Bitcoin Is [Functioning as] a Scam(gauravsharma.com)
gauravsharma.com
Bitcoin Is [Functioning as] a Scam
https://gauravsharma.com/2021/02/04/bitcoin-is-a-scam/
27 comments
That’s nice. I wish I had stayed mining longer in 2010. Back then it was mostly losses when taking electricity into consideration and I stopped at 1btc with my pleb ATI card.
I am feeling the same way. Not really about the value but I feel like I don’t want to be part of it anymore
I am feeling the same way. Not really about the value but I feel like I don’t want to be part of it anymore
Tether is the real scam.
I became aware of Bitcoin back when the first bubble happened and it went up all the way to one dollar, but when I tried to buy it it was really difficult, you had to do some wacky thing like buy the internal currency of some rpg game, and I lost interest.. probably should have tried harder. It might be a scam, or might not, I don’t know.
Sometimes I feel like I have some cyber stalker who just instantly downvotes anything I say.. generally about 30 minutes after I post something I get 2 quick downvotes, no matter what I said. It is odd.
And right on schedule, exactly two downvotes
No idea about the rest of the comments, but in this particular case it's probably just the lack of value for the others. It's a musing on your experiences with bitcoin, but doesn't help or inform anybody else.
Those are a lot of words from someone who admits they panic sold. I don't see anything new in this article apart from the usual Tether FUD (and you know what that means - stonks go up)
Interesting catch-22 if you won't listen to somebody telling you about their mistake because they admit it was a mistake.
"I don't trust anyone who stopped using Python to give me their opinion on Python"
"I don't trust anyone who stopped using Python to give me their opinion on Python"
Well, he also says "I expect Bitcoin to continue increasing in value".
How
many people lost out on being rich
they will all write blogs about why bitcoin sucks
Then that is simply a way of coping.
"Can you imagine Apple or Tesla having an asset that’s expected to go up and down in orders of magnitude through the years on their balance sheet?"
Well that part of the argument didn't age well :)
Well that part of the argument didn't age well :)
I simultaneously believe that crypto is a giant scam, and that it has the potential to be the future of finance and radically change our world.
Cryptocurrency gives us the first opportunity to have trust minimized financial transactions, and contract enforcement without the use of violence. This is revolutionary in ways I couldn't do justice to explaining here in the comments. Almost no one in the field is actually working towards these goals, but I want to live in a world where these things are possible, so I keep hope.
Cryptocurrency gives us the first opportunity to have trust minimized financial transactions, and contract enforcement without the use of violence. This is revolutionary in ways I couldn't do justice to explaining here in the comments. Almost no one in the field is actually working towards these goals, but I want to live in a world where these things are possible, so I keep hope.
Most cryptocurrencies are a huge scam. They are pyramid schemes that the new people pay the early adopters. There are no "real" values. But, investing in Crypto is still a fast way to get rich.
Crypto is a given at this point; fiat currencies are on their way out. Whether it's Bitcoin that takes the stage is up for debate.
So here's why crypto is useful:
* Ease of dissemination has intrinsic value. Keeping track of gold/fiat/etc. and transporting it is difficult and error-prone. Crypto doesn't have that problem.
* Cutting out middle-men. You don't need transaction services to send and receive crypto.
* More transparency (or more privacy). We can easily see how much Bitcoin people are moving around, as we often see with the seemingly quarterly "whale sends $1 billion in Bitcoin to someone" reports, and yet no one can really know how much crypto you personally have.
* Smart contracts. You can make the transaction of crypto trigger events, or create second-degree value as part of the transaction.
Crypto is very young, so these things are being worked on and improved. Some things might not pan out, and some new things might suddenly become extremely valuable.
People saying "lol, crypto is stupid like who even needs it" are dinosaurs living with delusions of grandeur - and stability. Society is at a crossroads whether people like it or not, and things will drastically change over the next decade.
To say that Bitcoin is behaving like a Ponzi scheme isn't inaccurate. Yes, it's almost like the gold rush in terms of people rushing in to probably find themselves washed up and broke. It's still a gold rush though (so maybe start making shovels?)
So here's why crypto is useful:
* Ease of dissemination has intrinsic value. Keeping track of gold/fiat/etc. and transporting it is difficult and error-prone. Crypto doesn't have that problem.
* Cutting out middle-men. You don't need transaction services to send and receive crypto.
* More transparency (or more privacy). We can easily see how much Bitcoin people are moving around, as we often see with the seemingly quarterly "whale sends $1 billion in Bitcoin to someone" reports, and yet no one can really know how much crypto you personally have.
* Smart contracts. You can make the transaction of crypto trigger events, or create second-degree value as part of the transaction.
Crypto is very young, so these things are being worked on and improved. Some things might not pan out, and some new things might suddenly become extremely valuable.
