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Yes, Crypto Is All a Scam

stephendiehl.com

31–40 of 396 posts

Re: Yes, Crypto Is All a Scam

#31
post #2

"Every day I write something about crypto to the nature of “crypto is all a scam”" Yet he still write daily about Crypto. Very weird. Whoever wanted to be convinced that is a scam should be convinced by now, everyone else just want to hold some coins.

[deleted]

Re: Yes, Crypto Is All a Scam

#34

> scam /skæm/ (noun): a clever and dishonest plan for making money This fits many projects in the cryptocurrency space. But what about the first successful cryptocurrency Bitcoin? Was it dishonest? What about Ethereum, is it also dishonest? Seems like yes, there are lots of scams in cryptocurrency. But there is also projects that are not, so in the end, the title ends up being clickbait, which I (just like you) fell…

> Bitcoin? Was it dishonest? Bitcoin per se , no. Bitcoin as practiced, yes. Broadly brushed, there are legitimate academic questions in crypto/blockchains/web3. The moment the work is remunerated for something other than its intellectual value, however, it's fair to revoke the benefit of doubt.

> Bitcoin per se, no. Bitcoin as practiced, yes.

I'm sorry, I don't understand what you mean with "Bitcoin as practiced". "Bitcoin as practiced" made Bitcoin into a scam while it wasn't one before "it was practiced"?

Re: Yes, Crypto Is All a Scam

#35

Crypto absolutely has value, and the price of Bitcoin will never go to zero. NFTs are useful. That's because the value these things provide is money-laundering, bypassing of international financial regulations and tax fraud. Yeah that's a superb value proposition right there, and definitely something we want to keep free and available /s The current system is flawed in many, many ways, but none of it happened arbitra…

Gambling. Crypto is globalized gambling. It's a money laundering vector, for sure, but for the same reasons crypto competes poorly in the transaction market it's close to a last resort for high-volume launderers.

Re: Yes, Crypto Is All a Scam

#36

Crypto absolutely has value, and the price of Bitcoin will never go to zero. NFTs are useful. That's because the value these things provide is money-laundering, bypassing of international financial regulations and tax fraud. Yeah that's a superb value proposition right there, and definitely something we want to keep free and available /s The current system is flawed in many, many ways, but none of it happened arbitra…

Crypto allowed regular mortals to conduct the state-level scam that was exclusive only to governments.

I can understand the appeal, but I do find it amusing how we (humans) instantly abuse anything if modicum of abuse is possible :)

Re: Yes, Crypto Is All a Scam

#37

I'd like to remind the readers that some people use crypto as a payment method and do not speculate. As far as I know there is no alternative with the same level of convinience that crypto provide (KYC-less and fast payments to anyone in the world with just one secret). Remember that next time you suggest something among the lines of "crypto should be made illegal".

The killer app for crypto is "KYC-less" which usually means "I can evade taxes or sell illicit goods". Otherwise, real money is faster, more scalable, and more resilient to users making mistakes.

Nothing I do is illegal; I pay my taxes; sometimes I make mistakes. Why would I ever want to use crypto over real money?

Re: Yes, Crypto Is All a Scam

#38

I'd like to remind the readers that some people use crypto as a payment method and do not speculate. As far as I know there is no alternative with the same level of convinience that crypto provide (KYC-less and fast payments to anyone in the world with just one secret). Remember that next time you suggest something among the lines of "crypto should be made illegal".

Nobody used cryptocurrencies for payment before speculation happened. You had people paying 10k BTC for a pizza and;.. that was it, because they were funny internet coins. The only reason people take cryptocurrencies as payment now is because they have value. Why do they have value ? Because people can speculate on it.

Saying that cryptocurrency should be made illegal is a stupid idea, of course. However, cryptocurrency miners should have to declare their activities and pay much higher electricity prices, so that we could actually use that electricity for more useful things.

EDIT: because the argument of "how is this different than the dollar hurr durr": it's not! The dollar has value because people trust the US government to keep existing, because I can exchange it for actual goods and people want it. The primary goal of the USD isn't to speculate, it's to exchange goods. The same cannot be said about your favorite shitcoin.

Re: Yes, Crypto Is All a Scam

#39

Crypto absolutely has value, and the price of Bitcoin will never go to zero. NFTs are useful. That's because the value these things provide is money-laundering, bypassing of international financial regulations and tax fraud. Yeah that's a superb value proposition right there, and definitely something we want to keep free and available /s The current system is flawed in many, many ways, but none of it happened arbitra…

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Re: Yes, Crypto Is All a Scam

#40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Bitcoin? Was it dishonest? Bitcoin per se , no. Bitcoin as practiced, yes. Broadly brushed, there are legitimate academic questions in crypto/blockchains/web3. The moment the work is remunerated for something other than its intellectual value, however, it's fair to revoke the benefit of doubt.

> Bitcoin per se, no. Bitcoin as practiced, yes. I'm sorry, I don't understand what you mean with "Bitcoin as practiced". "Bitcoin as practiced" made Bitcoin into a scam while it wasn't one before "it was practiced"?

> don't understand what you mean with "Bitcoin as practiced"

The paper and concept are fine. People marketing Bitcoin as an investment, et cetera, or more broadly selling anything related to it, are enabling a scam.

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