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The Meaning of Bitcoin

maraoz.com

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Re: The Meaning of Bitcoin

#11

Post by lxgr »

imabotbeep2937 wrote: post #4

"I've seen people get rich off crypto" and I've seen hundreds of gambling addicts lose their house and put their family on the street when the bet didn't go right. Even when you're talking about serious coins, ignoring the rug pulls. That money comes from somewhere. Who's holding the bag? Crypto people tend to have an infinite dose of "f** you got mine" even if they didn't get theirs.

“F** you I’ll get mine any day now” can be even stronger.

Inconsistent rewards foster addictive patterns like nothing else.

Re: The Meaning of Bitcoin

#12

Post by earnesti »

imabotbeep2937 wrote: post #4

"I've seen people get rich off crypto" and I've seen hundreds of gambling addicts lose their house and put their family on the street when the bet didn't go right. Even when you're talking about serious coins, ignoring the rug pulls. That money comes from somewhere. Who's holding the bag? Crypto people tend to have an infinite dose of "f** you got mine" even if they didn't get theirs.

There are many venues to gamble your money. You could also go for meme/penny stocks.

I personally have only Bitcoin and some small amount of ETH. I don't consider myself a gambler and think that these smaller cryptocurrencies are very far away from Bitcoin, which is very stable and safe these days as the toolset is quite developed.

Re: The Meaning of Bitcoin

#13

Post by eterpstra »

yaybitcoin wrote: post #5

Argentina may have serious monetary problems, but does the USD? Do we really need financial innovation to move at the "pace of programmers?" Is "bitcoin" really money when you can't use it to buy anything without converting it to money first?

No. If you're happy with USD, then use USD. If you are Argentinian (or Venezuelan, or Iraqi, or Zimbabwean) and your currency is getting devalued to nothing and the government is restricting access to your funds and preventing you from holding USD, then Bitcoin or Stablecoins are a pretty good option.

The attitude I see a lot (mostly by Americans and Western Europeans) is that "Crypto is not useful to me, therefor it is not useful to anyone" - forgetting that it's a global network open to everyone and anyone. And that other countries exist that are difficult places to live at times.

Re: The Meaning of Bitcoin

#14

Post by righthand »

throwaway22032 wrote: post #6

The author describes precisely my reason for being interested in Bitcoin. Things which other people seem to readily accept, such as ATM's having limits, the nature of card payments being inherently asymmetric, the middlemen, "know your customer", etc. All of that stuff just seems insane to me. It's as if someone were standing at my door, telling me that I can't take more than seven items out of my house per day, aski…

How does crypto solve any of that if its future is just more regulation pressing it into the molds of already established systems? I can’t pay my moving guy in crypto, I have to convert it to cash and all that “protection” is easily surmountable.

Re: The Meaning of Bitcoin

#15

Post by lxgr »

abetusk wrote: post #9

This is a very welcome counterpoint to a lot of the cryptocurrency hate that tends to be promoted. I think this is more along the lines of a "strong man" argument for cryptocurrency.

You’re making it sound like there’s a uniform blob of unreflected hate, when it’s really specific criticisms for many different aspects.

I feel like a steelman argument for Bitcoin specifically is somewhat easier to make than one for NFTs or quasi-investment share tokens, in that it’s at least not a transparent Ponzi scheme by its issuers (one might argue it is one by its current holders, though).

The problems of Bitcoin are largely different to those of stablecoins, NFTs etc.

Re: The Meaning of Bitcoin

#16

Post by floundy »

Yet another useless Bitcoin puff piece from some random tech bro that doesn't understand economics.

"Bitcoin is awesome!" article concluded by, "my friends in Argentina save in stablecoins". Wait, why don't they use Bitcoin if it's so great?

>Lucky for them, bitcoin will always be there, waiting with open arms… immutable, unwavering, eternal, unbiased, welcoming, and untamed.

It will be hilarious when they see what happens to transaction fees and/or network hash distribution as mining rewards dry up. Or maybe they ignore that because the vast majority of Bitcoin changes hands off-chain through exchanges. Which makes:

>To really get crypto, you have to have been fucked by some third party with power over your money. Be it a government, a bank, a business, or an ex-employer, it will come.

Quite ironic because most activity in crypto is being facilitated through 3rd parties, and even if one uses an offline wallet the vast majority are using exchanges to cash in/out as needed. I'd wager a bet that more people have been screwed over by some crypto entity than their government or banks.

But yeah, Bitcoin/crypto is great as long as the wash trading, price-pumping sham can continue and "number goes up." Good thing all the cryptobros price things in their local currencies and not BTC! Hmm something about inflation again...

Re: The Meaning of Bitcoin

#17

Post by bgroat »

yaybitcoin wrote: post #5

Argentina may have serious monetary problems, but does the USD? Do we really need financial innovation to move at the "pace of programmers?" Is "bitcoin" really money when you can't use it to buy anything without converting it to money first?

Not only is it nearly impossible to use anywhere... but a huge component of BTC's mythology is making fun of someone who ACTUALLY spent it as money (Bitcoin Pizza)

Re: The Meaning of Bitcoin

#18

Post by maraoz »

imabotbeep2937 wrote: post #4

"I've seen people get rich off crypto" and I've seen hundreds of gambling addicts lose their house and put their family on the street when the bet didn't go right. Even when you're talking about serious coins, ignoring the rug pulls. That money comes from somewhere. Who's holding the bag? Crypto people tend to have an infinite dose of "f** you got mine" even if they didn't get theirs.

Did you read the post? making money is not even mentioned... sigh

Re: The Meaning of Bitcoin

#19

Post by ric2b »

HermanMartinus wrote: post #8
imabotbeep2937 wrote: post #4

"I've seen people get rich off crypto" and I've seen hundreds of gambling addicts lose their house and put their family on the street when the bet didn't go right. Even when you're talking about serious coins, ignoring the rug pulls. That money comes from somewhere. Who's holding the bag? Crypto people tend to have an infinite dose of "f** you got mine" even if they didn't get theirs.

Yep, for every person who gains a dollar someone had to lose a dollar. No value was created. In this way crypto is actually a less than zero sum game since some money is always lost to the machine through sending to abandoned wallets, lost private keys, etc. So on average everyone loses.

By that logic stocks of companies that don't issue dividends are the same.

Re: The Meaning of Bitcoin

#20

Post by grugagag »

imabotbeep2937 wrote: post #4

"I've seen people get rich off crypto" and I've seen hundreds of gambling addicts lose their house and put their family on the street when the bet didn't go right. Even when you're talking about serious coins, ignoring the rug pulls. That money comes from somewhere. Who's holding the bag? Crypto people tend to have an infinite dose of "f** you got mine" even if they didn't get theirs.

> Crypto people tend to have an infinite dose of "f* you got mine" even if they didn't get theirs.

That comes from the hope of recovering their loss one day and dumping the bags on somebody else.

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