• LifeInMultipleChoice@lemmy.world
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      7 hours ago

      Please explain your thoughts, so we can’t fake it. I would love to know your superior mindset that says, don’t invest in America, China or Crypto, where is your money going. If it’s ok dollars, you attacked Gaza. You attacked Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, Venezuela, Pakistan, Somalia, Yemen, Libya, Syria… And it goes on. Because the didn’t immediately bow. If you believe the U.S. Dollar should control everything, I would great fully tell you you are foolish. Not knowing is always for everyone. If you look into how the U.S. has used our currency to deflate value and hurt other countries… White attacking them through various ways, it will show you the U.S has wanted allies, they want interiors

  • brucethemoose@lemmy.world
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    9 hours ago

    Were they robbed?

    I bet they were.

    Say what you will about cash, but some hacker isn’t taking paper bills from across the planet via some technical exploit way over my head. With Etherium, the only thing protecting your money from the entire internet is you, and your understanding of complicated intricacies… And when lost, no one is coming to help you.

    They might get my credit card, yeah. But that’s either my own dumb fault, or a very rich bank’s problem.


    …It’s great for scammers, though. Crypto’s like a wet dream for them. And I find it remarkable the crypto community sees that as a feature, not a bug, and somehow thinks the whole world must see it that way.

    • lobut@lemmy.ca
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      7 hours ago

      I’ve just read Easy Money and then Number Go Up … it’s like built into the community that you should DYOR (do your own research) and getting scammed is like a college hazing ritual. “I guess I should have studied more” it’s weird how people feel as though consumer rights and protections are no longer applicable with this …

  • LifeInMultipleChoice@lemmy.world
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    15 hours ago

    I get why people say cryptocurrencys are a scam, but the whole proof of stake shit makes lot more sense if someone were trying to protect all of society from say mass inflation in places like Venezuela or something.

    The revolutionary w.e he was talking about had to be proof of stake, making it use 99.9% less power than things like Bitcoin.

    The alternative choice was always the same, control by the U.S. or China. Really not many other options.

    If people cared about the environment they wouldn’t use Bitcoin, if they cared about people, they wouldnt use the U.S. dollar and such. Every country in the world supports the U.S in doing so…

    We need better alternatives, etherium may not be it… but surely there has to be a better way to keep people from suddenly plunging into poverty when they don’t have control of their government.

    • SolidShake@lemmy.world
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      15 hours ago

      Crypto is a scam because after Bitcoin got popular so many people just started “making” it. As of today there are over 16,500 active crypto currencies. That’s fucking dumb idc who you are. The very original idea was to just have a global currency that didn’t have an exchange rate. That makes more sense then whatever the hell it’s turned into now. Crypto is like Pokemon cards.

      • null@piefed.nullspace.lol
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        15 hours ago

        The very original idea was to just have a global currency that didn’t have an exchange rate.

        Lol that’s not even close to true.

          • redsand@infosec.pub
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            11 hours ago

            Money laundering too. Google “liberty reserve” or check out Epstein files.

            Ultimately one of the Proof of Stake, momentum or ring sig coins would probably be better choices than Chinese Yuan as the next global currency to trade energy in even with this as true otherwise we go back to metal.

    • Eggymatrix@sh.itjust.works
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      15 hours ago

      The main point cryptobros are missing is that the economy is controlled by force, something you can experiece if you are sailing in the persian gulf these days.

      Even at the scale of a family, my taxes are collected once a year and if I don’t pay the nation comes collecting their due by force, via the law enforcement.

      All these cryptomoneys have the notable bug of not being controllable by the nations controllong their economy, so come a sufficient magnitude of value transfer they will be rendered illegal very fast. You ain’t getting paid with it, you ain’t buying food or or mortgages with it.

      You can buy drugs and killers with it though, which is nice if you are into that kind of thing.

