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Money corrupts; bitcoin corrupts absolutely

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Re: Money corrupts; bitcoin corrupts absolutely

#121

Post by Priem19 »

etrautmann wrote: post #115
gnrlst wrote: post #19

The community around Bitcoin is one of the most toxic. It's the main reason I haven't bought, and won't buy, any BTC (regardless of the fact I think the tech is completely subpar). Having said that, there's plenty of really great communities around crypto that shouldn't be pooled together along with Bitcoin. Nano, for example, is probably the most hated altcoin by Bitcoin maximalists (probably because they feel threa…

Why does anyone need to be part of a community around a currency? I don’t feel a sense of community based on being a dollar user.

I chuckled. I know the last sentence was meant as joke but here's an answer anyway: because the dollar is not a pyramid scheme. Whereas any new currency that doesn't have a fair distribution mechanism will be. The earliest adopters in such flawed currencies will always have an increasingly disproportionate amount of the total wealth as it gets adopted. Hence the incentive for communities to spread awareness of their pyramid scheme, whether they realise it or not.

Re: Money corrupts; bitcoin corrupts absolutely

#122

Post by dang »

gnrlst wrote: post #19

The community around Bitcoin is one of the most toxic. It's the main reason I haven't bought, and won't buy, any BTC (regardless of the fact I think the tech is completely subpar). Having said that, there's plenty of really great communities around crypto that shouldn't be pooled together along with Bitcoin. Nano, for example, is probably the most hated altcoin by Bitcoin maximalists (probably because they feel threa…

You've been overposting about this. It has become repetitive, and you're starting to reliably generate "here comes the nano shill" comments in every thread. While accusations of shilling are against the site guidelines, posting predictably like this is also against the intended use of the site.

Also, these Bitcoin flamewars are supremely boring. They're exciting in an activating/agitating sort of way, but they aren't intellectually interesting. You're not the only user responsible for that, of course, but you're contributing way too much to it.

If you want to use HN as intended, please post instead on other things of intellectual interest. If you don't want to use HN as intended, please don't post to it. Either way, please stop posting on this topic.

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

Re: Money corrupts; bitcoin corrupts absolutely

#123

Post by zepto »

rawtxapp wrote: post #118
zepto wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A counterfactual is that those two things would have happened anyway, and the ad-funded model has deeply corrupted both of them.

I don't think there's world with these counterfactuals in place, do you have any proof?

That’s not a meaningful way to discuss counterfactuals.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Counterfactual_conditional

Re: Money corrupts; bitcoin corrupts absolutely

#124

Post by Priem19 »

donovanian wrote: post #117
solosoyokaze wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No coiners are pretty damn toxic. I have friends that will clutch pearls over Bitcoin's energy usage (strange how they've consistently hated BTC since well before that became a talking point), yet will happily take 5 international vacations a year and have the carbon footprint of a medium sized town. Faux righteous indignation is one of the most toxic takes around.

I agree completely, and to push this a little further - name a community that isn't toxic. The worst part about virtue signalling nowadays is that it throws out the accumulated history and cultural knowledge of humanity - as expressed in art, literature, etc. Which in a million repeated ways demonstrate that evil in humanity is ubiquitous and ever-present. There's so many people soap-boxing acting like they don't suf…

Skateboarders, rock climbers, mathematics, tractor enthusiasts, Britney Spears fanclubs (hence Britney Spears' Guide to Semiconductor Physics http://britneyspears.ac/lasers.htm), book clubs, permaculture, meteorologists, bobbin lacers, et cetera. The world is not as toxic when profit isn't involved.

Re: Money corrupts; bitcoin corrupts absolutely

#125

Post by xiphias2 »

rawtxapp wrote: post #49
throwaway_1237 wrote: post #38

Welcome to the no-coiner comment section! Please share why you prefer to stay poor!

I think this is the kind of comment that pushes those "no-coiners" even further, please try to give them a good reason why they should change their mind rather than empty statements like these.

There's so much hate towards Bitcoiners, even with all the ,,Google is bad'' stuff happening around, an Alphabet investor is not getting that amount of hate and shaming.

All the information is out there, and I am always downvoted here on HN anyways when I try to defent Bitcoin. In short:

Have fun staying poor :)

Re: Money corrupts; bitcoin corrupts absolutely

#126

Post by david927 »

ur-whale wrote: post #44
david927 wrote: post #5

I think the author needs to integrate into these arguments the Nixon Shock of 1971 and what’s happening with inflation in the US since 2008. There’s a reason the Dow just hit a record high and it’s not because the fundamentals of those firms are strong. I’m not a Bitcoin holder but the correct finger pointing here is at monetary policy.

> the correct finger pointing here is at monetary policy. At this point, even calling it "policy" is utter delusion: it would somehow implies the people who hold the wheel have a minimal clue about what the impact of their decisions ("Policies") will have for the mid to long term future of the economy. They absolutely don't. They are driving without a map, only worrying about the next turn in the road. We are raised…

It’s really akin to doctors centuries ago who would bleed out patients. Their cure is worse than the disease.

Re: Money corrupts; bitcoin corrupts absolutely

#128

Post by dastx »

dandanua wrote: post #120
dastx wrote: post #84

Bitcoin isn't claiming that it takes corruption out of the human psyche. Corrupt people stay corrupt. All bitcoin does is take unfounded trust away from individual organisations and governments, and instead puts that trust in maths and the collective. It never claimed that it will combat corruption, and likely never will. NFTs are definitely switching me off from cryptocurrencies as I find the use of it ridiculous. S…

Butcoin takes trust away from governments and bankers and puts it in the hands of crypto exchanges, that print fake dollars (Tether) to buy Bitcoin and raise its price. Nice transition.

You're clearly misunderstanding what bitcoin is about. No trust is put into crypto exchanges. Trust is put into cryptography, which miners help with. This kind of puts the trust in miners, but in order to do anything as a miner, you'd need to either break sha256, or you'd need 51% of the computing power. The latter is more likely, but it would make bitcoin useless because people will lose trust in the system, thus anything you'd do with the money you'd steal/double spend would be worthless.

On the other hand, individuals can still put their trust in crypto exchanges, but unlike the old system, you are not required to put your trust in an exchange.

Re: Money corrupts; bitcoin corrupts absolutely

#129

Post by tromp »

lottin wrote: post #93
wolfretcrap wrote: post #7

Problem with bitcoin is there's no way to redistribute wealth. How about giving inactive bitcoins to new people? Is it possible? Can you really access the bitcoins that were created at the beginning without updating your bitcoins to latest standards. How do you even update your bitcoin?

Actually Bitcoin is all about wealth redistribution. It is not possible to make money with Bitcoin unless it is at the expense of somebody else. And the fact that some people are making money with it indicates such redistribution is taking place.

Bitcoin is not the best wealth distributor since only an exponentially small fraction 2^-n of all bitcoin is emitted after 4*n years.

Re: Money corrupts; bitcoin corrupts absolutely

#130

Post by dandanua »

dastx wrote: post #128
dandanua wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Butcoin takes trust away from governments and bankers and puts it in the hands of crypto exchanges, that print fake dollars (Tether) to buy Bitcoin and raise its price. Nice transition.

You're clearly misunderstanding what bitcoin is about. No trust is put into crypto exchanges. Trust is put into cryptography, which miners help with. This kind of puts the trust in miners, but in order to do anything as a miner, you'd need to either break sha256, or you'd need 51% of the computing power. The latter is more likely, but it would make bitcoin useless because people will lose trust in the system, thus an…

You are not required to trust exchanges. But in reality, it's them who rule the Bitcoin's world. And they are much worse than governments and banks.
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