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Helium has revenues of $6.5k/month after $365M investment from A16Z

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Re: Helium has revenues of $6.5k/month after $365M investment from A16Z

#141
post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wait...what? You’re complaining about VCs pushing vapor while simultaneously admitting you participated in pumping “ponzi-like” schemes on regular people? You do realize those 7 figure returns you made were a direct wealth transfer from later-stage victims of the ponzi to you? I’m astonished you’re claiming moral superiority over VCs while sitting on wealth you took from thousands of poor people in places like Vietna…

Are you trying to say that ehtereum is a ponzi scheme? Do you think Bitcoin is also one? Don't get me wrong, there are alot of scams in the Crypto szene (like in any scene with a lot of money and not much regulation) but there are also legit, interesting projects. And to be clear; Ethereum is of course not a ponzi-scheme.

Blockchain is a technology. Crypto curriencies, I will consider them ponzi schemes as long as they are marketed as investments

If they are marketed as temporary, volatile, risky currencies, then sure, they are not a scam.

The whole crypto industry reeks of sensationalism and trapping gullible idiots who are fed dreams of "returns".

Re: Helium has revenues of $6.5k/month after $365M investment from A16Z

#142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Moelis advise on M&A though. They get fees from companies doing steps with each other, which they do in both good times and bad (aka restructuring). I didn't think it meant Moelis was investing in those companies. It's like a lawyer getting into crypto, they do contracts for the companies, they're not buying tokens for themselves.

The ones who made fortunes during the American gold rush were the people selling shovels, not the ones panning for gold.

Correction: all of those selling shovels, a few of those who found gold. It’s different distributions.

Re: Helium has revenues of $6.5k/month after $365M investment from A16Z

#143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> mined some coins early on without 'taking wealth from others' And how exactly did these mined coins become USD ?

They never did. They left me as coins and I got exactly $0 in return. It's called a gift.

You still would have given that same gift when Bitcoin was over $50K?

Re: Helium has revenues of $6.5k/month after $365M investment from A16Z

#144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wait...what? You’re complaining about VCs pushing vapor while simultaneously admitting you participated in pumping “ponzi-like” schemes on regular people? You do realize those 7 figure returns you made were a direct wealth transfer from later-stage victims of the ponzi to you? I’m astonished you’re claiming moral superiority over VCs while sitting on wealth you took from thousands of poor people in places like Vietna…

Not sure about Ether, but there are plenty of people that 'bought in' to the Bitcoin idea and mined some coins early on without 'taking wealth from others'. VCs are in there for entirely different reasons, and 'later stage investors' are always at risk of having their hair cut if what they invest in isn't worth what they paid for it, after all, they too were trying to take money from later day suckers. I never paid a…

VCs are always in for the "gains". What other reason are they in for? Making the world better? Hah !

Frankly, I have lost all respect for all those VCs who invested in crypto companies.

Re: Helium has revenues of $6.5k/month after $365M investment from A16Z

#145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The miners absolutely are taking wealth from others—-I can’t believe I’m getting sincere pushback about this. The entire value of the Bitcoin you mined came from later stage “investors” in Bitcoin.

Yes, those poor hedgefunders!

You just trolling or do you seriously think it was hedge funds who lost money?

Re: Helium has revenues of $6.5k/month after $365M investment from A16Z

#146
Helium would be so cool if it wasn't crypto-based and used BT instead of LoRa, and was more focused on being local-first.

They're doing some pretty amazing stuff as is, but Sidewalk/Tile/AirTags/YoSmart are doing it without crypto, and with small enough bandwidth to work via mobile.

I'd much rather have a centralized but selfhostable system, where you choose what network(s) to be a part of, and payments or lack thereof is up to them. They'd have a real chance of building a very large network if they had hardware partners.

Ideally, this stuff should be "too cheap to meter" anyway, and could even be ad supported, at least for very low bandwidth best effort stuff.

Re: Helium has revenues of $6.5k/month after $365M investment from A16Z

#147
post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Seeing crypto as an investment is a problem. It relies entirely on someone else coming along later and paying more. It’s not a productive asset in any meaningful way.

> It relies entirely on someone else coming along later and paying more Yes, just like any part of the economy. Scarcity and/or productivity is why someone pays: either something, or more for it. If it's BTC, the theory is it will be scarce, like gold. If it is one of the other crypto coins, it has to be productive like e.g. this app enabling sharing internet with others.

The S&P 500 pays out over a trillion dollars each year in dividends and stock buybacks funded by the profits of their productive economic activity.

This is what you are investing in when you buy a stock. The numbers-go-up of the stock market is both directly (through stock buybacks) and indirectly (through expectations of future dividends) a consequence of this productive activity, not just greater fools.

Re: Helium has revenues of $6.5k/month after $365M investment from A16Z

#148

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> I'm genuinely curious what their thought process is. The thought process for VCs investing in crypto is simple: they get a huge discount on the tokens in the raise that they can turn around and dump on retail a few months later for huge returns. Instead of waiting 10+ years for a traditional exit, they can get liquidity in a few months. As Chamath admitted on the podcast, even when they're on a vesting schedule the…

The discounts are getting smaller and smaller as the valuations go up. A new chain, Aptos, is raising at 2B valuation. Optimism, an ETH Layer2 raised at 1B valuation. Until like last week, it had a circulating marketcap of 100m. Lots of smaller projects are priced below VC prices. For example, CowSwap is at like 12c when private rounds were at 15c.

I'm guessing that the VC premium pays for privileges like lock up and preferred terms.

VC buying - aka VC selling to greater fool LPs, with purported guarantees trails a wake of retail that fuels their vig.

I know nothing concrete about crypto n.b. but I think I can recognize the structured avarice. If my precis is all that's happening I'd convict this kind of VC instantly.

Re: Helium has revenues of $6.5k/month after $365M investment from A16Z

#149

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, those poor hedgefunders!

You just trolling or do you seriously think it was hedge funds who lost money?

While retail investors did lose money, crypto volumes are dominated by institutions.

Re: Helium has revenues of $6.5k/month after $365M investment from A16Z

#150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Crypto is a closed economy. The only way to get USD out is by taking that USD ("wealth") from somebody else who is buying in.

But this is true for any currency

No you can also take usd out by printing it, which disproportionately screws the poor.
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