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The biggest crypto lending company is a ponzi scheme

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Re: The biggest crypto lending company is a ponzi scheme

#81

Post by serverholic »

edem wrote: post #21
obayesshelton wrote: post #15

Crypto and NFT is one big ponzi scheme. Who on earth is spending $000,000s on a virtual ship? I sense it is a case of somebody close to the NFT or virtual world buying the asset and making out it is a great thing and then selling it on quickly. Many a scam involves somebody from the group buying something so the unwilling feel like it safe. As always, don't be left holding the baby.

You obviously don't understand any of this. Is USD not a ponzi scheme? Is Quantitative Easing not a ponzi scheme? Is MMT not a ponzi scheme?

They are a ponzi scheme, the world is full of ponzi schemes. Stock market growth partly relies on young people getting educated about stocks in high school and college then investing.

You literally have the previous generation indoctrinating the newest generation into the scheme.

Re: The biggest crypto lending company is a ponzi scheme

#82

Post by isoprophlex »

etskinner wrote: post #3

> It is possible for customers to take out USD stable coin loans from Celsius, under the condition that they provide a Bitcoin or Ethereum collateral of at least twice the value of the loan. How does one provide Bitcoin or Ethereum collateral? Wouldn't you have to give away your private key (maybe in escrow), or transfer coins to them?

I don't get this, you'd have to be entirely crazy to do this right? Why post twice the loan value as collateral?

Why not sell half of the crypto assets instead? On the assumption that suddenly your crypto can go to the moon?! It might equally well lose its value...

Re: The biggest crypto lending company is a ponzi scheme

#83

Post by anonymoushn »

shp0ngle wrote: post #46

“10 to 12.68% annual returns on USD stable coins and this with little to no risks.” well… I mean…

you've been able to sell the quarterly basis for 2-4x that much for years. See here: https://cryptohayes.medium.com/all-aboard-4d50435190d6

Re: The biggest crypto lending company is a ponzi scheme

#84

Post by mbesto »

criddell wrote: post #29
WFHRenaissance wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not a huge fan of the the current cryptocurrency scene, but I think it will remain very useful as a medium of exchange and store of value in unstable parts of the globe for years to come.

It will remain a very useful medium of exchange? Are you saying that today it is a very useful medium of exchange? Are you using it that way?

Yes: (1) Drugs and (2) certain countries where fiat is unstable.

Re: The biggest crypto lending company is a ponzi scheme

#85

Post by moron4hire »

tomp wrote: post #43
obayesshelton wrote: post #15

Crypto and NFT is one big ponzi scheme. Who on earth is spending $000,000s on a virtual ship? I sense it is a case of somebody close to the NFT or virtual world buying the asset and making out it is a great thing and then selling it on quickly. Many a scam involves somebody from the group buying something so the unwilling feel like it safe. As always, don't be left holding the baby.

How is spending $1 000 000 on a "virtual image" (NFT) any different than spending it on a Picasso? There are equivalent/superior copies of both readily available, but some people value provenance ...

NFTs only prove the first derivative of ownership. There is no mechanism within the blockchain that can prove that the person who minted the NFT owned the media associated with the NFT, e.g. there's nothing stopping you from minting an NFT claiming ownership of an actual Picasso. Which means that we have to fall back to the traditional system of legal contracts and physical possession to prove the ownership, at which point the NFT isn't adding anything.

The NFT is also not the work in question. While there are some proof of concept works that have their binary data stored directly in the blockchain, the vast majority are just URLs to some other site, URLs that could die or change at any time. And there is no recourse within the blockchain itself to adjudicate the breach of trust that would represent. Which means, again, we have to fall back on the traditional system of legal contracts and courts to resolve disputes.

In other words, the decentralized, "zero-trust" nature of NFTs completely undermines any concept of ownership that isn't a post-hoc rationalization designed to part fools from dollars.

Re: The biggest crypto lending company is a ponzi scheme

#86

Post by moron4hire »

AlwaysRock wrote: post #54
obayesshelton wrote: post #15

Crypto and NFT is one big ponzi scheme. Who on earth is spending $000,000s on a virtual ship? I sense it is a case of somebody close to the NFT or virtual world buying the asset and making out it is a great thing and then selling it on quickly. Many a scam involves somebody from the group buying something so the unwilling feel like it safe. As always, don't be left holding the baby.

