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You Can Forget About Crypto Now

theatlantic.com

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Re: You Can Forget About Crypto Now

#91

Post by prisoner655321 »

hericium wrote: post #82

> But the problem is more fundamental than losing a bit of money. Crypto was built on the idea that you shouldn’t have to trust banks with your money, that people should be able to hold it themselves, hopefully somewhere a little more secure than a mattress. Yes, and some of these tokens, like BTC, allow this since "crypto was built". You can clone and build https://github.com/bitcoin/bitcoin and set up your own wall…

This isn’t about where you keep your coins, not really. That’s an implementation detail. This is about the entire system of wealth protection built up around fiat currency.

The word of the week is “contagion”: even if you did no business with FTX at all, even if you have your coins on a hard drive locked in the doomsday seed vault, crypto is crashing because investors are learning that the old system that protects wealth is necessary after all.

Re: You Can Forget About Crypto Now

#92

Post by x86x87 »

slaw wrote: post #3

> despite the ricketiness of the whole system, despite the constant feeling that everything might fall apart at any moment, there will come a time when crypto really arrives. For me crypto was always Ponzi scheme and nothing more, but it is because I don't laundry money or sell drugs, so I am not the target for crypto.

The narrative that crypto is usefull jusy for buying drugs or laundering money is ridiculous.

A couple a weeks ago I did a wire half way across the globe. It took almost 7 days for the money to arrive. With bitcoin? 60 minutes.

Remember when OnlyFans was in trouble because of the payments processors wanting to pull the rug? You probably don't and you probably are not aware how many people would have been impacted.

Do you watch porn? How many times have have sites that provide it been in trouble because of some puritan bs from the dark ages? Do you know this is the majority of the internet? Are you aware that a lot of innovations (the internet included) took off and became mainstream because of porn?

Do you know about civil asset forfeiture? How do you feel about losing everything you own just on the suspicion that maybe you did something?

You are a target for crypto. You believe you are not because of all the bs the media peddles. Stick with Bitcoin and ETH and treat it as a high risk investment and you'll be fine.

Apart from everything else, even if all crypto goes away tomorrow, the real innovation when it comes to crypto is the blockchain. Without the blockchain crypto is just digital money (and 90%+ of money is already digital - ie numbers in bank systems, ie not real).

Blockchain tech is here to stay.

Re: You Can Forget About Crypto Now

#93

Post by emj »

squidbeak wrote: post #39
bluepizza wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I just did. None of them ever heard of crypto. It might seem like crypto is all the rage online, but most people don't actually live in this bubble.

You managed to canvass Iranians, Venezuelans and Argentinians in 9 minutes flat?

Well the question has come up before, and since I also know people from all these countries. I have talked about insecure financial environments with them it is an interesting topic but not always ok to talk about. While I try not to bring up cryptos to normal people, I think it is telling that almost no one brings up crypto as a way to transfer money. People invested in bring it up but very seldom as a practical thing more as an investment.

Re: You Can Forget About Crypto Now

#94

Post by hericium »

wokwokwok wrote: post #35
HebericNewt wrote: post #6

I can't imagine this ageing well. It doesn't feel different. The evangelists will hurt and the whole crypto industry is set back, the cynics gloat and revel in the schadenfreude and claim for the 748th time that crypto is dead... Until 12 months later when we do it all over again. It's not the biggest, it's not the first, it won't be the last, it's nowhere near the most catastrophic. At least let the dust settle befo…

> The fall of Sam Bankman-Fried, and the more-than-likely fall of many more firms in the immediate future, has sapped much of that hope. > Now it’s hard to imagine a near- or even a medium-term future where crypto has a fraction of the influence it did six months ago. Is he really that wrong? The short term future for crypto looks pretty bad, there's no denying it. I'd say the medium term isn't looking that great eit…

The title itself suggests what reads like "the end of crypto". Investors tend to buy dips and, compared to stocks, it's harder to predict where's the bottom. People are buying BTC's "dip" every second.

