Let's talk about Cryptocurrencies

[Fuzz]

You think it's weird that an issue that affects everyone is being discussed and showing it's warts? We have politicians wanting to move our currency to this clearly unstable scam riddled criminal tech, but best we leave the thread for those smitten by it? These aren't trading cards, it's a threat to economic stability. I suggest that's important enough to continue to point out all the ways it has gone wrong.

[PsYcNeT]

100% agree. Crypto spaces are awful and toxic and full of some of the smartest people I've ever met co-existing in tandem with some of the absolute dumbest people possible.

The sphere deserves, nay, needs to be overly scrutinized if it ever wants to grow beyond what it currently is. Critical eyes are needed to not only flip over the rocks and expose the scum beneath, but to ensure that teams don't huff their own farts and believe their own hype and neglect basic things like security and stability.

[JohnnyB]

Originally Posted by Fuzz

You think it's weird that an issue that affects everyone is being discussed and showing it's warts? We have politicians wanting to move our currency to this clearly unstable scam riddled criminal tech, but best we leave the thread for those smitten by it? These aren't trading cards, it's a threat to economic stability. I suggest that's important enough to continue to point out all the ways it has gone wrong.

I appear to have put my foot in it by posting in what seems to be a dug-in discussion.

Go ahead and discuss. I'm not criticizing anyone. It was merely an expression of surprise. I'll just quietly back out and leave you all to it.

[afc wimbledon]

Originally Posted by JohnnyB

I appear to have put my foot in it by posting in what seems to be a dug-in discussion.

Go ahead and discuss. I'm not criticizing anyone. It was merely an expression of surprise. I'll just quietly back out and leave you all to it.

I engage here because it is informative, I have learnt quite a bit about crypto and block chain that I wouldnt otherwise know, it's kind of the hallmark of crypto discussions that there is utility in the technology of the field while there seems limited utility to crypto itself so parsing the one from the other is the kernel of most of these discussions

[dino7c]

Originally Posted by JohnnyB

I haven't looked in this thread for ages (years?), but it kind of amazes me to see there are still some of the same people in this thread still just posting to dump on crypto. Weird.

especially when we can click on the early pages of this thread where they said $1500 would be the peak for Bitcoin ect.

now mocking drops to the high 20k range

[Fuzz]

The point isn't that you can or can not make money gambling on these things, the point is they are mostly useless for what they claim to be, and tend to be fairly damaging in general. Could a cryptocurrency come around and be actually useful? It's possible, but I haven't seen one yet. Given the vast number of scams and their enabling of criminal activity, not to mention power usage issues, they haven't really lived up to the hype.

Still, you could have 3x more money if you had sold them all near the peak. Maybe in a year we can discuss how you could have twice as much if you had sold them today. Or hey, maybe they will go to a million. The only real value they have comes from what people thinks they will be worth.

[dino7c]

"peak bubble"

was the quote...turned out to be a little bit wrong

[jammies]

Originally Posted by jammies

I can definitely see how this is the future of commerce. Who wouldn't want to send in their passport info and wait a few weeks to convert your boring old gov't-backed currency into magic internet-backed beans? Right now I can tap my phone at the till and pay for donuts instantly, but in the future I will be able to tap my phone and pay for donuts after waiting a mere few hundred seconds for my transaction to be verified by the blockchain!

Here's my first post in this thread, from 2017. Over 4 1/2 years later and crypto is still useless for, you know, buying things. Where are all the applications I was told were on the near horizon? Why are so many crypto stories in the news about scams, failures and the ever-receding "future of currency"? Why is this so-called transformational technology still transforming nothing?

Nothing has happened to convince me crypto is ever going to be more than a collection of ponzi schemers, bunco artists and wild-eyed techbros with a profound understanding of math and no understanding of economics. I post in this thread in the (likely vain) hope that at least one person will be dissuaded from investing in crypto and put their money in something societally useful instead, after getting a less hype-infused view of the subject.

Maybe in early 2026 I'll finally be able to buy a donut with bitcoin or some other cryptocoin directly. I very, very, very much doubt it thoujgh.

[dino7c]

Originally Posted by jammies

Here's my first post in this thread, from 2017. Over 4 1/2 years later and crypto is still useless for, you know, buying things. Where are all the applications I was told were on the near horizon? Why are so many crypto stories in the news about scams, failures and the ever-receding "future of currency"? Why is this so-called transformational technology still transforming nothing?

Nothing has happened to convince me crypto is ever going to be more than a collection of ponzi schemers, bunco artists and wild-eyed techbros with a profound understanding of math and no understanding of economics. I post in this thread in the (likely vain) hope that at least one person will be dissuaded from investing in crypto and put their money in something societally useful instead, after getting a less hype-infused view of the subject.

Maybe in early 2026 I'll finally be able to buy a donut with bitcoin or some other cryptocoin directly. I very, very, very much doubt it thoujgh.

does whole foods sell donuts? probably some gross quinoa ones

[jammies]

It'll be lot longer than 2026 for me to be caught in Whole Foods. Different kind of wild-eyed loony shops there.

[opendoor]

And of course you can't actually directly buy things with Bitcoin at Whole Foods. You have to sign up for a custodial wallet with Spedn, deposit funds there (but not too much, since you can't withdraw money and these companies seem to become insolvent with regularity), and then the transaction is funneled through Spedn's payment system (because a blockchain transaction would take too long to be practical) where the vendor immediately receives fiat money.

