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They are not done because the crypto-crowd do this 'hold on for dear life' thing and HODL their useless little coin things rather than sell them. They tell them

They are not done because the crypto-crowd do this 'hold on for dear life' thing and HODL their useless little coin things rather than sell them. They tell themselves that it is only by selling that they are losing and that these things will naturally float upwards over a matter of time, they just have to not lose their nerve. Even the worst coin bobs upwards slightly from time to time, so people will sadly be 'buying the dip' and HODLing - to use their own parlance. The crypto craze reminds me of the London riots in an odd way, people know that this is not normal and that order will be resumed eventually. People then went to great lengths to loot things they could never fence or want for themselves. The craze is also quite funny because none of these people that are turning up now to buy coin have any faith in the regular banks and city, they have taken the Koolaid and they love it. What happens to capitalism as we know it when everyone takes their dollars and buys these unregulated monopoly money tokens, to disregard normal money as 'worthless fiat'? It is comical, in the same vein as the London Riots of 2011.

MrLeap 9y ago
People `HODL` about equities on the nasdaq just as well as they do in crypto. Crypto has more volatility though, to be sure. Leverage can be gained from all sorts of shinanegans, so an underlying asset's volatility is a little irrelevant, you just have to pull a lever to change it. These days, I consider crypto to be equivalent to buying precious metals, going long volatility, etc. Just different leverage, and nobody knows if you're leading or trailing with correlation to other equities. It's not free money, but I don't believe in the "it's just a matter of time til' you revert to the S&P ytd growth" meme either. Full disclosure, I'm 0% in crypto except the 20~ BTC I lost in highschool when I dbanned to install slackware. These days I get my leaverage from volatility, metals and bonds. Scaling, and short/longing as my appraisal evolves.
- snuxoll 9y ago
  Personally, the only stake I have in crypto is just mining on my gaming rig (that I bought to play games on) when I’m not using it - while it basically prints free money there’s little sense in me not doing so, and when it becomes unprofitable I just stop doing it. Miners buying GPU’s in the dozens are going to get burned eventually, don’t make yourself a statistic IMO.
michaelchisari 9y ago
Like anything that reaches popular adoption, the ideologues are always an extreme minority. The majority are always people who are in it for themselves, not out of some philosophical purpose. So when it hits the fan, the HODL types are not going to be able to hodl back the inevitable. It's something I've considered in terms of all economic and political movements. If your movement requires ideological cohesiveness to survive, that's not going to be enough. There has to be an advantage to participation that goes beyond philosophical agreements and extends deeply into the material world. If that material benefit fails to (ahem) materialize, then ideology gives way to practicality.
- jondubois 9y ago
  I would argue that the current western capitalist system is ideological. An anarchist system controlled by a minority of violent mafia gangs would be simpler and more economically efficient... The reason why the world is not like this is simply because most people are willing to make personal sacrifices to prevent it. A society made up of people who only act for their own self-interest will inevitably be an anarchist society. If idealism has held together innefficient systems like capitalism, socialism and organised religion for so long, surely it can hold together other systems like cryptocurrencies.
  - michaelchisari 9y ago
    I disagree, in the sense that western capitalism requires participation even by those who adamantly oppose it. There is no (realistic) way to opt out.
    - jondubois 9y ago
      If everyone was purely self-interested, corruption would be much more common because there would be no moral voice at the back of people's minds to hold them back. The only hurdle would be the fear of getting caught. It's difficult for individuals to uphold laws in a system where everyone knows that everyone else is cheating.

MrLeap 9y ago

People `HODL` about equities on the nasdaq just as well as they do in crypto. Crypto has more volatility though, to be sure. Leverage can be gained from all sorts of shinanegans, so an underlying asset's volatility is a little irrelevant, you just have to pull a lever to change it. These days, I consider crypto to be equivalent to buying precious metals, going long volatility, etc. Just different leverage, and nobody knows if you're leading or trailing with correlation to other equities. It's not free money, but I don't believe in the "it's just a matter of time til' you revert to the S&P ytd growth" meme either. Full disclosure, I'm 0% in crypto except the 20~ BTC I lost in highschool when I dbanned to install slackware. These days I get my leaverage from volatility, metals and bonds. Scaling, and short/longing as my appraisal evolves.

snuxoll 9y ago
Personally, the only stake I have in crypto is just mining on my gaming rig (that I bought to play games on) when I’m not using it - while it basically prints free money there’s little sense in me not doing so, and when it becomes unprofitable I just stop doing it. Miners buying GPU’s in the dozens are going to get burned eventually, don’t make yourself a statistic IMO.

michaelchisari 9y ago

Like anything that reaches popular adoption, the ideologues are always an extreme minority. The majority are always people who are in it for themselves, not out of some philosophical purpose. So when it hits the fan, the HODL types are not going to be able to hodl back the inevitable. It's something I've considered in terms of all economic and political movements. If your movement requires ideological cohesiveness to survive, that's not going to be enough. There has to be an advantage to participation that goes beyond philosophical agreements and extends deeply into the material world. If that material benefit fails to (ahem) materialize, then ideology gives way to practicality.

jondubois 9y ago
I would argue that the current western capitalist system is ideological. An anarchist system controlled by a minority of violent mafia gangs would be simpler and more economically efficient... The reason why the world is not like this is simply because most people are willing to make personal sacrifices to prevent it. A society made up of people who only act for their own self-interest will inevitably be an anarchist society. If idealism has held together innefficient systems like capitalism, socialism and organised religion for so long, surely it can hold together other systems like cryptocurrencies.
- michaelchisari 9y ago
  I disagree, in the sense that western capitalism requires participation even by those who adamantly oppose it. There is no (realistic) way to opt out.
  - jondubois 9y ago
    If everyone was purely self-interested, corruption would be much more common because there would be no moral voice at the back of people's minds to hold them back. The only hurdle would be the fear of getting caught. It's difficult for individuals to uphold laws in a system where everyone knows that everyone else is cheating.