErr writes from a report via Business Insider (alternate source): Ethereum, the rival to bitcoin, has been on a tear. Its founders said the latest trend in the cryptocurrency space may not be as good for the cryptocurrency as some might think. Ethereum is up 1,700% over the last year, and that spike has occurred in tandem with the growth of the hottest new trend in fundraising: initial coin offerings. Approximately $1.2 billion has been raised by the new cryptocurrency-based capital raising method this year, according to Autonomous Next, a financial technology analytics service. It is a trend that has sparked excitement across Wall Street. But the cofounder of the company behind the cryptocurrency, Charles Hoskinson, told Bloomberg that initial coin offerings may not benefit Ethereum. "People say ICOs are great for ethereum because, look at the price, but it's a ticking time-bomb," said Hoskinson. "There's an over-tokenization of things as companies are issuing tokens when the same tasks can be achieved with existing blockchains. People are blinded by fast and easy money."

Comments

Woo-hoo!

[cirby]

I can practically hear the GPU prices dropping!

Re:Woo-hoo!

[Applehu Akbar]

Don't be jealous because you missed out on the gold train....

The miners forty-niners were not the ones who made big money on gold. It was the entrepreneurs who serviced them, like A P Giannini, founder of Bank of America. One of the more successful was a dry goods merchant who arrived in San Francisco with a shipload of sturdy canvas sailcloth, intending to cash in on the need to re-rig all the ships that had to round the Horn and sail up the uncharted Pacific coast of the Americas to get to the goldfields. Though he badly misjudged the market for sailcloth, he dyed his fabric blue and made pants out of it. Miners needed lots and lots of pants, and the rest was history. His name was Levi Strauss.

Re:Woo-hoo!

[ItsJustAPseudonym]

Miners needed lots and lots of pants...

So his "round the Horn" prediction came true after all.

Remember the Pyramid Parties in SoCal in 1980?

[darthsilun]

Cryptocurrency speculation reminds me of the pyramid "parties" in Los Angeles back in 1980.

At least in a pyramid party if you were standing in line to get in and nobody else was getting in line behind you you could bail.

If you were smart.

There were a lot of not smart people.

Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it. --George Santayana

Not Quite

[Anonymous Coward]

He said ICOs are a problem, not cryptocurrency per se. Basically, he's saying there are too many cryptocurrencies.

Re:Of sourse they are

[rtb61]

It's far smarter to kick back against the intended slavery of the banksters and corrupt governments and make cash king. Asking for permission with credit cards is going too far. Of course with legalised theft in the US, the feds and law enforcers being able to straight up steal your stuff without any conviction which is wildly unconstitutional, you have a real problem in the US. Don't let them fool you, a cashless capitalist society is a slave society.