People saying "lol, crypto is stupid like who even needs it" are dinosaurs living with delusions of grandeur - and stability. Society is at a crossroads whether people like it or not, and things will drastically change over the next decade.
To say that Bitcoin is behaving like a Ponzi scheme isn't inaccurate. Yes, it's almost like the gold rush in terms of people rushing in to probably find themselves washed up and broke. It's still a gold rush though (so maybe start making shovels?)
>Crypto is a given at this point; fiat currencies are on their way out.
This statement is false and backed by zero evidence.
>* Ease of dissemination has intrinsic value. Keeping track of gold/fiat/etc. and transporting it is difficult and error-prone. Crypto doesn't have that problem.
USD hasn't been gold backed for a while, argument invalid. Regarding tracking and transporting, I'd rather have the money in my bank than be the guy that can't remember his wallet password, or threw out the HDD that it was on. This addresses a problem created by cryptocurrency, not one people are asking to be solved today.
>* Cutting out middle-men. You don't need transaction services to send and receive crypto.
You don't realize you're just moving the middleman. You still need nodes, networks, and other operators that become your middleman and will squeeze you when it benefits them. Also no casual user is going to download the whole BTC blockchain just exchange a few bucks with you.
>* More transparency (or more privacy). We can easily see how much Bitcoin people are moving around, as we often see with the seemingly quarterly "whale sends $1 billion in Bitcoin to someone" reports, and yet no one can really know how much crypto you personally have.
You're welcome criminals and otherwise already insanely rich people. More on this at 10.
>* Smart contracts. You can make the transaction of crypto trigger events, or create second-degree value as part of the transaction.
This provides zero real world value, see above regarding rich people.
Here's the thing, a majority of the world's population doesn't have access to digital currency at all. 42% of Bitcoin value is held by 0.01% of holders. This isn't some grassroots, "screw the man", "by the people", or whatever slogan you want to attach revolution. This is just a replay of where we're already at, with different names attached to things. Instead of 'real estate' you call it 'cryptocurrency', and instead of 'high frequency trading market manipulation' you call it 'smart contracts'.
If you want to do something spectacular with cryptocurrency (and probably get rich at the same time), figure out how it can help feed the estimated 690 million people that will go to sleep hungry tonight.
This statement is false and backed by zero evidence.
>* Ease of dissemination has intrinsic value. Keeping track of gold/fiat/etc. and transporting it is difficult and error-prone. Crypto doesn't have that problem.
USD hasn't been gold backed for a while, argument invalid. Regarding tracking and transporting, I'd rather have the money in my bank than be the guy that can't remember his wallet password, or threw out the HDD that it was on. This addresses a problem created by cryptocurrency, not one people are asking to be solved today.
>* Cutting out middle-men. You don't need transaction services to send and receive crypto.
You don't realize you're just moving the middleman. You still need nodes, networks, and other operators that become your middleman and will squeeze you when it benefits them. Also no casual user is going to download the whole BTC blockchain just exchange a few bucks with you.
>* More transparency (or more privacy). We can easily see how much Bitcoin people are moving around, as we often see with the seemingly quarterly "whale sends $1 billion in Bitcoin to someone" reports, and yet no one can really know how much crypto you personally have.
You're welcome criminals and otherwise already insanely rich people. More on this at 10.
>* Smart contracts. You can make the transaction of crypto trigger events, or create second-degree value as part of the transaction.
This provides zero real world value, see above regarding rich people.
Here's the thing, a majority of the world's population doesn't have access to digital currency at all. 42% of Bitcoin value is held by 0.01% of holders. This isn't some grassroots, "screw the man", "by the people", or whatever slogan you want to attach revolution. This is just a replay of where we're already at, with different names attached to things. Instead of 'real estate' you call it 'cryptocurrency', and instead of 'high frequency trading market manipulation' you call it 'smart contracts'.
If you want to do something spectacular with cryptocurrency (and probably get rich at the same time), figure out how it can help feed the estimated 690 million people that will go to sleep hungry tonight.
All of the major world states are making their own crypto currencies - you think they just decided to do that because they think it's a fun thing to play with?
The Chinese central bank has filed hundreds of patents for CryptoYuan and is fast-tracking its efforts to back it with gold so they can win the crypto war. Must be nothing.
The European central bank is currently building it's own crypto likely due for release by 2022, and so is the US Federal Reserve.
States want crypto precisely because they'll be able to fully control the finances of citizens. Yeah, that's my idea of utopia alright.
You have no idea what the value of a smart contract is, because no one really does. Some projects like ETH are trying to evolve it into something valuable.
