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Why is this news? Sorry, I must have missed all of the following posts: - AMZN under $100 (Down 48% YOY) - GOOG under $100 (Down 42% YOY) - AMD under $60 (Dow

Why is this news? Sorry, I must have missed all of the following posts: - AMZN under $100 (Down 48% YOY) - GOOG under $100 (Down 42% YOY) - AMD under $60 (Down 59% YOY) - META at $101 (Down 77% YOY) and the list goes on. What is it about bitcoin that brings people into these threads to say "good riddance! I hope it dies because all of it's negative externalities."? To the oblivious observer it would appear cryptocurrency lives rent free in many heads in this space. If you don't care for it why pay attention to it? I am not a fan of BlackRock. The last thing I could imagine spending my time doing would be checking BLK on the NYSE to gleefully dance on its grave when it misses its earnings, and then hopping into my echo chamber to share the news with anonymous strangers.

parineum 4y ago
Should the value of Bitcoin be rising with inflation?
- thaumasiotes 4y ago
  By definition, the value of everything rises with inflation. That just tells you that in the absence of inflation, prices now would be lower than they are now. It doesn't tell you whether prices now are higher or lower than they were yesterday.
  - mqus 4y ago
    To be precise, the value of money sinks. The value of bread to everyone involved stays the same. Said differently: the price of everything rises, not the value. And another nitpick: by definition the average/median price rises, not the price of everything (afair). Since bitcoin itself is a currency though, I'm not sure how inflation really applies across currencies (since there are "prices" both ways).
    - thaumasiotes 4y ago
      > To be precise, the value of money sinks. The value of bread to everyone involved stays the same. The value of bread as measured in money rises. I'm just using the terminology from the parent comment. > And another nitpick: by definition the average/median price rises, not the price of everything (afair). No, that's wrong. The value of money sinking is exactly the same as the price of everything rising. That is the meaning of "the value of money"; there is not even a theoretical distinction between these concepts. If the value of money falls in half, then all prices, of everything, have increased by 100%. > Since bitcoin itself is a currency though, I'm not sure how inflation really applies across currencies (since there are "prices" both ways). There seems to be some kind of conceptual confusion here. Currencies inflate (by losing value), or deflate (by gaining value), or don't (by maintaining the same value; in reality this can't happen). If one currency inflates more than another one does, then the exchange rate between them will shift. (It will take more of the first currency to buy a constant amount of the second one, or less of the second one to buy a constant amount of the first one.) If two currencies inflate by the same amount, then the exchange rate between them won't shift. What's your question?
  - RivieraKid 4y ago
    Everyone (including you) knows what he means.
    - thaumasiotes 4y ago
      The only alternative I see is that you're proposing bitcoin's price should generally rise faster than inflation when inflation is positive. Is that really what you mean, and what you think my parent comment meant? Inflation is a mechanical thing; to get that effect, you'd need a financial instrument that was specifically defined to produce it.
      - RivieraKid 4y ago
        He meant that the price of BTC expressed in USD should be going up with inflation.
        thaumasiotes 4y ago
        It is. If you want people to understand that you have some other meaning than that, you're going to need to phrase it better.
Ptchd 4y ago
Exactly.
candiddevmike 4y ago
Unlike the things you pointed out, Bitcoin will never give dividends or have any assets sold at an auction. Instead it's a pyramid scheme, easily replaceable by any other shitcoin out there, and the value of it should be close to $1 or less.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
- andirk 4y ago
  How is it a pyramid scheme?
  - deleted 4y ago
    [deleted]
  - three_seagrass 4y ago
    If you're getting technical, it's not a pyramid scheme, but a greater fool scam https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greater_fool_theory https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greater_fool_theory
    - andirk 4y ago
      I'm a big fan of crypto but at least the idea of passing the hot potato til it crumbles in to nothing is a reasonable worry. Every stonk has that same exact issue.
      - AnimalMuppet 4y ago
        Well, no, some stocks actually have value, because there's a money-making company behind the stock. (Or are you using "stonk" to refer to a stock that has a money-losing company behind it?)
cft 4y ago
