I was just thinking. Do you (like me) think that BITCOIN

[bluestarone]

was MAGA'S leaders ( i mean the putin, rump, muskrats,) plan to destroy our monetary system? Then get the religious right to believe he was the chosen one? Getting them onboard to continue with their plan of complete takeover? Our congress is the only thing left to save our democracy.

[2naSalit]

1. In addition...

I also think the timing of release of AI is suspect, as in part of the plan.

[Lulu KC]

2. No

I believe Brookings. The dollar is not at risk.

https://www.brookings.edu/articles/the-brutal-truth-about-bitcoin/

[bluestarone]

3. Well, if nothing else it's the best money laundering

tool they are using. (Still feel it's other purpose is, threat to our monetary system)

[pnwmom]

27. They wrote after Trump's 2020 defeat, not after is recent win. I'd like to know what they think now. nt

[Lulu KC]

37. Here's something

They have a number of videos and podcasts on the topic.

https://www.brookings.edu/articles/will-the-us-become-the-new-crypto-capital-of-the-world-the-techtank-podcast/

[usonian]

4. The original goal, IIRC, was to bypass the banking system.

There's a long discussion here.
https://www.democraticunderground.com/100219807299

Main points:

• It's an asset, not a currency. BFD!!! It fluctuates wildly and the value can be manipulated.
• It *IS* the currency of black-hat hackers.
• It is thought to be anonymous, but is easily de-anonymized, and the FBI has seized "tons" of it.
• The only security is the password to your wallet and people have been violently held up for their password. (and nobody to protect you* )

* Except Merrick Garland, who has been protecting billionaires from bitcoin theft.
(see point #3)

If thugs are heavily into it (and you know who I mean) then I avoid it like elephant poop.

[Trailrider1951]

5. crypto currency, of any stripe, is such a farce

you're one power failure away from losing your "money". There's no THERE there.

[bluestarone]

7. Agree!

Some (most) Americans will be destroyed financially.

[womanofthehills]

14. It's mostly a younger people thing & they are making money

Most crypto buyers are between 25 and 40.

“Study: 94% of Crypto Buyers are Gen Z/Millennial, but Gen X is Outspending Them”

“The data shows that there’s a clear correlation between age and the likelihood to buy cryptocurrency — the older you are, the less likely you are to make a purchase”

https://stilt.com/data/vast-majority-crypto-buyers-millennials-gen-z/

[bluestarone]

15. I agree. Maybe THAT was also part of these assholes plans?

They KNEW religion and money control was our downfall.

[CanonRay]

22. I have a friend (44) who is heavily into it.

She mostly trades options by following "signals" which prompt trades. She's making money (lots, apparently) and keeping the profits in her "wallet". She wants me to invest as well. I politely declined. Too risky for my sleep.

[brush]

54. I'd rather go to Vegas if I want to take that kind of chance with my money.

There are periodic run-ups in value then collapses (thefts) with crypto. See Sam Bankman-fried: How to get rich quick, not get out in time before someone, or you yourself steal everyone else's money from the wallet, then go to jail after finally getting caught.

Vegas is quicker.

[Disaffected]

16. I'm not a fan of Bitcoin but

how does a power failure cause loss of one's money?

[Lulu KC]

38. It's in here

And this is the part that worries me--environmental impact.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Environmental_impact_of_bitcoin

[Disaffected]

40. Where is it?

I read the article and saw no mention of a power failure causing loss of one's Bitcoin.

[Lulu KC]

41. The article talks about how much power is used to "harvest" bitcoin

From what I can gather, blockchains need electricity.

Google has explanations from many points of view. Some bitcoin lovers act like it won't be a huge deal, but most others think it would be a major problem.

A slight local power failure wouldn't be so bad, but the kinds of power outages that are occurring as a result of climate change (which is affected by blockchains) would be problematic.

