All you need to do is spend 10 minutes on CryptoTwitter to figure this out. It's immediately apparent that it's a relatively unregulated stock market on steroids. Glorified gambling.
For every 1 part honest decentralization, it's 9 parts greed.
For every 1 part honest decentralization, it's 9 parts greed.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sturgeon%27s_law
"Using the same standards that categorize 90% of science fiction as trash, crud, or crap, it can be argued that 90% of film, literature, consumer goods, etc. is crap. In other words, the claim (or fact) that 90% of science fiction is crap is ultimately uninformative, because science fiction conforms to the same trends of quality as all other artforms"
With bitcoin though -- and other crytocurrencies and blockchain products generally -- you can't ignore that almost everyone around you is trying their best to get your money.
With sci-fi you can separate the good from the bad without too much trouble. Not so with blockchains.
Like it or not, Bitcoin is already used worldwide and is relatively stable if not positive. (No need to tell me of bandwagoners who bought at All Time Highs)
IMO Bitcoin needs to store value to be useful, not necessarily increase in value.
Altcoin mania is greed.
It also means that any criticism of the technology will be immediately attacked as being "paid shills" with an ulterior motive. It's hard enough to have constructive discussions online, it's almost impossible when people have a financial incentive to defend their position to the bitter end.
A counterexample would be http://ethresear.ch/, though it's the exception that proves the rule.
Just FYI: The full version of that phrase is the exception that proves the rule false. The idea that the existence of exceptions prove a rule true is, of course, utter nonsense. A rule which is true in some cases but not others is no rule at all.
There's probably good discussion on bitcoin mailing lists, and I know there is good discussion on bitcoincore IRC/Slack. Probably some other places I'm missing seeing how I'm not all that involved besides reading some stuff here and there.