Because HN is now mainly a forum for FAANG employees, as opposed to founders like it used to be. FAANG cannot control Bitcoin, thus its management and thus its peons view it as a problem. Switch to https://stacker.news https://stacker.news instead
- andirk 4y ago
armchairhacker 4y ago
> - AMZN under $100 (Down 48% YOY) - GOOG under $100 (Down 42% YOY) - AMD under $60 (Down 59% YOY) - META at $101 (Down 77% YOY) To be fair, many of the big companies (at least Amazon, Meta, Twitter) have gotten front-page articles about their losses with people laying into them.
- joshl32532 4y ago
  Yeah, FAANG stock imploding has been on headlines for months now. Why wouldn't BTC get the same treatment? OP must be a bag holder.
lend000 4y ago
People on here get worked up about it because they all know someone who made a lot of money in it that they see as unearned -- it comes down to jealousy or schadenfreude, I suppose. The guise of caring about the externalities or the grandmas is always a front, if we're being totally honest with ourselves. Because to your point, it's completely voluntary to get involved, and if someone is pretending to care about all the (relatively few) grandmas who put money in, well, they're losing money so this person shouldn't be so happy about it. And as for the energy externality, the vast majority of crypto hashpower has hook ups to power plants where during certain times of the day/year, there is excess power and nowhere to put it, so they sell it dirt cheap to miners. I know someone who worked for a US solar power provider that had such an arrangement. Sure, some people are mining from their college campus and stealing power to do so, but the cumulative real effect of this relatively low profit activity is dwarfed by the out of context numbers you see in articles. So at the end of the day, the crypto hating is just people playing zero sum status games, hoping they somehow benefit relative to the decline of others (just as the crypto people are playing zero sum wealth games). It would be nice if everyone could just be honest about it.
- imtringued 4y ago
  I don't know what you are taking about. I hate cryptocurrencirs because they perpetuate the current fiat currency system that originated from the gold standard. The reason why Bitcoin has this massive amount of volatility has to do with the way it is constructed. Just like with conventional fiat currency there is no way to pay off debts with Bitcoin because the additional demand for Bitcoin will increase the value of Bitcoin denominated debt. The news we constantly hear is "Hackernews 10/Dec/2022 Changpeng on brink of second bailout for cryptoexchanges." It is like Bitcoin is supposed to send a hyperexaggerated message about our current money system and how unsustainable it is. The answer is already obvious you have negative rates or not. The positive interest side of the loanable funds model is the side where new debt is taken on, the negative interest side of the loanable funds model is where debt is being paid off. We want to be on the negative side now because we have too much debt.
ilaksh 4y ago
It's popular to hate cryptocurrency in some circles. I think that mainly that is what drives the hate, just network effects. It's popular to hate because everyone's doing it. But also, unfortunately cryptocurrency's reputation has largely been ruined by scammers. Because it's like any high technology, it multiplies the power of those who use it. Including the multitudes of low-lifes out there. The biggest issue though is that people fundamentally do not understand what cryptocurrency is or that it has core advances in digital signatures and blockchains that make legacy trust-based financial systems obsolescent. It also represents in some ways how technology has made all sorts of institutions and paradigms obsolete. Those who are profiting from these previous paradigms and/or are less cognitively adaptive subconsciously are threatened by these types of changes.
- Daishiman 4y ago
  No, we understand it pretty well and the "core advances" in signature and blockchains haven't obsoleted anything. Nothing has been made obsolete, nothing about Bitcoin replaces any existing financial institution.
- imtringued 4y ago
  Anyone who understands cryptocurrency understands how it doesn't make the old financial system obsolete. If anything it reminds people how good their day to day life is because their government is relatively competent at managing the national currency compared to an unregulated currency. The fact that 99% of cryptocurrencies have no reason to exist including Bitcoin is visible in RAI. RAI is the Swiss franc of cryptocurrencies among hyperinflating nonsense. What RAI represents is effectively a currency with an entirely computer controlled central bank just like Friedman dreamt of. Now that is possibly the greatest invention of this century. It is battle tested in one of the harshest environments. While every other currency(crypto or not) is dropping like flies, RAI is only dropping as fast as the Swiss franc which is hardly losing its value. > It also represents in some ways how technology has made all sorts of institutions and paradigms obsolete. Those who are profiting from these previous paradigms and/or are less cognitively adaptive subconsciously are threatened by these types of changes. I don't know what is going in your head but I could easily accuse you of the same. RAI represents how technology made the old paradigm of hypervolatile currencies obsolete. Bitcoin traders who were profiting from this paradigm or people who are unable to understand computer controlled monetary policy are theatened by these types of changes. By the way, mining rewards are not a monetary policy because they don't take the supply and demand for Bitcoin into account, nor is there a way to get rid of excess Bitcoin.
