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> From my naive perspective, it seems like a lot of meddling, and it isn't clear if such frequent changes are required. This is the result of fiat-based curren
by rglover 4y ago
> From my naive perspective, it seems like a lot of meddling, and it isn't clear if such frequent changes are required.
This is the result of fiat-based currencies and why Bitcoin is a necessity for the survival of Western civilization.
In the words of Max Keiser: "you can't taper a ponzi scheme."
- highwaylights 4y agoCan’t tell if this is sarcasm or not. I mean, Max Keiser is quoted so I assume it has to be, but it still doesn’t read like it.
- rglover 4y agoIt's not sarcasm at all. It's a 100% correct, accurate, and serious statement. The Federal Reserve was created to manipulate and control currency. The removal of the gold standard made it so that they could, to their heart's content, produce any amount of money and distribute to anyone they wished, whenever they wanted. It is, in its entire conception, an absolute ponzi scheme. It is only in favor because that favor is enforced at the barrel of a gun via the tax system and the petrodollar scheme.
- snapcaster 4y agoI don't see how it's a ponzi scheme. I understand your other parts but ponzi seems like an inappropriate term
- rglover 4y agoThe ponzi scheme attribution is due to the money printing and fractional reserve lending system. They can't pay off previous debts [1], so they print more money to try to inflate the debt away (which only leads to the creation of more debt, keeping the cycle perpetual). If they stop printing money/issuing new debt, the whole pyramid collapses. [1] https://www.usdebtclock.org/ https://www.usdebtclock.org/
- highwaylights 4y agoBut this isn’t true. Printing money debases the currency, it doesn’t increase borrowing. Not debasing the currency further is the reason all debt isn’t just printed away. Bitcoin is entirely a ponzi, which is why I was surprised you cited it as an example of something better.
- rglover 4y ago> Printing money debases the currency, it doesn’t increase borrowing. It does both. Where do you think that printed money goes? The business model of banks is to lend out money. They go to the Fed to get more dollars and then lend those dollars out to other people. The more dollars available, the more demand for debt. > Bitcoin is entirely a ponzi You'd have to explain why because it's fundamentally not. There's nothing about it that requires coaxing others into it. You either want to use it or you don't.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- highwaylights 4y agoI’m going to leave it here and wish you well. I could refute the above, but you’ll disagree, we’ll never see eye-to-eye, and we’d both just be arguing into the wind. I (sincerely) hope it all works out for you and we’ll find out in time what it turns out to ultimately be.
- rglover 4y ago> I could refute the above, but you’ll disagree, we’ll never see eye-to-eye, and we’d both just be arguing into the wind. You're probably not wrong, but this is your dust up. Give me a shot, I'm open to well-reasoned arguments.
- gadflyinyoureye 4y agoHow does bitcoin solve this? Seems like gold should be used instead.
- rglover 4y agohttps://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33586717 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33586717
- kodyo 4y agoThe US government confiscates gold when it wants to.
- ClumsyPilot 4y agoIt also confiscates your freedom, passport and life if it wants to. If we are fighting US government, I am not seeing the winning strategy here.
- kodyo 4y agoI agree. Western governments are doing just fine delegitimizing themselves as positive forces without our help. They'll either become more transparently honest brutal oligarchies, or they will collapse. I'm good with either direction.
- UncleMeat 4y agoThe inverted exponential distribution of BTC is far far far more unethical and harmful than anything the fed has ever done with respect to monetary policy.
- rglover 4y agoYou mean the 100% democratic halving algorithm which allows anyone to participate in the process of verifying transactions and earning Bitcoin?
- vel0city 4y ago> allows anyone to participate in the process of verifying transactions and earning Bitcoin? Homeless people living under a bridge have the same ability to participate and get Bitcoin as SV tech bros running racks of ASIC miners in their three car garages?
- rglover 4y agoHypothetically, yes.
- ClumsyPilot 4y agoHypothetically they could bevome a british lord through the right of conquest, and then sit in the house of lords. So by your standards medieval Britania was a democracy too.
- AnimalMuppet 4y agoYour solution to the Fed controlling interest rates is a currency (or currency substitute, perhaps) that lost half its value in the past year or so? You may be sincere, but I don't think your judgment is very sound.
- rglover 4y agoLost half of its value relative to what currency? 1 Bitcoin still equals 1 Bitcoin.
- AnimalMuppet 4y agoSure, but that's true of everything. The dollar is still worth one dollar, too. But we still say that the dollar is losing value to inflation, and we experience it every time we try to buy something else with dollars. (Buying dollars with dollars is rather pointless.) And I'm pretty sure you know all that, and the parent post was just an attempt at a deflection. Bitcoin has lost half its value compared to every other currency in the world. You know, those no-good-easy-to-inflate fiat currencies. Compared to gold, too, if that floats your boat. Compared to a basket of goods, which is how inflation is measured for everything else. So, yeah. Compared to everything except itself, it's lost half its value in the past year. That doesn't make me feel like "Bitcoin is a necessity for the survival of Western civilization" is a very objective look at the reality of the situation.
- rglover 4y ago> Sure, but that's true of everything. The dollar is still worth one dollar, too. It's not. [1] > But we still say that the dollar is losing value to inflation, and we experience it every time we try to buy something else with dollars. (Buying dollars with dollars is rather pointless.) And I'm pretty sure you know all that, and the parent post was just an attempt at a deflection. No, the dollar loses value to inflation because the supply of money continues to increase, therefore making an individual dollar less valuable (value of currency is drive by scarcity). The supply of Bitcoin is fixed, and therefore, anti-inflationary. --- The price in X currency is whatever that market is willing to pay for Bitcoin, but that doesn't change the value of it. It's identical to the stock market. The stock market price of a company is not the book value of a company. Ironically, the money printing is what creates and worsens that disconnect as companies do stock buy backs with printed, un-backed dollars, artificially increasing their stock price. [1] See "Buying Power of $1 over time, 1800-2022" here: https://www.officialdata.org/us/inflation/1800?amount=1 https://www.officialdata.org/us/inflation/1800?amount=1