I think HN is just getting more old and conservative (lowercase c) and is not interested in new things in this area.

We have people in this thread praising KYC.

The pendulum has swung a little too far that way, for sure. But when the so-called "cryptocurrency" industry either have business models that are barely concealed ponzis/rugpulls, or run their own "cryptocurrencies" that are only marginally better than a centralised database, it's hard to blame the critics.

Satoshi Nakamoto must be rolling in his grave.

A lot of us were victims of the FTX/Gemini Earn bullshit, where we were taken in by "stablecoins" and promises of safety only to have our stuff stolen.

You could say "bad apples" and fair enough, but even with that as a given, I haven't seen any utility out of cryptocurrency as a whole. I'm sure you can find to a nifty little tech demo for something, but I haven't seen any large adoption for cryptocurrency outside of a "greater fool" investment scheme or buying drugs.

Stablecoins are kind of a cute idea, but as I learned from the unregistered security scam from Gemini, they're basically just a farce.