Gary Marcus

Rank 14 of 47
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Score 83
6/20/2025, 8:17:27 PM
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In reply to:
Colin Fraser
@colin_fraser
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209d
The funniest thing about that period was all the blockchain stuff was all conducted through intermediaries anyway. People weren’t trading Bored Apes directly p2p with their homebrewed trustless blockchain clients. They were going to one big website.
Colin Fraser
@colin_fraser
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209d
you get to send and receive payments on a network that can handle more than 7 transactions per second
Colin Fraser
@colin_fraser
·
209d
OTOH for the modest price of trust that the bank will keep your balance correctly recorded, you get, like, a debit card that works everywhere and protection from fraud and scams and access to the Amex Centurion Lounge at the airport or whatever. It’s not a bad deal.
Colin Fraser
@colin_fraser
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209d
I think it’s under appreciated how anarchic the underpinnings of blockchain enthusiasm are. Blockchain is theoretically valuable in a world where you can’t trust the bank not to just change your balance on a whim. In that world you have some pretty big problems!
Colin Fraser
@colin_fraser
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209d
What you get from blockchain isn’t an immutable ledger or digital ownership or real estate in the metaverse or anything like that. All those things were already available. What you get is intermediary-free transactions. But it turns out that intermediaries are good actually.
Colin Fraser
@colin_fraser
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209d
“Every time a banana gets on a boat it would get recorded on the blockchain” the things preventing that from already happening are not the delta between blockchains and regular old databases

The statement is a lighthearted and humorous comment on the ongoing conversation about blockchain and AI influencers. It does not engage substantively with public issues or contribute to civic dialogue, but rather adds a playful tone to the discussion.