5 ms·

they already do, it's called stocks, the difference is it's regulated but not without a lot of leeway

notahacker 6y ago
And stocks give you legal ownership of a portion of an actual business with actual assets and profit streams to redistribute
- cblconfederate 6y ago
  same as what ICOs would do
- thebean11 6y ago
  Ethereum rakes in a massive amount of money in fees, which in a future version will be distributed to stakers.
- jayd16 6y ago
  What would be some realworld differences between owning a coin and owning a non-voting, no dividend stock?
  - bidirectional 6y ago
    Probability of a payout in event of liquidation (low for stock, nothing for coin).
  - jqpabc123 6y ago
    To be like crypto, it would have to be a no dividend, no asset, no income, no identifiable market company. In fact, it wouldn't be a "realworld" company at all. It would just be electrons floating on the internet ether. It's only real purpose would be to entertain those who speculate that others can be convinced to make the same mistake they have made. But to finally answer your question, the real difference between this sort of company and crypto is that sane investors would never buy stock in it.
    - PragmaticPulp 6y ago
      > To be like crypto, it would have to be a no dividend, no asset, no income, no identifiable market company. In other words, you’d have to subtract everything of value and leave only the shares themselves. That’s essentially what crypto is: Shares of a finite number that can be moved around between accounts, but don’t represent anything other than themselves.
      - jqpabc123 6y ago
        In other words, you’d have to subtract everything of value and leave only the shares themselves. The reality is actually even more extreme and bizarre. The company would have to avoid providing any real overall value to society while consuming large amounts of energy in some cases. Crypto is a financial wonder; a virtual black hole that sucks in money and resources under the weight of it's own gravity.
  - PragmaticPulp 6y ago
    When all we see are stock prices next to crypto prices, it’s easy to forget that stock represents actual ownership of a company. When you buy a stock, you own part of that company, including all of the cash on their balance sheet, their inventory sitting on shelves, income from their business activities, any buildings they own, their IP, their brand, and so on. These are real, valuable things that are divided into ownership shares and sold to people. Crypto removes all of the actual ownership of things and just skips straight to shares that don’t represent anything. Take stocks and subtract all of the actual underlying assets and value, and you basically have crypto as traded on the exchanges. Remember that cryptocurrency has no notion of market price or exchange rate to USD. The exchange rate that everyone focuses on is not a function of the blockchain or cryptography. It’s purely a function of the exchanges
    - cblconfederate 6y ago
      > actual ownership of a company. That's because there is no state which protects a legal system which would enforce the ownership rights of cryptos currently. Stocks on their own are also a just piece of paper

And stocks give you legal ownership of a portion of an actual business with actual assets and profit streams to redistribute

cblconfederate 6y ago
same as what ICOs would do
thebean11 6y ago
Ethereum rakes in a massive amount of money in fees, which in a future version will be distributed to stakers.
jayd16 6y ago
What would be some realworld differences between owning a coin and owning a non-voting, no dividend stock?
- bidirectional 6y ago
  Probability of a payout in event of liquidation (low for stock, nothing for coin).
- jqpabc123 6y ago
  To be like crypto, it would have to be a no dividend, no asset, no income, no identifiable market company. In fact, it wouldn't be a "realworld" company at all. It would just be electrons floating on the internet ether. It's only real purpose would be to entertain those who speculate that others can be convinced to make the same mistake they have made. But to finally answer your question, the real difference between this sort of company and crypto is that sane investors would never buy stock in it.
  - PragmaticPulp 6y ago
    > To be like crypto, it would have to be a no dividend, no asset, no income, no identifiable market company. In other words, you’d have to subtract everything of value and leave only the shares themselves. That’s essentially what crypto is: Shares of a finite number that can be moved around between accounts, but don’t represent anything other than themselves.
    - jqpabc123 6y ago
      In other words, you’d have to subtract everything of value and leave only the shares themselves. The reality is actually even more extreme and bizarre. The company would have to avoid providing any real overall value to society while consuming large amounts of energy in some cases. Crypto is a financial wonder; a virtual black hole that sucks in money and resources under the weight of it's own gravity.
- PragmaticPulp 6y ago
  When all we see are stock prices next to crypto prices, it’s easy to forget that stock represents actual ownership of a company. When you buy a stock, you own part of that company, including all of the cash on their balance sheet, their inventory sitting on shelves, income from their business activities, any buildings they own, their IP, their brand, and so on. These are real, valuable things that are divided into ownership shares and sold to people. Crypto removes all of the actual ownership of things and just skips straight to shares that don’t represent anything. Take stocks and subtract all of the actual underlying assets and value, and you basically have crypto as traded on the exchanges. Remember that cryptocurrency has no notion of market price or exchange rate to USD. The exchange rate that everyone focuses on is not a function of the blockchain or cryptography. It’s purely a function of the exchanges
  - cblconfederate 6y ago
    > actual ownership of a company. That's because there is no state which protects a legal system which would enforce the ownership rights of cryptos currently. Stocks on their own are also a just piece of paper