3 ms·

I am surely no expert on this topic but in my opinion plenty on HN know how crypto works but have no use for it or do not trust the exchanges or ledger operator

by Bender 9mo ago

I am surely no expert on this topic but in my opinion plenty on HN know how crypto works but have no use for it or do not trust the exchanges or ledger operators to be outside of government control. The original promise was to bank the un-banked, proven untrue as governments can easily shut it down. Some tech enthusiasts use it but the primary use appears to still be for crime. Bucket shops, wash trading, laundering, recreating the criminal platforms of the 1920's - 1930's in a digital medium and that's before getting into topics like drugs, firearms and other things that draw the ire of governments. I am aware it is just a tool but that tool is drawing the wrong attention. Crypto is also heavily focused on by the IRS here in the USA and some do not want to deal with even more complexity in their taxes. Governments are playing catch-up with cryto and it is they who are a decade or more behind on it. There are too many unknowns regarding what retro-active laws are coming. I know for a fact I will never go anywhere near it. Disclaimer: I did watch your video but I did not hear any reason why I would use that as none of the examples given really apply to me. All of the purchasing examples provided are covered by cash for me. I lost confidence in online purchasing ages ago and barely trust one vendor enough to utilize them for things not sold locally. Most of the online stores using crypto carry the risks of unknown-unknowns for me. If I can not get something locally, I go to Amazon and if they don't have it then neither will I.

nailer 9mo ago
> I did watch your video but I did not hear any reason why I would use that as none of the examples given really apply to me. Do you have a savings account? Do you sell or wish to purchase content for less than 30 cents? Do you pay capital gains tax?
- Bender 9mo ago
  I am not looking for ways to evade taxes. My taxes are very straight forward and will never involve crypto. I have also dealt with the IRS legal system and nobody wants to draw attention that will get them involved in that insane bureaucratic system that has their own courts and legal officials that operate entirely outside of the federal government and take part of the year off.
  - nailer 9mo ago
    Owning assets and getting loans against them rather than selling them is considered tax reduction, not evasion, and is a very common accounting pattern.
    - Bender 9mo ago
      I am aware of this process. That does not require crypto and I am not interested in it either way, crypto or otherwise. Most certainly never investing in crypto. I am however waiting on Full-scale QE for other reasons that also do not apply to crypto but I doubt the fed chair has an HN account.
      - nailer 9mo ago
        Ok, I only responded because you mentioned you thought that it was illegal tax evasion earlier. The is much easier with crypto - I can walk into a shop and use Apple Pay to instantly get a loan against my assets. It’s vastly more convenient than otherwise. As is getting more interest on your savings, with insurance. Buying anything for less than $.30 (and in reality much more because people need to make a profit) only works with crypto right now as far as I know. This is huge not just for individuals that purchase small items of content but also for agents making calls for each other. I think your concerns the governments may have backdoors in projects are reasonable. Blockchains and decentralised exchanges are open source and there is a culture of auditing prior to releasing, however (like Dual EC DRBG years ago) government can do attempt to subvert public systems. It is generally harder to subvert something with public code and a verifiable build though. > Most certainly never investing in crypto. Good. Crypto itself is a wrapper, that makes things instantly tradable globally 24/7. It could be a wrapper for government bonds, it can be a wrapper for Nvidia stock, it could be a wrapper for real estate, it could be a native token used to pay fees on on a blockchain, or as mentioned it could be a wrapper for garbage. The people telling you to “invest in crypto” are often talking about the latter and generally also have no idea how blockchain works beyond scamming the next person. They don’t build anything and they should be ignored.
        9mo ago

by Bender 9mo ago

nailer 9mo ago

> I did watch your video but I did not hear any reason why I would use that as none of the examples given really apply to me. Do you have a savings account? Do you sell or wish to purchase content for less than 30 cents? Do you pay capital gains tax?

Bender 9mo ago
I am not looking for ways to evade taxes. My taxes are very straight forward and will never involve crypto. I have also dealt with the IRS legal system and nobody wants to draw attention that will get them involved in that insane bureaucratic system that has their own courts and legal officials that operate entirely outside of the federal government and take part of the year off.
- nailer 9mo ago
  Owning assets and getting loans against them rather than selling them is considered tax reduction, not evasion, and is a very common accounting pattern.
  - Bender 9mo ago
    I am aware of this process. That does not require crypto and I am not interested in it either way, crypto or otherwise. Most certainly never investing in crypto. I am however waiting on Full-scale QE for other reasons that also do not apply to crypto but I doubt the fed chair has an HN account.
    - nailer 9mo ago
      Ok, I only responded because you mentioned you thought that it was illegal tax evasion earlier. The is much easier with crypto - I can walk into a shop and use Apple Pay to instantly get a loan against my assets. It’s vastly more convenient than otherwise. As is getting more interest on your savings, with insurance. Buying anything for less than $.30 (and in reality much more because people need to make a profit) only works with crypto right now as far as I know. This is huge not just for individuals that purchase small items of content but also for agents making calls for each other. I think your concerns the governments may have backdoors in projects are reasonable. Blockchains and decentralised exchanges are open source and there is a culture of auditing prior to releasing, however (like Dual EC DRBG years ago) government can do attempt to subvert public systems. It is generally harder to subvert something with public code and a verifiable build though. > Most certainly never investing in crypto. Good. Crypto itself is a wrapper, that makes things instantly tradable globally 24/7. It could be a wrapper for government bonds, it can be a wrapper for Nvidia stock, it could be a wrapper for real estate, it could be a native token used to pay fees on on a blockchain, or as mentioned it could be a wrapper for garbage. The people telling you to “invest in crypto” are often talking about the latter and generally also have no idea how blockchain works beyond scamming the next person. They don’t build anything and they should be ignored.
      - 9mo ago