Live data from Hacker News

Berkshire: Bitcoin is ‘contrary to the interest of civilization.’

blog.evergreengavekal.com

111–120 of 280 posts

Re: Berkshire: Bitcoin is ‘contrary to the interest of civilization.’

#111

I'm not a fan of Bitcoin, but often "contrary to the interest of civilization" means "contrary to the interest of me".

When the environment or climate is involved I think Warren Buffet is pretty far down the list of people who will be directly personally affected.

Re: Berkshire: Bitcoin is ‘contrary to the interest of civilization.’

#112
post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Except the primary use of the dollar is good. The same can't be said about the primary use for Bitcoin (which is, at best, speculation).

The primary use case of Bitcoin is to evade governments control over capital. Sometimes that’s good (governments disgorging kidnappers of their ransom). Sometimes that’s bad (Nazis seizing wealth of targeted groups). Sometimes it depends on your perspective (governments preventing the trade in illicit drugs). Overall how you feel about this in aggregate will depend on how comfortable you are with government power. Le…

> It’s the same reason I support the Second Amendment. Having a bunch of people run around with guns probably doesn’t help much today, and may even have ongoing social costs. But it would make things a hell of a lot harder for any would be tyrants. That’s a civilizational insurance policy worth paying.

And how'd that work out for you guys on January 6th?

Re: Berkshire: Bitcoin is ‘contrary to the interest of civilization.’

#113
post #7

The context of the quote: > I don’t welcome a currency that’s so useful to kidnappers and extortionists and so forth... So, I think I should say modestly that the whole damn development is disgusting and contrary to the interest of civilization. I find it strange to criticize an asset for how it gets used in extremis. I feel like the same criticism could be levied against the dollar.

Just bear in mind, what he says you probably shouldn't take at face value. After all, he is king of shorting currencies that has actively ruined lives.

Re: Berkshire: Bitcoin is ‘contrary to the interest of civilization.’

#114
post #7

The context of the quote: > I don’t welcome a currency that’s so useful to kidnappers and extortionists and so forth... So, I think I should say modestly that the whole damn development is disgusting and contrary to the interest of civilization. I find it strange to criticize an asset for how it gets used in extremis. I feel like the same criticism could be levied against the dollar.

I also find it strange. The same thing could be said of airplanes, slow cookers, and propane tanks.

There are harmful, fringe, uses of those items but the vast majority of the use-cases fit a slow cooker aren’t harmful. The same cannot be said of bitcoin, where the primary use-case is facilitating nefarious business.

Re: Berkshire: Bitcoin is ‘contrary to the interest of civilization.’

#115
post #109
post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, and yes. But, if Berkshire wanted to they could pump BTC to new heights and undoubtedly make a profit.

If they could undoubtedly make a profit, why haven't they done so. What investment firm would miss making a profit on a sure thing?

Legacy. Do you really think they're only worried about profits at this point?

Re: Berkshire: Bitcoin is ‘contrary to the interest of civilization.’

#116

The real issue with Bitcoin is tether. Tether printing is practically responsible for almost all the gains in Bitcoin. Just look at Tether volume versus Bitcoin volume and tell me you trust bitcoins valuation when it's backed by make belief tethers. When you can print make belief dollars, in volumes that were never proven to exist, and pretend trading them for Bitcoin is the same as trading dollars, then of course Bi…

I'm the furthest thing from a technical analysis expert of price movement, but the BTC chart looks manipulated to me. I assumed at first that it was just people trading BTC between themselves to move the market, but this theory makes more sense. BTC miners are extracting USD from their mining, while the price is controlled by other coins printing and buying BTC. New buyers of BTC are providing the cashflow into the s…

What does "manipulated" mean to you?

What does a "manipulated" chart look like?

(I'm not being cheeky, I am just trying to get a grasp on your perspective)

Re: Berkshire: Bitcoin is ‘contrary to the interest of civilization.’

#117
post #9

Working together is in the best interest of humans. Humans require trust to operate. A system designed around mistrust is inherently against our nature.

Modern civilization is designed around mistrust. It's the reason we have police, contracts, lawyers, double-entry accounting, the SEC, and all sorts of other things. Blockchains are just a logical progression now that we have internet.

Re: Berkshire: Bitcoin is ‘contrary to the interest of civilization.’

#118

"And I don’t welcome a currency that’s so useful to kidnappers and extortionists and so forth" You mean like cash? I'm sorry, I'm sure Warren is a nice guy but that picture reminds me of the Dukes in the movie Trading Places [1] with Eddie Murphy and Dan Aykroyd. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trading_Places

How many big computer sabotage extortion cases can you list that were handled by cash handover? That's an entire industry that simply did not exist prior to decentralised cross-boarder electronic value transfer. How long until this spreads to 20th century extortion schemes like point of sale product poisoning threats that never really picked up because transfer we such a headache?

Re: Berkshire: Bitcoin is ‘contrary to the interest of civilization.’

#119
post #74
post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's very interesting, actually. I interpreted as "Bitcoin is bad but the cult of Bitcoin is nuts so we have to be careful about what we say." What's more interesting is how the Bitcoin investor club is managing to delude themselves even with inputs from real proven financiers.

As Upton Sinclair once said, it is difficult to get a man to understand something if the value of his crypto stash depends upon him not understanding it.

I would clarify that just a bit.

It's difficult to get a man to understand something if the value of his crypto stash depends on OTHER PEOPLE not understanding it.

This is what bitcoin is. It's not a mass delusion: it's a will TO delude masses. I suppose some manage to fool themselves but I consider it a lot more likely that the majority are fully aware of what they're doing.

But it depends on deluding another level of the pyramid, and there's no real way to tell how high it goes before it collapses, so people are all-in, to the point where even Warren Buffett is talking in code and messaging 'I'm not going to say what I think about this, but I am going to say outright that I'm not saying what I think'. Not terribly hard to work out the message there.

Of course they're right.

Re: Berkshire: Bitcoin is ‘contrary to the interest of civilization.’

#120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The primary use case of Bitcoin is to evade governments control over capital. Sometimes that’s good (governments disgorging kidnappers of their ransom). Sometimes that’s bad (Nazis seizing wealth of targeted groups). Sometimes it depends on your perspective (governments preventing the trade in illicit drugs). Overall how you feel about this in aggregate will depend on how comfortable you are with government power. Le…

> It’s the same reason I support the Second Amendment. Having a bunch of people run around with guns probably doesn’t help much today, and may even have ongoing social costs. But it would make things a hell of a lot harder for any would be tyrants. That’s a civilizational insurance policy worth paying. And how'd that work out for you guys on January 6th?

[deleted]
Post reply on HN