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Bitcoin is a lot of different things to a lot of different people. The fact that it satisfies a certain set of conditions of a Ponzi scheme does not invalidate
by jliptzin 5y ago
Bitcoin is a lot of different things to a lot of different people. The fact that it satisfies a certain set of conditions of a Ponzi scheme does not invalidate the myriad current and future applications of crypto. The social security administration could also be considered a Ponzi scheme, but it still provides tremendous value to a lot of people.
- bb88 5y ago> The social security administration could also be considered a Ponzi scheme, but it still provides tremendous value to a lot of people. Government runs a debt and finances it on the bond market with US Treasuries. That's not a ponzi scheme. Edit: Not sure why the downvotes, but it's true and will continue to be true in the forseeable future.
- whateveracct 5y agoLuLaRoe is a lot of different things to a lot of different people. The fact that it satisfies a certain set of conditions of a pyramid scheme does not invalidate the myriad current and future applications of MLM.
- russianbandit 5y agoYou are not wrong, but neither is MLM in and of itself.
- zacmps 5y agoI'm sorry, what applications? Besides accelerating global warming there doesn't seem to be anything it's good at.
- BrianHenryIE 5y agoCommerce.
- cemerick 5y agoAmong whom, and for what? Average transaction fees were substantially above $5 - $10 for nearly a year, and have now settled around $2 - $3. No one was looking to transact in BTC before that spike, and that goes double now.
- amin 5y agoWhat percentage of people who bought bitcoin today, bought it with the intent of making normal commerce-related transactions?
- jliptzin 5y agoJust because there are a large number of market participants involved purely for speculation does not mean we can just ignore those who are there for genuine commercial transactions. What percent of people who buy oil futures contracts intend to take delivery of thousands of gallons of oil?
- BrianHenryIE 5y agoI made a sibling comment where I said a company I work for accepts Bitcoin and ships orders once confirmed. So, in the past month, the customers who paid via Bitcoin... presumably bought it with the intent of making normal commerce-related transactions.
- BrianHenryIE 5y agoTo be entirely clear, a company I work with accepts Bitcoin, then ships physical products.
- bb88 5y agoSo if you were paid in BTC, would you keep it in BTC or move much of it back to cash in case BTC plummets? If it's an investment, no more than 30% of your net worth should be wrapped up in one investment. If it's a currency and you're happy if the price takes a plunge. It seems to me, as long as the price fluctuates, I would prefer cash because I would be able to buy BTC during the dips.
- stale2002 5y ago> what applications? Back in 2010, credit card companies blocked off all donations to wikileaks, even though they had not been found to be breaking any laws. Yet, people could still donate bitcoin to them. Censorship resistance, is still useful, even in situations where nobody has broken any laws.
- glenvdb 5y agoPlease look at this data and then come back and tell me you still think Bitcoin mining is having a meaningful impact on climate change and why. https://cbeci.org/index/comparisons https://cbeci.org/index/comparisons I'd be curious to read your thoughts.
- speedgoose 5y agoNot op but I quickly looked through your link. It's as bad as I thought. There is so need to waste so much energy into a bad database.
- glenvdb 5y agoLots of people disagree with you about that. Sorry you see it as a waste, but we're going to keep using it and dedicating more energy towards it because we understand its value. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b-7dMVcVWgc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b-7dMVcVWgc
- forgotmyoldname 5y agoSo Bitcoin uses more energy than an entire country of 110 million people (the Philippines). That's absolutely nuts. If you said you could reduce an entire country's CO2 emissions to zero overnight, and you had a valid plan to do so, you'd be on the cover of every newspaper for your revolutionary plan to help save the earth. But say you want to flip a switch and turn off a single cryptocurrency in order to do it, and you'll have floods of people trivializing it, saying "well, let me tell you why 110 million people's CO2 emissions aren't that big of a deal..."
- glenvdb 5y agoScroll down to the bar chart showing the country rankings. Look at the top 3 countries (China, US, India). Compare those to Bitcoin... can you honestly tell me that Bitcoin constitutes a significant amount of energy consumption in that context? And it's also worth noting that energy consumption isn't necessarily bad for climate change. You're conflating "energy consumption" with "CO2 emissions". It's CO2 emissions that are the problem, and Bitcoin energy consumption is far more green than most other industries. So we have a monetary network that consumes a globally insignificant amount of energy and is more green than many other industries... is it really a significant problem? https://bitcoinmagazine.com/business/bitcoin-energy-use-compare-industry https://bitcoinmagazine.com/business/bitcoin-energy-use-comp... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b-7dMVcVWgc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b-7dMVcVWgc
- rubinelli 5y agoThat's not true. It's fantastic for ransomware and scams in general.
- bb88 5y agoSoon as a payment for CSAM... wait.. that already exists I'm sure.
- anonporridge 5y agoIt's pretty terrible for that because it's easily traceable.
- nprz 5y agoPseudonymous, censorship-resistent, permissionless, peer-to-peer. Many people in authoritarian or monetarily irresponsible countries use these features to protect, store, and transfer their wealth[0]. [0]https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2021/jul/31/out-of-control-and-rising-why-bitcoin-has-nigerias-government-in-a-panic https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2021/jul/31/out-of-co...
- forgotmyoldname 5y agoI hear this a lot. It sounds nice. Yet trying to set up crypto as a person in a developed country in 2021 is kind of a pain in the ass. It's not too hard to exchange between types of crypto, but getting real money that I can buy a pizza with in and out of an exchange? Not too easy. There are requirements for credit cards or confirmed bank accounts for payment, scans of an ID card or driver's license to prove I'm a human, the possibility banks can at any point determine it's a scam and block transfers to any exchange, and so on. If it's that hard for me, a person in a developed and ostensibly free country to do it, how the hell is some average person--not a government official or wealthy person with connections--in North Korea or Eritrea going to set it up and secure their financial future to any degree better than a pocket full of cash and old jewelry?
- jliptzin 5y agoI said crypto generally, not just Bitcoin, as the article in this post is not only focused on Bitcoin but crypto in a broad sense.
- tw04 5y ago>The social security administration could also be considered a Ponzi scheme, but it still provides tremendous value to a lot of people. The Social Security Administration is entirely solvent by itself. The only "ponzi scheme" comes from congress using it like a piggy bank. And despite all that, SSA is backed by the US government. Bitcoin is backed by... nothing. So it's basically the equivalent of the zimbabwe dollar, not SSA.
- Andrew_nenakhov 5y agoBitcoin is backed by the same thing that backs any currency: public's trust in it, expressed via a price achieved via a market consensus.
- fay59 5y agoYou must pay your taxes in national currency. That alone gives it value beyond trust.
- Andrew_nenakhov 5y agoYou think zimbabwe tax service cared much about taxes when they had 6 digits inflation per year? why bother collecting if you can just print money? (also, such cases is precisely the reason people may believe that they have more trust in bitcoin, as flimsy as it may be, than to their national government issued fiat)
- ojbyrne 5y agoRe: Congress using it like a piggy bank - citation needed.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- ur-whale 5y ago>The social security administration could also be considered a Ponzi scheme It's far worse than a ponzi: ponzi's aren't usually compulsory.