• dropdrip@lemmy.ml
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    1 hour ago

    Crypto grift still grifting? Still waiting for the blockchain to change the world. Any minute now… the only people I’ve seen use a terminal to buy bitcoin have been senior citizens.

  • Mika@piefed.ca
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    2 hours ago

    Saddens me that crypto is now about investment/gains instead of being improved as a fair, decentralised, convenient, fast, secure money system.

    Looks like we will have to stick to the banks and their bullshit yet after all.

    • jaycifer@lemmy.world
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      30 minutes ago

      I remember the moment it clicked for me that this was the case. In early 2018 I overheard my roommate listening to a Bitcoin podcast hosted by people I understood to be prominent members of the community. They were trying to justify why it was a good thing Steam no longer accepted Bitcoin to purchase games. I couldn’t see a single upside to a currency, whose purpose is to be exchanged for goods and services, no longer being accepted for a good. I thought about the large amount of crypto the podcasters likely held and how they were probably trying to keep other people in to keep their own crypto worth more. But if the people near the helm were no longer able to admit when something is wrong, then the dream was dead, crypto was dead to me, and I stopped getting more.

      • Mika@piefed.ca
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        1 hour ago

        There were more honest attempts to spread it and use it in physical/online stores back when BTC was under 1000 than now, and it’s not like we got higher exchange rate fluctuations. If anything, it becomes more stable.

        • nilloc@discuss.tchncs.de
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          32 minutes ago

          Naw, we all talked about the once in a while pizza purchases that were reported on Reddit, but then a week later the $20 pizza was worth $100 in bitcoin. Right from the start.

    • Corkyskog@sh.itjust.works
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      31 minutes ago

      Yeah I too like Blockchain stuff until it just turned into an investor bro space.

      Like this whole argument about how to prove someone owns a game could be a really good blockchain use case.

  • Jiral@lemmy.world
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    3 hours ago

    "A developed country is not a place where the poor have cars. It’s where the rich use public transportation.”

    • inari@piefed.zipOP
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      2 hours ago

      I’m used to taking buses in Brazil and that looks pretty standard to me

      • Hiro8811@lemmy.world
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        1 hour ago

        I guess I’m not used to seeing such busses, usually the ones I been into are as low to the ground and the chairs are placed around parts like wheels and what not like this 100369

        • 0x0@infosec.pub
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          1 hour ago

          I expected you to post an image of a bus with actual seats that doesnt make you sore if you ride for more than one station, but no, you just posted another prison bus but slightly lower lol

      • CrimeIsLegalNow@ani.social
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        3 hours ago

        For the people who jumped on it in 2018, sure, as long as they didn’t hold it in any of the failed exchanges, didn’t buy anything but BTC or ETH unless they were the rug pullers instead of the honest folks, and as long as you don’t think too much about how that curve is supported by sanction evasion.

        • skribe@piefed.social
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          3 hours ago

          I had a mate go all in. He bought a bunch of crypto (plus set up mining machines) in 2018, just before the bottom fell out. Instead of hodling he sold and lost tens of thousands.

          • Rothe@piefed.social
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            2 hours ago

            Curious how something so heavily marketed by cryptobros as a modern currency alternative to big banking is almost always only being talked about as an object of investment. As if it is really nothing but yet another speculative scheme for people who are the rich to get richer.

            • imeansurewhynot@sh.itjust.works
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              2 hours ago

              Curious how something so heavily marketed…as modern currency…is almost always only being talked about as an object of investment.

              Nothing strange about basic marketing.

              yet another speculative scheme for people who are the rich to get richer.

              Like the bosses at your job? Yeah, it’s kind of like that.

              You don’t have to understand the chemical properties of gold to buy and sell it.

              You don’t like investments, fine. That works out well for those who do. Most complain while standing still, some act.

              • deHaga@feddit.uk
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                2 hours ago

                It’s not a decentralised currency though is it.

                And stable coins are just another way for the US to issue debt

                • imeansurewhynot@sh.itjust.works
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                  2 hours ago

                  Bitcoin? Yes, it is fundamentally decentralized.

                  If you don’t know something ask questions and learn. You’re wasting so much time arguing against your own assumptions.

            • imeansurewhynot@sh.itjust.works
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              1 hour ago

              No, a higher return results from basic math. If i invest $1 24 months in a reinvesting account before you do, I’ll have 24 more months of compound interest on that dollar than you will. I started earning returns first.

        • imeansurewhynot@sh.itjust.works
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          1 hour ago

          … right. They did not make money on Bitcoin or get scammed by a different cryptocurrency…

          We can check with them if they got scammed by a Nigerian prince while we’re at it. If you think you’re making some sort of point.

