> Transferring "value" for goods and services is really more of a social problem than a scientific/engineering one

Do you mean on the margin where there is debate about the contract or whether the goods/services were rendered adequately?

Cryptocurrencies don't attempt to solve this problem at all, they simply allow for efficient moving of currency between parties without the need for meatspace regulation/trust to do it.

Smart contracts make sense with a blockchain because now humans can agree on specific contract behavior that is fixed due to the highly prescribed way a VM will process it. This doesn't mean that humans will or should blindly trust a smart contract to do what some third party claims it will do.

But unlike meatspace, there is one VM that matters, contracts and oracles can earn a reputation as being trustworthy, and established patterns can be executed with incredible efficiency and fairness.

The issue that presents a challenge for all systems (cryptocurrencies and meatspace institutions) is bootstrapping. Some people will get burned in the beginning because fraud will be temporarily easier to commit. This is why I wish the DAO had just been allowed to die without the hard fork. What is needed is not innovative crowd funding schemes, but additional trust and vetting infrastructure.

Shame on whoever considers himself familiar with cryptocurrencies that downvoted this. This is a well worded argument for an opinion that one may or may not share, but whatever one's position about the "true believers" of smart contracts the parents points are valid, on topic and sensible.

Btc isn't here to pay your coffee or your salary, it's here as a fallback if you really need to get out of traditional finance. Same with ETH. You're not supposed to switch all your banking, notarial or legal affairs to the platform but it's there for cases where traditional contract law isn't desirable.

Now why so many people ascribed additional meaning or value to these platforms is the really interesting part. In a way, it's good these hacks happen as a reminder that this is what you signed up for. It's the wild west and you don't have a court or government watching your back. That's a (the) feature.

Yep, I've heard a few pitches involving bitcoin or blockchains that came across as a hammer pivoting in search of a nail.