I just posted an article that talks about how awful Bitcoin is. One thing to have in mind is that many who are contrary to Bitcoin love the legal tender we are forced to use... which is also awful.
Berkshire: Bitcoin is ‘contrary to the interest of civilization.’
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Re: Berkshire: Bitcoin is ‘contrary to the interest of civilization.’
#12Another arrow for the Four Horsemen of the infocalypse:
- child pornographers, - terrorists, - drug dealers, - money launderers / organized crimes
Re: Berkshire: Bitcoin is ‘contrary to the interest of civilization.’
#13In other news, the Bloomberg Agriculture Index (price of food) is hockey-sticking: https://twitter.com/KarelMercx/status/1387108408139161600 At the least, bitcoin is a possible way to protect against this, if you think it's a risk.
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Re: Berkshire: Bitcoin is ‘contrary to the interest of civilization.’
#14I'm not a fan of Bitcoin,
but often "contrary to the interest of civilization" means "contrary to the interest of me".
Re: Berkshire: Bitcoin is ‘contrary to the interest of civilization.’
#15> Warren Buffett: "I knew there’d be a question on bitcoin or crypto and I thought to myself, well, I watch these politicians dodge questions all the time … The truth is, I’m going to dodge that question. Because the truth is, we’ve probably got hundreds of thousands of people that are watching this that own bitcoin. And we’ve probably got two people that are short. So, we’ve got a choice of making 400,000 people mad at us and unhappy and making two people happy. And it’s just a dumb equation."
> Charlie Munger: “Those who know me well are just waving the red flag at the bull. Of course, I hate the bitcoin success. And I don’t welcome a currency that’s so useful to kidnappers and extortionists and so forth. Nor do I like shoveling out a few extra billions and billions and billions of dollars to somebody who just invented a new financial product out of thin air. So, I think I should say modestly that the whole damn development is disgusting and contrary to the interest of civilization."
That's all they have to say about this? None of this is particularly insightful (in fact I think it's disappointingly devoid of interesting insight). I don't see why this is on the frontpage.
Re: Berkshire: Bitcoin is ‘contrary to the interest of civilization.’
#16The context of the quote: > I don’t welcome a currency that’s so useful to kidnappers and extortionists and so forth... So, I think I should say modestly that the whole damn development is disgusting and contrary to the interest of civilization. I find it strange to criticize an asset for how it gets used in extremis. I feel like the same criticism could be levied against the dollar.
Except the primary use of the dollar is good. The same can't be said about the primary use for Bitcoin (which is, at best, speculation).
Re: Berkshire: Bitcoin is ‘contrary to the interest of civilization.’
#17"And I don’t welcome a currency that’s so useful to kidnappers and extortionists and so forth" You mean like cash? I'm sorry, I'm sure Warren is a nice guy but that picture reminds me of the Dukes in the movie Trading Places [1] with Eddie Murphy and Dan Aykroyd. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trading_Places
He probably does. In Sweden, everything is going cashless in the name of convenience and cracking down on tax avoidance.
Re: Berkshire: Bitcoin is ‘contrary to the interest of civilization.’
#18The context of the quote: > I don’t welcome a currency that’s so useful to kidnappers and extortionists and so forth... So, I think I should say modestly that the whole damn development is disgusting and contrary to the interest of civilization. I find it strange to criticize an asset for how it gets used in extremis. I feel like the same criticism could be levied against the dollar.
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Re: Berkshire: Bitcoin is ‘contrary to the interest of civilization.’
#19The context of the quote: > I don’t welcome a currency that’s so useful to kidnappers and extortionists and so forth... So, I think I should say modestly that the whole damn development is disgusting and contrary to the interest of civilization. I find it strange to criticize an asset for how it gets used in extremis. I feel like the same criticism could be levied against the dollar.
Dollars are inflationary and therefore primarily currency, not assets. They're also far more useful, so people are likely to only pay the massive crypto tax (exchange fee, loss of liquidity) if they need to be outside of a legal system.
Also, is it "in extremis"? It seems like the vast majority of transactions of crypto are for ransomware, contraband (guns, drugs, humans), or exchange between speculators.