      • Maeve@kbin.earth
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        14 hours ago

        Some places do pay with crypto and accept it as payment for legal goods, as well.

        • rainwall@piefed.social
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          13 hours ago

          Less than .00001% of transactions, maybe, mainly because bitcoin has hilarious transactions fees. It can easily cost you $8 to pay for a $1 stick of gum, and that transaction will still not clear for a dozen minutes. Its just non viable in the real world.

          Mostly you can change crypto to an actual currency. That’s just whatever.

          • Maeve@kbin.earth
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            12 hours ago

            Yes, business transactions are still negligible, but not impossible. I look for crypto to rise as the USD/GBP destabilize. I say this without holding any sort of crypto and I’m certainly not an economist (but look for commodities and paper products to skyrocket. Obviously, lifesaving medicine (not just pharmaceuticals), paper products, but kilo of salt.

            • rainwall@piefed.social
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              8 hours ago

              Crypto will not likely “rise” as the USD/etc takes a hit. Its not a hedging asset like gold, its purely a speculative gamble.

              It is often pitched as a hedge, but we have a decade of evidence now that shows it drops and rises with the stock market, except with even more volatility.

          • some_kind_of_guy@lemmy.world
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            9 hours ago

            The merchants I’ve used have given a discount, but I’m sure there are grifters who prey on the wobbly exchange rate and sheer amount of digits

      • boboliosisjones@feddit.nu
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        12 hours ago

        You can very easily tie your crypto to a debit card that works in any place that would take a VISA card and also with ATMs, so it is usable just like any other currency in that regard. Do not I am saying usable and not used, though.

        And under the hood it is of course converted to a regular ol’ currency and then paid using that.

      • toofpic@lemmy.world
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        12 hours ago

        Multiple crypto exchanges allow you to issue a card and pay for usual stuff. I don’t use one now because I don’t have savings in crypto, but I did buy groceries with BTC. They were actually traded to euros first at the moment of payment, but it didn’t require any additional steps from me.

    • MsPenguinette@lemmy.world
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      11 hours ago

      Crypto does work because digital scarcity is not good enough to create meaningful value so the fall back value is the energy input into the token. And the idea something is valuable just because of the electricity used is not very compelling and will never be adopted. Bitcoins price right now is highly based on miners keeping a floor based on not wanting a loss on their current energy input. Crypto basically abstracts the concept of money so far that losing actual reasons why it works. Touch grass

      • LifeInMultipleChoice@lemmy.world
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        9 hours ago

        The energy used has near nothing to do with value of the coin in the post. Bitcoin and Etherium are completely different in this manner.

        That said, Etherium shouldn’t be taken up globally as a universal currency as it came from dirty roots like most currencys do. We need a pure untainted currency created that goes global

    • macniel@feddit.org
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      15 hours ago

      Energy is still traded with petrol dollars, doesn’t matter what crypto you try to sell. By decentralising energy production (which most oligarchs dont like) you can get away from it, there is no other way.

      • LifeInMultipleChoice@lemmy.world
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        11 hours ago

        Didn’t the UAE say like yesterday they were going to start trading petrol in Yuan if they run out of dollars. People will accept whatever they feel is safe and available. Crypto isn’t safe, so it won’t be used

      • LifeInMultipleChoice@lemmy.world
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        11 hours ago

        It doesn’t matter if it is fiat or not necessarily. But if I told you your money was going to be worth half tomorrow, then half again the next every day for the next 16 weeks… You would think shit… Maybe there is a better way to do this. That has happened to millions of people across several countries. They didn’t wake up one day and choose it, but poof gone. Your entire life turned to nothing because we are using currency that isn’t based on anything but a government that can collapse. Universal currencys not run by local governments could help prevent such.

        The thing is, large countries that don’t have these problems currently, are the ones with power to change that… and would never vote to change it, because it could help poorer countries create stability and grow over time, which makes them not so much less than the big countries who want to be able to take advantage of those countries when they wish for their advantage.