kelseyfrog 4y ago
My best explanation is an psycho-economic-reactance model. It hypothesizes that the largest crypto-pessimistic voices are engaging in the hyperstitious[2] manufacturing of a desired crypto collapse. The desire to foment crypto-collapse stems the reactance one imagines oneself experiencing in a thoroughly crypt-infused world. Allow me to draw a parallel. There exists a contingent of folks who experience psychological reactance at the thought of having to make decisions with respect to government oversight. They "[experience] motivation to regain a freedom after it has been lost or threatened – leads people to resist the social influence of others" when faced with the prospect of having to deal with the government. We all know people like this. The same reaction exists when people feel they will be forced to make decisions with respect to crypto - a system they didn't and don't wish to participate in. No amount of reasoning is going to make someone amenable to government interference in the same way no one is going to be reasoned out of being currency-interfered with by those wish to establish a crypto-hegemony. 1. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4675534/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4675534/ 2. http://www.xenopraxis.net/readings/carstens_hyperstition.pdf http://www.xenopraxis.net/readings/carstens_hyperstition.pdf
RivieraKid 4y ago
For me, it's because I genuinely dislike the Bitcoin cult. They are detached from reality and have a sense of superiority. Something about that really annoys me and I want them to "lose". I feel the same about investors in GME and to some extent extent TSLA.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
elorant 4y ago
Because it's a fucking scam, that's why. Aside the technology behind it, the coin itself offers no value whatsoever. Not to mention all the resources used to mine it.
plorkyeran 4y ago
There's been a bunch of posts about how much Meta's stock has fallen that have hit the front page.
csdreamer7 4y ago
> To the oblivious observer it would appear cryptocurrency lives rent free in many heads in this space. If you don't care for it why pay attention to it? Because it affects people. A lot of people needed graphics cards for not just gaming, but for 3d animation, video making, and video games during and after lockdown. Ethereum was responsible for very large price increases and scarcity of graphics cards. The collapse of Ethereum eventually brought supply back to graphics cards-but we still have these inflated prices. Early in this recent crypto boom it was impossible to buy a mainstream card ($250-$400) while the top end cards were available because mining profitability on the mainstream ones was much higher. This is before you consider that the high demand also attracted scalpers and the environmental issues.
hristov 4y ago
AMZN, GOOG, META, AMD, etc. did not really hurt ordinary people. When Bitcoin was shooting up it really kind of screwed up humanity by unexpectedly raising electricity demand and electricity costs.
- dcow 4y ago
  > …did not really hurt ordinary people. Are you sure about that? Really, think about it…
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
jongjong 4y ago
The one thing which is satisfying for me about this crash is that, as a developer working in the cryptocurrency space, I was constantly looked down on by the mainstream FAANG tech crowd. They kept telling me "Crypto is a bubble, there's nothing behind it" and I would say back to them "Yes, but with all the money printing that's been going on and distorting the markets, how can we even know which company in the stock market is backed by real value?" And now look at what's going on; big tech stocks crashed faster than crypto did. In a realistic economic environment, could these stocks be worth less than 'worthless' crypto? The effect is even more dramatic than I thought. It confirms my beliefs that the economy of the last decade was a kind of lucky lottery system.
- jfghi 4y ago
  None of the tier 1 tech stocks have any chance of bankruptcy.
  - jongjong 4y ago
