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Berkshire: Bitcoin is ‘contrary to the interest of civilization.’

blog.evergreengavekal.com

41–50 of 280 posts

Re: Berkshire: Bitcoin is ‘contrary to the interest of civilization.’

#41
regardless of this, I think there is no future for cryptocurrency as it is today, anyway.

it can't remain so unregulated as it is now. either corporations will take over and legitimize it but this means it will become centralized and owned by big tech. or, it will remain the wild west that it is now, for a while, and then gov will shut it down.

cryptocurrencies are the same as torrents. only popular while unregulated. but this only lasts until some big player decides to stop it

Re: Berkshire: Bitcoin is ‘contrary to the interest of civilization.’

#42
post #27
post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Except the primary use of the dollar is good. The same can't be said about the primary use for Bitcoin (which is, at best, speculation).

Isn’t that the same for gold? That it’s for speculation? Or stocks.

Gold has a practical application creating demand, in addition to it being a speculative product. I guess you could argue the same for BTC in that you can put short messages in it, but I don't think that's a very valuable thing to have.

Re: Berkshire: Bitcoin is ‘contrary to the interest of civilization.’

#44
post #27
post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Except the primary use of the dollar is good. The same can't be said about the primary use for Bitcoin (which is, at best, speculation).

Isn’t that the same for gold? That it’s for speculation? Or stocks.

Stocks represent an ownership in a company. They can be speculated on but that's not the primary purpose.

Re: Berkshire: Bitcoin is ‘contrary to the interest of civilization.’

#45
post #33
post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Except the primary use of the dollar is good. The same can't be said about the primary use for Bitcoin (which is, at best, speculation).

I feel the same argument can be make about Tor. While it primary uses are probably illegal (doesn't necessary mean immoral) activity, it helps a lot free press in oppressed regimes (also illegal, but by western standards moral).

Bitcoin doesn't have the equivalent of a "free press."

And TOR is rarely used. Journalists use apps like Signal now.

Re: Berkshire: Bitcoin is ‘contrary to the interest of civilization.’

#46
If the ability for normal people of every background and income to build wealth and savings wasn't being eroded at every step, maybe we wouldn't need it. Your savings are eroded by inflation, even if you own a property you're usually just renting the land it's on long term and taxed more for even having the audacity to buy property to begin with. The more you pick away at the fabric the more everything feels like a scam stacked against you.

You've built a world where Bitcoin despite not being "real" is the only real store of value, there will only ever be 21 million...

Re: Berkshire: Bitcoin is ‘contrary to the interest of civilization.’

#47

> Warren Buffett: "I knew there’d be a question on bitcoin or crypto and I thought to myself, well, I watch these politicians dodge questions all the time … The truth is, I’m going to dodge that question. Because the truth is, we’ve probably got hundreds of thousands of people that are watching this that own bitcoin. And we’ve probably got two people that are short. So, we’ve got a choice of making 400,000 people mad…

It’s front page because most of HN hates Bitcoin and it makes them feel better

Re: Berkshire: Bitcoin is ‘contrary to the interest of civilization.’

#48
post #9

Working together is in the best interest of humans. Humans require trust to operate. A system designed around mistrust is inherently against our nature.

Designed around mistrust? Surely you mean motivated by distrust in the financial system? You know, the same financial system that launders cartel money, rigs interest markets against the poor, and crashes housing markets to make pensioners go broke?

Re: Berkshire: Bitcoin is ‘contrary to the interest of civilization.’

#50
post #7

The context of the quote: > I don’t welcome a currency that’s so useful to kidnappers and extortionists and so forth... So, I think I should say modestly that the whole damn development is disgusting and contrary to the interest of civilization. I find it strange to criticize an asset for how it gets used in extremis. I feel like the same criticism could be levied against the dollar.

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