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Yes, Crypto Is All a Scam

stephendiehl.com

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Re: Yes, Crypto Is All a Scam

#251

Post by ur-whale »

birracerveza wrote: post #66

Then don't buy it. If it's a scam it will go to zero and be forgotten as it does not have any fundamental value, as you say. If it does have fundamental value, then it's not a scam. What a stupid hyperbole. What's the point of making yet another article blasting it with the same old tired arguments that have been continuously repeated ad nauseam for the last 12 years or so? I'm honestly surprised the article does not…

> Then don't buy it.

Ah, but then what would he apply his savior complex to?

There's only so many "worthy" causes in the world, and the market for self-righteous do-gooders is a very crowded one.

Re: Yes, Crypto Is All a Scam

#252

Post by DonHopkins »

j16sdiz wrote: post #108
psychlops wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> E.g. China rolled out the the e-yuan currency last year. Not a decentralized blockchain but it obviously incorporates some of the technology. Other countries are doing similar things. Governments will do it as they need a regional monopoly on their fiat scam. The new centralization and financial tracking are features.

Fiat money is protected by the government, military, etc... with gun and power. What is policing crypto?

Jewish Space Lasers.

https://twitter.com/bitcoinrabbi01/status/137372358916224205...

Re: Yes, Crypto Is All a Scam

#254

Post by zirgs »

eppp wrote: post #182
achow wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Speaking of convenience, secret, fast, out of govt' oversight.. Hawala https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawala is in practice for long long time, and it is almost exclusively used to avoid tax and for underground operations (ex. illegal betting). Huge volume is moved, so should it made legal? No.

Why should betting be illegal in the first place? A private transaction that hurts no one seems to be none of the government's business. It shouldnt have to be underground to start with.

Gambling is taxed and regulated in pretty much all jurisdictions where it's legal.

Re: Yes, Crypto Is All a Scam

#255

Post by 0xcde4c3db »

leesalminen wrote: post #220
vlunkr wrote: post #209

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, if your definition of “just fine” involves long waits, transaction fees, and fluctuating value. All symptoms of the fact that bitcoin and crypto in general is a giant casino for 99% of users. Certainly it’s a valid way to send money, but it’s not hard to see the faults.

The Lightning Network is being used to send BTC with instant confirmation & near zero fees. I just used it to pay someone from a US bank account to a Costa Rican bank account. $1000 payment, it reached their bank account in 12 seconds (we counted) and we paid a total of $1.80 in total fees (18 basis points). I can’t think of a faster or cheaper way to pay internationally. On the US side, I used the Strike app so my b…

What part of this is enhanced by involving BTC, as opposed to just being an unlicensed money transmitter?

Re: Yes, Crypto Is All a Scam

#256

Post by EVa5I7bHFq9mnYK »

ly3xqhl8g9 wrote: post #70
ShowalkKama wrote: post #16

I'd like to remind the readers that some people use crypto as a payment method and do not speculate. As far as I know there is no alternative with the same level of convinience that crypto provide (KYC-less and fast payments to anyone in the world with just one secret). Remember that next time you suggest something among the lines of "crypto should be made illegal".

"crypto as a payment method" 1 BTC currently is 22,987 USD. "The 2023 Honda Civic has a base MSRP of $24,650" [1]. No sane person, i.e. person not having more money than they can count [2], wanting to buy a car would ever spend the 1 BTC today for a Honda Civic, maybe the 'market' will go up and they will be able to afford a 48K Mustang Mach-E, or maybe it will go really up and be able to afford a 250K Lucid Air Sapp…

Well, there is one strong reason to spend that BTC. You only have 70 years to do so.

Re: Yes, Crypto Is All a Scam

#257

Post by the_sleaze9 »

TEP_Kim_Il_Sung wrote: post #89
JumpCrisscross wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> no alternative with the same level of convinience that crypto provide (KYC-less There is a legitimate argument for creating KYC-light rails for small global transfers. That argument is not advanced by crypto's wanton criminality.

Which wanton criminality of crypto are you referring to? I thought it is the criminals that make the crime, not the tools they use.

Crypto bad man! Thieves! Tax frauds! Wanton criminality!

Re: Yes, Crypto Is All a Scam

#258

Post by majewsky »

734129837261 wrote: post #140
valdiorn wrote: post #27

Crypto absolutely has value, and the price of Bitcoin will never go to zero. NFTs are useful. That's because the value these things provide is money-laundering, bypassing of international financial regulations and tax fraud. Yeah that's a superb value proposition right there, and definitely something we want to keep free and available /s The current system is flawed in many, many ways, but none of it happened arbitra…

Fun fact: so are Rolex watches and so many other luxury nonsense products with a high price. Wear one on each arm. Travel via airplanes across borders. Sell the watches. Now you have a lot of untraceable cash. Fly back and forth for business purposes seven times in one week. Maybe bring more expensive watches, perhaps that $200,000 USD Patek Philippe is a great way to get that payoff across borders. Crypto and NFTs a…

Diamonds are anything but "inherently worthless". Their exceptional hardness affords them many interesting industrial applications. And trying to write off their asthetic value as "not worth" requires a definition of "worth" that is at the very least extremely unintuitive.

Re: Yes, Crypto Is All a Scam

#259

Post by leesalminen »

hcurtiss wrote: post #138
qwerty456127 wrote: post #82

I use cryptocurrencies to pay for services where I want to stay anonymous for no ill/illegal reason. I just don't feel comfortable being watched wherever I go and whatever I do even if I don't do anything evil.

This entire comment section seems premised on this idea that crypto is useful because it's anonymous. But with the exception of a couple tokens like Monero and Zcash, which are rarely used, crypto is significantly LESS anonymous than cash. There's a reason it's called a public ledger. So odd.

Cash can only be used anonymously in-person. Lots of commerce happens virtually today over the internet. Using cash to pay for digital goods/services is not a sustainable solution.

Sure, you can mail an envelope with cash for a very small number of online services. But, the US government OCRs the return+to address on every letter in the country. So, even your envelope with cash is being traced. And there's the risk of the letter being lost/stolen. There's also a carbon footprint involved in sending physical letters around the globe on cars/planes.

Re: Yes, Crypto Is All a Scam

#260

Post by capableweb »

louwrentius wrote: post #230
capableweb wrote: post #205

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> although it may help individuals it is not a sustainable solution to the issues in those countries Sometimes what you need are not "sustainable solutions", that's something you can afford when you are not struggling daily just to stay alive. Sometimes you just need something that solves the problem right now, damned by "sustainability". Just like most people in poverty don't give a fuck about climate change, there…

If people in countries like Libanon or Venezuela have to survive by “dumping a barrel of oil each day in the ocean”, and this is basically the only “legitimate” use case for “oil” this is clearly not a vindication for the existence of oil. It’s just all bad, there is no justification for “oil” to exist.

If you could somehow get money by dumping a barrel of oil into the ocean and you had no money at all with a hungry family, you'd find it hard to argue against dumping that barrel quickly.
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