Then they will ask why nobody wants to use their payment cards
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"We should restrict the free use of oxygen because terrorists can breath it to sustain themselves."
C'mon. Crypto has issues, but this ain't one of them. Pandering to people's fear is how fascist seize power for themselves and perpetuate the horrors we feared in the first place.
is the main problem with crypto who is on control?
Bc it seems like ultra rich people.
I have yet to see crypto become something people can do for themselves.
You have to have the fastest gpu to solvw the puzzle first and get the coin, right?
Maybe hierarchicalization is the problem. -
Adding a few more points to fully kill crypto as a "freedom currency"
- Generating crypto requires capital; people with computers and access to energy will instantly get the ability to outgenerate any other crypto participant
- Energy-centric currency just empowers the same rich lobbies; oil and gaz lobbies are delighted to see that there's an uptick in energy demand
- People with right material (read, capital) can track you, but low chance to track anyone doing crime at a national level (due to odds of them having a competent IT (baring the Hegseth drunkards out there))
What keeps people from looking at point 1 and not totally stopping there, you think?
The game is statistically unwinnable and the more rubes play, the bigger the leech gets.I looked into crypto seriously several years ago when a friend got interested. I had to inform them it was still a casino where Have's print the cash and make the rules, specifically so the currency returns to them with interest off someone else's(our) brow. ie, same scam as wall street stonks. Just reiterating Point 1.
Pretty pointless unless there is an anti-fascist buying collective or something. Remember when reddit saved gamestop for a few years and, uh, very suddenly a lot of common investment apps 'stopped working' that week?
As soon as you get a hand in their game, they'll show you right away you were meant to die slaving for them, not participating in decisionmaking (money AND politics).
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The insane thing about Bitcoin's continued popularity is that out of all the thousands of cryptocurrencies out there, it's easily the worst in every regard.
I'm not going to name names for fear of being called a shill, but if you want a cryptocurrency for just buying stuff there's a ton that are more stable, faster, don't cost a fortune to process, and don't destroy the planet.
That's the beauty of crypto, there's flavour for everyone
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- You're a criminal who wants to evade tracking by law enforcement
- You live in a country subject to sanctions and need to move a large sum of money transnationally
- You are the tinfoil-hat type who doesn't trust Government-issued money for one of many real or imagined reasons
- You want to make digital purchases while staying relatively anonymous
- You're a gambler who went all-in on crypto and are hoping it will increase in value later on
- You just think it's more fun to pay with futuristic magic Internet money (yes, some people actually do it for this reason)
- You are a business in a (the) country whose laws legally require the acceptance of Bitcoin
- You're not a criminal, but you fear the definition of 'criminal' might change in the future
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The insane thing about Bitcoin's continued popularity is that out of all the thousands of cryptocurrencies out there, it's easily the worst in every regard.
I'm not going to name names for fear of being called a shill, but if you want a cryptocurrency for just buying stuff there's a ton that are more stable, faster, don't cost a fortune to process, and don't destroy the planet.
wrote last edited by [email protected]It dominates because it's the one that everyone knows. If you're lucky enough to find a shop that accepts crypto it's almost certain that the crypto they accept is bitcoin and bitcoin only. despite its flaws it is a proven technology. It might 3 hours to send an on chain payment but you don't have to worry about a technical glitch dropping it.
I somewhat agree about it being not great though. it has serious scalability issues that were supposed to be addressed by lightning but lightning adds a lot of complexity imo. My grandma is never going to be able to figure out how to use lightning whilst still being able to benefit from a self custody wallet.
A lot of the newer coins that crypto bros bang on about seem to be centralized under private entities, "regulation friendly" and not distributed.
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It's wasting useful energy, and you think that's a good thing?
It’s wasting useful energy,
So is most of this thread...
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The insane thing about Bitcoin's continued popularity is that out of all the thousands of cryptocurrencies out there, it's easily the worst in every regard.
I'm not going to name names for fear of being called a shill, but if you want a cryptocurrency for just buying stuff there's a ton that are more stable, faster, don't cost a fortune to process, and don't destroy the planet.
And it's not even close to private.
