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I wasted years of my life in crypto

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Re: I wasted years of my life in crypto

#431

Post by yunohn »

AnthonyMouse wrote: post #393
habinero wrote: post #383

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, the argument is crypto is primarily used for crimes. Which is true. Also, if you want privacy, don't use crypto.

> No, the argument is crypto is primarily used for crimes. Which is true. The argument is right here: > Outside of buying sex and drugs the only uses for cryptocoins are, and always has been, ransoms, scams and gambling. It doesn't contain the word "primarily" which indeed makes it false, and the rebuttal to your different claim is this one: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46190260 > Also, if you want privacy, d…

Sorry, which web shops demand governmental ID? I have never had to provide them mine in any of the countries I’ve lived in.

If your concern is the webshop finding out your address, well I’m unsure how you solve this when you buy with crypto, but again ship to your home. If you have an alternative place to get it delivered for privacy, might as well do that with fiat transactions the same way.

Re: I wasted years of my life in crypto

#432

Post by l___l »

munksbeer wrote: post #396
mirekrusin wrote: post #376

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I never understood why bitcoin is winning popularity/pricing over ie. ethereum - which doesn't burn energy anymore and you can actually do programming on it, not just moving money from a to b.

Because it's based on narratives. Bitcoin has the strong narrative and the "network effect". Because bitoin keeps surviving, the narrative reinforces itself. At this point surely most people know, even if they're unwilling to admit or fooling themselves, the utility value is basically dead. The utility value is now a pure gamble that a person tomorrow will pay me more than I paid for it today, thinking that a person…

One interpretation of this comment, if viewed from an adversarial angle, is that comments like this, although perhaps not this comment specifically, are designed to dissuade people from buying crypto days before a bull-run starts.

Accurate data illuminate a lot of things.

Re: I wasted years of my life in crypto

#433

Post by KellyCriterion »

Ekaros wrote: post #306
bialpio wrote: post #260

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is only a selling point in places like USA. Even before moving to the USA 13 years ago I was able to send money via wire transfer domestically for free, and it settled within 1 business day (to me that's fast enough). IIUC nowadays intra-EU wire transfers also are free (but I kinda view them as "domestic"), however I'm not sure how quickly they settle. The way how banking worked in the US was definitely one of t…

Less than 10 seconds for SEPA Instant. Still some stragglers, but I have understood coverage starts to be pretty good.

....coverage is obliged by ECB since of 01.10.2025 :-) (for 100% implementation, some banks had earlier already the option to receive them but it was not widely used as nearly no one was able to send before the regulatory forces stepped up to enforce support for it)

Re: I wasted years of my life in crypto

#434

Post by Dilettante_ »

amelius wrote: post #403
Dilettante_ wrote: post #394

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Freedom enables crime" is an entirely true argument, and a gift from heaven for The Powers That Be who need to justify the taking-away of Freedom.

Freedom is never absolute. What gives one person freedom may limit another person's freedoms. Therefore you will have to weigh the pros and the cons of a technology that promises freedom.

There is a difference between "Freedom to do something" and "Freedom to not have something happen to you".

If we keep curtailing the former to serve the latter, we will end up perfectly safe from interruptions, doing nothing at all(aside from what the government dictates as 'serving the common good')

Re: I wasted years of my life in crypto

#435

Post by zombot »

hshdhdhj4444 wrote: post #398
mozarella wrote: post #206

https://vitalik.eth.limo/general/2024/01/31/end.html#section... Vitalik touched upon this briefly in an other-wise long and wide-reaching essay. I think its a good treatment of the topic that the author is talking about. He categorizes the ecosystem broadly into 4 cohorts- [token holders] (which includes investors, speculators, etc.), [pragmatic users] (actual end-users who spend crypto to buy stuff), [intellectuals]…

The only buyers are criminals, sanction evaders, and probably the dumbest people in the world given that the entire crypto ecosystem is focused on one thing and one thing only. Creating the most deflationary monetary system in history.

And also the most unerasable, and hence traceable, system. You can't delete records from a blockchain.

