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"It's funny to see the Economist try to view crypto through a traditional finance lens." I suppose that by "traditional finance" you mean something like econom

"It's funny to see the Economist try to view crypto through a traditional finance lens." I suppose that by "traditional finance" you mean something like economies based on fiat currencies and the like, where the value of something is based on what is agreed by market forces. That something can be a piece of plasticised paper with holograms and windowed cut outs and a symbolic value called "£10" or as I would say: ten quid. It might also mean an economy based on gold reserves (mmmmm pretty) or chickens (barter - at least they are a thing and handy if you are hungry) or something in between. Mud/earth had stupendous value in the film "Waterworld". So, your crypto thingies bring exactly what to the party? It chews through power thanks to mining. Yes, I gather there are other forms of crypto coin that might address this but they have little value yet. The big hitters - Bitcoin etc now consume a lot of power to "mine" but mine what exactly? You can't eat the bloody things but then you can't eat a squid (nickname for GBP - pound - quid - squid) but you can eat a squid (sea living decapod). Crypto coins seem to me to be a properly rubbish "fuck you" modern thing. You expend resources to generate a "value". That value is scaled to other values via a "market". That's how capitalism works and so all is good. However, what exactly have you generated? It's not a useful thing. You have expended multiple KWh on a calculation. I can't eat a calculation, so I think you have slid in via a side door into my market economy and subverted it. I'm not quite sure what my final, formal argument against the current forms of crypto currencies is going to take yet but it looks more and more wrong to me. I'd love to see your (@woah) arguments in reverse of mine. For example what on earth are those "interesting developments"? I'm not a luddite and I run an IT company. Convince me that you bring value and not simply generate profit.

ikt 4y ago
I don't quite understand how we're 10 years into crypto and people still aren't sure the value that a trillion dollar industry generates, I wonder why there's so much confusion around this? It seems like there's a small niche of people who like finance and tech who get it, but if you're not in that group you will (for example) use hCaptcha without even realising it's on Ethereum and will never see the value even when it's right in front of you. Maybe people like using it for cross border payments or getting money out of extremely unstable currencies, or anything to playing a game of godsunchained.com or any of immutable.com's properties (including those damn NFT's), maybe you can get a better interest rate lending a stablecoin on app.aave.com instead of in a trad finance savings account, watch some theta.tv, or just like the whole crypto ecosystem in general? the communities, the telegram group chats, the chart watching, the idea of WAGMI, the idea of directly having a say in a project and talking to the CEO via telegram instead of via an online form where you put in your preferences and then a share holder meeting happens months later etcetc There are a lot of people who see it as a get rich quick scheme in the same way WallStreetBets users use the stock market to try and get rich quick, but ultimately the continued improvements in Ethereum and Bitcoin which push for a faster, cheaper, better digital currency systems are moving it forward and bring something of value to the table, because in reality if it brought nothing no one would be talking about Crypto, it'd just be worthless Disney Dollars like I was told Bitcoin was back when I first looked into it 10 years ago.
- addicted 4y ago
  It’s not a trillion dollar industry. Most of the mark to market happening in crypto is because of transactions between different cryptos. If it had to be converted to real dollars, the market cap would plummet rapidly.
- gerdesj 4y ago
  r/wallstreetbets is famous for descriptions of losing money. Yes, there have been some accidents involving apes actually making money and the recent GME thing. Your Disney Dollars analogy is outstanding! If you bought BT https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/bitcoin/ https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/bitcoin/ in say Jan 2020 and flogged it in mid Nov 2021 then you would see quite a payback. However, look at the value curve and note how chaotic it is. You cannot meaningfully attempt to predict how crypto will perform so it is nearly gambling. You might win or not. Generally you won't win. I have no skin in this game but is it still possible to short these beasts? If it is then I suggest wacking a few ponies on it, if you have some to spare.

ikt 4y ago

I don't quite understand how we're 10 years into crypto and people still aren't sure the value that a trillion dollar industry generates, I wonder why there's so much confusion around this? It seems like there's a small niche of people who like finance and tech who get it, but if you're not in that group you will (for example) use hCaptcha without even realising it's on Ethereum and will never see the value even when it's right in front of you. Maybe people like using it for cross border payments or getting money out of extremely unstable currencies, or anything to playing a game of godsunchained.com or any of immutable.com's properties (including those damn NFT's), maybe you can get a better interest rate lending a stablecoin on app.aave.com instead of in a trad finance savings account, watch some theta.tv, or just like the whole crypto ecosystem in general? the communities, the telegram group chats, the chart watching, the idea of WAGMI, the idea of directly having a say in a project and talking to the CEO via telegram instead of via an online form where you put in your preferences and then a share holder meeting happens months later etcetc There are a lot of people who see it as a get rich quick scheme in the same way WallStreetBets users use the stock market to try and get rich quick, but ultimately the continued improvements in Ethereum and Bitcoin which push for a faster, cheaper, better digital currency systems are moving it forward and bring something of value to the table, because in reality if it brought nothing no one would be talking about Crypto, it'd just be worthless Disney Dollars like I was told Bitcoin was back when I first looked into it 10 years ago.

addicted 4y ago
It’s not a trillion dollar industry. Most of the mark to market happening in crypto is because of transactions between different cryptos. If it had to be converted to real dollars, the market cap would plummet rapidly.
gerdesj 4y ago
r/wallstreetbets is famous for descriptions of losing money. Yes, there have been some accidents involving apes actually making money and the recent GME thing. Your Disney Dollars analogy is outstanding! If you bought BT https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/bitcoin/ https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/bitcoin/ in say Jan 2020 and flogged it in mid Nov 2021 then you would see quite a payback. However, look at the value curve and note how chaotic it is. You cannot meaningfully attempt to predict how crypto will perform so it is nearly gambling. You might win or not. Generally you won't win. I have no skin in this game but is it still possible to short these beasts? If it is then I suggest wacking a few ponies on it, if you have some to spare.