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Crypto Fooled Us Once. It Will Fool Us Again

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Re: Crypto Fooled Us Once. It Will Fool Us Again

#41

Crypto does have utility, but there's only room for one: bitcoin. Everything else is just a me-too derivative that can add nothing except the possibility of central control (like the "digital dollar"). The ability to instantly transmit the hardest asset known to man (harder than gold, in the sense of inflation resistance) does have utility, regardless of what critics say. It has downsides too: the ability to be lost…

People on hacker news are smart, but not about everything. It takes some effort to really understand our central bank dollar based financial system. It's takes effort to understand Bitcoin. Most of us here are focused on other things and only take a cursory look at Bitcoin and dismiss it's "slow transaction times" (which are actually incredibly fast settlement times), high energy use (which actually uses marginal energy that would otherwise be wasted), and conclude "this is not worth my time to understand, and I wish everyone would just shut up about it."

Re: Crypto Fooled Us Once. It Will Fool Us Again

#42

Crypto and NFTs are the ultimate scam. It's wooden nickels, the Brooklyn Bridge and Bernie Madoff all taken to their ultimate logical conclusion --- something with no intrinsic value whatsoever (electrons) is being exchanged for real functioning currency. But what really sets the crypto scam apart is the fact that no is really lying about the fundamental nature of the transaction. No one is hiding the fact that by bu…

The tech itself isn’t scam. A way to certify ownership is important if you’re going to build a future where work is borderless, digital, and copyright enforcement/royalty collection has to be automated.

Scams get built on the tech, but that’s always been the case with any new tech.

That said, crypto culture and the speculative energy it breeds definitely incentivized scams. The culture needs a massive overhaul

Re: Crypto Fooled Us Once. It Will Fool Us Again

#43
post #36

Crypto and NFTs are the ultimate scam. It's wooden nickels, the Brooklyn Bridge and Bernie Madoff all taken to their ultimate logical conclusion --- something with no intrinsic value whatsoever (electrons) is being exchanged for real functioning currency. But what really sets the crypto scam apart is the fact that no is really lying about the fundamental nature of the transaction. No one is hiding the fact that by bu…

> No one is hiding the fact that by buying crypto, you are exchanging your legal working currency for nothing more than an entry in a database with no real guarantees of any kind --- legal or otherwise You just described the modern banking system. Yes, the government will give you guarantees for your stored funds to some extent , but when shit hits the fan, you are on your own (example 2008 financial crisis). > All c…

In 2008, who lost deposits in the US? Can you explain how, for example, Apple or Exxon are just pumping their stock and what the accounting tricks are?

Re: Crypto Fooled Us Once. It Will Fool Us Again

#44
post #36

Crypto and NFTs are the ultimate scam. It's wooden nickels, the Brooklyn Bridge and Bernie Madoff all taken to their ultimate logical conclusion --- something with no intrinsic value whatsoever (electrons) is being exchanged for real functioning currency. But what really sets the crypto scam apart is the fact that no is really lying about the fundamental nature of the transaction. No one is hiding the fact that by bu…

> No one is hiding the fact that by buying crypto, you are exchanging your legal working currency for nothing more than an entry in a database with no real guarantees of any kind --- legal or otherwise You just described the modern banking system. Yes, the government will give you guarantees for your stored funds to some extent , but when shit hits the fan, you are on your own (example 2008 financial crisis). > All c…

> You just described the modern banking system. Yes, the government will give you guarantees for your stored funds to some extent, but when shit hits the fan, you are on your own (example 2008 financial crisis).

How much money did your savings account lose in 2008? Or your checking account?

