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It's not that these people don't know the known financial scams. These people think they're too smart to fall for them, and think that regulations are "for the

by s73v3r 11y ago

It's not that these people don't know the known financial scams. These people think they're too smart to fall for them, and think that regulations are "for the weak."

emodendroket 11y ago
My favorite are the people on Bitcoin forums advertising "reputable Ponzi schemes." "Reputable" meaning that there's an actual Ponzi scheme and not just one guy pretending there is but then running off with everyone's money.
dragonwriter 11y ago
> It's not that these people don't know the known financial scams. These people think they're too smart to fall for them Or think that, in a market not regulated to control them, they will be able to make money perpetrating them.
kurotetsuka 11y ago
Neither of these are true. 'These people' don't want to let any particular party regulate their use of money, for better or worse. By using bitcoin, you implicitly accept the risks of a decentralized currency. Until there exists some good way of decentralized regulation, if its even possible[1], these sort of risks become a simple fact of life, a cost of doing business. Bitcoin users and proponents dont "think they don't need regulation", they reject it. They don't "think they won't fall for scams", they accept the risk and possibility. They don't think "regulations are for the weak", they think regulations are for people who accept their government knowing everything about their finances and need transactional legal accountability. Your comment, and the parent one, are nothing more than really weak strawmen. [1] :: I'm kinda sorta working on something that might help solve this problem, hyphaelia (https://github.com/kurotetsuka/hyphaelia https://github.com/kurotetsuka/hyphaelia), which could theoretically be used to create a trustable darknet marketplace. I'm nowhere near that point yet though.
- emodendroket 11y ago
  Cash seems to be rather more anonymous than Bitcoin. There's no permanent ledger for every cash transaction that's ever taken place.
  - kurotetsuka 11y ago
    True enough - but carrying and exchanging large amounts of cash is rather unsafe. Not so with Bitcoin :).
- waterlesscloud 11y ago
  I think you're closest. I have yet to see any business in the bitcoin space that many bitcoiners themselves didn't say was a scam. Literally every business. As a group, bitcoiners are the most scam-declaiming group of people that ever lived. As a group. Individuals are something else again.
- s73v3r 11y ago
  So they do think they're smart enough to not need it. And of course someone who "accepts the risk" assumes they're smart enough to not get caught up in it. Otherwise they wouldn't do it.
  - kurotetsuka 11y ago
    You accept the risk you could die every time you step outside -- not because you think you're too smart to get shot or hit by a bus or whatever, but because the risk is so low and you kinda have to go outside to get what you want. Same thing for bitcoin. Sometimes the risk of getting fucked by someone over the internet is lower than getting fucked in person (or by the government), and you just gotta use them bitcoins to get what you want.

by s73v3r 11y ago

It's not that these people don't know the known financial scams. These people think they're too smart to fall for them, and think that regulations are "for the weak."

emodendroket 11y ago

My favorite are the people on Bitcoin forums advertising "reputable Ponzi schemes." "Reputable" meaning that there's an actual Ponzi scheme and not just one guy pretending there is but then running off with everyone's money.

dragonwriter 11y ago

> It's not that these people don't know the known financial scams. These people think they're too smart to fall for them Or think that, in a market not regulated to control them, they will be able to make money perpetrating them.

kurotetsuka 11y ago

Neither of these are true. 'These people' don't want to let any particular party regulate their use of money, for better or worse. By using bitcoin, you implicitly accept the risks of a decentralized currency. Until there exists some good way of decentralized regulation, if its even possible[1], these sort of risks become a simple fact of life, a cost of doing business. Bitcoin users and proponents dont "think they don't need regulation", they reject it. They don't "think they won't fall for scams", they accept the risk and possibility. They don't think "regulations are for the weak", they think regulations are for people who accept their government knowing everything about their finances and need transactional legal accountability. Your comment, and the parent one, are nothing more than really weak strawmen. [1] :: I'm kinda sorta working on something that might help solve this problem, hyphaelia (https://github.com/kurotetsuka/hyphaelia https://github.com/kurotetsuka/hyphaelia), which could theoretically be used to create a trustable darknet marketplace. I'm nowhere near that point yet though.

emodendroket 11y ago
Cash seems to be rather more anonymous than Bitcoin. There's no permanent ledger for every cash transaction that's ever taken place.
- kurotetsuka 11y ago
  True enough - but carrying and exchanging large amounts of cash is rather unsafe. Not so with Bitcoin :).
waterlesscloud 11y ago
I think you're closest. I have yet to see any business in the bitcoin space that many bitcoiners themselves didn't say was a scam. Literally every business. As a group, bitcoiners are the most scam-declaiming group of people that ever lived. As a group. Individuals are something else again.
s73v3r 11y ago
So they do think they're smart enough to not need it. And of course someone who "accepts the risk" assumes they're smart enough to not get caught up in it. Otherwise they wouldn't do it.
- kurotetsuka 11y ago
  You accept the risk you could die every time you step outside -- not because you think you're too smart to get shot or hit by a bus or whatever, but because the risk is so low and you kinda have to go outside to get what you want. Same thing for bitcoin. Sometimes the risk of getting fucked by someone over the internet is lower than getting fucked in person (or by the government), and you just gotta use them bitcoins to get what you want.