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If you do not know a lot about "crypto" then I would say the main thing to understand is that there is Bitcoin (not owned by any single entity) and then there is everything else. Other "coins" are owned by corporations that can make decisions about it and change it to some extent. These are extremely risky.
Bitcoin (btc) does have risk but much less. It is not owned by any company or person or country. It is like the internet, only exists because tens of thousands of internet providers(miners for Bitcoin) around the world make it possible. Bitcoin has, in its codebase, a limitation that any change must be agreed upon by 95% of these providers(miners). This way security patches and bug fixes can be added because everyone agrees those are good. Other harmful changes would never reach 95% agreement therefor could never be implemented. There is a limit of 21 million Bitcoin and this number can never increase unless 95% agree to it... which they never would. This is in stark contrast to normal money which is constantly printed(at random rates depending on who happens to be in control at that moment) so that the supply increases making its value drop.
Scamming happens with cryptos, Bitcoin, euros, dollars,yuan... and always will.
wrote last edited by [email protected]there is Bitcoin (not owned by any single entity) and then there is everything else. Other “coins” are owned by corporations that can make decisions about it and change it to some extent. These are extremely risky.
What? Just ridiculous misinformation. Every coin but BTC is owned by corporations? Huh?
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there is Bitcoin (not owned by any single entity) and then there is everything else. Other “coins” are owned by corporations that can make decisions about it and change it to some extent. These are extremely risky.
What? Just ridiculous misinformation. Every coin but BTC is owned by corporations? Huh?
True, controlled by corporations or individuals except a few. XRP is an example of a coin that could be drastically changed and the coin owners would be left in the cold.
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The insane thing about Bitcoin's continued popularity is that out of all the thousands of cryptocurrencies out there, it's easily the worst in every regard.
I'm not going to name names for fear of being called a shill, but if you want a cryptocurrency for just buying stuff there's a ton that are more stable, faster, don't cost a fortune to process, and don't destroy the planet.
Bitcoin's transfer fees alone are huge. It's over $1 USD now for any transfer, and it will get much worse.
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I honestly never understood how Lemmy, a privacy and decentralisation focused community, is so vehemently anti-crypto. It's worse than genAI. Every time it is mentioned, everyone goes "crypto is a scam". I don't think I've ever seen any good faith discussion around it, just "scam", "pyramid scheme", and "only criminals use it".
Let's get something out of the way immediately: shitcoins are a literal pyramid scheme and a scam. Anyone can make their own cryptocurrency in an evening, and anyone who throws money at them is either a fool or a gambler.
But I really don't understand what people mean when they say Bitcoin, or Ethereum, or Monero are a scam. Sure they can be used to scam you, just like Amazon gift cards can. Maybe it's about the price volatility, but the price of all 3 mentioned before is up on a day, week, month, 6 months, year, and 5 year scale. It's volatile, but is not a scam. If you bought and sold at two random points in time, it's more likely you made a profit than "got scammed".
You know what actually is a scam? Credit scores, overdraft fees, having to pay to check your balance, and so many other fucked up practices in the US banking system."Criminals use them" is just the worst fucking argument, especially in a space like this. Are PGP, VPNs and TOR for criminals too? Do you think getting rid of crypto would stop crime?
And yes, proof of work fucking sucks. The energy consumption of Bitcoin mining is a problem. I am not a cryptobro who spends all his time making trades and is here to tell you that crypto is the salvation. They are far from being "good" for everyday use. I just wanted to point out how it seems that critical thought gets shut down at the sight of those 6 letters, and I hope someone can explain to me what they find so terrible about crypto (aside from environmental concerns and shitcoins)
The internet loves to hate, it's that simple.
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I learned recently FedNow is a payment processor ran by the Federal Reserve, with a fee of $0.043 per transaction. Making it much, much cheaper than every other payment processor out there.
It just launched two years ago; I'm wondering if this might become more of a thing moving forward for digital payments.
You pay fees for transactions?
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Yep. Just because one side is bad, it doesn't mean the other is any good.
Cryptocurrency is still dependent of a pyramid scheme and criminals-enabling. Credit card companies are still a private owned government branch with no concern for human rights and criminals-enabling.
