Live data from Hacker News

The “strategic reserve” exposes crypto as the scam it always was

alexkolchinski.com

21–30 of 149 posts

Re: The “strategic reserve” exposes crypto as the scam it always was

#21

Can anyone who is pro-crypto (particularly: btc, eth) make the steelman argument for why a "strategic reserve" is necessary for these cryptocurrencies? Or even beneficial ? I've been involved in the industry in various ways for years and I fundamentally don't understand why the government owning a lot of btc/eth is advantageous. I understand the "reserve" part, but I don't understand the "strategic." I'm open to the…

I've been wondering about Gresham's Law with respect to dollars and crypto. Which one will drive out the other?

Re: The “strategic reserve” exposes crypto as the scam it always was

#22
Bigger picture, a genuine curious question:

For the sake of argument, let's imagine a scenario in which, someday, a ridiculously, blatantly corrupt person became President. And Congress was aware, but had controlling majorities that, one way or another, were aligned with this situation. And the Supreme Court had already been started to be stacked by the same person. And various agencies under Executive branch, which might normally be able to push back, were being systematically gutted, and otherwise intimidated, including blatant reprisal against law enforcement officers for even investigating some past corruption case. And let's imagine that some oligarchs bought up a lot of Fourth Estate, and most of the rest of the Fourth Estate was decimated by other oligarch "disruptive tech", and tech oligarchs also control much of the remaining grassroots channels of communication. And lets imagine that, partly due to media manipulation by the oligarchs, the majority of the electorate, of all parties, had forgotten everything that they ever learned in Civics class.

In this totally hypothetical situation-- but please bear with me, and imagine, for the sake of this fun intellectual exercise, that someday this could somehow happen in the US, in theory...

What remaining US gov't checks and balances would there be? How could that corruption scenario be thwarted?

(For example, is there a way for a minority in Congress to successfully bring charges? Does the FBI or some other agency have powers to investigate and intervene, below the radar? Does Judicial have any power to intervene, perhaps if petitioned? Do states have rights to contest the situation? What if there is also a treason angle; does that activate powers from anywhere else in the government to intervene?)

If this scenario was discussed in Civics class, it flew right over my head at the time, but now seems interesting.

Re: The “strategic reserve” exposes crypto as the scam it always was

#23

Can anyone who is pro-crypto (particularly: btc, eth) make the steelman argument for why a "strategic reserve" is necessary for these cryptocurrencies? Or even beneficial ? I've been involved in the industry in various ways for years and I fundamentally don't understand why the government owning a lot of btc/eth is advantageous. I understand the "reserve" part, but I don't understand the "strategic." I'm open to the…

I can almost guarantee you most everyone who owns BTC will be 100% in favor of anything that will drive up it's price, because they falsely equate it's price as it's value. It has zero value despite it's price, just like beanie babies and Tulips always did.

You're wrong — I own BTC and believe in the value of cryptocurrencies, but I am opposed to the US government doing this with my tax dollars.

Re: The “strategic reserve” exposes crypto as the scam it always was

#25

If tax dollars are ever used to buy cryptos, that's simply a transfer of wealth to the crypto sellers, in exchange for nothing in return. This is just another "Tax and Waste" policy. It's just money taken from one group just to give to some other group. It's immoral and illegal, because the gov't is not an investment bank.

Would you agree that the Strategic Oil Reserve has exactly the same qualities?

I dunno, can you fill your tank up with bitcoin when you need to get to work?

Re: The “strategic reserve” exposes crypto as the scam it always was

#26

If tax dollars are ever used to buy cryptos, that's simply a transfer of wealth to the crypto sellers, in exchange for nothing in return. This is just another "Tax and Waste" policy. It's just money taken from one group just to give to some other group. It's immoral and illegal, because the gov't is not an investment bank.

Would you agree that the Strategic Oil Reserve has exactly the same qualities?

that’s not “in exchange for nothing”, its in exchange for oil. not terribly complicated.

Re: The “strategic reserve” exposes crypto as the scam it always was

#27

If tax dollars are ever used to buy cryptos, that's simply a transfer of wealth to the crypto sellers, in exchange for nothing in return. This is just another "Tax and Waste" policy. It's just money taken from one group just to give to some other group. It's immoral and illegal, because the gov't is not an investment bank.

Would you agree that the Strategic Oil Reserve has exactly the same qualities?

That depends on whether there’s a use for oil aside from as a tradable commodity, and additionally on whether there are scenarios in which we might need it for that potential use case in quantities that exceed our ability to easily acquire it.

Re: The “strategic reserve” exposes crypto as the scam it always was

#29
post #3

While I completely agree crypto is full of shysters and most likely crypto has zero intrinsic value, as well the current administration tries to enrich itself through crypto, I disagree that recent change in prices after announcement proves it is a scam. Because if the government would have announced a strategic reserve in maple syrup, the syrup futures would have increased in price drastically as well.

> crypto has zero intrinsic value

So do fiat currencies.

Re: The “strategic reserve” exposes crypto as the scam it always was

#30
post #29
post #3

While I completely agree crypto is full of shysters and most likely crypto has zero intrinsic value, as well the current administration tries to enrich itself through crypto, I disagree that recent change in prices after announcement proves it is a scam. Because if the government would have announced a strategic reserve in maple syrup, the syrup futures would have increased in price drastically as well.

> crypto has zero intrinsic value So do fiat currencies.

You need fiat to pay your taxes.
Post reply on HN