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    • TheDannysaur@lemmy.world
      41·
      7 months ago

      I’m never sure how to approach crypto on these platforms, because it’s rare to get a nuanced take.

      I’ve moved past bitcoin to ethereum, I think it answers a lot of the criticisms.

      I try not to get caught up on whether or not it’s a currency, store of value, or most other definitions. I just approach it from, is it a good product?

      I’m in the middle on things such as money laundering or criminal activity. On one hand, the ledger system makes it incredibly easy to trace back transactions if someone ever messes up. On the other it serves a similar function as cash except you don’t have the physical weight, which is non trivial to transport. I know some criminals have to have used it successfully.

      Crypto is hard. There’s so many goddamn scams and stuff like NFTs that could be a good idea if they got the weight of enforcement, but there’s no real enforcement mechanism. We have silly slips of paper that say whether we own things, I don’t think it’s a stretch to say we could make them digital with the right implementation. But those silly slips of paper hold the weight of law behind the. NFTs have no one to enforce anything, thus are useless.

      I’m always afraid to open this up on this platform because there’s so many non nuanced takes, and people writing just the same criticisms. I’m hoping to have a good discussion, and I’m open to other opinions on it. But I haven’t found an argument that makes me think Ethereum is a problem or something to avoid. It’s certainly risky, but I think that risk is justified to the level of which I hold it.

    • NautiNolana@lemmy.world
      942·
      7 months ago

      Everyone gets Bitcoin at the price they deserve. You’ll wake up one day. Our own politicians admitted our monetary system would cause a revolution if the citizens knew how the federal reserve actually worked. They said this in Congress when passing the law, look up the documents.

      But yeah, Bitcoin is the scam. Not the one that lawmakers literally said was a scam🤷‍♂️.

      • ShittyBeatlesFCPres@lemmy.worldEnglish
        226·
        7 months ago

        No one needs to be educated on Bitcoin. It’s like 15 years-old, raises electricity bills, enables organized crime, and is too volatile to be a currency. Developers know blockchain is too slow to ever be valuable beyond a few very niche use cases. What else is there to learn?

        If anything, Bitcoin fans need to be educated on economic history — maybe start with the free banking era — so they’d know why central banks were created in the first place. But to do that, they’d have to read real textbooks instead of screeds containing dozens of long discredited economic theories. It’s just a modern version of right wing goldbuggism.

        • NautiNolana@lemmy.world
          78·
          7 months ago

          15 years is pretty new in terms of assets. Of course it’s going to raise electricity bills, it uses electricity. All currency enables organized crime.

          Are you a developer? We can take this to the technical level if so, because I am, and I’ve studied the code and cryptography. I have answers for all of your inquires if you approach this topic with an open mind.

          The economic history is the most important part - I agree. Do some research on the history of currency, how it developed, where paper money came from, and how that turned out. Then we can talk some more if you want.

          • nilloc@discuss.tchncs.deEnglish
            4·
            7 months ago

            Just out of curiosity, are you old enough to have or remember multiple forms of dead media (digital or analog)?

            This, along with nefarious actors (state or otherwise, like Musk with dogecoin even), have kept me skeptical of crypto currencies.

      • MagicShel@programming.dev
        81·
        7 months ago

        Look at our current set of lawmakers. Many of them are unserious people and you can’t take what they say seriously. Which is why we should endeavor to stop electing them.

  • dhork@lemmy.worldEnglish
    15·
    7 months ago

    I follow crypto, and Biden’s SEC has been inconsistent in its crypto policies. I think Gary Gensler thinks he’s a crypto expert, but gets a lot of it wrong. Still, though, even the US crypto exchanges asking for regulatory clarity have been playing loose with the rules a bit. The article mentions New York State’s beef with Coinbase, but that was in regards to its “Earn” products, which attempt to tie deposits with “rewards”, and convince people those rewards are the same thing as interest on their savings accounts. They aren’t really, even in Proof-of-Stake coins which are the closest thing.

    But make no mistake, the only reason Trump now likes crypto is it allows foreign actors to contribute to his campaign while disguising the source of the funds. And since Trump has captured the RNC, any donation to his campaign is a donation directly to him and his legal fund. The Winklevii are US citizens, so they are not obligated to hide their contributions. They must realize that a good portion of that contribution goes directly into Trump’s pocket. That’s the only reasonable explanation for announcing this publically – in case Trump wins, they want their transaction formally recorded, and they will expect Trump to deliver.

    • bartolomeo@suppo.fi
      4·
      7 months ago

      Does Trump then sell BTC for USD on an exchange and then pay tax on it? Why didn’t the Winklevii just send USD?

      I don’t get this use-case for BTC, overbanking the overbanked.

      • dhork@lemmy.worldEnglish
        4·
        7 months ago

        The Winklevii sent BTC because they have a buttload of it, bought at a very low price. Their actual cost for that donation is basically the long-term capital gains tax (and maybe not even that if their accountants are creative).

        And yes, Trump (or his campaign) have to convert that to fiat at an exchange. (Probably Gemini, owned by the Winklevii.) But the key thing is that with Crypto, they have no way of knowing where the donations are actually coming from. Someone in Saudi Arabia or Russia could be filling out donations forms through a VPN, and list their location as Branson, MO, and there would be no way for anyone to prove it wasn’t really from Branson. (Maybe if they were careless and reused BTC addresses. Some Monero shill will probably reply and make sure everyone knows how Monero is even better at money laundering…)

        • prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone
          2·
          7 months ago

          I mean just because you say some pithy thing at the end doesn’t make it wrong. Nobody should still think, in 2024, that Bitcoin is in any way anonymous. If you want privacy you don’t use Bitcoin.

          I guess that makes me a shill for Monero 🙄

          • dhork@lemmy.worldEnglish
            1·
            7 months ago

            Bitcoin is pseudonomynous. If you are careful it can be anonymous but that is not a guarantee.

            Monero is anonymous, as anyone who uses it will remind you about, repeatly. Monero users are the vegans of crypto.

              • prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone
                1·
                7 months ago

                I’m not sure I understand the question… Monero doesn’t need a “mixer,” that’s kind of the entire point. You swap your BTC (or literally anything, shoutout to godex.io) for XMR and poof, it’s gone.

                Unless someone gets physical access to your wallet keys, there is no way for anyone to know where that money went, where it came from, or where it will go in the future. For all intents and purposes, it’s invisible.

                • Victoria Antoinette @lemmy.world
                  2·
                  7 months ago

                  I seem to recall that the anonymity of car is based on obscuring transactions through bundling, but that method was deanonymized by poisoning wallrts somehow. this was like 10 years ago so my memory is fuzzy.

    • AmidFuror@fedia.io
      31·
      7 months ago

      I’m starting a Super PAC aimed at doing just that. Stay tuned for details.