Yep, but cryptocurrency isn't dictating what you can spend with it...yet at least. So if no government does anything to help us, then we must adopt a cryptocurrencies like Monero to fight back against censorship as nothing more than a private citizen.
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Bitcoin's transfer fees alone are huge. It's over $1 USD now for any transfer, and it will get much worse.
wrote last edited by [email protected]I remember launching my wallet that I hadn't touched for years and I was hit with many days of syncing. It basically had to download gigabytes of data about blockchain since the last time I touched the wallet. I was blown away by the inefficiency and resource usage for seemingly simple things
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The value of gold, silver and platinum is determined by two factors: there is little of it in nature and you cannot take more at will and it does not oxidize, which ensures good storage.
I really don't know about you, but in my country you can't take gold out of the bank. You buy gold from a bank and it stays in the bank longer without the possibility of taking it out. What a joke. Guess what happens to the bank and the gold in it when the economy collapses.
And now look at Bitcoin. there is a little of it, you can't increase it at will, and it's convenient to store. Does it remind you of anything? And it's always with you.
Yes, but the overwhelming majority of the value of gold is because it is shiny. Up until very recently, it had almost no other practical use other than being shiny. Plenty of other objects meet the definition of "rare" and "cannot make more at will" and "doesn't degrade over time". Gold is just the prettiest.
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It depends greatly on how it's stored. Most people just keep it in an exchange, which are robbed fairly often. Which wouldn't be a problem with real cash as there are laws in place to protect you. With crypto you have no recourse.
Yes, as everyone knows, if you are mugged in the street, you can just say "no". The robber legally cannot take your money without your consent.
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The insane thing about Bitcoin's continued popularity is that out of all the thousands of cryptocurrencies out there, it's easily the worst in every regard.
I'm not going to name names for fear of being called a shill, but if you want a cryptocurrency for just buying stuff there's a ton that are more stable, faster, don't cost a fortune to process, and don't destroy the planet.
i wouldn't be suprised if even Dogecoin works better that Bitcoin. then again monero is the most private
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Yes, but the overwhelming majority of the value of gold is because it is shiny. Up until very recently, it had almost no other practical use other than being shiny. Plenty of other objects meet the definition of "rare" and "cannot make more at will" and "doesn't degrade over time". Gold is just the prettiest.
Well, what kind of items are these that are rare, they cannot be made as much as you want, they do not deteriorate over time And allow processing?
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You're not really selling it for me, which I guess is the point aye?
What I imagine as ideal is an open-source and transparent bank and payment system that issues its own currency backed by ties to its investment portfolio that is properly regulated by its host country. i.e. you would use their currency to trade among others on the platform according to the percentage value of their portfolio that you own as measured by the currency to which you which to convert your holdings for a given purchase. You could select different tiers of risk if you'd like your "savings" to grow in value over time but experience potential dips or even loss of value if there is major market stability.
I am not an expert on such things, but this at least has real links to tangible asset worth, and isn't based on the artificial scarcity of an increasingly unsolvable math problem.
this at least has real links to tangible asset worth,
Well, kind of. But the worth of those assets is largely due to perception, rather than real utility value. Like, real estate is stupidly expensive in many places, but it's expensive because people believe that it's expensive. When real estate bubble burst, you see the 'worth' of that real estate drop sharply. The utility value is having a place to sleep, but it's often treated as an investment. So you would still see currency value fluctuations. Currency issue by gov'ts largely has worth because the gov't says that it has worth; it's not tied to anything. (BTW - tying currency to a tangible asset limits your ability to add currency when necessary. It will tend to lead to depreciation--the value of the currency rising--which is usually a bad thing.)
The other problem is that corporations and banks go bust; if they were issuing currency, that would mean all your money would instantly be worthless.
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Sure, lets replace a regulated scam with an unregulated scam, that will solve things /s
wrote last edited by [email protected]Whaaaaaa, are you talking about bitcoin, the currency developed out of pure kindness and honest intentions and promising equality and equity for all? Surely you can't mean the grand and noble bitcoin, I was told for years that it would decentralize all currency and make all our wildest dreams come true. Any day now.
(Unless it conflicts with the predictions for AI, that it will provide equality and equity for all and decentralize skill, talent and knowledge and make all our wildest dreams come true.)
