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Crypto has become the ultimate swamp asset

economist.com

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Re: Crypto has become the ultimate swamp asset

#61

Post by swalsh »

croes wrote: post #48
swalsh wrote: post #11

Crypto should be taking off in use in the AI age. Right now I have credits I paid open AI for so I can use their API. I have anthropic credits, I have some credits in a video generator app. A2A is becoming a thing, and now it's a realistic thing to potentially expose an agent on a public endpoint to do useful work. Agents working with agents is a very clear future direction. But everything is a closed ecosystem. But…

Yeah lets combine two technologies that need lots of energy. Climate change is still a problem

A tired old debate devoid of facts. The chains I advocated for are proof of stake, and AI is a useful system worth the energy it uses. Should we not consume energy at all?

Re: Crypto has become the ultimate swamp asset

#62

Post by pydry »

qqqult wrote: post #22
pydry wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's sort of the point, I think. It's like buying an index tracker in the underground economy.

eh, it was fair to say that 8 years ago... now it's way easier to track public blockchain transaction chains on Bitcoin, Ethereum and the like than it is to track bank transfers across countries

Yet once you strip out speculation the underground economy is still by far the predominant user of blockchain transactions.

Bank transfers are A) linked to a passport and B) can be blocked.

Re: Crypto has become the ultimate swamp asset

#63

Post by rimbo789 »

elif wrote: post #40
rimbo789 wrote: post #4

Crypto was a huge mistake. It should have been rigorously regulated right out of the gate to the point of being unusable for anyone. I have yet to see a use case that doesn’t amount to buying drugs or defrauding rubes.

You don't think 1000% returns over the last 5 years is useful to anyone? During the height of inflation?

Returns gained entirely from fleecing rubes.

Fraud generally has good returns for the fraudsters.

Re: Crypto has become the ultimate swamp asset

#64

Post by sigwinch »

survirtual wrote: post #32
simonw wrote: post #5

That's the thing where if you have significant assets your family members get kidnapped until you irreversibly transfer those assets to criminals, right? I'm not sure how crypto continues to gain mainstream adoption in the face of that , no matter how much excitement there is for it in the current US administration. My previous argument was that a technology where losing your password means you lose your net worth wa…

That's the thing, fighting against kings and monarchs with a stranglehold on the colonies means you get invaded by a world superpower, right? Who would tolerate fighting for freedom if it means getting murdered? Such a short sighted pursuit that won't lead to anything better, it is foolish. Clearly we should bow down before the supreme authority and accept their benevolent ruling. /s History has this way of repeating…

Well, this article is about the difference between USA (with its first businessman president) and the rest of the world. The businessman president offers the cheapest talk, and the greatest return on investment for those who can afford a private audience. The accelerationist future — is this what you mean by kicking and screaming?

Re: Crypto has become the ultimate swamp asset

#65

Post by pawelduda »

jsheard wrote: post #31
pawelduda wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Kidnapping and ransom existed before crypto

So did pump and dump scams, but crypto brought in a new golden age of pumping and dumping. It's a matter of scale and ease of execution.

Getting kidnapped happens against victim's will, whereas getting into a global PvP casino, taking a risk and getting burned is self-inflicted. Sure, it's easy to fall into it when everyone, especially celebrities shill these scams but still, nobody's holding gun to anyone's head here. I've bet on wrong thing many times but ultimately it was my choice

Re: Crypto has become the ultimate swamp asset

#67

Post by olelele »

hengheng wrote: post #41

What I'm always missing with these takes is the "what if" component. Nobody really dares to paint the whole picture in articles like this. Authors seem to go as far as to find the moral infraction, and then stop. But that doesn't do what is happening justice. No, crypto does not need regulation. Law-based order needs crypto regulation. That's a big difference already. But we can go further than that. What if we don't…

With the speed up of climate change coming due to trump administration policies Florida might not be very attractive in the future…

Re: Crypto has become the ultimate swamp asset

#68

Post by rimbo789 »

charcircuit wrote: post #56
rimbo789 wrote: post #4

Crypto was a huge mistake. It should have been rigorously regulated right out of the gate to the point of being unusable for anyone. I have yet to see a use case that doesn’t amount to buying drugs or defrauding rubes.

It prevents centralized entities being the gatekeepers to the modern financial world. The US maintaining their own digital version of cash would also work, but the government is slow, and does not want to compete against these centralized entities due to being advantaged as the government controls the currency itself. Payment processors essentially get to dictate what is and is not allowed to be financially viable wh…

What’s wrong with centralized entities? There should be financial gatekeepers. They are much better than whatever crime syndicates benefit from crypto

Crypto is just speed running the 19th century and making us re learn all the reasons why we made the pre crypto regulations.

Re: Crypto has become the ultimate swamp asset

#70

Post by rimbo789 »

ionwake wrote: post #52
rimbo789 wrote: post #4

Crypto was a huge mistake. It should have been rigorously regulated right out of the gate to the point of being unusable for anyone. I have yet to see a use case that doesn’t amount to buying drugs or defrauding rubes.

[flagged]

Imagine in the year of 2025 believing crypto has value beyond making fraud easy.

After over a decade of this thing rattling around it remains a problem in search of a solution and by and large huge waste of everyone’s time.

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