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Yes, Crypto Is All a Scam

stephendiehl.com

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Re: Yes, Crypto Is All a Scam

#201

Post by rawoke083600 »

mabbo wrote: post #37
ShowalkKama wrote: post #16

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?

Right... So my bank allows me to gamble online via my c.c (casino) but i am not allowed to buy crypto with my c.c So the bank is telling me what I may or may not do.

Tomorrow, I might not be able to buy goods from some of their vertical intergrated partners.

Freedom to transact has many forms. Sue you pay youre taxes and do nothing illegal now. But that is only true as far as you follow their laws of what is right and not illegal.

Re: Yes, Crypto Is All a Scam

#202

Post by eli »

phonescreen_man wrote: post #164
734129837261 wrote: post #140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Fun fact: so are Rolex watches and so many other luxury nonsense products with a high price. Wear one on each arm. Travel via airplanes across borders. Sell the watches. Now you have a lot of untraceable cash. Fly back and forth for business purposes seven times in one week. Maybe bring more expensive watches, perhaps that $200,000 USD Patek Philippe is a great way to get that payoff across borders. Crypto and NFTs a…

Problem with that though is finding a buyer, let’s say I buy 2 rolexs for 50k, I want to pay off my dealer in Ireland, so I fly there with my two watches.. how do I sell them? Do I just hawk em in a pawn shop, if so would I still get back my 50k?

I buy 50k in bitcoin on a US exchange and send it to someone in Ireland and they transfer it to their exchange and cash it out do they get back exactly 50k?

Re: Yes, Crypto Is All a Scam

#203

Post by eli »

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #35
valdiorn wrote: post #27

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.

Don't forget ransom payments

Re: Yes, Crypto Is All a Scam

#204

Post by trotro »

qsort wrote: post #93
fredley wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The fallacy in this argument is that there's something special in crypto that makes this more likely to happen. I think this goes without saying: money and financial systems are regulated—to some degree—everywhere in the World. They are regulated by Governments, and there are real penalties for evading those regulations and getting caught. Many of these regulations were put in place to prevent the kind of shenaniga…

The fact that crypto people will tell you with a straight face that the irreversibility of transfers is a feature and not a bug should be enough of a tell...

Crypto allows irreversible transfers, but traditional reversible transfers are also possible on smart contract chains, although definitely not the norm.

The real bug is that irreversibility, and immutability in general, isn't possible in centralized systems. Which is why you can never be 100% sure that your bank account won't be empty next time you check. This doesn't happen in crypto.

Re: Yes, Crypto Is All a Scam

#205

Post by capableweb »

louwrentius wrote: post #193
atdrummond wrote: post #179

Be grateful you live in the EU or the US and don’t need crypto. It has been a major lifeline for my family and friends in Lebanon and Venezuela, both of which lack fully functioning financial services. I can send Bitcoin just fine though!

That is not really a vindication of crypto, it’s just an extra condemnation of what is happening in Lebanon and Venezuela. And although it may help individuals it is not a sustainable solution to the issues in those countries. 99.99% of crypto is unsustainable speculation on a game of musical chairs or outright scams / ransomware. If you look at the entire picture, crypto has such a negative impact on this world. It…

> although it may help individuals it is not a sustainable solution to the issues in those countries

Sometimes what you need are not "sustainable solutions", that's something you can afford when you are not struggling daily just to stay alive. Sometimes you just need something that solves the problem right now, damned by "sustainability".

Just like most people in poverty don't give a fuck about climate change, there are so many other problems on their mind about their daily life, that there is no space to focus on "bigger problems" or "sustainability", it's just about surviving and finding ways around whatever problem arises.

Re: Yes, Crypto Is All a Scam

#206

Post by eli »

ShowalkKama wrote: post #16

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".

Sure, some people use gold as a payment method too. Usually people trying to prove a point, not because it's the best or most convenient method.

Re: Yes, Crypto Is All a Scam

#207

Post by rawoke083600 »

dmitriid wrote: post #135
angio wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just out of curiosity, which country are you based in? Because for people based in countries with high inflation, crypto is a great tool to get paid in usd and reinvest it without being forced by their governement to convert it into their currency. Obviously, if you're based in a country with a strong currency and where all financial intstruments are available, that's not important.

Ah yes. The well-known stability of crypto... with value swings that put most volatile currencies to shame.

ahh yes the well known all coins are equal and all crypto id bitcoin.

Re: Yes, Crypto Is All a Scam

#208

Post by louwrentius »

nebulous1 wrote: post #78

I don't really understand people trying to defend absurd positions like this. What's even the point? It doesn't seem like it's necessary for this to be true if you want to argue that crypto "should" be eliminated, all you need to do is argue that it's decisively more bad than good. When somebody makes weak arguments like this I'm just going to ignore their thoughts in the future because they've demonstrated that they…

> On top of that there is crypto that could genuinely work under certain circumstances (ie have a use-case that provides value to its users without significantly adversely affecting others).

To me personally, this is the biggest lie there is about crypto/ blockchain. To this day no application has been identified that could not be better solved with existing tech.

The whole crypto space seems to be a solution in search of a legitimate problem to solve. (Plenty of illegitimate use cases sure)

Re: Yes, Crypto Is All a Scam

#209

Post by vlunkr »

atdrummond wrote: post #179

Be grateful you live in the EU or the US and don’t need crypto. It has been a major lifeline for my family and friends in Lebanon and Venezuela, both of which lack fully functioning financial services. I can send Bitcoin just fine though!

Yes, if your definition of “just fine” involves long waits, transaction fees, and fluctuating value. All symptoms of the fact that bitcoin and crypto in general is a giant casino for 99% of users.

Certainly it’s a valid way to send money, but it’s not hard to see the faults.

Re: Yes, Crypto Is All a Scam

#210

Post by xtracto »

mabbo wrote: post #37
ShowalkKama wrote: post #16

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?

Mhmm I disagree. A couple of months ago someone in a city subreddit I frequent came asking for help. I wanted to give him some money anonymously, so I used a cryptocurrency to do it. Any other methods available in my country could trace de transfer to me.

It was useful to me for that use case. How would you have done that?

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