Re: You Can Forget About Crypto Now

#95

Post by ahMath8 »

sek wrote: post #62

If it is a medium of exchange, all the attention never made a lot of sense. The use cases are niche; that's the thing. Venezuelans who avoid inflation and ordering illegal drugs are not a trillion-dollar business. All the legal/regulated areas mean competing with existing financial infrastructure, which is low margin and incredibly competitive. So if you see the space as a whole, it never had the potential market to…

No post body was provided.

Re: You Can Forget About Crypto Now

#96

Post by nowherebeen »

acdha wrote: post #28
HebericNewt wrote: post #6

I can't imagine this ageing well. It doesn't feel different. The evangelists will hurt and the whole crypto industry is set back, the cynics gloat and revel in the schadenfreude and claim for the 748th time that crypto is dead... Until 12 months later when we do it all over again. It's not the biggest, it's not the first, it won't be the last, it's nowhere near the most catastrophic. At least let the dust settle befo…

The big question now is whether VCs will pour billions of USD into pump things back up. The real economy isn’t awash with money seeking higher interest rates the way it was a year ago.

There are so many VCs that invested in blockchain startups. Now their source of money is dried up, I can't imagine they will be able to pump these startup valuations for long. At some point, they have to write it down. It will be the dot com crash for blockchain startups.

Re: You Can Forget About Crypto Now

#97

Post by scotty79 »

headsoup wrote: post #89
scotty79 wrote: post #81

It's really funny how much people read into FTX collapse. As if it was the Bitcoin itself. While the first time I hear about the FTX is when it collapses. And the first time I'm hearing about this "future trillionaire" is when I'm reading this article. Collapse of mtgox was a big thing. Turned out to be at most just a blip in history of bitcoin. Same with any subsequent exchanges collapses. Next truly significant eve…

You should probably read up on FTX a bit and which pies it has its fingers in then.

It's loud because some of wallstreet burnt their fingers for the first time on crypto. But there are already people on wallstreet who just laugh now becuse that's not their first rodeo.

Re: You Can Forget About Crypto Now

#99

Post by thr0wawayf00 »

prisoner655321 wrote: post #91
hericium wrote: post #82

> But the problem is more fundamental than losing a bit of money. Crypto was built on the idea that you shouldn’t have to trust banks with your money, that people should be able to hold it themselves, hopefully somewhere a little more secure than a mattress. Yes, and some of these tokens, like BTC, allow this since "crypto was built". You can clone and build https://github.com/bitcoin/bitcoin and set up your own wall…

This isn’t about where you keep your coins, not really. That’s an implementation detail. This is about the entire system of wealth protection built up around fiat currency. The word of the week is “contagion”: even if you did no business with FTX at all, even if you have your coins on a hard drive locked in the doomsday seed vault, crypto is crashing because investors are learning that the old system that protects we…

Exactly right, and this is crypto's fundamental problem.

Say you have a small group of people who are all on the same page about what crypto is and how it should be integrated into society. Then another group comes along and recognizes it as an opportunity to pump and dump. The scammers create their markets and their tokens, driving the value up insanely until it all comes crashing down and innocent people lose everything.

There's really nothing the original group can do to stop the scammers because the entire point of crypto is that you're assuming everyone is a criminal anyway. It just doesn't work.

Re: You Can Forget About Crypto Now

#100

Post by scotty79 »

FredPret wrote: post #87
user3939382 wrote: post #64

I remember Warren Buffet explaining that his top two analysts that basically run BH struggle to beat the S&P 500. Then I read all these comments confidently predicting the movement one way or the other of this very volatile asset, whose behavior is inextricably related to the movement of the larger economy. I guess it’s a good thing to pretend you can predict since you have a 50% chance of being right.

One thing to note about Warren Buffett: He has a massive pile of money. That makes getting a great return hard - every investment opportunity has a saturation limit. You can invest a million dollars in a local McDonalds, but not a billion or a trillion. This makes finding a good job for every one of his many dollars impossible. A theoretical super-investor who can buy the entire market will eventually get average ret…

I think Warren Buffett success of last few decades is mostly thanks to the market following him, not the other way around. Once he dies his business will tank because there's no secret sauce. Just the name of the man himself.
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