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Not sure about Ponzi (which it probably is) - but I am looking at crypto as a "24/7 world-wide semi-legal horse-races". It is absolutely useless for 1st/2nd/3rd

Not sure about Ponzi (which it probably is) - but I am looking at crypto as a "24/7 world-wide semi-legal horse-races". It is absolutely useless for 1st/2nd/3rd worlds. I can see its benefit for illegal activities - fair enough - but it's standing apart from the gambling potential. But by understanding that it is a gambling machine - I can make a "reasonable" choice, buy some token, sell it at a "small" profit of 10-25% and move on. The crypto is here, it's fact. It's not going anywhere soon. No one loud is out there with an agenda to deliver the message of its uselessness. Most people don't understand how crypto works - and not even trying - and I personally got over screaming "the emperor has no clothes" and now just quietly do some trades from time to time. Just a bit of reality to the "lens of someone living in a wealthy" blah-blah-blah. I did a SWIFT transfer of 30k USD from an eastern European country to a 1st world country. It cost me 20 USD to send and 10 USD to accept the cash within 3 working days. Yes I had to go the bank and it took some time - fair enough - BUT the fees were much lower than I would've paid to the exchanges. I had an ability to reverse the transaction (to an extent), it was an open and legal non-commercial transaction (and I don't have to explain it later to the tax man). C'mon crypto, try to beat that :) "Bank the unbanked", "inflation", "poor immigrants" - you know it's all BS. We lived through crazy inflation periods - basically you either convert your local cash to USD/EU as soon as you can or buy some local products (that you can resell) if the currency is not available. Thus people buy fridges/TVs, etc. There is probably a local village smart-ass who would use crypto for it, sure. But it's just an exception. These people have zero trust in anything, including their governments, so crypto is even lower in this chain of trust. Immigrants and refugees have 101 ways to transfer their money. There are so many companies/networks that it makes your head spin. And their amounts are so small so very often it all goes under the radar anyways. Basically all the crypto-mania as is is a big joke AND a great opportunity to make a quick buck :)

koonsolo 5y ago
> C'mon crypto, try to beat that :) Nano has instant transactions and 0 fees. Try to beat that.
- democracy 5y ago
  Yeah, just like a MYSQL database :)) Now let's calculate how much I am going to pay to BUY crypto and SELL crypto in fees . Have you ever done it, seriously?
  - koonsolo 5y ago
    What backup scheme are you using on your MySQL database? What uptime can you guarantee? How do you handle the security? Who has access to it? Speaking as a software architect, your MySQL database seems like a terrible solution. Yeah, you still need to pay for the link with the 'old' system of course. And besides, the exchange fees are nothing compared to the huge gains :p. Is crypto a better solution now? Sometimes. Is it a better solution overall? yes.

koonsolo 5y ago

> C'mon crypto, try to beat that :) Nano has instant transactions and 0 fees. Try to beat that.

democracy 5y ago
Yeah, just like a MYSQL database :)) Now let's calculate how much I am going to pay to BUY crypto and SELL crypto in fees . Have you ever done it, seriously?
- koonsolo 5y ago
  What backup scheme are you using on your MySQL database? What uptime can you guarantee? How do you handle the security? Who has access to it? Speaking as a software architect, your MySQL database seems like a terrible solution. Yeah, you still need to pay for the link with the 'old' system of course. And besides, the exchange fees are nothing compared to the huge gains :p. Is crypto a better solution now? Sometimes. Is it a better solution overall? yes.