    There is still a tiny chance. Crypto has 0 chance of bankruptcy. This is because cryptocurrencies aren't even companies; they have no directors, no board members, no debt, no assets. It's impossible for them to go bankrupt. Also, companies can become nonviable and be shut down. On the other hand, it's almost impossible for a crypto to become nonviable... There will always be some tinkerers willing to run nodes at a tiny annual loss. PoS cryptos are very cheap to operate.
    - maxerickson 4y ago
      Lack of a meaningful consensus network would be pretty similar, in the sense that someone holding that currency wouldn't be able to get anything in exchange for it. Well, it'd likely be worse than bankruptcy, because there wouldn't be any assets to go after in court.
      - jongjong 4y ago
        That won't happen because there will never be a shortage of fools and degens who will buy crypto. Same reason why gambling will always exist. Crypto is better at attracting speculators because it's not as constrained by regulations and even if price drops 80%+, people immediately start telling themselves "I'm in it for the technology and/or social mission" and this keeps them HODLing until the next bull run. Stock investors tend to think more like "This stock just dropped 80%, I have to cut my losses... Switching to value investing. Bye."
pessimizer 4y ago
If bitcoin is gold, shouldn't it be moving in the opposite direction? If it isn't, why not buy AMZN, GOOG, AMD, or META, who are all doing as good or better? And since bitcoin isn't a tech stock, but a "currency," why wouldn't you compare it to the S&P (down 19%), DJIA (down 10%), or the USD (up 17% against UKP, 15% against EUR)?
amelius 4y ago
> What is it about bitcoin that brings people into these threads to say "good riddance! I hope it dies because all of it's negative externalities."? The negative externalities.
infotogivenm 4y ago
FWIW I think I have seen most of those titles posted to HN over the last few months. e.g. 1. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33357289 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33357289 2. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33379932 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33379932 Anyways, a sharp decline in cryptocurrency markets caused by the continuing house-of-cards is almost certainly going to make front page HN.
maxerickson 4y ago
Thinking it is harmful is different than "don't care for it".
acchow 4y ago
Are you confused about why the HN community would be more interested in big moves in the first cryptocurrency rather than in BLK or AMZN?
wwarner 4y ago
To me the real question is why isn’t bitcoin skyrocketing in value? If crypto is susceptible to inflation worries, what is the point?
- karmakaze 4y ago
  I would say because this is a correction. The demand for BTC was up due to speculation. As the perception of risk increases in general, there will be less speculation.
nicbou 4y ago
I see crypto as the embodiment of unchecked greed. The massive amounts of energy it destroys is such a major middle finger to everyone. The current financial system wasn't bad enough. They had to take the brakes off.
- CrazyPyroLinux 4y ago
  > amounts of energy it destroys https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_law_of_thermodynamics https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_law_of_thermodynamics
boh 4y ago
Bitcoin is not above criticism nor are the companies you mentioned (all of which have been criticized for various reasons on this platform).
enaaem 4y ago
Turned out that BTC is not an inflation hedge.
strangeattractr 4y ago
You have coin in your handle. Far more likely that you're hyper-sensitive to news you think is a slight on crypto. I have seen threads about Meta and Amazon losing enormous amounts in market cap in the last week. Maybe you're the one who needs to stop paying attention to detractors.
rhaway84773 4y ago
Yeah, it’s really a mystery why news about a techno-utopist technology would show up on a technology focused website.
BLanen 4y ago
Your last post: - Amazon Becomes the First Company Ever to Lose $1T in Stock Value I'll let it speak for itself.
kamaal 4y ago
>>What is it about bitcoin that brings people into these threads to say "good riddance! I hope it dies because all of it's negative externalities."? Because many became rich riding the first crypto wave. And they missed out. It strikes them as an injustice and as some consolation, they would like to see crypto crash burn. If I can't have, neither should they.
ChainOfFools 4y ago
> lives rent free in many heads Do you normally charge rent to remember concepts you find ridiculous, evil or toxic? How much rent do you charge, say, "scientology" or "child abuse" for the mental real estate they are squatting on in your head?
fantasyman1 4y ago
JohnDoe124 4y ago
> What is it about bitcoin that brings people into these threads to say "good riddance! I hope it dies because all of it's negative externalities."? > To the oblivious observer it would appear cryptocurrency lives rent free in many heads in this space. If you don't care for it why pay attention to it? The environmental impact is something everyone should care about

