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Crypto crash deepens, stocks slip

reuters.com

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Re: Crypto crash deepens, stocks slip

#611

Post by vocatus_gate »

thehappypm wrote: post #444

I think an important Achilles' heel of cryptocurrencies is just how hoarded they are. Whales -- in general, they're just early adopters -- own huge swathes of the total amount of crypto out there. If we were to actually move to a world where crypto is used as currency, we'd have trillionaires who "earned" their wealth simply by being early adopters. Government issued currencies can solve this through taxation or more…

One could argue they "earned" the wealth by taking an enormous risk and holding through crazy swings when no one else would. And ended up be rewarded for taking the risk, as they should.

Along comes the people salty they didn't take the risk, and want to steal the money from the people who did take the risk. It's a tale as old as time.

Re: Crypto crash deepens, stocks slip

#612

Post by arthurcolle »

i386 wrote: post #592
matheusmoreira wrote: post #425

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It's not trying to be a PayPal. Binance already has a credit card service that lets people use their cryptocurrency holdings to buy anything.

Binance has to be the most cringeworthy term of 2021

Binance is an exchange

Re: Crypto crash deepens, stocks slip

#613

Post by kdragon »

UncleMeat wrote: post #549
kdragon wrote: post #544

I feel like the HN community, who are more tech literate, should have a better understanding of Bitcoin and crypto. I don't like all the ignorant comments that focus purely on the financials. Is cryptocurrency space not full of technological marvel? Bitcoin has always been an application for demonstrating the engineering achievements behind it (solving byzantine faults, fungibility of data), so we can build even grea…

> Bitcoin has always been an application for demonstrating the engineering achievements behind it (solving byzantine faults, fungibility of data), so we can build even greater tools like smart contracts, programmable money, trust-less p2p networks, etc so many things. If you were to categorize all discussions about BTC between live humans into two buckets: discussions about the price of BTC and discussions about appl…

I don't think it's fair to base a topic on the loudest voices in the room. That is a road to madness.

I still wish to see more interest in technical discussion of Bitcoin here. Like the new BIP proposal expanding the scripting capability of the protocol. I don't know what percentage of BTC discussions on HN are in either bucket, but I hope at the very least it would be 50/50. Don't you agree?

Re: Crypto crash deepens, stocks slip

#614

Post by [deleted] »

UncleMeat wrote: post #553
intotheabyss wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This might be shocking to people, but there are people in crypto that own zero Bitcoin. You can dislike Bitcoin and still be bullish on crypto.

I'm not sure it is possible to be bullish of crypto in general. Surely at most a small number of tokens will win and the rest will drop to zero. Owning the entire ecosystem isn't diversification like investing in many companies.

[deleted]

Re: Crypto crash deepens, stocks slip

#615

Post by [deleted] »

inter_netuser wrote: post #542
deschutes wrote: post #301

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What's stopping your adversaries from seizing hardware? Nothing? So the system relies folks playing nice in the physical world? The whole thing is a ridiculous fantasy with an asinine threat model.

The same that stops people from invading your house, caging you, and confiscating everything you own. Violence. Either monopoly on violence in the state under whose protection miners operate, or private security for smaller threats. Miners in China, Russia and Iran are essentially absolutely immune to threats from the West. and vice versa. It's not designed to gamble and make a quick buck, but to survive even a nucle…

[deleted]

Re: Crypto crash deepens, stocks slip

#616

Post by Retric »

inter_netuser wrote: post #542
deschutes wrote: post #301

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What's stopping your adversaries from seizing hardware? Nothing? So the system relies folks playing nice in the physical world? The whole thing is a ridiculous fantasy with an asinine threat model.

The same that stops people from invading your house, caging you, and confiscating everything you own. Violence. Either monopoly on violence in the state under whose protection miners operate, or private security for smaller threats. Miners in China, Russia and Iran are essentially absolutely immune to threats from the West. and vice versa. It's not designed to gamble and make a quick buck, but to survive even a nucle…

Compromising hardware doesn’t require compromising countries.

If you’re servers are worth X Billion Dollars that’s attractive to the same sorts of criminals that rob banks. Hell governments have a long history of running drugs and state sanctioned piracy etc. An attractive enough target needs serious security.

Re: Crypto crash deepens, stocks slip

#617

Post by Qub3d »

Ekaros wrote: post #436
Qub3d wrote: post #414

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Its a fraud in that the money/gold/intrinsic fiat that is supposed to be backing it has not been credibly proven to exist, at least at a value matching the current amount of USDT in supply. --- Let's say I decide to make NerdBucks. I offer to sell you n NerdBucks for n dollars, 1-to-1, and tell you I will always buy those NerdBucks back at the same price. This is how NerdBucks get "pegged" to a dollar -- if someone w…

I'm not oppose to calling it fraud or scam. I'm in general just against using Ponzi scheme to describe things that are not systems where previous investors are promised and paid profits with later investors money. BTC is bubble or mania. But not really Ponzi. Tether is even less so, it's carnival token...

Here, there is a lot of very in-depth discussion on why Tether is specifically a Ponzi scheme at the top of HN right now: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27214342

Re: Crypto crash deepens, stocks slip

#618

Post by gverrilla »

sashimi-houdini wrote: post #562
pradn wrote: post #292

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It doesn't seem like anyone believes cryptos are supposed to be currencies any more. All the talk around them is around them being a new, exciting, and potentially very lucrative investment class. If you go to Coinbase's front page, you see that you can buy and sell them, like you can with Robinhood. It's not trying to be a PayPal. The currency-ness does serve an important purpose. It helps bring in investment for th…

It used to be that enthusiasts could claim "currency of the future", but a lot of time has passed and that future simply hasn't come. In fact, Bitcoin's top utility is already far behind us. Dropping "currency of the future" does come with the challenge of coming up with a new supposed benefit, which is where "store of value" comes in. Problem is: there is no inherent value in bitcoin.

>a lot of time

not really

Re: Crypto crash deepens, stocks slip

#619

Post by Scarblac »

jasonlaramburu wrote: post #461
fsagx wrote: post #238

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Does it matter? The economic stimulus money "simply appeared" when checks were printed or payments were direct deposited.

Yes, we will struggle with the inflation and currency devaluation caused by the stimulus for years to come. If that money actually made its way into the US economy it might not matter, but some nonzero percentage was used to buy crypto at a peak, the value of which is now gone.

But the $ money is still there, it went to whoever had the bitcoin before it was bought.

Re: Crypto crash deepens, stocks slip

#620

Post by Swenrekcah »

thebean11 wrote: post #480
echelon wrote: post #418

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Opportunity cost and choice. Dogecoin means more to me than BTC. Good luck convincing me, or those that share my belief, otherwise If I put $500 into either, it'd be Doge.

That's fine, I don't think you have any evidence for your position though. You could easily make the opposite argument that Doge is basically a marketing campaign for BTC and will bring in more investment dollars than it sucks away. It's not zero sum.

Why would BTC need a marketing campaign? Isn’t it a value store? Or was it a currency? Or is it perhaps a bubble of nothingness that actually would need a marketing campaign?

I have put about $1000 into various cryptos as a hedge, but I fully expect to lose it all and the day can’t come soon enough.

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