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Tether's Troubles in November 2022

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Re: Tether's Troubles in November 2022

#121

Post by pyinstallwoes »

amluto wrote: post #110
sireat wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Beanie babies, tulips, German marks from 1920s at least have some physical properties just like shells. If you have 100,000 cryptocurrency tokens worth 0, that presumably means there is no activity (no transactions, no validations, no mining). I suppose one could set up a few validators and attempt to restart the chain. The problem is that for many worthless coins that no one wants to mine, the difficulty is too high…

Indeed. If you have 100k shells, you can at least sell them on Craigslist. With a fully collapsed Bitcoin valuation, the last “good” state of the chain is public knowledge, and you may know the private key associated with 100k BTC as indicated by the last good chain, but you can’t reliably do anything with that knowledge. So the chain itself could become a fascinating artifact, but the magic that made it possible to…

Just because you have the 100k shells doesn't mean you can sell them.

Re: Tether's Troubles in November 2022

#122

Post by Dylan16807 »

wizeman wrote: post #83
djbusby wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Military still there tho. Edit: happy Veterans Day (USA) to those who served.

What does the military have to do with the USD? Many countries had a military and that didn't stop their currencies from completely collapsing.

The power of a major government behind a currency is like the framing of a building.

A building with a frame can collapse, but the odds are much worse if you don't have one.

Re: Tether's Troubles in November 2022

#123

Post by wizeman »

Dylan16807 wrote: post #122
wizeman wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What does the military have to do with the USD? Many countries had a military and that didn't stop their currencies from completely collapsing.

The power of a major government behind a currency is like the framing of a building. A building with a frame can collapse, but the odds are much worse if you don't have one.

> The power of a major government behind a currency is like the framing of a building.

Only if the frame were able to make decisions that devalue or collapse the building without anyone being able to stop it (and quite a few "frames" have done that). As you can see, not a good analogy.

> A building with a frame can collapse, but the odds are much worse if you don't have one.

Well, actually the "frame" is the cause of the collapse. A "building" without the "frame" wouldn't actually collapse due to hyperinflation.

Although I'm not sure what "being backed by the military" has anything to do with what you said. It's not like the military is going to do something when a currency is devalued by a government or when it collapses.

Re: Tether's Troubles in November 2022

#124

Post by Dylan16807 »

wizeman wrote: post #123
Dylan16807 wrote: post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The power of a major government behind a currency is like the framing of a building. A building with a frame can collapse, but the odds are much worse if you don't have one.

> The power of a major government behind a currency is like the framing of a building. Only if the frame were able to make decisions that devalue or collapse the building without anyone being able to stop it (and quite a few "frames" have done that). As you can see, not a good analogy. > A building with a frame can collapse, but the odds are much worse if you don't have one. Well, actually the "frame" is the cause of…

Uh, plenty of currencies not tied to governments have collapsed.

And the military is part of keeping the country going and enforcing the currency as legal tender.

Re: Tether's Troubles in November 2022

#125

Post by wizeman »

Dylan16807 wrote: post #124
wizeman wrote: post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The power of a major government behind a currency is like the framing of a building. Only if the frame were able to make decisions that devalue or collapse the building without anyone being able to stop it (and quite a few "frames" have done that). As you can see, not a good analogy. > A building with a frame can collapse, but the odds are much worse if you don't have one. Well, actually the "frame" is the cause of…

Uh, plenty of currencies not tied to governments have collapsed. And the military is part of keeping the country going and enforcing the currency as legal tender.

> Uh, plenty of currencies not tied to governments have collapsed.

Widely used currencies? Which ones?

> And the military is part of keeping the country going and enforcing the currency as legal tender.

No, actually it isn't. The courts and law enforcement are. And legal tender doesn't mean that a citizen or company has to accept the currency (unless it's for a payment of a debt, and even then there are several restrictions).

Which is why even if we're both in the US, I could sell you something for bitcoins (or EUR or whatever) and neither the military, nor the courts nor law enforcement would do anything to enforce that I sell you things for the USD instead.

So saying that a currency is "backed by the military" means nothing.

Re: Tether's Troubles in November 2022

#126

Post by andirk »

shuckles wrote: post #69
andirk wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Quoted post unavailable.

Inflation is a measure of purchasing power. I have all the dollars in my pocket and, depending on what I'm trying to buy like shipments of containers from Shanghai to Los Angeles, I could possibly buy more goods and services from last year. I think your comments are below the level of quality the HN community demands.

For most consumers, 8% of the dollars in your pocket are gone. It means you have less money now than you did a year ago.

> I have all the dollars in my pocket

OK, you must be talking physical paper?

> I could possibly buy more goods

Most consumers are currently hurting from inflation.

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