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Another article about cryptocurrencies, another comments thread where I shake my head at the Cryptozealots spouting "It's the solution to everything! Resistance

Another article about cryptocurrencies, another comments thread where I shake my head at the Cryptozealots spouting "It's the solution to everything! Resistance is futile! You will be assimilated!". I read something interesting about this behavior a while ago, if you've put money into crypto, of course you're going to be cheerleading it, nobody puts money in something expecting to lose it (oh wait... I can see the /r/wsb crowd raising their hands). And the more people you recruit into your ponzi scheme, the more profit you stand to gain, so consciously or not, you'll be trying to convince everyone to get in on this whole scheme. On the flipside, the skeptics are convinced it's a bubble that can implode any time and that the argumets "it will replace fiat and central banks!" are just silly delusions. And yes this is how I think. To be honest, I like money too, and I wished I had put some money in BTC. Someone's going to reply "Sour grapes!" under here, but still, I'm in the opinion, the rise of BTC is irrational. Then again, it can be argued that the current world economy is also running on galactic amounts of irrationality...

cblconfederate 6y ago
> if you've put money into crypto, of course replace crypto with $TSLA or $XXXX , people will try to justify their whatever decisions
adhoc32 6y ago
Resistance is futile peasant! You will be assimilated!
- koheripbal 6y ago
  Geri Ryan mascot incoming.
sekai 6y ago
Crypto clearly has a use in this scenario, Lira is plummeting.
- yoavm 6y ago
  What so "clearly" about this? Is the Lira plummeting because it's a fiat currency? Are cryptocurrencies inherentially stable? They can't technically plummet? I don't get how crypto is "clearly" a solution here. Turkey has a financial issue, an economical crisis. The Lira isn't in troubles because people want to audit the database and they can't.
  - bellyfullofbac 6y ago
    I mean, I get it, if your country's currency is collapsing you usually buy foreign currency or gold, but a lot of times banks control the currency market (and governments/central banks can impose limits that banks have to adhere to), or if you go to a currency exchange they might be out of actual USD notes, and same with gold. Nowadays if you're technically savvy, you can get an online exchange account and buy something with your Lira before it plummets further. It's a selfish move (good for the individuals but bad for the country), but if the country's run by corrupt idiots, and you want to continue to have food on the table, you can't escape being selfish.
  - Paradigma11 6y ago
    You could just buy a stablecoin based on $,€ or gold....
- tim333 6y ago
  Well it's still rubbish for making payments so it's only really useful as an asset you can swap your Lira for along with property, gold, shares, foreign currency and the like.
kavalg 6y ago
While I can't substantiate it, I also have the feeling that current crypto hype is unnatural and kind of a bubble. It looks like a lot of fiat money is flowing into crypto and one must wonder where this money is coming from. One obvious source is the overblown money supply of FED/ECB (with claimed reasons the COVID crisis). While initially some of this money must have been poured into things like SP500 (judging by the rapid index recovery in 2020), then it probably found a more fertile ground in the volatility of crypto markets and people's savings followed the hype (somewhat reminiscent of large scale ponzi scheme). Money supply and the resulting inflation does not serve a good purpose to fiat in the long run, because it diminishes its ability to serve as a store of value. If its other abilities (unit of exchange and accounting) are undermined, fiat will be in real trouble. So, I guess a crypto bubble serves a good purpose as a sort of a buffer for the inflation. In other words, if lots of people lose fiat money on a crypto bubble, there will be less money lost due to inflation for the ordinary folks. Replace crypto with stock, property and other bubbles and you basically get the same effect. So I guess what the Turkish government is doing is diminishing the ability of crypto to serve as a unit of exchange. If they don't do it, they might very well lose control of their monetary system. That is, all financial transactions (except maybe taxes) bypassing their local currency and leading to even more inflation and a default (or some kid of war).
- samvher 6y ago
  I feel like in some ways cryptocurrencies might also present a sort of credible threat towards central banks to make sure they keep inflation in check. I'm skeptical about cryptocurrencies (though I'm quite positive about blockchain/smart contracts) but potentially this could be an aspect that all could benefit from, also those who are not invested.
- Gustomaximus 6y ago
  > if lots of people lose fiat money on a crypto bubble, there will be less money lost due to inflation for the ordinary folks Isn't it a zero sum game? Someone's loss is anothers gain? But generally the point about the loss of control of the monetary system, plus the billions made annually from the printing press will be in my opinion the limiting factor of crypto as a currency, but will stick around as a store of value purely on inertia for the medium term.
lifty 6y ago
The whole financialized economic system is running on irrational exuberance and is frothy as hell. We could have a collapse in trust and a deflationary shock would send valuations to the ground but that is unlikely to happen because that would threaten the whole financial system, including the bond market. It's almost like the cryptocurrency market is the perfect scheme to take advantage of this situation. The game must go on and the central banks know it, that's why whenever there's a hiccup in the credit markets they intervene. So have fun everyone! Regardless of the irrationality of current valuations, the cypto asset industry is here to stay and it will slowly syphon more use cases from the traditional financial system. The overall trend is real, just like the Internet trend in 2000 was real, regardless of the subsequent crash. Position yourself accordingly.
tim333 6y ago
>Cryptozealots spouting "It's the solution to everything! Resistance is futile! You will be assimilated!". is a pretty unusual sentiment on HN. In the comments above I only saw a couple of mildly positive ones. It's true people do tend to talk their book as it were. I feel I'm semi neutral as I've bought a bit in the booms and sell it when it seems to have peaked. The truth is probably somewhere in the middle. It won't replace fiat but it's also not going away in a hurry. > the rise of BTC is irrational. Yeah but humans are irrational creatures. Life itself is kind of irrational. You muck around a while then die and try to have fun while doing so. Crypto is quite fun. >To be honest, I like money too, and I wished I had put some money in BTC. Never too late! ETH is probably going up some more.
ur-whale 6y ago
>To be honest, I like money too https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sZHCVyllnck https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sZHCVyllnck Sorry, couldn't resist.

