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Goldman Sachs executive quits after making millions from Dogecoin

theguardian.com

31–40 of 170 posts

Re: Goldman Sachs executive quits after making millions from Dogecoin

#31
post #21

It's interesting how the transfer of wealth to a Goldman Sachs executive via cryptocurrency invokes a feeling of mild jealousy and amusement, whereas the transfer of wealth to 'bankers', just like him, just doing their damn jobs and providing a service , invokes revilement in the eyes of the general public. I do think the psychological (is that the word I'm looking for?) aspects of the frothy financial climate drivin…

No need to be jealous, since it's still the very early days for crypto in the grand scheme of things. It's far from having hit any of the real success metrics (much broader usage, significant % of wealth stored, transferred, etc). They may prove to be a lot more useful than you imagine and one thing for sure is they are here to stay at this point. The big difference compared to 2019 is that we had a Bitcoin halving i…

Over 10 years in and it's still "early days" for crypto? When do you think this entire thing is considered mature?

I'm very much a crypto skeptic, mostly because I see a lot more harm than good that comes out of the space (ransomware enablement, horrendous waste of energy on PoW coins, egoists that make up the majority of the community, etc)

Re: Goldman Sachs executive quits after making millions from Dogecoin

#32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know who you think 'the man' is, if it's not a Goldman Sachs executive?

If they a quit their job because they have a few extra million then they were working class (ie they needed to work to survive).

"The man" doesn't have to be rich (but he is), his position is one of power.

Money is power, so the man is those on the top floors of institutes dealing with large amounts of money and having gala evenings with politicians and CEOs.

That's who the working class person making minimum wage that was just made redundant actually works for.

--

Saying that the investor bank executive is working class because he needs to pay his rent is bollocks.

Re: Goldman Sachs executive quits after making millions from Dogecoin

#33
post #24

No wealth was created or destroyed in the making of these millions, the millions simply changed hands. Think about that before purchasing a cryptocurrency. You're basically handing your money to an earlier "investor" in the hopes that a future "investor" will hand a greater amount to you. This is all there is to it.

Isn't that the case for pretty much all exchanges? How is that different than in the stock market?

The stock market has other mechanism of value creation, one of them that the company distributes dividends which is money outside the stock market. Companies also use it to fund themselves to grow. It is not a zero sum game.

Crypto currency is a zero sum game and i think this is what OP was implyining.

Re: Goldman Sachs executive quits after making millions from Dogecoin

#34
post #24

No wealth was created or destroyed in the making of these millions, the millions simply changed hands. Think about that before purchasing a cryptocurrency. You're basically handing your money to an earlier "investor" in the hopes that a future "investor" will hand a greater amount to you. This is all there is to it.

I do liken cryptocurrency as a sort of voluntary "redistribution of the wealth" but from the peanut gallery to early adopters and the already objectively "rich".

This really feels like a kind of "screw you, I've gotten mine" form of capitalism.

Re: Goldman Sachs executive quits after making millions from Dogecoin

#35
post #24

No wealth was created or destroyed in the making of these millions, the millions simply changed hands. Think about that before purchasing a cryptocurrency. You're basically handing your money to an earlier "investor" in the hopes that a future "investor" will hand a greater amount to you. This is all there is to it.

Moreover, this resulted in money concentration. I would argue this has negative "value" for society.

Re: Goldman Sachs executive quits after making millions from Dogecoin

#36
post #21

It's interesting how the transfer of wealth to a Goldman Sachs executive via cryptocurrency invokes a feeling of mild jealousy and amusement, whereas the transfer of wealth to 'bankers', just like him, just doing their damn jobs and providing a service , invokes revilement in the eyes of the general public. I do think the psychological (is that the word I'm looking for?) aspects of the frothy financial climate drivin…

Crypto could easily be the largest pyramid scheme in history, I have zero interest in participating even if returns were guaranteed - that's not how I want to make money, I see no value being created in these "investments".

Recent developments on the stock market kind of killed the market idealism for me. I don't know what's a better alternative, but from where I'm standing the financial system is rewarding wasteful and immoral behaviour and it's degenerating really fast.

Re: Goldman Sachs executive quits after making millions from Dogecoin

#37
post #24

No wealth was created or destroyed in the making of these millions, the millions simply changed hands. Think about that before purchasing a cryptocurrency. You're basically handing your money to an earlier "investor" in the hopes that a future "investor" will hand a greater amount to you. This is all there is to it.

Isn't that the case for pretty much all exchanges? How is that different than in the stock market?

There's a distinction there. In the stock market, your decision to buy leads to a price increase which improves the ability of that specific company to raise money.

Your investment decision directly impacted the prospects of that company over others.

In an ideal world, speculation in the stock market means that the best companies receive funding and the worst companies are unable to and therefore appropriately go out if business.

Re: Goldman Sachs executive quits after making millions from Dogecoin

#38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No need to be jealous, since it's still the very early days for crypto in the grand scheme of things. It's far from having hit any of the real success metrics (much broader usage, significant % of wealth stored, transferred, etc). They may prove to be a lot more useful than you imagine and one thing for sure is they are here to stay at this point. The big difference compared to 2019 is that we had a Bitcoin halving i…

Over 10 years in and it's still "early days" for crypto? When do you think this entire thing is considered mature? I'm very much a crypto skeptic, mostly because I see a lot more harm than good that comes out of the space (ransomware enablement, horrendous waste of energy on PoW coins, egoists that make up the majority of the community, etc)

I mean internet has changed very significantly in the last 30 years, or even in the last 5 years.

Personally, I will say it's mature enough when Bitcoin is the world reserve currency (crazy, I know!) and defi fulfills majority if not all of my financial transactions/operations, etc.

I look at ransomware as a positive, finally a forcing function for companies to take security seriously. Energy, it's pushing us towards greener energy sources and there are less energy intensive alternatives being developed.

Re: Goldman Sachs executive quits after making millions from Dogecoin

#40
post #21

It's interesting how the transfer of wealth to a Goldman Sachs executive via cryptocurrency invokes a feeling of mild jealousy and amusement, whereas the transfer of wealth to 'bankers', just like him, just doing their damn jobs and providing a service , invokes revilement in the eyes of the general public. I do think the psychological (is that the word I'm looking for?) aspects of the frothy financial climate drivin…

Crypto could easily be the largest pyramid scheme in history, I have zero interest in participating even if returns were guaranteed - that's not how I want to make money, I see no value being created in these "investments". Recent developments on the stock market kind of killed the market idealism for me. I don't know what's a better alternative, but from where I'm standing the financial system is rewarding wasteful…

I wager once people have to start going back to work and all the free government money dries up, there will be a run on crypto to realize their gains en-masse, and this will trigger a massive wipe out for many latecomers.

Frankly, cryptocurrency being invented and created was a huge mistake for society at large. I hope the comeuppance isn't super destructive outside of cryptocurrency circles.

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