As for Bitcoin, you can make your own Bitcoin/Lightning nodes, and it's a race to the bottom in terms of charging fees for usage - so how do you imagine a middle-man will appear that will somehow strong-arm you into not being able to use the thousands of much cheaper nodes?
Judging by the progress of technology, I'd say we're about 5 years away from being able to download the full Bitcoin blockchain within an hour.
Here's the thing, you're arguing with a phantom in your mind and thinking you're winning something. Wake up and take cryptocurrencies seriously.
The Chinese central bank has filed hundreds of patents for CryptoYuan and is fast-tracking its efforts to back it with gold so they can win the crypto war. Must be nothing.
The European central bank is currently building it's own crypto likely due for release by 2022, and so is the US Federal Reserve.
States want crypto precisely because they'll be able to fully control the finances of citizens. Yeah, that's my idea of utopia alright.
You have no idea what the value of a smart contract is, because no one really does. Some projects like ETH are trying to evolve it into something valuable.
As for Bitcoin, you can make your own Bitcoin/Lightning nodes, and it's a race to the bottom in terms of charging fees for usage - so how do you imagine a middle-man will appear that will somehow strong-arm you into not being able to use the thousands of much cheaper nodes?
Judging by the progress of technology, I'd say we're about 5 years away from being able to download the full Bitcoin blockchain within an hour.
Here's the thing, you're arguing with a phantom in your mind and thinking you're winning something. Wake up and take cryptocurrencies seriously.
>States want crypto precisely because they'll be able to fully control the finances of citizens.
Like they largely do already? How do you think cryptocurrency substantially changes any of that?
>The Chinese central bank has filed hundreds of patents for CryptoYuan and is fast-tracking its efforts to back it with gold so they can win the crypto war. Must be nothing.
DCEP differs from existing cryptocurrencies because it is legal tender, centralized, and not anonymous. It's backed by Yuan deposits for crying out loud! It's nothing like BTC! The Chinese government's plan is to digitize the yuan, not introduce a separate cryptocurrency. They're doing it to capture the missing part of the population not in the existing banking system (and thus the multiple methods of surveillance employed to track citizens and control their liberty).
>You have no idea what the value of a smart contract is, because no one really does.
Thank you for helping prove my point.
>Judging by the progress of technology, I'd say we're about 5 years away from being able to download the full Bitcoin blockchain within an hour.
Your _guess_ is irrelevant and unsubstantiated. The fact is that 40% of the world's population isn't even connected to the internet and even less than that have access to broadband indicates to me that it will be more than 5 years before the average user can download the staggering 321GB of the full BTC blockchain.
You're mistaken if you think I don't take cryptocurrencies seriously. They're very serious, but it doesn't make them good or right.
Like they largely do already? How do you think cryptocurrency substantially changes any of that?
>The Chinese central bank has filed hundreds of patents for CryptoYuan and is fast-tracking its efforts to back it with gold so they can win the crypto war. Must be nothing.
DCEP differs from existing cryptocurrencies because it is legal tender, centralized, and not anonymous. It's backed by Yuan deposits for crying out loud! It's nothing like BTC! The Chinese government's plan is to digitize the yuan, not introduce a separate cryptocurrency. They're doing it to capture the missing part of the population not in the existing banking system (and thus the multiple methods of surveillance employed to track citizens and control their liberty).
>You have no idea what the value of a smart contract is, because no one really does.
Thank you for helping prove my point.
>Judging by the progress of technology, I'd say we're about 5 years away from being able to download the full Bitcoin blockchain within an hour.
Your _guess_ is irrelevant and unsubstantiated. The fact is that 40% of the world's population isn't even connected to the internet and even less than that have access to broadband indicates to me that it will be more than 5 years before the average user can download the staggering 321GB of the full BTC blockchain.
You're mistaken if you think I don't take cryptocurrencies seriously. They're very serious, but it doesn't make them good or right.
I never made the argument that crypto was good. About the global internet coverage, I think Starlink will mostly solve that.
I figure its best to start a gold managment business during a gold rush, that is if gold is appreciating tremendously while the rush is going on.
Why sell shovels when you can make money selling services.
How do I become a crypto retirement advisor.
Why sell shovels when you can make money selling services.
How do I become a crypto retirement advisor.
> fiat currencies are on their way out
Not as long as there are taxes to be paid... and the moment the government accepts crypto payments, crypto becomes as fully fiat as any government-issued currency.
Not as long as there are taxes to be paid... and the moment the government accepts crypto payments, crypto becomes as fully fiat as any government-issued currency.
How is fiat on the way out? Seems like a bold claim to make with no evidence.
Also, how do you tackle the environmental effects of crypto?
Also, how do you tackle the environmental effects of crypto?
If you make paper money in your basement you're a thief and criminal, but once it is electronic money - everything is ok?
Looking for the next big thing...