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Coffeezilla, a YouTuber Exposing Crypto Scams

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Re: Coffeezilla, a YouTuber Exposing Crypto Scams

#21
post #4

Quoted post unavailable.

Crypto has exactly one non-scam use-case: a way to transfer value that's more resilient to government interference. Can be used for crime, grey areas or in the very rare case where there's no other financial infrastructure to transfer value. Cryptocurrencies make various trade-offs around efficiency, energy use, user experience, etc to operate in such a hostile environment, therefore they should really be used as a l…

> Crypto has exactly one non-scam use-case: a way to transfer value

And even then, its usefulness in this regard is limited when its valuation is highly volatile. Probably not an issue when the full transaction life cycle can be fully completed (buyer acquires crypto, buyer and seller trade crypto, seller offloads the crypto) in a matter of hours. But this narrows the use case even further.

Re: Coffeezilla, a YouTuber Exposing Crypto Scams

#22
post #4

Quoted post unavailable.

Crypto has exactly one non-scam use-case: a way to transfer value that's more resilient to government interference. Can be used for crime, grey areas or in the very rare case where there's no other financial infrastructure to transfer value. Cryptocurrencies make various trade-offs around efficiency, energy use, user experience, etc to operate in such a hostile environment, therefore they should really be used as a l…

Why do you think cryptocurrency solves this problem? Is it because you hope cryptocurrency solves some problem? It's a public ledger. All a hostile government has to do is find who performed the transactions and imprison them. Is that not considerable interference?

Re: Coffeezilla, a YouTuber Exposing Crypto Scams

#23
post #16
post #4

Quoted post unavailable.

Technology purist version: Is it a token on top of another blockchain? Yes -> scam. No -> Is it anything other than pure PoW? Yes -> scam. No -> Does it have a ICO/premine/instamine? Yes -> scam. No -> Do miners get less than 100% of block subsidy? Yes -> scam. No -> Is the source code mostly cloned from another project? Yes -> scam. No -> Is majority of supply emitted in first few years? Yes -> scammy. No -> Do crea…

So essentially this [0] isn't totally a scam then?

Ever since many Bitcoin clones and source derived projects with no other changes other a renaming, re-branding, block-size and tweaks and also now especially with Ethereum-based tokens that have proliferated, so did the scams.

Nano seems to qualify as 'not a scam'.

[0] http://nano.org

Re: Coffeezilla, a YouTuber Exposing Crypto Scams

#24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Crypto has exactly one non-scam use-case: a way to transfer value that's more resilient to government interference. Can be used for crime, grey areas or in the very rare case where there's no other financial infrastructure to transfer value. Cryptocurrencies make various trade-offs around efficiency, energy use, user experience, etc to operate in such a hostile environment, therefore they should really be used as a l…

MPesa, Paytm, Worldremit, etc. All worldwide. No need for a blockchain. Ever.

You obviously are not from a third world country. It is incredibly hard and often impossible to transfer money across borders from third world countries. Or even to store them reliably. So yes, there is a huge case for blockchain

Re: Coffeezilla, a YouTuber Exposing Crypto Scams

#25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Crypto has exactly one non-scam use-case: a way to transfer value that's more resilient to government interference. Can be used for crime, grey areas or in the very rare case where there's no other financial infrastructure to transfer value. Cryptocurrencies make various trade-offs around efficiency, energy use, user experience, etc to operate in such a hostile environment, therefore they should really be used as a l…

You’d think the case is very rare, but then a war happened and it literally saved me as an instrument of storing value using stable coins. Not so rare after all. And this is only one example. Is 99% of crypto scam? Yes Are there hundreds of legit use cases? Yes.

Stablecoins didn't allow you to store your volatile currency. Stablecoins allowed you to store your volatile currency in an uninsured instrument at an interest rate of zero. They are all scams.

Re: Coffeezilla, a YouTuber Exposing Crypto Scams

#26

I'd like to see someone like this really try to explain the global non-crypto currency system as it exists today in similar detail. This after all was one of the touted reasons for crypto - it would allow people around the world to hold wealth in a stable currency that wouldn't be subject to market crashes and currency devaluations. There are so many interesting questions that remain undiscussed - such as, to what ex…

You can’t store wealth stably in inanimate things. Wealth is always social in nature. Currencies are claims on the future production of people who want them. Their future desires and capacities defines the value.

Re: Coffeezilla, a YouTuber Exposing Crypto Scams

#27

I'd like to see someone like this really try to explain the global non-crypto currency system as it exists today in similar detail. This after all was one of the touted reasons for crypto - it would allow people around the world to hold wealth in a stable currency that wouldn't be subject to market crashes and currency devaluations. There are so many interesting questions that remain undiscussed - such as, to what ex…

* > If investing in crypto is a scam, why isn't investing in these other currencies also a scam? *

I know very few people who recommend investing in currencies to begin with. You invest in either hard assets (intrinsic value that currencies get pegged against), productive assets (companies value that can increase as they become more productive) or government bonds (interest rate means you get more fiat currency back than you put in.) The advice for how much fiat currency to hold at any given time is to have an emergency fund and then put all other assets into something that can at the very least keep pace with inflation. The purpose of currency is to be a medium of exchange, not an appreciating asset.

Re: Coffeezilla, a YouTuber Exposing Crypto Scams

#28
post #16
post #4

Quoted post unavailable.

Technology purist version: Is it a token on top of another blockchain? Yes -> scam. No -> Is it anything other than pure PoW? Yes -> scam. No -> Does it have a ICO/premine/instamine? Yes -> scam. No -> Do miners get less than 100% of block subsidy? Yes -> scam. No -> Is the source code mostly cloned from another project? Yes -> scam. No -> Is majority of supply emitted in first few years? Yes -> scammy. No -> Do crea…

Do the creators and bag holders hijack every possible thread and discussion to shill their coin all over social media? Yes -> scam. No -> Maybe not a scam.

Re: Coffeezilla, a YouTuber Exposing Crypto Scams

#29

I'd like to see someone like this really try to explain the global non-crypto currency system as it exists today in similar detail. This after all was one of the touted reasons for crypto - it would allow people around the world to hold wealth in a stable currency that wouldn't be subject to market crashes and currency devaluations. There are so many interesting questions that remain undiscussed - such as, to what ex…

The entirety of modern money seems to me like a scam. Questionable abstractions left and right, legal fictions left and right like there's no tomorrow. I started reading The Ascent of Money: A Financial History of the World by Niall Ferguson so that I can understand more, the first chapter explains Fractional Reserve Banking and... Holy Shit, that's a scam, no 2 ways about it.

It's terrifying what Modern Money is and how it works. It scares and enrages me. It enrages me how the 'Store of Value', the things we exchange for our precious finite labor, is now whatever legal fan fiction that an influential someone at wall street or an equivalent finds a funny idea and convinces enough of his or her ilk to accept.

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