Earlier quoted context omitted.
"Buffett calls gold an “unproductive” asset, which, as defined in his 2011 letter to shareholders, means “assets that will never produce anything, but that are purchased in the buyer's hope that someone else — who also knows that these assets will be forever unproductive — will pay more for them in the future.”" Source: https://grow.acorns.com/warren-buffett-why-gold-is-an-unprod...
At least gold has a certain amount of practical, physical uses. Connector plating, jewelry, dentistry, optics plating for [james webb].
Ask HN: Is anyone else glad the crypto market is crashing?
261–270 of 670 posts
Re: Ask HN: Is anyone else glad the crypto market is crashing?
#262I'm genuinely confused. This current crash is not nearly as bad as several recent crashes. The fall in price in the big coins (Eth, BTC) seems downright modest. A bunch of new meme coins got obliterated, which is also normal and completely predictable. Why are people treating this as if it's going to be the fall of crypto? Because a peg broke? Have people not heard of Mt. Gox?
Luna going from a market cap of close to 100 billion to basically worthless in a few days is like 50 Mt Gox incidents in terms of wealth destruction.
Bitcoin has market cap swings larger than the loss during Mt Gox in minutes these days.
Re: Ask HN: Is anyone else glad the crypto market is crashing?
#263Earlier quoted context omitted.
They were on the wrong side of a massive bet and lost. Let's take the reverse and say they were on the right side of the bet and made millions and left everyone else behind to wallow relatively "poor". Would they feel sorry for those who didn't take the bet?
For many/most, a stable coin was the exact opposite of a bet. It's not mean to grow in value, it's not meant to lose value, it's just meant to follow USD. They didn't think they were taking a bet, they thought they were storing their assets in something equals to US dollar. That's what the whole industry has been telling them, that's why they are called STABLEcoin.
Re: Ask HN: Is anyone else glad the crypto market is crashing?
#264Earlier quoted context omitted.
Increased energy usage is increased energy usage. The underlying argument here is proof of working isn't actually burning this energy for any useful purpose and the excess clean energy production should be directly offsetting dirty energy production instead.
The purpose is to secure my savings against inflation and confiscation. It is a very useful thing, I assure you.
Re: Ask HN: Is anyone else glad the crypto market is crashing?
#265Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm not disagreeing with you but I don't think this is healthy. This shouldn't be eating you from the inside. "What good is envy? It’s the one sin you can’t have any fun at." - Charlie Munger
I'm not sure I'd take a billionaire's view on envy. It always comes off as "Let them eat cake" to me. I'd rather listen to someone closer to the bottom, who actually had to sacrifice for that viewpoint, like Jesus or a well adjusted homeless person.
Reality is more complex than you make it. Not all billionaires are horrible people in case you didn't know.
But yes, enjoy your Jesus fantasy.
Re: Ask HN: Is anyone else glad the crypto market is crashing?
#266But tbh. crashing earlier (e.g. pre-covid) would probably have been even better.
Re: Ask HN: Is anyone else glad the crypto market is crashing?
#267It's a Macro crash. SP500 is down -%5 YTD. Meta -37%, Netflix -65%. Lots of pain spreading. You shouldn't gloat or be happy. Give it a couple of more months like this, and lots of the HN audience would be worried about layoffs. The security of your average software developer job is strongly tied to market cycles. If you want a place to direct your hate and bitterness, I would do it at the architects of the BOOM/BUSTS…
Comparing the stock market crash to LUNA/UST crash is not the same thing. Luna went from $100 to 1 cent. UST was also meant to be a stable coin, it was sold as being equivalent to stacking your money in a savings account, just stable currency that follows the USD value. Lots of people took their money OUT of many coins, and moved it to UST for "stability" thinking that their nest was safe during the storm. (Of course…
Re: Ask HN: Is anyone else glad the crypto market is crashing?
#268Earlier quoted context omitted.
I thought crypto was supposed to be a hedge against the markets.
> thought crypto was supposed to be a hedge against the markets This made no theoretical sense from the start and has been quantitatively untrue for years.
Gold is down 2% and Bitcoin is down like 30% or something.
Also please keep in mind this isn't Reddit, this is HN. The people here were there right at the beginning, and most of us played with the funny money while it was worthless. Some even became rich (Not me lol)! So don't fucking gaslight HN.
Re: Ask HN: Is anyone else glad the crypto market is crashing?
#269Re: Ask HN: Is anyone else glad the crypto market is crashing?
#270This is all happening at a time of high inflation and so the measurement of that crash isn't even net of inflation. Gold is actually down 16%. Stock exchanges are actually down >20%.
Crypto crashing isn't a factor at all, this is global economics collapsing.
Oil is way up. Food is way up. Fertilizers are way up. Looks like major military mobilizations are happening to me.