          Maybe we should check if they got scammed because their computer had a bunch of viruses.

          Or if they were selling something online and the buyer sent them a confirmation code.

          There are lots of things they didn’t do.

  • pedz@lemmy.ca
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    5 hours ago

    Cars are for people with money. Poor people are taking the bus. Nobody should be taking public transit unless they’re poor, or have a DUI or something. If you’re sitting in a bus, you’re obviously a loser.

    • Deme@sopuli.xyz
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      4 hours ago

      The downvotes are a reminder of how important it is to denote sarcasm with a ‘/s’ because clearly it went over some heads.

        • Deme@sopuli.xyz
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          4 hours ago

          Was it supposed to be? I think it’s a good critique of the meme for equating public transit with a lack of financial wealth.

      • imeansurewhynot@sh.itjust.works
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        16 minutes ago

        Are you…no, I guess you’re serious.

        And wrong. Some people got scammed in cryptocurrency, the same as some people get scammed with their insurance or family members or, literally, everything else.

        This does not mean Bitcoin has gone down in value.

        Those are very different situations.

        If someone tricks you kntob giving them your wallet, it doesn’t mean that a fiat dollar is worth less.

        You just lost your wallet.

    • glibg10b@lemmy.zip
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      3 hours ago

      Money doesn’t grow on trees. In the case of crypto, it came from the people who lost, or the people who are still in it

      I don’t think there’s any hope for the people who are still in it. This 4-year cycle has already been quite disappointing than the previous ones, and there’s no reason for things to improve from here

      • imeansurewhynot@sh.itjust.works
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        3 hours ago

        It came from the people who lost, or the people who are still in it…

        What are you talking about? You think gold or silver had to be “lost” in order to have value? No, that’s not where value comes from. All of you are speaking like you’ve never heard of an economy.

        Cryptocurrency is an expanding currency market.

        Just like gold, just like credit, just like stocks and bonds forex and futures.

        As the market gets bigger and more people believe/invest/rely on it, the share one owns of a more valuable market gains value.

        This 4-year cycle…no reason for things to improve from here.

        More gibberish; there are plenty of reasons for crypto currency to continue to gain value.

        1. National governments are creating digital cryptocurrencies.

        2. Adoption of cryptocurrency is growing constantly.

        3. Governments are investing heavily in existing cryptocurrencies.

        4. There’s no functional difference, other than more recent and having more capabilities between cryptocurrencies and the “credit” system that everybody accepts as “normal”.

        There’s every reason for a successful market to continue being successful while it has adoption, investment, development and use.

        Yes, even a new market(as all markets once were).

        • queermunist she/her@lemmy.ml
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          32 minutes ago

          National governments are creating digital cryptocurrencies.

          This matters a lot more than all that other shit.

          Once something gets government backing there’s a guarantor of value for the currency because there will always be an entity that will accept it as payment (taxes, fees, fines, etc). That same entity is also capable of incredible amounts of violence, and can kidnap or even kill people who don’t pay those taxes, fees, fines, etc etc.

          The problem with Bitcoin, or any independent crypto that isn’t created by a government backer, is that it only has value because people agree that it has value - they can change their minds whenever they want, and they can’t really enforce the value at the end of a gun.

          When a government says a currency has value, they aren’t likely to change their minds and can shoot you if you disagree.

        • FrowingFostek@lemmy.world
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          2 hours ago

          Yes, more financialization, more speculation, more debt leveraging. Fuck anyone who comes after my initial investment.

          As long as I get mine amirite? We’re all doing it. Right?

          • imeansurewhynot@sh.itjust.works
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            2 hours ago

            Those are several different ideas, so no, you’re wrong.

            Money isn’t bad and making money isn’t immoral, which is the fundamental misunderstanding that many of you have. If you don’t like money, okay, but if Sandwich Guy 1 sells more sandwiches than Sandwich Guy 2, he makes more money.

            There’s no moral judgment beyond your indignant projection. He just has more dollars in his pocket because he sold more sandwiches.

            Investor 1 invests before Investor 2, Investor 1 makes more money.

            If you get a 50% head start in a race, you’re probably going to win.

              • FrowingFostek@lemmy.world
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                1 hour ago

                It plays very much to your headstart line at the end of your comment.

                It goes something like; You’re one passenger on a plane. The plane crashes. You and another person survived the plane crash. This is a deserted island with it’s only resource being coconuts.

                This other person has awake from the crash much before you’ve awoken. This person has had the time to collect all available coconuts on the island and has secured them for themselves.

                You’re dehydrating rapidly and plead for a coconut from this person to satisfy your thirst. The person offers a coconut, in exchange for some sloppy toppy.