People still pay X,xxx or XX,xxx a month to rent Second Life property. Sure it seems silly to me but some people really like NFTs.

And they do it without NFTs. So what does the blockchain add here?

Re: The biggest crypto lending company is a ponzi scheme

#87

Post by gonehome »

ebiester wrote: post #38
obayesshelton wrote: post #15

Crypto and NFT is one big ponzi scheme. Who on earth is spending $000,000s on a virtual ship? I sense it is a case of somebody close to the NFT or virtual world buying the asset and making out it is a great thing and then selling it on quickly. Many a scam involves somebody from the group buying something so the unwilling feel like it safe. As always, don't be left holding the baby.

Art is a really weird market in general. The problem with NFT is that people are buying it as an investment rather than a work of art with its own merit of which appreciation might be one benefit. There's likely no museum backstop for most NFTs. (By which I mean that rich people buy art, sell it amongst themselves/have inflated art appraisals to raise the price, and donate to museums and claim as a tax writeoff.) See…

I think the art is the wrong thing to focus on. The more novel piece is a ticket to community membership and a way to align incentives within that community. It can take the form of art, but doesn't really have to.

That said, yeah regular art markets don't really make sense wrt value either.

Re: The biggest crypto lending company is a ponzi scheme

#88

Post by ceejayoz »

skeeter2020 wrote: post #74
UnpossibleJim wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I look at it like the lottery or casinos. I'm not a gambler exceptthe occasionalpoker game with friends, and I abhor casinos, but they make billions(?) Of dollars. Everyone has got Crypto figured out! They've read all the reports, and keep up with the graphs and this time! This time! The funny thing is, I clicked on a few articles about NFT's and the metaverse because I was interested in the programming behind it and…

except the business model for casinos and lotteries is pretty simple: straight-forward mariginal odds that favour the house and maximize throughput. This is not the case with crypto.

Lotteries and casinos also tend to be subject to extremely heavy regulation.

Re: The biggest crypto lending company is a ponzi scheme

#89

Post by marcan_42 »

usehackernews wrote: post #75
obayesshelton wrote: post #15

Crypto and NFT is one big ponzi scheme. Who on earth is spending $000,000s on a virtual ship? I sense it is a case of somebody close to the NFT or virtual world buying the asset and making out it is a great thing and then selling it on quickly. Many a scam involves somebody from the group buying something so the unwilling feel like it safe. As always, don't be left holding the baby.

Why do people on HN assume that if they don’t find something valuable, others shouldn’t either. I think of NFTs like car titles. Having the car title in your name is the only way to prove you own a car. Someone can burrow your car, and have it in their possession but that doesn’t make them the owner - the title does. When you buy a car, what you’re really buying is a little paper that says you’re the owner - without…

It's absurd because if you have a car, someone else doesn't have a car, and the car has intrinsic usefulness. Having the car in your name isn't valuable in and of itself; it's valuable because it allows you to claim the car as your own, and the car is useful and can only be moved, not copied.

Having a JPEG as your own isn't valuable, because JPEGs can be infinitely copied at zero cost. The title for the artwork doesn't mean anything when anyone can duplicate it.

If you want to spend money on art, why not commission some artwork from your favorite artist instead of throwing away money on procedurally generated garbage with a zillion transaction fees tacked on? At least that way the artwork might be something unique to you with a personal significance which makes it have more intrinsic value to you than it would to someone else.

Re: The biggest crypto lending company is a ponzi scheme

#90

Post by matheusmoreira »

criddell wrote: post #29
WFHRenaissance wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not a huge fan of the the current cryptocurrency scene, but I think it will remain very useful as a medium of exchange and store of value in unstable parts of the globe for years to come.

It will remain a very useful medium of exchange? Are you saying that today it is a very useful medium of exchange? Are you using it that way?

I've gotten paid anonymously in Monero for writing some quick code.
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