parineum 4y ago

Should the value of Bitcoin be rising with inflation?

thaumasiotes 4y ago
By definition, the value of everything rises with inflation. That just tells you that in the absence of inflation, prices now would be lower than they are now. It doesn't tell you whether prices now are higher or lower than they were yesterday.
- mqus 4y ago
  To be precise, the value of money sinks. The value of bread to everyone involved stays the same. Said differently: the price of everything rises, not the value. And another nitpick: by definition the average/median price rises, not the price of everything (afair). Since bitcoin itself is a currency though, I'm not sure how inflation really applies across currencies (since there are "prices" both ways).
  - thaumasiotes 4y ago
    > To be precise, the value of money sinks. The value of bread to everyone involved stays the same. The value of bread as measured in money rises. I'm just using the terminology from the parent comment. > And another nitpick: by definition the average/median price rises, not the price of everything (afair). No, that's wrong. The value of money sinking is exactly the same as the price of everything rising. That is the meaning of "the value of money"; there is not even a theoretical distinction between these concepts. If the value of money falls in half, then all prices, of everything, have increased by 100%. > Since bitcoin itself is a currency though, I'm not sure how inflation really applies across currencies (since there are "prices" both ways). There seems to be some kind of conceptual confusion here. Currencies inflate (by losing value), or deflate (by gaining value), or don't (by maintaining the same value; in reality this can't happen). If one currency inflates more than another one does, then the exchange rate between them will shift. (It will take more of the first currency to buy a constant amount of the second one, or less of the second one to buy a constant amount of the first one.) If two currencies inflate by the same amount, then the exchange rate between them won't shift. What's your question?
- RivieraKid 4y ago
  Everyone (including you) knows what he means.
  - thaumasiotes 4y ago
    The only alternative I see is that you're proposing bitcoin's price should generally rise faster than inflation when inflation is positive. Is that really what you mean, and what you think my parent comment meant? Inflation is a mechanical thing; to get that effect, you'd need a financial instrument that was specifically defined to produce it.
    - RivieraKid 4y ago
      He meant that the price of BTC expressed in USD should be going up with inflation.
      - thaumasiotes 4y ago
        It is. If you want people to understand that you have some other meaning than that, you're going to need to phrase it better.

Ptchd 4y ago

Exactly.

candiddevmike 4y ago

Unlike the things you pointed out, Bitcoin will never give dividends or have any assets sold at an auction. Instead it's a pyramid scheme, easily replaceable by any other shitcoin out there, and the value of it should be close to $1 or less.

deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
andirk 4y ago
How is it a pyramid scheme?
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
- three_seagrass 4y ago
  If you're getting technical, it's not a pyramid scheme, but a greater fool scam https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greater_fool_theory https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greater_fool_theory
  - andirk 4y ago
    I'm a big fan of crypto but at least the idea of passing the hot potato til it crumbles in to nothing is a reasonable worry. Every stonk has that same exact issue.
    - AnimalMuppet 4y ago
      Well, no, some stocks actually have value, because there's a money-making company behind the stock. (Or are you using "stonk" to refer to a stock that has a money-losing company behind it?)

cft 4y ago

Because HN is now mainly a forum for FAANG employees, as opposed to founders like it used to be. FAANG cannot control Bitcoin, thus its management and thus its peons view it as a problem. Switch to https://stacker.news https://stacker.news instead

andirk 4y ago

armchairhacker 4y ago

> - AMZN under $100 (Down 48% YOY) - GOOG under $100 (Down 42% YOY) - AMD under $60 (Down 59% YOY) - META at $101 (Down 77% YOY) To be fair, many of the big companies (at least Amazon, Meta, Twitter) have gotten front-page articles about their losses with people laying into them.

