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They are very unlike other currencies, in that almost all of them are rigged for a period of rapid hype-based growth followed by a deflationary apocalypse where
by creatonez 3y ago
They are very unlike other currencies, in that almost all of them are rigged for a period of rapid hype-based growth followed by a deflationary apocalypse where late adopters are squeezed out by those who perpetuated the ponzi scheme (which is to say, nearly the entire community aside from Satoshi and maybe Vitalik Buterin -- who are probably good people, but hold silly beliefs)
- AnonCoward42 3y ago> They are very unlike other currencies, in that almost all of them are rigged [...] So you're actually agreeing with me, that crypto currencies are not a scam. The number of currencies is also irrelevant even in a more colloquial sense. What's more important is how much is really invested in a given currency and the bad tokens are a niche. Ponzi scheme (or just new) coins are usually for gamblers and not in broad use and are comparable to jettons in a casino. Are jettons a scam in that sense?
- creatonez 3y agoWe should be alarmed about any money system that has the properties that give way to gambling and ponzi-like systems. I would not hesitate to criticize both the money system and the con artists who took advantage of it, when it's so clear that the money system's rules have such inevitable outcomes. I don't mind abolishing any of the money systems that turn out to be harmful and are pushed without broad sociopolitical consent.
- AnonCoward42 3y agoOur current money system has the properties that give way to gambling. You can't pretend that gambling didn't exist before crypto.
- anonymouskimmer 3y agoVery few people are swapping yen and euros trying to get rich from them. The standard gambling that happens with "our current money system" can also happen with self-written IOUs. This kind of gambling isn't about the money, per se, whereas with crypto you get an additional kind of gambling on the currency itself.
- AnonCoward42 3y agoFor Yen and Euro it makes less sense since these are relatively stable, but for less stable currencies that is actually a thing. The definition of gambling you are talking about is built into our monetary system. I give you the point that it is harder (not impossible) to enforce any regulations on these currencies. It's like cash in that sense, but it has easy access and there are plenty of options of cash, which is unlike regular cash.
- Avshalom 3y agoNo, the casino is the scam that's why the house always wins and just like cryptocurrencies as soon as you build one the incentives are to make it an even more predatory scam. That's why they're variously illegal or heavily regulated
- Exoristos 3y agoSounds like pre–Civil War U.S. currency.
- creatonez 3y agoYes.... and it was a terrible system, not having a money system with any sort of democratic political controls on its supply and demand. Through a modern lens, we should view the thousands of years of gold coin currency as a human system that was ripe to cause artificial limitations and excesses of resource availability for populations that participated in the system. With a time machine, we should advise people of the past that a much better (but still imperfect) system -- clay tablets with a list of creditors and debtors, with regular debt cancellations/easements as needed to maintain stability -- had already been invented, possibly thousands of years before the invention of coins.