        • Hapankaali@lemmy.world
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          5 hours ago

          First of all, hyperinflation hasn’t been an issue in any modern economy for decades. We understand more about monetary policy than we did in the 1930s.

          Secondly, economic crises did happen prior to Bretton Woods. In fact, they tended to be more common, and more severe.

          Finally, it is not obvious at all that “universal currencys (sic) not run by local governments” could do better, especially given our experience with cryptocurrencies, all of which are extremely volatile and not suitable as a currency for that and various other reasons.

        • A_norny_mousse@piefed.zip
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          4 hours ago

          The thing is, large countries that don’t have these problems currently, are the ones with power to change that… and would never vote to change it, because it could help poorer countries create stability and grow over time, which makes them not so much less than the big countries who want to be able to take advantage of those countries when they wish for their advantage.

          Well said. Ultimately imperialism. If we don’t change this way of “countries thinking” humanity is truly fucked.

        • booly@sh.itjust.works
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          10 hours ago

          But if I told you your money was going to be worth half tomorrow, then half again the next every day for the next 16 weeks… You would think shit… Maybe there is a better way to do this.

          Doesn’t that happen to most cryptocurrencies?

          • LifeInMultipleChoice@lemmy.world
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            10 hours ago

            Etherium is in question in the post, so never even close. I’m sure people have lost money, but if you bought at the absolute height and sold at the absolute low after it, you maybe could have lost half once. That’s max loss unless you bought every up and sold on every down. In 5 years you’d be down 16%. 1 year you’d be up 31%. It’s volatile but not as much as people make it out to be.

            The government and media have always had reason to put people against it and say it’s only used for drugs. Kind of like those fish men we bombed in boats without trial.

      • some_kind_of_guy@lemmy.world
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        9 hours ago

        It’s pretty good except for the money printing and federal control aspect. A global currency which belongs to the people seems desperately needed.

        • Holytimes@sh.itjust.works
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          6 hours ago

          Well crypto fundamentally can never be that.

          You would have to solve that silly little problem of there’s no such thing as perfectly free infinite energy generation entirely unregulated and uncontrolled by a government.

          So long as energy is controlled and funded by a government, all crypto will ever be is a clever hand wave of a problem by removing itself one step and claiming that problem doesn’t exist.

        • Hapankaali@lemmy.world
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          5 hours ago

          Yes, for various reasons it would be beneficial to have a global government responsible for global issues. However, until such time as we have one, local currencies are going to be the best bet.

      • BygoneNeutrino@lemmy.world
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        9 hours ago

        It’s controlled by a government. A government that has trillions of dollars worth of real assets isn’t nearly as safe or secure as digital currency backed by the block chain. It has been scientifically proven that human imagination is infinite. Bitcoin going to the moon isn’t an assumption, it’s a fact.

    • EfreetSK@lemmy.world
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      14 hours ago

      To me the PoS always sounds like the current system we have - the richer you are, the more power you have

      • Sir. Haxalot@nord.pub
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        13 hours ago

        Is it really that different with proof of work? In the end the control is going to end up with relatively few entities that have the resources to build large scale mining farms…

    • lime!@feddit.nu
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      15 hours ago

      i mean the big crux with proof of stake is that the majority of the currency was already held by a group with aligned interests. so it’s really no different than normal currencies, it’s just a bit earlier in the timeline.

    • CompactFlax@discuss.tchncs.de
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      14 hours ago

      I fail to see the difference between “I have some special numbers” and “I have this special metal” and either way the value swings in comparison to other things. The special numbers are certainly more portable but as a revolutionary “not a fiat currency” (not your words!) it’s a bit of a stretch, no?

      • LifeInMultipleChoice@lemmy.world
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        11 hours ago

        Oh yeah it’s a huge stretch. I just mean that the revolution tied to etherium was chopping out the massive environmental impacts compared to Bitcoin.