joshl32532 4y ago
Yeah, FAANG stock imploding has been on headlines for months now. Why wouldn't BTC get the same treatment? OP must be a bag holder.

lend000 4y ago

People on here get worked up about it because they all know someone who made a lot of money in it that they see as unearned -- it comes down to jealousy or schadenfreude, I suppose. The guise of caring about the externalities or the grandmas is always a front, if we're being totally honest with ourselves. Because to your point, it's completely voluntary to get involved, and if someone is pretending to care about all the (relatively few) grandmas who put money in, well, they're losing money so this person shouldn't be so happy about it. And as for the energy externality, the vast majority of crypto hashpower has hook ups to power plants where during certain times of the day/year, there is excess power and nowhere to put it, so they sell it dirt cheap to miners. I know someone who worked for a US solar power provider that had such an arrangement. Sure, some people are mining from their college campus and stealing power to do so, but the cumulative real effect of this relatively low profit activity is dwarfed by the out of context numbers you see in articles. So at the end of the day, the crypto hating is just people playing zero sum status games, hoping they somehow benefit relative to the decline of others (just as the crypto people are playing zero sum wealth games). It would be nice if everyone could just be honest about it.

imtringued 4y ago
I don't know what you are taking about. I hate cryptocurrencirs because they perpetuate the current fiat currency system that originated from the gold standard. The reason why Bitcoin has this massive amount of volatility has to do with the way it is constructed. Just like with conventional fiat currency there is no way to pay off debts with Bitcoin because the additional demand for Bitcoin will increase the value of Bitcoin denominated debt. The news we constantly hear is "Hackernews 10/Dec/2022 Changpeng on brink of second bailout for cryptoexchanges." It is like Bitcoin is supposed to send a hyperexaggerated message about our current money system and how unsustainable it is. The answer is already obvious you have negative rates or not. The positive interest side of the loanable funds model is the side where new debt is taken on, the negative interest side of the loanable funds model is where debt is being paid off. We want to be on the negative side now because we have too much debt.

ilaksh 4y ago

It's popular to hate cryptocurrency in some circles. I think that mainly that is what drives the hate, just network effects. It's popular to hate because everyone's doing it. But also, unfortunately cryptocurrency's reputation has largely been ruined by scammers. Because it's like any high technology, it multiplies the power of those who use it. Including the multitudes of low-lifes out there. The biggest issue though is that people fundamentally do not understand what cryptocurrency is or that it has core advances in digital signatures and blockchains that make legacy trust-based financial systems obsolescent. It also represents in some ways how technology has made all sorts of institutions and paradigms obsolete. Those who are profiting from these previous paradigms and/or are less cognitively adaptive subconsciously are threatened by these types of changes.

Daishiman 4y ago
No, we understand it pretty well and the "core advances" in signature and blockchains haven't obsoleted anything. Nothing has been made obsolete, nothing about Bitcoin replaces any existing financial institution.
imtringued 4y ago
Anyone who understands cryptocurrency understands how it doesn't make the old financial system obsolete. If anything it reminds people how good their day to day life is because their government is relatively competent at managing the national currency compared to an unregulated currency. The fact that 99% of cryptocurrencies have no reason to exist including Bitcoin is visible in RAI. RAI is the Swiss franc of cryptocurrencies among hyperinflating nonsense. What RAI represents is effectively a currency with an entirely computer controlled central bank just like Friedman dreamt of. Now that is possibly the greatest invention of this century. It is battle tested in one of the harshest environments. While every other currency(crypto or not) is dropping like flies, RAI is only dropping as fast as the Swiss franc which is hardly losing its value. > It also represents in some ways how technology has made all sorts of institutions and paradigms obsolete. Those who are profiting from these previous paradigms and/or are less cognitively adaptive subconsciously are threatened by these types of changes. I don't know what is going in your head but I could easily accuse you of the same. RAI represents how technology made the old paradigm of hypervolatile currencies obsolete. Bitcoin traders who were profiting from this paradigm or people who are unable to understand computer controlled monetary policy are theatened by these types of changes. By the way, mining rewards are not a monetary policy because they don't take the supply and demand for Bitcoin into account, nor is there a way to get rid of excess Bitcoin.

