Did anybody on here make any $$$ from crypto? It was all a scam in my eyes so I just focused on VTI.
I've bought a lot of cool (illicit) stuff using crypto, and my investments in it are still massively up
Is this the end of crypto?
271–280 of 448 posts
Re: Is this the end of crypto?
#272When Crypto was young it was this cool new technology that mostly interesting because of the underlying tech. But even back then it was mostly valuable for buying drugs online and other illegal stuff. Now it's that and a way to scam people of their life savings. I do hope it dies out, it should have been heavily regulated from the get go. Way too many people saw these high production commercials with their favorite c…
I see this point of view a lot on Hacker News because it's dominated by people living in places like the US. Let me add a little perspective on how Bitcoin is used in lower- and middle-income countries from my personal experience. If you live in a country with a highly functional banking system and no kleptocracy, Bitcoin is probably a bit puzzling unless you have family in Cuba. But it’s not puzzling at all for thos…
> I see this point of view a lot on Hacker News because it's dominated by people living in places like the US.
Totally. And it's not just about "stable countries".
People in Cyprus (except the russians, who were warned a few days before and had the time to move their funds) saw the money on their bank account used to do bank bail-ins. Probably a test to see how the population would react when the same would happen EU wise (as bank bail-ins are now, by law, mandatory in the EU for failing banks).
People in Spain were incentivized by the banks to put their savings into products yelding x% then the banks defaulted on the principal. That one's even more vicious than the Cyprus case.
The FED and ECB printed trillions for years and year... But we're to believe that saving confiscated through inflations are due to only to supply chain issue and to the war that started in Ukraine. Yeah. Sell me a bridge too please.
So far people in Spain and Cyprus who had put their money in BTC are still winning. Those who got their money confiscated by bail in and by bank-sold shady investments not so much.
We'll see.
Re: Is this the end of crypto?
#273I can only hope crypto dies soon. Its actively a violation of the GDPR and this illegal in the EU. It violates human rights laws, including privacy laws, and is this illegal in most other places. It violates all the laws around SWIFT, at the international level, so its illegal under these laws. It never should have existed. Its a grift and a scam; Even NFT's vanish when the host doesn't want the expense of hosting ot…
How does crypto violate gdpr?
It's pseudonymous so no PII.
What privacy laws does it violate?
On-chain NFTs will not vanish.
Re: Is this the end of crypto?
#274When Crypto was young it was this cool new technology that mostly interesting because of the underlying tech. But even back then it was mostly valuable for buying drugs online and other illegal stuff. Now it's that and a way to scam people of their life savings. I do hope it dies out, it should have been heavily regulated from the get go. Way too many people saw these high production commercials with their favorite c…
I see this point of view a lot on Hacker News because it's dominated by people living in places like the US. Let me add a little perspective on how Bitcoin is used in lower- and middle-income countries from my personal experience. If you live in a country with a highly functional banking system and no kleptocracy, Bitcoin is probably a bit puzzling unless you have family in Cuba. But it’s not puzzling at all for thos…
Every time I see the "Bitcoin for remittance" logic, the first question I ask is: what is the use case or demand for Bitcoin at the third world where you are sending your money? Why should anyone want that except for speculation? Clearly, Bitcoin is not being accepted at the mom-and-pop shop in Bangladesh (they don't even take credit card), so what are the people supposed to do with the Bitcoin once they receive it?
The answer that I have experienced is that it is being sold to the poorly informed local speculator, who have banked their hopes and dreams of getting rich someday to buying Bitcoin. In that way, Bitcoin is actually stripping wealth from the global poor and draining it back to the wealthy ones.
Re: Is this the end of crypto?
#275Bitcoin won't die. Crypto will, and hopefully soon. The community here is so oblivious to the characteristics that make Bitcoin the best monetary system we could have invented that I can only believe people haven't really thought things through. That's why we see these comparisons with Bitcoin and other cryptos. I am actually glad all this mess is happening so we can finally move on with all those crypto scams that want to confuse people by walking in the shadow of the true innovation.
Re: Is this the end of crypto?
#276Earlier quoted context omitted.
> It's not possible for the value of gold to go to zero The price might go to zero, though. The price of oil, which is arguably more useful than gold, went negative a couple of years back. Having intrinsic value doesn't necessarily mean it is exchangeable, especially if it needs to be exchanged at a given moment in time.
The exchange value might fluctuate but the use value remains, in the case of oil and gold. Bitcoin has no use value. Could say that about other financial instruments and derivatives, but they serve a purpose to those who use them. There's a big difference to exchange value and use value though, Marx made a career out of defining it.
Its value is all well and good if you personally have a use for it, but if you are merely stockpiling it in hopes of selling it later then that doesn't help much if the price has fallen to zero. You might be left with something pretty to look at and little more as you hold out for a recovery, if you don't take the bath and end up with nothing.
Which could also be said about Bitcoin. I'm sure someone out there would find some kind of academic interest in looking at Bitcoins or enjoy collecting them. There might be almost no value in Bitcoin, but it would probably never erode completely.
Re: Is this the end of crypto?
#277I hope it's the end of centralized exchanges.
Re: Is this the end of crypto?
#278When Crypto was young it was this cool new technology that mostly interesting because of the underlying tech. But even back then it was mostly valuable for buying drugs online and other illegal stuff. Now it's that and a way to scam people of their life savings. I do hope it dies out, it should have been heavily regulated from the get go. Way too many people saw these high production commercials with their favorite c…
Are you pretending that the government's ability to create fiat currency out of thin air doesn't endanger anyone? Printing trillions over the past few years is what is throwing us into a worldwide depression.
You think the "spooky scary government" is harmless? The US government has used its funds to kill over 20 million people since WWII without officially being at war. 90% of those killed in US drone strikes are bystanders.
Domestically, we see unrestrained corruption from nearly all of our elected officials leading to every outcome to its own citizens. Poisoned water supplies, missing disaster response, war. But as long as your bank account is insured, everything is cool?
Cryptocurrency was created for, and remains suitable for, valid uses that are not "drugs and other illegal stuff." But this is a new technology without guardrails. Bad actors are a problem. So is FUD from competition and disinformation like the parent.
This is a growing technology that requires a level of knowledge to safely use until it is mature enough for mass adoption.
Re: Is this the end of crypto?
#279When Crypto was young it was this cool new technology that mostly interesting because of the underlying tech. But even back then it was mostly valuable for buying drugs online and other illegal stuff. Now it's that and a way to scam people of their life savings. I do hope it dies out, it should have been heavily regulated from the get go. Way too many people saw these high production commercials with their favorite c…
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Re: Is this the end of crypto?
#280Which will come first: the year of the linux desktop, full self driving teslas or the death of crypto?
Hell, we're already in the age of the linux desktop, we're just not calling it that: > At 37 million units, Chromebooks represent just under 11 percent of the total PC market, ahead of the Mac, with 27 million units and a 7.8 percent share. https://www.thurrott.com/mobile/chrome-os/chromebook/262126/...
Time to talk about Linux on mobile perhaps.