121–130 of 280 posts
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.
If you think of all investments as a bet, what are you betting on when you buy crypto? In my opinion, you're betting that crypto will be useful as an exchange of value, which means the people exchanging it are either: A) criminals or B) living in a failed state. Personally, if crypto becomes so widely used that it justifies its market caps, that means a lot of states have failed, and I don't want to live in (or bet o…
If it’s total chaos, the criminals will have total control. We have seen this many times. To see why people buy it, understand their fear of what might happen to them if they don’t.
Lol. So the relatively few mega-wealthy — who hoarded practically all the USD in the world — are angry that the relatively-poor have come up with a new system of value within which they are now relatively-rich? Well maybe the wealthy class should have left some for the rest of the people. Maybe the wealthy shouldn’t have fleeced every market they cornered as aggressively. Maybe they should not have constantly avoided…
Their investment managers probably already are.
First they ignore you. Then they laugh at you. After that, they fight you. Finally, you win.
When a significant portion of established powers start claiming that new threat to power is (insert hyperbolic word here), I’d say we are on step 3 of the above process.
Bitcoin has a lot of issues, but cryptocurrency/blockchain in general are real, useful technologies. Don’t let the prevalence of scams and duplicitous individuals distract you from this fact.
One of the shocking things is how much cryptocurrency has poisoned the minds of youth who see it as their easy path to riches. Young people simply don’t want to work anymore, everyone is planning to retire very soon and a job is only a temporary inconvenience while they wait for their crypto coins to moon in value and make them millionaires set for life. The truth is while many people did get very rich getting in ear…
If the ability for normal people of every background and income to build wealth and savings wasn't being eroded at every step, maybe we wouldn't need it. Your savings are eroded by inflation, even if you own a property you're usually just renting the land it's on long term and taxed more for even having the audacity to buy property to begin with. The more you pick away at the fabric the more everything feels like a s…
Never forget that money is largely illusory, solely a social construct, and while that's a powerful thing there is nothing here that makes Bitcoin or any other cryptocurrency any more worthy than the US dollar or the Euro.
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?
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.
It's just one more investment vehicle/speculative asset among thousands. What is the specific factor about Bitcoin that makes it "contrary to the interest of civilization"? Are these financiers telling us that the financialisation of literally everything on the planet and in low orbit might actually have negative externalities?
Seems plausible that these particular ones would be prepared to both spot, and tell us about, another impending disaster.
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…
Yet, somehow the rest of the democratic world spins around just fine without millions of semi-automatic weapons sloshing about.