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The “strategic reserve” exposes crypto as the scam it always was

alexkolchinski.com

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Re: The “strategic reserve” exposes crypto as the scam it always was

#71

Post by lesuorac »

bufferoverflow wrote: post #56
1659447091 wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And completely worthless in the event of war with attacks on power grids electronics etc. Gold on the other hand, I could trade for food.

If you are at a war where your whole electric grid and internet and SMS are completely down, you have much bigger problems than currency not working. It means your bank accounts are gone, your credit cards are gone. And how are you actually going to use gold as currency? Walk into a shop and shave off some gold at the checkout? And how will the store owner authenticate that it's actually gold? Bullets will be a bette…

I'm not sure war even needs to be that large for it to be a problem.

Basically unless its like China vs US then you don't need sell BTC to fund the country (even then I don't think you would; but if you never need to sell BTC its pointless).

If China vs US then realistically, China can and probably will cut a lot of the internet traffic between the two. Bitcoin only functions because of the public ledger; if Chinese miners aren't sync'd with non-Chinese miners then you have a double-spend problem and I can't see bitcoin not going to 0 pretty quickly.

Re: The “strategic reserve” exposes crypto as the scam it always was

#72

Post by desumeku »

quantadev wrote: post #39
goosejuice wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How are you defining value here?

Everything that hodls it's desirability even after a grid-down scenario.

Your idea of value is completely and utterly disrupted from the rest of the world, then.

Re: The “strategic reserve” exposes crypto as the scam it always was

#73

Post by desumeku »

Eddy_Viscosity2 wrote: post #63
sadeshmukh wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

All currency is made up, and even physical reserves (gold) have very little intrinsic value. Bitcoin is just another one.

Yes, this is true. The federal government already has the US dollar. It does not need "another one". Why would it?

It's not about "needing" another one. The "other one" is already here, whether you think you need it or not. Will America play the leading role in how the world reacts to its existence, or will someone else beat them to being first? The answer was already decided. Welcome to the future.

Re: The “strategic reserve” exposes crypto as the scam it always was

#74

Post by desumeku »

kolchinski wrote: post #12
sega_sai wrote: post #3

While I completely agree crypto is full of shysters and most likely crypto has zero intrinsic value, as well the current administration tries to enrich itself through crypto, I disagree that recent change in prices after announcement proves it is a scam. Because if the government would have announced a strategic reserve in maple syrup, the syrup futures would have increased in price drastically as well.

Oh yeah agreed that the change in prices doesn't prove it's a scam, my thought was more along the lines of - when crypto insiders who have been talking up crypto as valuable/important because it's independent of the government quickly change their tune and cheer on government intervention when it goes into their pockets, it makes it pretty clear what the dynamic actually is.

Lumping an entire industry into a single convenient strawman isn't very good for you.

Re: The “strategic reserve” exposes crypto as the scam it always was

#75

Post by desumeku »

RealStickman_ wrote: post #66
s1artibartfast wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Intrinsic vale is not a prerequisite for utility. USD has no intrinsic value. Yes, you can pay your taxes with it. That is a contingent value. The only intrinsic value of crypto is that it can not be unilaterally inflated away, and can be difficult to digitally seize. In this respect it is similar to gold. It lacks the physical uses of gold, but is easier to transport. No, I don't think the US government should inves…

USD is backed by the US economy and a significant portion of global trade. BTC is backed by hopes, dreams and market speculation.

Correction: The USD is backed by a ponzi scheme where people who put money in have to rely on the USA being able to get more out to pay debt. If it fails at this at any point (which has nearly happened dozens of times!) then the entire thing collapses and suddenly the "world reserve currency" isn't as much "currency" as it is pieces of paper and digital ledger entries. Ironic, isn't it?

Re: The “strategic reserve” exposes crypto as the scam it always was

#76

Post by [deleted] »

citadel_melon wrote: post #36
77pt77 wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> crypto has zero intrinsic value So do fiat currencies.

USD is used and is useful for transacting — especially in global markets — because of its high trading volume, stability, limited/no capital flow restrictions, federal reserve’s monetary policy to favor neither exporting or importing (meaning they will not chose to intentionally deflate or inflate the dollar’s value to favor/disfavor certain industries), and also USD’s global acceptance. On the other hand, people don…

[deleted]

Re: The “strategic reserve” exposes crypto as the scam it always was

#77

Post by desumeku »

horsawlarway wrote: post #68
xtracto wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have a theory that the volatility we have seen in crypto historically is due to the influence that speculators have in the price of the asset given the % of speculator vs non-speculator money sunk into BTC As more and more "non-speculator" money enters BTC, the swings in the price will decrease. I see the "rainbow chart" as a backing to this theory. It shows how the price has been slowly settling . In 25 years we s…

But this is just more "speculator" money... if I'm being pessimistic, this is an outright scam play to make the early speculators filthy rich by defrauding the US public out of their tax dollars. The whole freaking problem is that crypto turns out to suck absolute cock as a real method of paying for things (Said as someone who has actually paid for items with bitcoin, incl on the OG silk road...) How many of these fo…

Expect to be using cryptocurrency a lot more than you're used to in the future. How does native integration with Windows and all major operating systems/phones sound?

Re: The “strategic reserve” exposes crypto as the scam it always was

#78

Post by s1artibartfast »

RealStickman_ wrote: post #66
s1artibartfast wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Intrinsic vale is not a prerequisite for utility. USD has no intrinsic value. Yes, you can pay your taxes with it. That is a contingent value. The only intrinsic value of crypto is that it can not be unilaterally inflated away, and can be difficult to digitally seize. In this respect it is similar to gold. It lacks the physical uses of gold, but is easier to transport. No, I don't think the US government should inves…

USD is backed by the US economy and a significant portion of global trade. BTC is backed by hopes, dreams and market speculation.

What point are you making in relation to what I said? USD can still be devalued.

Re: The “strategic reserve” exposes crypto as the scam it always was

#79

Post by [deleted] »

neilv wrote: post #22

Bigger picture, a genuine curious question: For the sake of argument, let's imagine a scenario in which, someday, a ridiculously, blatantly corrupt person became President. And Congress was aware, but had controlling majorities that, one way or another, were aligned with this situation. And the Supreme Court had already been started to be stacked by the same person. And various agencies under Executive branch, which…

[deleted]

Re: The “strategic reserve” exposes crypto as the scam it always was

#80

Post by desumeku »

amluto wrote: post #34
arbitrary_name wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Short answer: no. Long answer: no, oil is needed for the functioning of our society. Helping smooth price volatility is useful and valuable. On the other hand, BTC is not needed for our society to function, and so there is little to no value in managing prices of it. This appears to be an attempt to hedge against the collapse in the trust in the dollar.

> This appears to be an attempt to hedge against the collapse in the trust in the dollar. Or maybe an attempt to accelerate a reduction of trust in the dollar? Any cryptocurrency in the strategic reserve is being purchase with dollars, which increases the number of dollars in circulation, and will also be directly inflationary (if it’s newly issued dollars) or increases the US debt (if those dollars are obtained by i…

Maybe it's a good idea to have a currency that isn't being inflated and devalued all the time with every little thing the government does. Kind of gold. Maybe digital gold? I'll call it bitgold. Or what about bitcoin?
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