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BBC cryptocurrency documentary pulled from air at last minute

theguardian.com

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Re: BBC cryptocurrency documentary pulled from air at last minute

#41

Post by soneil »

cpach wrote: post #5
WilTimSon wrote: post #2

It's astonishing to me that people will just buy into any success story that involves crypto and NFTs. People don't question why poorly drawn pictures are being bought for thousands of dollars, don't question why there are hundreds of altcoins on the market and some "cryptocurrency experts" are supposedly "offering free tips" on investment. The whole space is rife with scams and embellishments and yet there are so ma…

Many people dream of getting rich quickly, by windfall. Buying index funds is a great and easy way to enhance your personal financial situation – over time. But you will not get rich quickly. So people still seek out alternatives that are incredibly risky and unsound.

I think it doesn't help that the "normal answers" for "normal people" are essentially broken right now.

We were looking at somewhere to park €50k while we hunt for a house. Growing up we're always told about savings accounts. We should have a savings account, we should be contributing to savings accounts, blah blah blah. So we asked our bank about a savings account, and they offered an annual return of €78. And I don't even mean 0.0015%, but the return is capped so it's not allowed to compound.

Re: BBC cryptocurrency documentary pulled from air at last minute

#42

Post by thrwyoilarticle »

ben_w wrote: post #19
WilTimSon wrote: post #2

It's astonishing to me that people will just buy into any success story that involves crypto and NFTs. People don't question why poorly drawn pictures are being bought for thousands of dollars, don't question why there are hundreds of altcoins on the market and some "cryptocurrency experts" are supposedly "offering free tips" on investment. The whole space is rife with scams and embellishments and yet there are so ma…

While I generally agree with your sentiment, some of the most iconic art in the world seems to me to be poorly made and I have no idea why they are valued or admired. I don’t just mean the usual go-to controversial examples in modern art like Serrano’s “Piss Christ”[0] or Emin’s “My Bed”[1], as even some older stuff like Klimt’s “Der Kuss”[2] give me this confusion (the woman has always looked to me like she has a br…

Someone put something in piss 35 years ago and you're still talking about it now instead of whatever form of art you think is superior. Sounds iconic.

Re: BBC cryptocurrency documentary pulled from air at last minute

#43

Post by posix_me_less »

globular-toast wrote: post #20
WilTimSon wrote: post #2

It's astonishing to me that people will just buy into any success story that involves crypto and NFTs. People don't question why poorly drawn pictures are being bought for thousands of dollars, don't question why there are hundreds of altcoins on the market and some "cryptocurrency experts" are supposedly "offering free tips" on investment. The whole space is rife with scams and embellishments and yet there are so ma…

Why limit it to crypto? People don't question why the value of houses seems to magically rise globally despite no tangible value being added to the assets in most cases. People don't question why Wall Street traders get rich by trading second derivatives of mortgage backed securities with each other all day. What makes a mortgage any more "real" than an NFT?

Mortgage means somebody is going to pay somebody else regularly for 30 years, or bank gets a valuable property. That is more reliable wealth guarrantee than NFTs are.

Re: BBC cryptocurrency documentary pulled from air at last minute

#44

Post by ID1452319 »

People talk about misinformation on Facebook, but the British media are guilty of promoting criminals and fraudsters via news stories about their "success".

For example, my local newspaper published a number of articles about a "successful" trader who was offering training programmes. Last month he was sentenced to three years in prison for fraud.

There are numerous examples of this and even "reality" TV shows promoting these people as successful or rich, it is about time the media are held to account.

Re: BBC cryptocurrency documentary pulled from air at last minute

#45

Post by ajsnigrutin »

cuteboy19 wrote: post #38
globular-toast wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why limit it to crypto? People don't question why the value of houses seems to magically rise globally despite no tangible value being added to the assets in most cases. People don't question why Wall Street traders get rich by trading second derivatives of mortgage backed securities with each other all day. What makes a mortgage any more "real" than an NFT?

The scarcity of houses is real and physical. The scarcity of NFTs is artificial, completely made up.

> The scarcity of houses is real and physical

Not really in a lot of cities, most scarcity is based on government regulations (=not allowing more of them to be built, or not allowed to build larger ones). There are a few locations where there is no actual usable space to build more, but mostly, that is not an issue.

Re: BBC cryptocurrency documentary pulled from air at last minute

#46

Post by Rarebox »

cuteboy19 wrote: post #24
luckyandroid wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Every person I've spoken to who's told me they're interested in crypto literally only care about it to make money, and have no interest in learning how it works. They all treat every last crypto-based use as investment like stocks, and not as a normal economic choice (e.g. "I want $3000 worth of bitcoin to buy a car" is not something people are doing, instead it's all "I want $3000 worth of bitcoin because the intern…

This is largely because there is almost nothing you can do with crypto apart from speculate and gamble. The more I learn about stuff like defi the more I understand just how fractally useless crypto is.

You can buy drugs and other illegal things off the internet (tor), that's very useful for some people. Basically crypto allows for transactions that could otherwise be blocked or easily tracked by central parties (1). It can also be used to bypass gambling laws.

For legal purchases and activities crypto is useless, regular money is much more practical.

[1] depending on which crypto and how it's used tracking is possible, so care is required (especially) when converting dollars to crypto.

Re: BBC cryptocurrency documentary pulled from air at last minute

#47

Post by ajsnigrutin »

ID1452319 wrote: post #44

People talk about misinformation on Facebook, but the British media are guilty of promoting criminals and fraudsters via news stories about their "success". For example, my local newspaper published a number of articles about a "successful" trader who was offering training programmes. Last month he was sentenced to three years in prison for fraud. There are numerous examples of this and even "reality" TV shows promot…

Stories of success are meaningless if you don't know how many people failed... If you listen to lottery winners, investing in lottery tickets is the best way to earn money,... somehow noone makes documentaries about millions of people who buy tickets and get nothing.

Re: BBC cryptocurrency documentary pulled from air at last minute

#48

Post by jallen_dot_dev »

astoor wrote: post #12

From the now-deleted BBC article[0] he allegedly turned $50 into $10,000 in 5 days, but doesn't say with which coin(s) and/or token(s): "Fifty dollars turned into $500 (£369) three days later," Mr Hassan said of his financial journey that began at the age of 19. "Two more days later, it was $5,000 (£3,690)." He said he called his parents to discuss what he should do, but during that half-hour conversation, his invest…

Could have been any one of thousands of dog-themed shitcoins. The hard to believe part is not the percent gain, but that it lasted 5 days before rugpulling.

Re: BBC cryptocurrency documentary pulled from air at last minute

#49

Post by [deleted] »

nsomaru wrote: post #39
captaincaveman wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your not buying the rights, that's the most annoying thing about NFTs, that people don't get.

I looked this up the other day and I might be wrong but it seems like in most jurisdictions even if you buy a meatspace piece of art you do not own the actual copyright on the work. While I’m not a fan of NFTs this does somewhat weaken the proposition that any “rights” cannot be sold with NFTs because IIRC this is the status quo in meatspace art purchases too.

[deleted]

Re: BBC cryptocurrency documentary pulled from air at last minute

#50

Post by enriquto »

WilTimSon wrote: post #2

It's astonishing to me that people will just buy into any success story that involves crypto and NFTs. People don't question why poorly drawn pictures are being bought for thousands of dollars, don't question why there are hundreds of altcoins on the market and some "cryptocurrency experts" are supposedly "offering free tips" on investment. The whole space is rife with scams and embellishments and yet there are so ma…

> poorly drawn pictures are being bought

not even the picture. The url to a picture on a random site.

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