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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

#511

Post by squillion »

lmm wrote: post #189
johncolanduoni wrote: post #177

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Fed has had a wire service (Fedwire) for banks, allowing them to transfer their balances on the Fed’s balance sheet to another bank during settlement, since before the dollar moved off the gold standard. It was initially done with literal telegraphs - not sure at what point it became digital. It obviously has no pseudo anonymity, is literally the least democratized banking system in existence, and is subject to t…

> the banks can ask for it in cash if need be Ehhh, can they? I suspect any bank that tried would pretty soon find that it actually couldn't.

I think we’re talking about bank reserves, which is a fraction (in the order of 1%) of the total amount of money held in the customers’ transaction accounts. Reserves are convertible into cash. Not that any bank would suddenly want to do that, unless there’s a bank run, in which case it’s the customers who want the entirety of their accounts (100x the reserves) converted into cash, which is impossible not because the fed refuses to convert the money, but because the bank doesn’t have enough reserves.

Re: I wasted years of my life in crypto

#512

Post by torginus »

kwar13 wrote: post #461

HN generally views blockchain tech negatively I've found, but I'll leave this here for the inevitable: crypto if a casino and has no real use. https://kaveh.page/blog/what-is-blockchain-actually-used-for

regardless of the true merit of crypto, crypto articles have the tendency to fill the HN comment sections with the most unbearable people.

It's honestly kind of amazing, I never thought a person could be so intellectually condescending and smug while trying to sell you their shit at the same time.

Re: I wasted years of my life in crypto

#513

Post by immibis »

npoc wrote: post #210
spicyusername wrote: post #9

I've never understood the initial arguments about Bitcoin, no matter how many times they've been explained to me. The block chain is, and always was, an extremely inconvenient database. How anyone, especially many intelligent people, thought it was realistic to graft a currency on top of such a unwieldy piece of technology is beyond me. Maybe it goes to show how few people understand economics and anthropology and ho…

TLDR: to understand bitcoin you have to see the problem it's solving - most people are blind to it even though it affects their lives terribly. https://x.com/saylor/status/1878154748353818932 > "The block chain is, and always was, an extremely inconvenient database. How anyone, especially many intelligent people, thought it was realistic to graft a currency on top of such a unwieldy piece of technology is beyond me."…

Bitcoin is also money printed out of thin air. Bitcoin is also a fiat currency. It may be impossible to change the rate of Bitcoin printing, but it's definitely possible to print more cryptocurrencies (see Ethereum, Monero, Solana, Tron, etc), it's definitely the case that bitcoin's non-deflationary nature is terrible for it as a medium of exchange as it encourages hoarding and destabilises the value, and it's definitely the case that it's impossible for any currency with a fixed issuing rate to maintain a stable value.

Re: I wasted years of my life in crypto

#514

Post by hypeatei »

cowboy_henk wrote: post #479
blitzar wrote: post #473

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The blockchain and every transaction being public effectively disproves your entire supposed usecase.

But wallets aren't associated with a real person by default, unless it's created through some service that does KYC. If you can get anonymous tokens in an anonymous wallet, who cares if the transactions are public?

It takes one OPSEC slip up for someone to link a wallet address to you. So yes, your transactions being public doesn't matter as long as you are cognizant of that 24/7 365 days a year.

Re: I wasted years of my life in crypto

#515

Post by immibis »

npoc wrote: post #390
Kbelicius wrote: post #333

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Bitcoin was envisioned by its creator to be used as a currency. To buy and sell stuff using it. If you ask today what is bitcoin you'll be told that it is a store of value. The purpose of money is not to be a store of value. It can be, but that is not its purpose which the case of bitcoin clearly illustrates. > Interest on money loaned out is the only incentive required for putting money to "productive uses". And wha…

To become a medium of exchange, it needs to become a unit of account. That will happen as it's value stabilises, and that will only happen once it's proved itself as a store of value. What if Henry Ford evisaged his Model T being used as a temporary alternative for when your horse is unwell? Or a fairground ride? Bitcoin is what it is. > And what is the incentive to loan money in your system? Interest - the age-old s…

Value can only stabilise if there's either someone in charge adjusting the rate of printing to maintain a stable value. It cannot be done algorithmically as there's no way to determine the value from inside the system.