[topfiverecords]

Originally Posted by opendoor

And of course you can't actually directly buy things with Bitcoin at Whole Foods. You have to sign up for a custodial wallet with Spedn, deposit funds there (but not too much, since you can't withdraw money and these companies seem to become insolvent with regularity), and then the transaction is funneled through Spedn's payment system (because a blockchain transaction would take too long to be practical) where the vendor immediately receives fiat money.

Plus before you even pull off the transaction you’ve lost 6% on a currency conversion spread. Then you’ve lost another couple percent in slippage. Then there’s a transaction fee…

[Wormius]

So cryptos basically only good for paying ransomware and buying sketchy stuff from the dark web? How is this better than… literally any other method of payment?

[dobbles]

Originally Posted by JohnnyB

I appear to have put my foot in it by posting in what seems to be a dug-in discussion.

Go ahead and discuss. I'm not criticizing anyone. It was merely an expression of surprise. I'll just quietly back out and leave you all to it.

I love to read this thread for similar reasons I keep an eye on the EA NHL threads... Because both are good concepts but turn into terrible products and I am trying to keep an eye on them in hopes they turn around and become something I am into.

I only have a few posts in here, but just about all of them are pressing people like dino about WHY crypto is going to go up or down. Others have already pointed out many of the flaws crypto still faces to get to mainstream use, so I am mostly trying to understand from crypto supporters WHY this is a good investment. Every time I am left response-less. Its just 'buy low, sell high bro' which to me shows it is indeed gambling. And hey, I respect dino for getting to rub everyone's nose in $1500 comment. But there are tons out there similarly pumping it up for no reason other than they are trying to get in at the beginning of a pyramid scheme.

So for me, I continue to read and occasionally chime in, because I am hoping things get better. Or at least different. So far though, I haven't seen much indication.

[PeteMoss]

Originally Posted by dobbles

I love to read this thread for similar reasons I keep an eye on the EA NHL threads... Because both are good concepts but turn into terrible products and I am trying to keep an eye on them in hopes they turn around and become something I am into.

I only have a few posts in here, but just about all of them are pressing people like dino about WHY crypto is going to go up or down. Others have already pointed out many of the flaws crypto still faces to get to mainstream use, so I am mostly trying to understand from crypto supporters WHY this is a good investment. Every time I am left response-less. Its just 'buy low, sell high bro' which to me shows it is indeed gambling. And hey, I respect dino for getting to rub everyone's nose in $1500 comment. But there are tons out there similarly pumping it up for no reason other than they are trying to get in at the beginning of a pyramid scheme.

So for me, I continue to read and occasionally chime in, because I am hoping things get better. Or at least different. So far though, I haven't seen much indication.

I agree with this. There is a ton of money being spent to develop blockchain/crypto/web3 businesses. I assume there is probably something there somewhere - just waiting for someone to figure it out.

[PsYcNeT]

In all honestly, Web3 is definitely the Big Tech that crypto works well with, from an "ideas" perspective.

But the actual usage and security of Web3 with the available wallets and platforms in place is nowhere near User Friendly enough to be interesting or feasible for Jim Bob Atari.

I know a handful of banks have started using zkRollups and L2 networks as payment settlement platforms, because they can bundle bank routing transactions and have the data moved and parsed in half a second for about 2 cents per few thousand txns.

There are a lot of neat platform messaging functions that crypto accomplishes (both in Proof-of-Work and Proof-of-Stake/Alternate models) that act as communication interfaces via Web3 for disparate systems. Secure crosschain messaging protocols like Connext (https://connext.network) solve interoperability in these scenarios quite well.

But yeah it's mostly a mess.

[afc wimbledon]

Originally Posted by Wormius

So cryptos basically only good for paying ransomware and buying sketchy stuff from the dark web? How is this better than… literally any other method of payment?

it is very useful for international drug deals where a 50% loss isnt really unusual how ever you pay for or launder money

[Tiger]

Originally Posted by dino7c

especially when we can click on the early pages of this thread where they said $1500 would be the peak for Bitcoin ect.

now mocking drops to the high 20k range

I like how you talk about how good an investor you are for buying at $1500, and fine you did well. But multiple people told you that you should sell at $60,000, and yet they are not the smart one. Think you could have 3X your bitcoin if you listened and looked at the fact that many people (in the industry) were discussing drops in the price with chinese restrictions and regulations in the US potentially coming etc. Now if you sold and bought back in I'd say you were very smart, but just holding I'd say you're just lucky. Also I believe you said you had 50 other investments and if just 30 hit... if that many investments hit, you would be the best investor of all time!!!

[dino7c]

Originally Posted by Tiger

I like how you talk about how good an investor you are for buying at $1500, and fine you did well. But multiple people told you that you should sell at $60,000, and yet they are not the smart one. Think you could have 3X your bitcoin if you listened and looked at the fact that many people (in the industry) were discussing drops in the price with chinese restrictions and regulations in the US potentially coming etc. Now if you sold and bought back in I'd say you were very smart, but just holding I'd say you're just lucky. Also I believe you said you had 50 other investments and if just 30 hit... if that many investments hit, you would be the best investor of all time!!!

Firstly I don't report my buying and selling of crypto in this thread but I do buy and sell weekly, sometimes daily. I am not a HODL IT ALL forever guy. I will hold some for sure, why not? I've already made massive profits why sell everything ever?

Second, I hope you cashed out your entire portfolio in January...market is down 20-30% this year so far
Zoom out, over a long period of time its not hard to hit 3 of 5 investments

Lastly are also insinuating 60K will be the all time high for Bitcoin forever and you know that to be true...I disagree. Christ Bitcoin was as low as 6K in 2020.

For something you guys hate so much you sure post about it a lot.

[topfiverecords]