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I'm not talking about checking every screw of the truck. I'm saying that an unmaintained truck with lots of valuables in it is suspicious, and you should tust i

by aragot 13y ago

I'm not talking about checking every screw of the truck. I'm saying that an unmaintained truck with lots of valuables in it is suspicious, and you should tust it for what it is. I'll get negative poins again just because people don't like to be told what they should have known: Bitcoins smell like a Ponzi scheme and, until they have proven themselves opposite, you should remain very wary of the money you put in. Do you invest in penny stocks? Nope. Why? Because they smell bad, even if their promoters make it look like they've quadrupled their value in just 4 months! An online safe with millions of valuables? Shouldn't you wait for the proof it's good? Or do you assume it's a good safe as is? Is it really wise to assume something is safe? Oh I see negative HN points will rain on me. Not wise from me to put people in front of their responsibilities. I'm sorry for people who lost money. Some of them will have a hard life. Losing money is never a good experience, I myself lost a quarter of my savings when the Australian dollar dropped. But do I blame the Australian gov? The EU gov? The regulators? Nope. It's my job to know when the AUD drops. Even if i can't inspect all parts of the economy. As a revenge, give me negative points.

wpietri 13y ago
Personally, I think Bitcoin is currently a tulip bulb mania, not a Ponzi scheme. (It might one day also be an interesting payment mechanism, but that's not why most people at MtGox bought Bitcoin.) That said, I don't think the average investor has the chops necessary to fully evaluate a bank, which is effectively what MtGox was. The information asymmetries are just too severe. In this case, depositors didn't lose money on Bitcoin itself, but in what was basically a bank collapse due to negligence or fraud. (Or both; we don't know yet.) One solution is to always blame the victims. You can't go wrong there! But the solution that I prefer is to regulate banks, and forbid unregulated banks from operating in the regulators' jurisdictions. This oops-the-money-is-all-gone horseshit is exactly the kind of thing an auditor or a bank regulator would have spotted in their first week.

by aragot 13y ago

wpietri 13y ago

Personally, I think Bitcoin is currently a tulip bulb mania, not a Ponzi scheme. (It might one day also be an interesting payment mechanism, but that's not why most people at MtGox bought Bitcoin.) That said, I don't think the average investor has the chops necessary to fully evaluate a bank, which is effectively what MtGox was. The information asymmetries are just too severe. In this case, depositors didn't lose money on Bitcoin itself, but in what was basically a bank collapse due to negligence or fraud. (Or both; we don't know yet.) One solution is to always blame the victims. You can't go wrong there! But the solution that I prefer is to regulate banks, and forbid unregulated banks from operating in the regulators' jurisdictions. This oops-the-money-is-all-gone horseshit is exactly the kind of thing an auditor or a bank regulator would have spotted in their first week.