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

alexkolchinski.com

91–100 of 149 posts

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

#91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I can't think of any assets that exist only in cyberspace. But even if you assert that grid-independence is not important, you're still stuck making the false claim that there's any scarcity in cyberspace. New crypto-coins can be created at the press of a button, thus your whole entire faith and hope is that everyone will always use Bitcoin, which is provably false.

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

#92
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.

This is actually a re-announcement of something already announced!

The only difference here is mentioning of specific cryptocurrencies.

Prove? That's a high bar to clear. But this is a spike at merely reiterating a bailout plan.

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

#93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can almost guarantee you most everyone who owns BTC will be 100% in favor of anything that will drive up it's price, because they falsely equate it's price as it's value. It has zero value despite it's price, just like beanie babies and Tulips always did.

I also own some and am very suspicious and a bit nervous that USA is getting in on it. Especially with the current administration.

The very fact that new crypto coins are about to be (or even ever could be) sanctioned by different governments/nations, is proof positive that the concept of scarcity is a myth.

Even Diamond-Hands Hodlers all admit that without scarcity there is no value either.

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

#94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Beating them to being first at what? The first to sink taxpayer resources into buying the latest meme coin? The first to provide a taxpayer funded bailout for crypto-bros? This is precisely the sort of 'waste and corruption' that the new administration should be getting away from, not diving into.

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

#95

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.

Gold is similarly useless when it's heavy and hard to move. There is little chance of that, and Bitcoin offers advantages in ease of transfer, transparency of transactions, and lack of government interference.

> Heavy and hard to move

This only applies to very large amounts of monetary value. $1m USD is currently under 24lb/10.7kg.

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

#96

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…

> And how will the store owner authenticate that it's actually gold?

Umm this is a solved problem. Believe it or not gold has been used as currency for thousands of years.

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

#97
Notably, Bitcoiners are very upset about all the worthless shitcoins added to the BTC there.

While the Ethereum is arguably decentralized, maybe, kind-of, the other ones: XRP, Solana, and Cardano, are basically centralized nonsense, that at best can be considered a payment system and not a decentralized commodity.

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

#98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Gold is similarly useless when it's heavy and hard to move. There is little chance of that, and Bitcoin offers advantages in ease of transfer, transparency of transactions, and lack of government interference.

> Heavy and hard to move This only applies to very large amounts of monetary value. $1m USD is currently under 24lb/10.7kg.

Easy to detect if you want to "move" between countries. You wouldn't want to try to get that through an airport.

Bitcoin is just some words on paper (or in your head).

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

#99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

Like a scam. It sounds like a scam. The issues with the currency are NOT just "can I actually pay you with it" (and that's STILL a big issue) it's all the surrounding work around conflict resolution. I paid a contractor with bitcoin, he didn't do the work, he won't refund me. Now fucking what? Court orders him to to give it back? How? They have no mechanism they can apply on the blockchain to actually enforce that or…

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

#100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

I can't think of any assets that exist only in cyberspace. But even if you assert that grid-independence is not important, you're still stuck making the false claim that there's any scarcity in cyberspace. New crypto-coins can be created at the press of a button, thus your whole entire faith and hope is that everyone will always use Bitcoin, which is provably false.

>New crypto-coins can be created at the press of a button

Oh? Can you prove this? How are you capable of creating new Bitcoins without mining them? Surely this big secret you have should be worth sharing.

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