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The only money you can ever get out of crypto is other peoples money. Even when 'created' via mining, that has a real world cost in electricity and what not th

The only money you can ever get out of crypto is other peoples money. Even when 'created' via mining, that has a real world cost in electricity and what not that you paid for. No money is ever created, even if 'price' goes up. If the 'price' goes up, and you cash out then that just means you got more of someone else's money than you otherwise would've. You can never separate crypto from scams and grift, because that's what it is fundamentally. A scam and a grift. I hope one day they are legally treated as such because of how harmful those things are.

cableshaft 3y ago
To the extent that your statement is true about crypto, this is also true about stocks or any other investment. Just look at this link on Quora asking about 'When someone makes money in the stock market, must someone else be losing money?'[1]. Almost every single answer there disagreeing with that question about stocks you could swap stocks for crypto and it'd apply equally. Also anything a business creates also has a real world cost as well. If not with your cash (but it often is, with subsidies, tax breaks, loopholes, or other things), then with the business' impact on the environment, their effects on laws that affect you (i.e. Disney extending copyright law), or just consuming resources that you could have consumed for less if they weren't creating a higher demand for them. If everything was in homeostasis, then not a big deal, but we haven't been anywhere near that for a long time. And yes, I'm aware bitcoin isn't great for the environment considering how much energy it currently consumes for mining. I don't like that either. That doesn't make it a scam or a grift though. [1] https://www.quora.com/If-someone-is-making-money-is-someone-losing-money https://www.quora.com/If-someone-is-making-money-is-someone-...
- seventhtiger 3y ago
  Stocks are only zero-sum in the short term. It's true for day traders. In the long term stocks reflect true growth in the economy. Dividends are not zero-sum.

cableshaft 3y ago

To the extent that your statement is true about crypto, this is also true about stocks or any other investment. Just look at this link on Quora asking about 'When someone makes money in the stock market, must someone else be losing money?'[1]. Almost every single answer there disagreeing with that question about stocks you could swap stocks for crypto and it'd apply equally. Also anything a business creates also has a real world cost as well. If not with your cash (but it often is, with subsidies, tax breaks, loopholes, or other things), then with the business' impact on the environment, their effects on laws that affect you (i.e. Disney extending copyright law), or just consuming resources that you could have consumed for less if they weren't creating a higher demand for them. If everything was in homeostasis, then not a big deal, but we haven't been anywhere near that for a long time. And yes, I'm aware bitcoin isn't great for the environment considering how much energy it currently consumes for mining. I don't like that either. That doesn't make it a scam or a grift though. [1] https://www.quora.com/If-someone-is-making-money-is-someone-losing-money https://www.quora.com/If-someone-is-making-money-is-someone-...

seventhtiger 3y ago
Stocks are only zero-sum in the short term. It's true for day traders. In the long term stocks reflect true growth in the economy. Dividends are not zero-sum.