kelseyfrog 4y ago

My best explanation is an psycho-economic-reactance model. It hypothesizes that the largest crypto-pessimistic voices are engaging in the hyperstitious[2] manufacturing of a desired crypto collapse. The desire to foment crypto-collapse stems the reactance one imagines oneself experiencing in a thoroughly crypt-infused world. Allow me to draw a parallel. There exists a contingent of folks who experience psychological reactance at the thought of having to make decisions with respect to government oversight. They "[experience] motivation to regain a freedom after it has been lost or threatened – leads people to resist the social influence of others" when faced with the prospect of having to deal with the government. We all know people like this. The same reaction exists when people feel they will be forced to make decisions with respect to crypto - a system they didn't and don't wish to participate in. No amount of reasoning is going to make someone amenable to government interference in the same way no one is going to be reasoned out of being currency-interfered with by those wish to establish a crypto-hegemony. 1. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4675534/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4675534/ 2. http://www.xenopraxis.net/readings/carstens_hyperstition.pdf http://www.xenopraxis.net/readings/carstens_hyperstition.pdf

RivieraKid 4y ago

For me, it's because I genuinely dislike the Bitcoin cult. They are detached from reality and have a sense of superiority. Something about that really annoys me and I want them to "lose". I feel the same about investors in GME and to some extent extent TSLA.

deleted 4y ago
[deleted]

elorant 4y ago

Because it's a fucking scam, that's why. Aside the technology behind it, the coin itself offers no value whatsoever. Not to mention all the resources used to mine it.

plorkyeran 4y ago

There's been a bunch of posts about how much Meta's stock has fallen that have hit the front page.

csdreamer7 4y ago

> To the oblivious observer it would appear cryptocurrency lives rent free in many heads in this space. If you don't care for it why pay attention to it? Because it affects people. A lot of people needed graphics cards for not just gaming, but for 3d animation, video making, and video games during and after lockdown. Ethereum was responsible for very large price increases and scarcity of graphics cards. The collapse of Ethereum eventually brought supply back to graphics cards-but we still have these inflated prices. Early in this recent crypto boom it was impossible to buy a mainstream card ($250-$400) while the top end cards were available because mining profitability on the mainstream ones was much higher. This is before you consider that the high demand also attracted scalpers and the environmental issues.

hristov 4y ago

AMZN, GOOG, META, AMD, etc. did not really hurt ordinary people. When Bitcoin was shooting up it really kind of screwed up humanity by unexpectedly raising electricity demand and electricity costs.

dcow 4y ago
> …did not really hurt ordinary people. Are you sure about that? Really, think about it…

deleted 4y ago

[deleted]

jongjong 4y ago

The one thing which is satisfying for me about this crash is that, as a developer working in the cryptocurrency space, I was constantly looked down on by the mainstream FAANG tech crowd. They kept telling me "Crypto is a bubble, there's nothing behind it" and I would say back to them "Yes, but with all the money printing that's been going on and distorting the markets, how can we even know which company in the stock market is backed by real value?" And now look at what's going on; big tech stocks crashed faster than crypto did. In a realistic economic environment, could these stocks be worth less than 'worthless' crypto? The effect is even more dramatic than I thought. It confirms my beliefs that the economy of the last decade was a kind of lucky lottery system.