Re: I wasted years of my life in crypto

#436

Post by l___l »

phplovesong wrote: post #363

The original promise of crypto was lost a LONG time ago. Instead of being a true rival to FIAT, it became a thing with a toxic-as-hell commumity, fraud, and basically its nothing more than a high risk stock. The risk is NOT only "will this go up or down" but you have a high risk of being robbed, as have happened to millions of people. Maybe there will be a better alternative in the future, but right now bitcoin is no…

> its nothing more than a high risk stock

Nothing more? Proof-Of-Work wasn't innovative?

With fiat you have high risk of losing 50% of USD's purchasing value within 2 years, which already happened, and which is not far from being robbed, as have happened to millions of people too.

Re: I wasted years of my life in crypto

#437

Post by Lio »

AnthonyMouse wrote: post #393
habinero wrote: post #383

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, the argument is crypto is primarily used for crimes. Which is true. Also, if you want privacy, don't use crypto.

> No, the argument is crypto is primarily used for crimes. Which is true. The argument is right here: > Outside of buying sex and drugs the only uses for cryptocoins are, and always has been, ransoms, scams and gambling. It doesn't contain the word "primarily" which indeed makes it false, and the rebuttal to your different claim is this one: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46190260 > Also, if you want privacy, d…

>> Also, if you want privacy, don't use crypto.

> Can you tell me another way of buying something over the internet without tying the purchase to a government ID?

Isn't the real question more, does crypto actually allow you buy things without tying the purchase to a government ID?

I'm no expert but I regularly see articles about de-anonymisation. This leads me to be sceptical about claims to privacy, certainly given enough time and motivation by a government actor.

Re: I wasted years of my life in crypto

#438

Post by munksbeer »

l___l wrote: post #432
munksbeer wrote: post #396

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because it's based on narratives. Bitcoin has the strong narrative and the "network effect". Because bitoin keeps surviving, the narrative reinforces itself. At this point surely most people know, even if they're unwilling to admit or fooling themselves, the utility value is basically dead. The utility value is now a pure gamble that a person tomorrow will pay me more than I paid for it today, thinking that a person…

One interpretation of this comment, if viewed from an adversarial angle, is that comments like this, although perhaps not this comment specifically, are designed to dissuade people from buying crypto days before a bull-run starts. Accurate data illuminate a lot of things.

I would benefit enormously from people buying crypto to keep the price going up. I've owned bitcoin for 9 years. I bought it when I realised that the narrative was strong enough to overcome any technical arguments and I wanted to profit from that. One day I'm assuming it help me retire.

(I just wish I'd bought more)

Re: I wasted years of my life in crypto

#439

Post by ethbr1 »

amelius wrote: post #403
Dilettante_ wrote: post #394

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Freedom enables crime" is an entirely true argument, and a gift from heaven for The Powers That Be who need to justify the taking-away of Freedom.

Freedom is never absolute. What gives one person freedom may limit another person's freedoms. Therefore you will have to weigh the pros and the cons of a technology that promises freedom.

I'd extend that a bit, in the same vein as TFA: you should always be aware of who you're taking freedom away from and who you're giving it to, in practical actual terms, when designing or deploying revolutionary technology.

If you deploy a non-government fiat monetary system... most of your users are going to be people who want to avoid government currency controls.

Consequently, without a counterbalance, they're going to skew the industry towards their needs.

In the same way that allowing the largest advertising company in the world to own the most popular browser in the world has some conflicts of interest.

Money sets strategic direction over the long term.

Re: I wasted years of my life in crypto

#440

Post by uselesswords »

theelous3 wrote: post #405

All of this was obvious 8 or so years ago during the first real boom when cryptos pants fell down. All hype no usecase. Here we are now how far along in (20 odd years?) with how many smart people making a genuine concerted effort to build something useful (literally millions over the years?) - and still the only useful thing anyone has ever done with blockchain is buy drugs and have a good time. As I say, crypto is o…

There are multiple countries in the world where issues like hyperinflation have pushed day-to-day transactions to crypto for everyday people.
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