cblconfederate 6y ago

> if you've put money into crypto, of course replace crypto with $TSLA or $XXXX , people will try to justify their whatever decisions

adhoc32 6y ago

Resistance is futile peasant! You will be assimilated!

koheripbal 6y ago
Geri Ryan mascot incoming.

sekai 6y ago

Crypto clearly has a use in this scenario, Lira is plummeting.

yoavm 6y ago
What so "clearly" about this? Is the Lira plummeting because it's a fiat currency? Are cryptocurrencies inherentially stable? They can't technically plummet? I don't get how crypto is "clearly" a solution here. Turkey has a financial issue, an economical crisis. The Lira isn't in troubles because people want to audit the database and they can't.
- bellyfullofbac 6y ago
  I mean, I get it, if your country's currency is collapsing you usually buy foreign currency or gold, but a lot of times banks control the currency market (and governments/central banks can impose limits that banks have to adhere to), or if you go to a currency exchange they might be out of actual USD notes, and same with gold. Nowadays if you're technically savvy, you can get an online exchange account and buy something with your Lira before it plummets further. It's a selfish move (good for the individuals but bad for the country), but if the country's run by corrupt idiots, and you want to continue to have food on the table, you can't escape being selfish.
- Paradigma11 6y ago
  You could just buy a stablecoin based on $,€ or gold....
tim333 6y ago
Well it's still rubbish for making payments so it's only really useful as an asset you can swap your Lira for along with property, gold, shares, foreign currency and the like.

kavalg 6y ago

While I can't substantiate it, I also have the feeling that current crypto hype is unnatural and kind of a bubble. It looks like a lot of fiat money is flowing into crypto and one must wonder where this money is coming from. One obvious source is the overblown money supply of FED/ECB (with claimed reasons the COVID crisis). While initially some of this money must have been poured into things like SP500 (judging by the rapid index recovery in 2020), then it probably found a more fertile ground in the volatility of crypto markets and people's savings followed the hype (somewhat reminiscent of large scale ponzi scheme). Money supply and the resulting inflation does not serve a good purpose to fiat in the long run, because it diminishes its ability to serve as a store of value. If its other abilities (unit of exchange and accounting) are undermined, fiat will be in real trouble. So, I guess a crypto bubble serves a good purpose as a sort of a buffer for the inflation. In other words, if lots of people lose fiat money on a crypto bubble, there will be less money lost due to inflation for the ordinary folks. Replace crypto with stock, property and other bubbles and you basically get the same effect. So I guess what the Turkish government is doing is diminishing the ability of crypto to serve as a unit of exchange. If they don't do it, they might very well lose control of their monetary system. That is, all financial transactions (except maybe taxes) bypassing their local currency and leading to even more inflation and a default (or some kid of war).

samvher 6y ago
I feel like in some ways cryptocurrencies might also present a sort of credible threat towards central banks to make sure they keep inflation in check. I'm skeptical about cryptocurrencies (though I'm quite positive about blockchain/smart contracts) but potentially this could be an aspect that all could benefit from, also those who are not invested.
Gustomaximus 6y ago
> if lots of people lose fiat money on a crypto bubble, there will be less money lost due to inflation for the ordinary folks Isn't it a zero sum game? Someone's loss is anothers gain? But generally the point about the loss of control of the monetary system, plus the billions made annually from the printing press will be in my opinion the limiting factor of crypto as a currency, but will stick around as a store of value purely on inertia for the medium term.

lifty 6y ago

The whole financialized economic system is running on irrational exuberance and is frothy as hell. We could have a collapse in trust and a deflationary shock would send valuations to the ground but that is unlikely to happen because that would threaten the whole financial system, including the bond market. It's almost like the cryptocurrency market is the perfect scheme to take advantage of this situation. The game must go on and the central banks know it, that's why whenever there's a hiccup in the credit markets they intervene. So have fun everyone! Regardless of the irrationality of current valuations, the cypto asset industry is here to stay and it will slowly syphon more use cases from the traditional financial system. The overall trend is real, just like the Internet trend in 2000 was real, regardless of the subsequent crash. Position yourself accordingly.

tim333 6y ago

>Cryptozealots spouting "It's the solution to everything! Resistance is futile! You will be assimilated!". is a pretty unusual sentiment on HN. In the comments above I only saw a couple of mildly positive ones. It's true people do tend to talk their book as it were. I feel I'm semi neutral as I've bought a bit in the booms and sell it when it seems to have peaked. The truth is probably somewhere in the middle. It won't replace fiat but it's also not going away in a hurry. > the rise of BTC is irrational. Yeah but humans are irrational creatures. Life itself is kind of irrational. You muck around a while then die and try to have fun while doing so. Crypto is quite fun. >To be honest, I like money too, and I wished I had put some money in BTC. Never too late! ETH is probably going up some more.

ur-whale 6y ago

>To be honest, I like money too https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sZHCVyllnck https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sZHCVyllnck Sorry, couldn't resist.