Decent debate about the utilitylessness of most cryptos

piezoe said:
I admit I don't know much about crypto, but I have some observations and a few questions. And I want Y'all to correct me if these "observations" are not correct, and, maybe if you can, answer my questions:

1) Seems the original idea was to use crypto to facilitate commerce below the radar, so to speak. Kinda like deal'n in cash and having any government reporting obligations conveniently slip your mind.

2) But did the increasing cost of "mining" new "coins" cause the value of the coins to increase? Did that attract investor types and increase demand? And did that, in turn, attract the trader types and cause the volatility that makes crypto useful for gambler sorts -- more politely said: "speculators"?

3) Now, it seems to me, that other than for transactions flying below radar, crypto is kinda useless for its originally intended purpose, i.e. darkfield commerce. I mean how are you going to buy and sell goods or services using a "currency" that fluctuates wildly in buying power from one moment to the next? (Or is that what "stablecoins" are really about?)
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Imo, you've made some false assumptions

I recommend this book if you are genuinely interested in learning the fundamentals of Bitcoin and cryptos value proposition

The Bitcoin Standard by Dr. Saifedean Ammous

Every poster who I recommended that book to was a fraud and was pretending to be interested. Hope you are real in your interests but I have my doubts
 
BTC opened the door to POW and blockchains.
Anything else is just a copy / past of it.
Not saying BTC is the only legit one.
Just saying they’re the same shit.
Branded and sold differently.
But yeah … I use none.

XRP was said to be used by moneygram,
But they ain’t using it neither …
 
piezoe said:
1) Seems the original idea was to use crypto to facilitate commerce below the radar, so to speak. Kinda like deal'n in cash and having any government reporting obligations conveniently slip your mind.
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It's not the original idea. Satoshi Nakamoto released the idea for Bitcoin in an obscure cryptography mailing list

A p2p cryptocurrency, that is decentralized, censorship-resistant, and immutable

Money that is free from government debasing

On the genesis block, Satoshi recorded a headline of the Financial Times forever sealing on the Bitcoin blockchain a commentary and the implied purpose of Bitcoin

“The Times 03/Jan/2009 Chancellor on brink of second bailout for banks."


https://bitcoin.org/bitcoin.pdf


https://www.binance.com/en/news/top/6687548
 
johnarb said:
It's not the original idea. Satoshi Nakamoto released the idea for Bitcoin in an obscure cryptography mailing list

A p2p cryptocurrency, that is decentralized, censorship-resistant, and immutable

Money that is free from government debasing

On the genesis block, Satoshi recorded a headline of the Financial Times forever sealing on the Bitcoin blockchain a commentary and the implied purpose of Bitcoin

“The Times 03/Jan/2009 Chancellor on brink of second bailout for banks."


https://bitcoin.org/bitcoin.pdf


https://www.binance.com/en/news/top/6687548
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OK. I just ordered a paperback of Ammous's book on Amazon along with Satoshi's "White Paper". I have to tell you that I am very skeptical of Ammous. He is Arab educated, and that raises an immediate red flag as the ethical standards in Arab education are a world apart from those in Europe and the North American Continent. For example, it was fairly standard practice for professors in the arab world to sell their exams to students prior to an exam's administration. This is 35 year-old knowledge. I don't know if it is still going on. I have very recent information, however, coming from UAE that gives me continued concern about the quality of education in Arab nations. Ammous claims to have a Ph.D. from Columbia, that appears legitimate, however his vita evidences puffery and a complete ack of publications in standard, peer reviewed, primary economics literature. He is a young assistant professor starting his career. A concern is the absence of a legitimate Wiki profile for him, as he appears to be a popular author, but am even greater concern is what appears when one googles Saifedean Ammous. A third concern are the Amazon Reviews. Nevertheless, on your recommendation, I ordered the book. I intend to also read Satoshi's White Paper.

I am very cautious of statements like "government debasing" of money. There are hundreds of governments! No legitimate, modern, well run government would choose to "debase" their money unless they were forced to. It is the nature of economies that use fractional reserve banking (a VERY good thing) to have more or less continuous small inflation as an indirect consequence of fractional reserve banking and an economy that runs on credit, and for other reasons too... This is a small price to pay for the multitude of advantages that fractional reserve banking brings. This is not "debasement".
 
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piezoe said:
OK. I just ordered a paperback of Ammous's book on Amazon along with Satoshi's "White Paper". I have to tell you that I am very skeptical of Ammous. He is Arab educated, and that raises an immediate red flag as the ethical standards in Arab education are a world apart from those in Europe and the North American Continent. For example, it was fairly standard practice for professors in the arab world to sell their exams to students prior to an exam's administration. This is 35 year-old knowledge. I don't know if it is still going on. I have very recent information, however, coming from UAE that gives me continued concern about the quality of education in Arab nations. Ammous claims to have a Ph.D. from Columbia. A concern is the absence of a legitimate Wiki profile for this author, who appears to be a popular author, and what appears when one googles Saifedean Ammous. A third concern are the Amazon Reviews. Nevertheless, on your recommendation I ordered the book. I intend to also read Satoshi's White Paper.

I am very cautious of statements like "government debasing" of money. There are hundreds of governments! No legitimate, modern, well run government would choose to "debase" their money unless they were forced to. It is the nature of economies that use fractional reserve banking (A VERY good thing.) to have more or less continuous small inflation as an indirect consequence of fractional reserve banking and an economy that runs on credit.. This is a small price to pay for the multitude of advantages that fractional reserve banking brings. This is not "debasement".
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Keynesian economics vs Austrian

You already ordered the book, so you're already trapped to listening to the crap argument from the dark side :p

I see you're a fan of fractional reserve banking, please give the book a chance, at least the first 8 chapters

War seems to be an answer when fiat currencies collapse, will we have a war because of Ukraine or Taiwan or both? Who knows, but we all hope not

Spoiler alert: it's discussed in the book with historical examples

My kids are too young and I'm too old but still worry of the human suffering costs of war

Greg Foss, an ex-bond trader of 30 years think we're in a debt--spiral

https://twitter.com/x/status/1488463312400654337


Fiat currencies are being debased unilaterally across the world. It just depends on which country of the G-7/G-20 get to be assigned to print more and which ones are to print less


How about clicking the video below and watch 5 minutes explaining the DXY

 
johnarb said:
please give the book a chance, at least the first 8 chapters
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I will do that. But, in the meantime, I also want you to consider all the great things that are accomplished through fractional reserve banking. For example would you want to have to scrimp and save for a lifetime in order to be able to buy a house or start a business?
 
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piezoe said:
Thanks so much. I am really interested in learning more.
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An insightful interview on Michael Saylor's realization of the power of BTC. He's has a great perspective from a CEO that is the last man standing in his industry.

 
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