        Otherwise I look at it as the U.S. government owns the dollar, and it’s value is directly tied to what they say it is. If the U.S. government decided to double the amount of dollars in the world tomorrow and use the money in the way they want, everyone who owns said money just saw it’s value half, and only if they were on the in and in of who the federal government cared about would you possibly benefit or even make even.

        “I bought a bond for $100,000 with guaranteed 4.34% interest over 10 years”

        Then the government prints as much as it wants or makes decisions that could devalue the currency to its own benefit. Currency value drops by 10%, they pay you out 4.34% interest… And you lost money. Why, because the U.S. dollar lost money and much of the world hedges their bets on the U.S. staying normal… Which the U.S. Doesn’t look very normal right now.

        Hell if I became president and had support in Congress I would “print” 20 trillion dollars virtual of course put it in an account and build housing for everyone in the U.S. that doesn’t have it using 250k homes rotating them out every 30 years off the interest and money from that false account. It would put a shit ton of people to work, it would renovate all old homes deemed good enough to sustain people for the next 30 years and end homelessness while creating jobs or housing in areas which allows companies to expand to areas we otherwise weren’t using. Solar powe, fiber, whatever can be set up all around…

        Everyone else’s money drops in value, but all housing and rent costs just disappeared. Jobs are abundant and stress would drop for a lot of America. The debts we owe are in U.S. dollars, everyone now owes less, a crazy stupid slate to shake things up.

        Every other country/person that owned U.S. dollars, well they are just out of luck… they just lost a lot of value.

        Point is, who knows what kind of crazy shit people could do in government. If it collapsed in 1 country, not everyone who lives there should suffer because their only money is held together by that government. A universal currency is safer in that mindset.

        • MsPenguinette@lemmy.world
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          11 hours ago

          I would prefer our monetary systems come with the flexibility that is present when managed by governments. Unless someone can create crypto that has consumer protections

          • LifeInMultipleChoice@lemmy.world
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            9 hours ago

            Id rather it be global and not local government controlled. The consumer protection is immediate. The only way the consumer value drops of the value drops for the entire world, in which a chicken cost the same as a chicken did yesterday, because the trade for a chicken is the same to the universal value of a chicken at that location yesterday

            • Holytimes@sh.itjust.works
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              6 hours ago

              Its government controlled regardless. Unless you have entirely free, unregulated, sovereign free energy, electrical distribution and internet infrastructure.

              Crypto is just as reliant and controls by governments as regular assets. Its the same amount of steps removed as any “finite” item. But relies even more on the government then say gold.

              Because it’s required to convert it to a normal currency to spend it or obtain it. It also intrinsically ties it self to government controlled currency.

              Which in turn if a government really wanted the us or China for example could just start buying all of it with their control over the currency that the crypto requires to exist to have value.

              Once they control the majority of it they just own it functionally.

      • SeptugenarianSenate@leminal.space
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        14 hours ago

        to me it feels like the subtle difference between a representative democracy and a direct democracy. Representative tends to be more common as those in power are more willing to transition to systems in which they could reasonably hope to keep most of their power, whereas I see the crypto selling point being that the end-users would have some voting rights towards the setting of inflationary rates (different mechanisms for adjustment than fiat, I am sure [seriously not an expert on crypto or fiat {or what I think involves an understanding of “modern monetary theory”}]), versus non-government financial platforms such as bank owners (federal reserve) printing the money in order to effect inflation rates.

        • wizardbeard@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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          13 hours ago

          Any sort of proof of stake or weighting of power is game-able and abuse-able. Even 1 person gets 1 vote just results in a black market of people exchanging theirs for some other thing of value. It always comes down to a division between those who “have” and those who don’t. Even simply having more power through length of time invested creates power dynamics.

          That doesn’t mean that things can’t get better or we shouldn’t try, but it does mean that it’s something that can’t just be waved away with magic phrases.