jfghi 4y ago
None of the tier 1 tech stocks have any chance of bankruptcy.
- jongjong 4y ago
  There is still a tiny chance. Crypto has 0 chance of bankruptcy. This is because cryptocurrencies aren't even companies; they have no directors, no board members, no debt, no assets. It's impossible for them to go bankrupt. Also, companies can become nonviable and be shut down. On the other hand, it's almost impossible for a crypto to become nonviable... There will always be some tinkerers willing to run nodes at a tiny annual loss. PoS cryptos are very cheap to operate.
  - maxerickson 4y ago
    Lack of a meaningful consensus network would be pretty similar, in the sense that someone holding that currency wouldn't be able to get anything in exchange for it. Well, it'd likely be worse than bankruptcy, because there wouldn't be any assets to go after in court.
    - jongjong 4y ago
      That won't happen because there will never be a shortage of fools and degens who will buy crypto. Same reason why gambling will always exist. Crypto is better at attracting speculators because it's not as constrained by regulations and even if price drops 80%+, people immediately start telling themselves "I'm in it for the technology and/or social mission" and this keeps them HODLing until the next bull run. Stock investors tend to think more like "This stock just dropped 80%, I have to cut my losses... Switching to value investing. Bye."

pessimizer 4y ago

If bitcoin is gold, shouldn't it be moving in the opposite direction? If it isn't, why not buy AMZN, GOOG, AMD, or META, who are all doing as good or better? And since bitcoin isn't a tech stock, but a "currency," why wouldn't you compare it to the S&P (down 19%), DJIA (down 10%), or the USD (up 17% against UKP, 15% against EUR)?

amelius 4y ago

> What is it about bitcoin that brings people into these threads to say "good riddance! I hope it dies because all of it's negative externalities."? The negative externalities.

infotogivenm 4y ago

FWIW I think I have seen most of those titles posted to HN over the last few months. e.g. 1. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33357289 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33357289 2. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33379932 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33379932 Anyways, a sharp decline in cryptocurrency markets caused by the continuing house-of-cards is almost certainly going to make front page HN.

maxerickson 4y ago

Thinking it is harmful is different than "don't care for it".

acchow 4y ago

Are you confused about why the HN community would be more interested in big moves in the first cryptocurrency rather than in BLK or AMZN?

wwarner 4y ago

To me the real question is why isn’t bitcoin skyrocketing in value? If crypto is susceptible to inflation worries, what is the point?

karmakaze 4y ago
I would say because this is a correction. The demand for BTC was up due to speculation. As the perception of risk increases in general, there will be less speculation.

nicbou 4y ago

I see crypto as the embodiment of unchecked greed. The massive amounts of energy it destroys is such a major middle finger to everyone. The current financial system wasn't bad enough. They had to take the brakes off.

CrazyPyroLinux 4y ago
> amounts of energy it destroys https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_law_of_thermodynamics https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_law_of_thermodynamics

boh 4y ago

Bitcoin is not above criticism nor are the companies you mentioned (all of which have been criticized for various reasons on this platform).

enaaem 4y ago

Turned out that BTC is not an inflation hedge.

strangeattractr 4y ago

You have coin in your handle. Far more likely that you're hyper-sensitive to news you think is a slight on crypto. I have seen threads about Meta and Amazon losing enormous amounts in market cap in the last week. Maybe you're the one who needs to stop paying attention to detractors.

rhaway84773 4y ago

Yeah, it’s really a mystery why news about a techno-utopist technology would show up on a technology focused website.

BLanen 4y ago

Your last post: - Amazon Becomes the First Company Ever to Lose $1T in Stock Value I'll let it speak for itself.

kamaal 4y ago

>>What is it about bitcoin that brings people into these threads to say "good riddance! I hope it dies because all of it's negative externalities."? Because many became rich riding the first crypto wave. And they missed out. It strikes them as an injustice and as some consolation, they would like to see crypto crash burn. If I can't have, neither should they.

ChainOfFools 4y ago

> lives rent free in many heads Do you normally charge rent to remember concepts you find ridiculous, evil or toxic? How much rent do you charge, say, "scientology" or "child abuse" for the mental real estate they are squatting on in your head?

fantasyman1 4y ago

JohnDoe124 4y ago

> What is it about bitcoin that brings people into these threads to say "good riddance! I hope it dies because all of it's negative externalities."? > To the oblivious observer it would appear cryptocurrency lives rent free in many heads in this space. If you don't care for it why pay attention to it? The environmental impact is something everyone should care about