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Cryptocurrency is something people tell lies about in hopes of getting richer

defector.com

61–70 of 411 posts

Re: Cryptocurrency is something people tell lies about in hopes of getting richer

#61

Q4 is set to be an amazing crypto run because all I see is lots of last minute FUD right now on all media channels, and of course from China. The OG FUD source has blown its final wad and banned all crypto “for real this time.” Let’s hope the USA isn’t as backwards thinking and sees that banning crypto is removing yourself from the new world economy.

Surely you DO want the USA to ban crypto? I'm assured that crypto bans make the price go sky high and then the whales can cash out into dollars.

Re: Cryptocurrency is something people tell lies about in hopes of getting richer

#62
post #5

The whole NFT craze lost me when tech founders I once highly respected started pushing and showing off their ugly gifs and trading cards on Twitter. Bad taste of the bored rich is not a new thing, but I hope NFTs won't become a noble tradition.

I have never used Twitter, I don’t understand NFTs.

Most of the influencers are shilling something, obviously

Re: Cryptocurrency is something people tell lies about in hopes of getting richer

#63

The rebranding of MySQL as blockchain was a brilliant move for sales. Bit torrent is decentralized and it doesn't use "blockchain". "Blockchain" only works for money and nothing else

I mean, if you look at transaction cost, settle time, user friendliness, and currency risk, it doesn't even work as a medium of exchange, which is the definition of money.

More than a decade on, approximately nobody uses Bitcoin for normal transactions. Compare with Venmo or MPesa, both of which launched around the same time, to se what actual digital money looks like. Both of those do way more transactions than Bitcoin and are much more widely adopted.

Re: Cryptocurrency is something people tell lies about in hopes of getting richer

#64
It’s pretty clear from the article that the author thinks markets are intrinsically bad, most entrepreneurs and founders are generally bad, and that economic activity is generally better coordinated and controlled by the state. And it’s pretty clear from the upvotes and comments that many here agree with this viewpoint.

And that’s fine. That’s a completely defensible world view, that many smarter than me have held throughout history. But for heavens sake why are you spending your time on a forum about celebrating startups hosted by a venture capitalist?

Re: Cryptocurrency is something people tell lies about in hopes of getting richer

#65
post #39
post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd wager billionaires donate a lot more to charities than they spend on nfts. Look at the Gates Foundation.

You don't need to be a billionaire to count as "bored rich", which I take to mean anyone who has too much money lying around and can't find better uses than shitty computer-generated "art" (note that this doesn't include people who buy these with the sole purpose of flipping them to a greater fool). There are a surprising number of bored rich people, especially when you consider all the new-found crypto wealth. Most…

>> (note that this doesn't include people who buy these with the sole purpose of flipping them to a greater fool).

Hate to burst your bubble, but that is 99.99% of the NFT market. There is maybe 5 people total who bought a NFT for art appreciation reasons, but aside from that rounding error the only reason anyone owns one is as a speculative investment.

Re: Cryptocurrency is something people tell lies about in hopes of getting richer

#66
post #55
post #49

If you take every long-refuted criticism of Bitcoin along with cherrypicked examples of cringe celebrities endorsing it, and you combine that with misinformed neo-Marxism and an unquestioning acceptance of government officials, you get this article. If your average sports writer actually wanted to understand the space, they could read something with real data: https://nydig.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/NYDIG-Bitcoi…

This is the exact kind of utopian fantasizing that the article talks about. Charming!

Can you be more specific?

Re: Cryptocurrency is something people tell lies about in hopes of getting richer

#67
post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because the trust is distributed. One single person can't cause the entire system to break down or steal all them money. With blockchain coins, the incentives are aligned. The weird thing that happened with BTC that I don't think Satoshi could forsee is that the more valuable it got, the less usable it got. This is one of the unsolved issues: how to create decentralized consensus very very quickly that can't also be…

I don't trust the collective anonymous users of Bitcoin more than I trust my bank and the court system though. If someone hacks into my account, my bank will likely reimburse me for any losses. There are controls in place to stop them from stealing it al. If someone just transferred it to their own account, I could use the courts to get it back. If I use a credit card to pay a scam, I can do a charge-back. With crypt…

> There are controls in place to stop them from stealing it al. If someone just transferred it to their own account, I could use the courts to get it back.

What if it's taken thorough wrongful civil forfeiture? Will you be able to afford to navigate the courts to get your assets back after they've been seized?

Re: Cryptocurrency is something people tell lies about in hopes of getting richer

#68
post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, I found it to be a decent solution to support actual artists (esp. Photographers or folks like eBoy fame) who were already selling their digital art in genuine and honest capacity. But when some random guy without a story renders a thousand animated dogs from a script and the actual art is how to push it via Reddit bots, my support for artistic value creation has reached its limit.

I don't get this. The concept hasn't changed since and those genuine artists are still there you supported. Or things are only cool until they are not mainstream?

My interpretation of what they were saying: NFTs are a worthy means of supporting artists but have been tainted by the other breed of artist (the scam artist).

I would extend that by suggesting that NFTs should be a valid means of supporting new artists. The problem arises when people dump garbage into the market to make a quick buck. This will ultimately diminish the long term value of NFTs, meaning there is less value for those who are trying to make a living from their art (and even for those who are trying to make a living investing in art).

Re: Cryptocurrency is something people tell lies about in hopes of getting richer

#69
Cryptocurrency gives people something they want. At best it might a new decentralized leaderless censorship-resistant free-as-in-freedom finance platform. At worst it might be a new decentralized leaderless pyramid scheme where we don't even need a Bernie Madoff because now we have The Algorithm. If I am simultaneously cynical and hopeful, maybe it will have an adolescence of B and mature into A.

Re: Cryptocurrency is something people tell lies about in hopes of getting richer

#70
post #5

The whole NFT craze lost me when tech founders I once highly respected started pushing and showing off their ugly gifs and trading cards on Twitter. Bad taste of the bored rich is not a new thing, but I hope NFTs won't become a noble tradition.

I have a rule, which is that by the time I dream up an idea, plenty of other people have already had the same idea. So, when I proposed selling NFTs of the rehearsals of my band, and told my son about it, he said: "Dad, a million people are already doing that sort of thing."
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