Re: Crypto Fooled Us Once. It Will Fool Us Again

#45

Crypto and NFTs are the ultimate scam. It's wooden nickels, the Brooklyn Bridge and Bernie Madoff all taken to their ultimate logical conclusion --- something with no intrinsic value whatsoever (electrons) is being exchanged for real functioning currency. But what really sets the crypto scam apart is the fact that no is really lying about the fundamental nature of the transaction. No one is hiding the fact that by bu…

Ngl having a shared global decentralized database that’s you can develop on sounds pretty nice to me. Definitely wouldn’t call that a scam. Maybe it’s overvalued though… As someone who’s dabbled in the art world, I think people underestimate how important provenance is to an art piece. Having a decentralized system that can automatically keep a paper trail and is seamlessly connected to an automated market/auction se…

Forget the art world, I come from a country known for fradulent degrees, land records and academic certificates. Simply being able to certify them globally would be very useful.

Re: Crypto Fooled Us Once. It Will Fool Us Again

#46

Crypto and NFTs are the ultimate scam. It's wooden nickels, the Brooklyn Bridge and Bernie Madoff all taken to their ultimate logical conclusion --- something with no intrinsic value whatsoever (electrons) is being exchanged for real functioning currency. But what really sets the crypto scam apart is the fact that no is really lying about the fundamental nature of the transaction. No one is hiding the fact that by bu…

Crypto only has an opening because all the other functioning currencies are actually just electrons with no intrinsic value whatsoever too.

Re: Crypto Fooled Us Once. It Will Fool Us Again

#47

Crypto does have utility, but there's only room for one: bitcoin. Everything else is just a me-too derivative that can add nothing except the possibility of central control (like the "digital dollar"). The ability to instantly transmit the hardest asset known to man (harder than gold, in the sense of inflation resistance) does have utility, regardless of what critics say. It has downsides too: the ability to be lost…

Bitcoin uses about 100x more energy than ethereum, has 5x less throughput, and doesn't natively support smart contracts. There's definitely also room for ethereum.

Ethereum is essentially centrally controlled and Bitcoin is absolutely not.

Re: Crypto Fooled Us Once. It Will Fool Us Again

#48
post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> No one is hiding the fact that by buying crypto, you are exchanging your legal working currency for nothing more than an entry in a database with no real guarantees of any kind --- legal or otherwise You just described the modern banking system. Yes, the government will give you guarantees for your stored funds to some extent , but when shit hits the fan, you are on your own (example 2008 financial crisis). > All c…

> You just described the modern banking system. Yes, the government will give you guarantees for your stored funds to some extent, but when shit hits the fan, you are on your own (example 2008 financial crisis). How much money did your savings account lose in 2008? Or your checking account?

Money market funds broke the buck in 2008:

https://www.investopedia.com/articles/economics/09/money-mar...

Re: Crypto Fooled Us Once. It Will Fool Us Again

#49

Crypto and NFTs are the ultimate scam. It's wooden nickels, the Brooklyn Bridge and Bernie Madoff all taken to their ultimate logical conclusion --- something with no intrinsic value whatsoever (electrons) is being exchanged for real functioning currency. But what really sets the crypto scam apart is the fact that no is really lying about the fundamental nature of the transaction. No one is hiding the fact that by bu…

Crypto only has an opening because all the other functioning currencies are actually just electrons with no intrinsic value whatsoever too.

Exactly, the critics love to harp on about how "nothing backs Bitcoin!"

I find that people that are not smart enough to understand Bitcoin generally respond by getting mad about Bitcoin or ignoring it.

Re: Crypto Fooled Us Once. It Will Fool Us Again

#50

Crypto and NFTs are the ultimate scam. It's wooden nickels, the Brooklyn Bridge and Bernie Madoff all taken to their ultimate logical conclusion --- something with no intrinsic value whatsoever (electrons) is being exchanged for real functioning currency. But what really sets the crypto scam apart is the fact that no is really lying about the fundamental nature of the transaction. No one is hiding the fact that by bu…

How is it a scam if the people buying it know exactly what they're buying, and the code is all open source? The word "scam" implies someone is being misled. How is cryptocurrency any more of a scam than fiat currency, ie. digits in the computer of some private bank or central bank?

I find that people that are not smart enough to understand Bitcoin generally respond by getting mad about Bitcoin or ignoring it by calling it a scam.
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