                You gonna show them what that throat do? 🌴🥥

                This sound like a fair system?

        • PepperoniNipple@lazysoci.al
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          2 hours ago

          Who cares? You and all cryptobros are still people who will never have even a quarter of what the average baby boomer had at their age, like 7+ children, a home at 19 years old, economic stability, or at least a happy family of four without a college degree. Why? Are they smarter, work harder, or what?

          And if they do, they’re just holding them warm for when the Mexican Cartels and bigger countries like China come to take everything they have. Rightfully so too. They suck, they deserve it for supporting a currency that empowered organized crime the most.

          • imeansurewhynot@sh.itjust.works
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            2 hours ago

            Are they smarter…

            Holy crap no, that’s the point.

            The baby boomers have more because they had to invest less up front in their generation.

            Investors of all kinds have more money because they invested less by investing early. Circumstances change as time passes, and time is always running out.

            you and…will never have even a quarter of what…

            Speak for yourself, not for others.

            You don’t have to be a genius, you have to pay attention to opportunities.

        • CrimeIsLegalNow@ani.social
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          3 hours ago

          The fundamental insight that created capitalism and, in turn, socialism is that gold is not wealth, gold is what you use to trade wealth, which is ultimately the eponymous means of production.

          BTC didn’t make a single penny of wealth. It’s just a different currency in a world with thousands. BTC actually decreases the wealth of the world by wasting effort and production on a solved problem.

          You’re literally 250 years behind the curve set by The Wealth of Nations. It can be individually profitable to stick your wealth into BTC just as it can be individually profitable to trade 4X, but at the end of the day all the people with real money own businesses and land.

          Not that they were right to think “money” is a zero sum game. You’re ultimately just both arguing that trading the shiny rocks is what creates value.

          • imeansurewhynot@sh.itjust.works
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            3 hours ago

            “You’re literally 250 years behind the curve set by The Wealth of Nations…”

            You’re then if I am, since you’re repeating my point.

            As for the rest of your crap, you’re conflating and reducing several comments from several people and misunderstanding mine as a result.

            • CrimeIsLegalNow@ani.social
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              3 hours ago

              That you don’t like the assumptions behind your own words when they’re pointed out doesn’t stop them from existing, and that comment is pretty rich considering the context.

              • imeansurewhynot@sh.itjust.works
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                3 hours ago

                You’re debating your own assumptions rather than directly addressing my comments or clarifying what you don’t understand.

                You’re going to find it very easy to argue against things you made up, but that won’t make your presumption relevant.

        • glibg10b@lemmy.zip
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          3 hours ago

          We’re talking about Bitcoin (which has no intrinsic value/usefulness) here. I didn’t realize that wasn’t clear, so I have now edited my comment to clarify that

          More gibberish; there are plenty of reasons for crypto currency to continue to gain value.

          Yes, cryptocurrency in general. Not Bitcoin specifically, the most antiquated, slowest, least sustainable one there is (you know, given that it was the first, unlike newer cryptocurrencies which were able to learn from its mistakes and make technological advancements, such as not requiring the power of an entire nation just to run them, and not taking some multiple of 10 minutes before the cashier can finally give you your coffee)

          • imeansurewhynot@sh.itjust.works
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            2 hours ago

            We’re talking about Bitcoin.

            You were stuck on a single cryptocurrency, not me.

            There are plenty of reasons for cryptocurrency to gain value.

            Yes, cryptocurrency in general.

            Great work.

    • MBech@feddit.dk
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      5 hours ago

      Well they enjoyed a historical return off of the people who bought too late. It’s not like their money spawned out of nothing. They sold their bitcoin to someone who hasn’t been as lucky, because they bought when the price was at its highest, ind the hopes that the price would continue to climb.

      It’s pretty much a zero-sum game. For someone to earn something on crypto, someone else has to be left either losing something, or holding onto something in a desperate hope that the price will explode again.

      • imeansurewhynot@sh.itjust.works
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        5 hours ago

        No, they enjoyed the return of investing in a new asset class that is growing larger every week, month and year.

        Cryptocurrency is a currency and a resource. It’s as much a zero-sum game as gold, stocks, real estate or credit cards, and all those sums are dynamic as he’ll.

        • iknewitwhenisawit@fedinsfw.app
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          3 hours ago

          Stocks in principle are used to represent ownership of a company. Companies sell things, and should provide returns, if nothing else as their assets grow due to profits.

          Real estate, while it does not grow exactly, is needed for almost everything else. People need places to live, places to grow food and other crips, places to build schools and factories and restaurants and so on.

          You’re right that gold is the same as crypto currency though. It’s valuable because we have all decided that it is valuable.

          I have no idea what you mean by credit cards. That is not an investment. 😅