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Bitcoin is a Cult

adamcaudill.com

151–160 of 232 posts

Re: Bitcoin is a Cult

#151

When I first got into bitcoin I thought it could be a wonderful alternative to the current monetary system, I especially hoped it would be more equitably shares. Unfortunately it’s turned out to be as unequally shared as our current wealth is, if not more. Perhaps some kind of coin where everybody in the world is issued the same amount or something.

> Perhaps some kind of coin where everybody in the world is issued the same amount or something.

What would be the point of such a currency? Trade and wealth exist because of inequalities. Having the same amount of a currency is same as having none of it!

Re: Bitcoin is a Cult

#152
post #6

I don't disagree but isn't this true for the popularization of any technology. First it's just the nerds then come the less informed masses who don't fully understand the details along with the people trying to make money out of that fact.

Except this time it's not "tech" it's money, and money is wired quite deep in your mind as the force of anything. So many people are spending time on btc (I was, and it made me feel all kind of weirds listening to these people and following their games)

Re: Bitcoin is a Cult

#153
Fiat money is a century-old cult. Democracy is a cult. Lefty progressiveness is a cult. Bitcoining is a far less dangerous of a cult, because it's completely optional, it doesn't interacts with whom doesn't want it.

Finally, just because some are having fun about mystery in a social network doesn't mean they are a cult. I myself think satoshi is probably dead (frozen) and will reborn in the future because bounty-hunters will demand his coins, some kind of long-way holder. This is just fun.

Re: Bitcoin is a Cult

#154

  Cult: a system of religious veneration and devotion 
  directed toward a particular figure or object.

  Religion: a pursuit or interest to which someone ascribes 
  supreme importance.
yes; in this way it seems very much like the cult of any other currency that has no intrinsic value, but a population of people who are willing to accept it as a surrogate or bookkeeping symbol.

Re: Bitcoin is a Cult

#155
post #3

Bitcoin is a tool for tax evasion and money exchange on criminal assets. It turns out that also some geeks like to use it to bypass banks incompetence on international funds transfers but tax evasion is the use that drives BTC's value. The cult is just a small visible part of it but is a pretty minor aspect of it. BTC would exist without the cultists as long as Russian or Saudi assets need to be transfered without to…

>Bitcoin is a tool for tax evasion and money exchange on criminal assets

You just made it more appealing and useful, since taxation is theft. Some "criminal" assets are incorrectly classified as criminal, so that's another +1 for Bitcoin.

Re: Bitcoin is a Cult

#156

Bitcoin is for the paranoid and conspiracy theorists. The argument crypto currency supporters have is always Venezuela or the European banking crisis (hilarious because citizens didn't actually lose any money). If our banking system DOES collapse your crypto wallet won't save you.

Venezuela citizens didn't lose any money? are you serious?

So you must be happy, since most Venezuelans may be millionaires now! (but let's just forget about the fact that 1M+ from their currency is valued as less than a dollar; and that this value loss have destroyed their lives)

Re: Bitcoin is a Cult

#158
post #49

I think people have largely missed the point of the article. This is specifically in relation to a "magic hash" on a block that was mined on June 19, 2018 with the hash: 00000000000000000021e800c1e8df51b22c1588e5a624bea17e9faa34b2dc4a The leading zeros are the "proof-of-work". The bitcoin mining algorithm tries various nonces and generates many hashes until it finds one with (currently) 18 leading zeros. Surprisingly…

Surprisingly, much of the Bitcoin community doesn't know this and think that the leading zeros are special.

That's because most of the Bitcoin community is speculators and get rich quick types due to the frothyness of the space, whom neither know nor care to know about the mathmateical and cryptographic underpinnings of bitcoin.

Re: Bitcoin is a Cult

#159
Interesting bit of spam on the forum from an account created ~2hours ago: >globalrobin00 35 minutes ago [-] > Are you from US, and have a verified coinbase account? > Then what are you waiting for when you can be earning up > to 0.5 > BTC weekly, with your empty verified coinbase > wallet. Contact +1-423-445-xxxx"

Apparently seeking to 1) get around Know Your customer rules using your account or 2) escalate into your linked US bank accounts.

Purpose 1) will land you in serious legal jeopardy for a mere ~70mBTC per day, while purpose 2) will drain your bank account at some point.

Quite cheap compensation for being a sink for toxic side-effects of money laundering &/or theft.

Re: Bitcoin is a Cult

#160
I saw a t-shirt the other day that said "friends don't let friends sell bitcoins". At first I thought it was anti-bitcoin, but then I realized that they were advocating "hodl". Yeah feels like a cult to me.
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