“The biggest Ponzi of all time”: why Ben McKenzie became a crypto critic
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Re: “The biggest Ponzi of all time”: why Ben McKenzie became a crypto critic
#2Note that this page hijacks the back button, and is paywalled.
Re: “The biggest Ponzi of all time”: why Ben McKenzie became a crypto critic
#3This is the guy that lost several hundred thousand dollars trying to time the market shorting crypto (as an enthusiast, I think you have to be crazy to use perpetual futures for anything except hedging strategies). Since then he has pivoted from being a journeyman actor to joining the anti-crypto speaking circuit. There are a lot of people in government that despise crypto, and these people get elevated at committee hearings, NYT articles, etc.
Re: “The biggest Ponzi of all time”: why Ben McKenzie became a crypto critic
#4Re: “The biggest Ponzi of all time”: why Ben McKenzie became a crypto critic
#5> Bitcoin and crypto is only marketing. It’s only a story
It's interesting when people make such blanket statements because then all you need is one counterexample to prove them wrong. When I was a teeneager in a third world country with a pegged and tightly controlled currency, Bitcoin was the only way I could pay for books and servers online. It was thanks to Bitcoin that I truly felt connected to the rest of the world. To me Bitcoin was a currency and nothing can take that away from me.
Whether or not that still holds today is arguable but to claim something is outright useless just because you haven't found a valid use for it is narrow-minded.
Re: “The biggest Ponzi of all time”: why Ben McKenzie became a crypto critic
#6It would not matter if this title were changed to
"The biggest fraud of all time": why Ben Mckenzie became a crypto critic
yet HN commenters will often zero-in on the name "Ponzi". I always enjoy when HN commenters defend crypto by focusing on the definition of "Ponzi Scheme". It illustrates a commenter's moral and ethical blindspot.
Perhaps the victims and critics of cryptocurrency only care that fraud is being committed.
Re: “The biggest Ponzi of all time”: why Ben McKenzie became a crypto critic
#7> Bitcoin and crypto is only marketing. It’s only a story It's interesting when people make such blanket statements because then all you need is one counterexample to prove them wrong. When I was a teeneager in a third world country with a pegged and tightly controlled currency, Bitcoin was the only way I could pay for books and servers online. It was thanks to Bitcoin that I truly felt connected to the rest of the w…
In USA many cannabis business settle deals with BTC (and others) so, I think it's still functioning as a currency.
Re: “The biggest Ponzi of all time”: why Ben McKenzie became a crypto critic
#8Step 1: Lose a lot of money in crypto.
Step 2: Try to make a career out of hating crypto.
Re: “The biggest Ponzi of all time”: why Ben McKenzie became a crypto critic
#9> Bitcoin and crypto is only marketing. It’s only a story It's interesting when people make such blanket statements because then all you need is one counterexample to prove them wrong. When I was a teeneager in a third world country with a pegged and tightly controlled currency, Bitcoin was the only way I could pay for books and servers online. It was thanks to Bitcoin that I truly felt connected to the rest of the w…
You've described a valid use case for cryptocurrency, but you haven't described a valid reason people should invest in it.
Useful currencies are inflationary and good investments are deflationary.
Re: “The biggest Ponzi of all time”: why Ben McKenzie became a crypto critic
#10It would not matter if this title were changed to "The biggest fraud of all time": why Ben Mckenzie became a crypto critic yet HN commenters will often zero-in on the name "Ponzi". I always enjoy when HN commenters defend crypto by focusing on the definition of "Ponzi Scheme". It illustrates a commenter's moral and ethical blindspot. Perhaps the victims and critics of cryptocurrency only care that fraud is being comm…
Of course it matters.
You can't just call a bank robber a rapist and label everybody who corrects your statement a morally and ethically flawed person.