Non-deflationary currencies encourage hoarding which leads to wild swings in value. Deflationary currencies do much better. Look at the price chart of BTC vs XMR.

Re: I wasted years of my life in crypto

#516

Post by petesergeant »

lazide wrote: post #222
petesergeant wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> after weeks of feeling like a criminal over coffee with my cousin who owns the company that was selling me the condo I was like “can I just fucking give you two bitcoins on a thumbdrive…” and he said no, because you also can't do this. Bitcoin has not solved any problem there.

Actually, in many places it would work fine. Some it would be immediate jail time.

In the places it would work fine, so would a traditional transfer, though. Again, Bitcoin hasn't solved any issue here.

Re: I wasted years of my life in crypto

#517

Post by Almondsetat »

bdangubic wrote: post #115
ryandvm wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Crypto makes perfect sense if you just understand it's for doing illegal stuff. No moral judgement, but the only viable use case for the blockchain is doing things with money that the authorities don't want you to do. Other than that, no, there is no use for a distributed database because doing financial transactions with people you can't even trust to abide by the law is generally a bad idea.

I am a dual citizen. I wanted to buy a condo near my parents where I spend my summers with my family. I have never in my entire life felt like a criminal more than trying to buy something, with the money I made with my wife, going through regular financial system. after weeks of feeling like a criminal over coffee with my cousin who owns the company that was selling me the condo I was like “can I just fucking give yo…

Foreign property ownership is not like buying an Armani bag when you visit Italy. The financial regulations are complementary to the legal ones. Besides, even if you just sent 2 bitcoins, what about all the remaining documentation? It's not gonna fill out itself

Re: I wasted years of my life in crypto

#518

Post by dns_snek »

danaris wrote: post #504
Dilettante_ wrote: post #399

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your argument here appears to be "crypto is no better than fiat, because you can build the same systems on top of them." What you put on top is not the core value proposition of cryptocurrencies? It's what's underneath that's different, that was always the point. Fiat currency is built on a foundation of gov't control, whether it's the physical currency or the money in your bank account. Cryptocurrencies, fundamental…

No; the argument is much closer to "if you don't make cryptocurrency basically the same as fiat, by building the same systems on top of it, it's useless to the vast majority of people ."

That is just an observation, not an argument against building, improving, and using crypto.

Cryptocurrency doesn't need to do everything for everyone at all times to be a useful thing to have in the world. It only needs to be helpful to a subset of people, in a subset of situations, some of the time.

I'm happy paying by card for ~100% of my daily transactions, but I want cryptocurrency to exist should the need arise. The rise of authoritarian governments and policies across the world should've made that obvious by now. What's legal and perfectly moral today can become a crime tomorrow.

Re: I wasted years of my life in crypto

#519

Post by kachapopopow »

jenadine wrote: post #195
kachapopopow wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

you could call them criminals, many do, activists are also criminals from the view of politicans I generally just used "who murder and steal" as a basic notion of "it's good for people who are in trouble with the law"

Legal and morally right are two different things though.

criminals are not always bad people: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VrFs2_uhz-o

and to break it down lawfully or/and morally bad:

  lawfully bad, morally bad = bad and crypto is one of the major tools in your arsenal

  lawfully bad, morally good = neutral, but you are a prosecuted criminal, crypto is helpful for you but there are alternatives

  lawfully good, morally bad = bad, but not a prosecuted criminal, crypto is not that useful for you

  lawfully good, morally good = you are not a criminal, crypto is not that useful for you
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