Generally I would say that for the average HN'er software is our life, it's not just a field in which exciting things happen (the internet, ML and blockchains etc) but also, indeed perhaps more so, a "boring", day-in day-out livelihood. Personally, I feel the trouble with the blockchain is that it has attracted a lot of "fair weather" supporters, people that have only become geeky due to the allure of money, not because of an inherent love of software.

Yes blockchains are indeed an exciting development and present a lot of potential, but "true" hackers are probably as excited by blockchains as they are by say Rust. The thing is that generally speaking we can have informed conversations about Rust, because those that understand the novelty of Rust have come to that understanding through a genuine interest in the technology, not because of how Rust can make them rich.

So yes, blockchains are indeed very interesting, but unfortunately the conversations around them are overwhelmingly distorted by the superficialities of what I would cynically describe as dilettantes. Of course there are indeed serious hackers doing game-changing work in the blockchain space and I believe blockchain does have a future, but right now it's almost impossible to hear the signal from the noise :/