Posted on 12/20/2022 7:13:39 AM PST by catnipman
crypto trading looks a lot like the forms of finance we’re all familiar with. It’s made up of things called “exchanges,” “brokers,” “lenders,” “deposits” and “hedge funds.” Crypto also carries the special mystique of the blockchain, which has let traders treat critics as anti-innovation Luddites.
[however] the purposelessness of the crypto trading system emulates finance the same way the board games Risk and Monopoly emulate war and real-estate investing.
Crypto trading is also gambling. It performs no intermediation function to help expand the economy or improve society. Crypto trading is, as “Seinfeld’s” George Costanza might have said, finance about nothing.
Crypto trading should be regulated for what it is—a form of gambling that emulates finance—and not what its advocates tell you it is.
(Excerpt) Read more at wsj.com ...
With Bitcoin it is not the government that can steal your money but those with the financial wherewithal to run the massive mining operations or those with the largest stakes, i.e. those who got in at the top of the pyramid.
“With the FTX debacle, it went from being a Ponzi scheme to a Fonzie scheme as it has now jumped the shark.”
ROTFLOL!
Incorrect. The supply of bitcoin is regulated by the open source protocol itself that creates and maintains the block chain. It is money beholden to its holders, not to any political power.
Honestly, the fact that no government can create more Bitcoin is one of its biggest positives. There are a finite number that can be created. Period. It cannot be inflated at the whim of someone like Yellen or the Fed.
But, it is a currency, it is not an “investment.” Looking at the price of bitcoin every day is no different than checking out the dollar index daily. And unless you are very skilled, currency trading is not for the feint of heart.
And making statements about the entire crypto environment without distinguishing what coin/token is being referred to is painting with a very broad brush.
“The advantage bitcoin has over a fiat currency like US dollars is that the government cannot seize your balance in bitcoin”
ROTFLOL!
they just did that in Canada a few months ago in a wholesale fashion ... and US government seizes billions in stolen crypto over and over again ...
https://www.google.com/search?q=us+governmnet+seizes+crypto
crypto seizure is particularly easy since ALL crypto transactions are publicly transparent ...
I’ve done considerable research and have determined that Bitcoin is a Ponzi scheme. But then Capitalism is also a Ponzi scheme which we will be finding out as the world’s population flattens and there are not enough consumers to keep the pyramid from collapsing.
Whatever argument it takes to get the government to leave crypto alone and not take it over is okay with me.
“There is no agency or body regulating the supply of bitcoin.”
Bitcoin is limited to 21 million units. Period. It cannot be changed. Period.
Please do a little bit of research before you pontificate.
I agree with one thing...it is not a traditional investment. It never has been. That isn’t its intent. Bitcoin was never intended to be something you could walk into a Cadillac dealership and use any more than you would use gold coins.
But I CAN tell you that it is possible to convert bitcoin to US dollars to exchange for a new 2021 Chevy Silverado Trail Boss. It takes about a minute from the sale to transfer to a account.
Store of value matters to you?
How does the USD pass this test?
What to you is acceptable rate of loss of value?
The Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis’ own inflation calculator tells me it takes over 5 USD to buy what could be bought with 1 USD when I was born, and I haven’t even been around for half a century yet. That’s more than an 80% loss of value in just my lifetime, and we’re eyeballing trillion dollar deficits evermore in the White House budget projections.
If store of value matters only a scammer would offer people USD as currency.
“The supply of bitcoin is regulated by the open source protocol itself that creates and maintains the block chain. It is money beholden to its holders, not to any political power. “
the problem is that thousands of OTHER crypto have been created by the trillions ... anyone can create them and have ... i created catnipmanbux (CNMB) via studentcoin.org in about 30 minutes on the ethereum chain ... and there’s absolutely zero distinction between any of them and bitcoin, other than more greater fools have faith that bitcoin is more “valuable” ...
Who is running this scheme?
Where are they?
Who is Satoshi Nakimoto?
Dollars are not backed by taxes.
Their value is determined by the imagination of counterparties. If they were backed by taxes, there would be no Fed FOMC meetings to decide what interest rates — or QE — or QT — is to be done. But those meetings do happen and thus, those decisions are largely whimsical.
If they were based on “backed by taxes” there would be no decisions to be made. The decisions would be mechanical and arithmetic and automatic.
But they aren’t. They are dependent on the mood of the FOMC. Its imagination.
So the “bitcoin has no backing” argument fails. Bitcoin’s value is determined by exactly the same mechanism as the dollar’s value — the imagination of counterparties.
How do you envision them stealing from someone’s balance?
The big mining ops actually have more inventive than I do to see that the currency isn’t devalued, as such things threaten their investments.
btw, i’d be happy to exchange any of that worthless USD you might possess for my newly created crypto, CatNipManBux (CNMB) that i created a few days ago on the etherum blockchain via https://www.studentcoin.org/ ... the exchange rate is 2:1 CatNipManBux per worthless USD ... that’s a really good deal, because you’ll receive TWO, i repeat TWO,CatNipManBux per worthless USD ...
the USD is perceived to have value because it’s the world’s reserve currency, said USD currency possessing the three main attributes of any functional currency: store of value, unit of account, and medium of exchange ... during its 14 year lifetime, crypto has aptly demonstrated that it possess NONE of those three attributes ...
If the answer to government is anarchy then that’s not much of an answer.
My understanding is that the blockchain doesn’t allow for instant transactions. Because of this transactions have to be prioritized and priorities are usually determined by who is the biggest stakeholder, i.e. who has the most Bitcoin. This allows for pumo and dump operations as tIe pumpers can get out before the suckers.
Everything you just said focuses, without you being aware, on one word: perceived.
Its value is in the imagination of counterparties.
The world’s reserve currency is oil. It has a value of 5.8 Gigajoules per barrel, and it doesn’t matter whose imagination is involved. The value will always be that number.
Bitcoin is no different from the dollar. Its value is perceived. It’s determined by imagination. It’s not better based than the dollar. It’s not more poorly based. It’s identically based. Both are determined by imagination.
Russia talks about this rather a lot lately, and our media carefully avoids quoting it. It is very dangerous for people to realize one currency is based on oil production/consumption surplus, and the other (ours) based on production/consumption deficit.
And the “currency” has dropped to 1/3 of its recent high.
Keep buying it!
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