[Disaffected]

46. All internet related monetary transactions, including blockchains, obviously need electricity

to function but that does not mean that a power failure will result in permanent loss of content (it may result in temporary loss of access but not outright loss).

The power needed to "harvest" bitcoin is considerable but irrelevant to this topic.

[Lulu KC]

47. Got it

We live, we learn.

[getagrip_already]

52. True, but a quantum compute break of blockchain security...

Will do much, much, more than a power failure or even a corrupted or compromised database.

Cracking blockchain security would mean no ecoin is safe. It could all be stolen, or simply destroyed.

And they are close, if it hasnt already happened. These arent script kiddies, they are state actors with unlimited resources like china.

And they might just be waiting for western economies to go full bore crypto. Then boom.

It would be the financial equivelant of not only every bank account going to zero, but combine that with perfect cash note forgeries flooding the streets.

All non physical wealth would vanish.

Try living in a modern society with no currency vehicle that could be trusted.

Crypto enables that.

[confoosed]

50. That's not true all

Bitcoin has the same resilience as any online banking, from BOA to Fidelity.

[Emile]

6. BITCOIN One World Government monetary system.

[kimbutgar]

8. I was with one of my husbands maga nephews last night and he is big into bitcoin

I told him I think it’s a scam but I also don’t know a lot about it because when I try to understand it still feels scammy.

[Callie1979]

9. Today its just another example of "the greater fool" theory.

And I even own some
But its just for speculation.
Any transaction using Bitcoin has a loser one one side because of the volatility.

[moose65]

29. I get that

I’m a fairly intelligent person. I have a master’s degree in mathematics, but I just don’t “get” bitcoin at all. I can’t really wrap my head around what it actually IS. Any time I’ve tried to read about it, all I get is all this stuff about “blockchains” that makes absolutely no sense.

Where did it come from? How do you “mine” it? What’s it good for? Beats me!

[Lulu KC]

42. This is comforting

It feels like it's imaginary, but those big buildings madly sucking electricity out of the power grid are not imaginary. When I realized they existed I thought, "Uh-oh. I'm going to be forced to grasp this." Hasn't really happened yet!

[Joinfortmill]

31. There's nothing backing it. It's a form of gambling.

[FakeNoose]

39. The only thing backing bitcoins are the US dollars and Euro dollars that people are trading for bitcoins

The real hard-earned money is what people use to buy bitcoins. So there's no other value assigned to the bitcoins except what people are foolish enough to pay for them.

[Blue Full Moon]

45. Easily stolen or lost. Then there is it's based on stock market.

[oasis]

10. If they ever bring back "Pet Rocks" I've already

got a jump on that market.

[bluestarone]

12. Amazing how todays Americans became so how should i say

Unexplainable??

[Callie1979]

11. One side of any deal using Bitcoin for a transaction is a fool.

If you bought a car with one bitcoin Nov 1st YOU are the fool.
As long as that kind of volatility continues theres no WAY it could ever replace our current system. Yes, our dollars lose value. But over a long period of time. You could lose or gain 20% on your bitcoin in one DAY

[anciano]

13. It seems to me to be

a contemporary version of "tulip mania".

[EarnestPutz]

17. I would have guessed that the original purpose was tax evasion.

[defacto7]

18. I tried to put a bitcoin in the parking meter the other day.

It didn't work. So, I put in another one, then another. Damn parking meters.

[bluestarone]

20. lol!

That is so true!!

[Jilly_in_VA]

19. I do think it's a scam, yeah

Tax evasion, probably, since Eloon and the orange slime are so big into it.

[Snarkoleptic]

21. Here's a decent Trump/Bitcoin/US Treasury piece-

[Trenzalore]

23. It is a way to circumvent banking laws

Why it is loved by terrorist, hackers, organized crime, and petty tyrants on economic sanctions.

[enigmania]

24. A few years ago,

someone gifted me a small amount of crypto. I moved it to ethereum, waited for it to triple, and sold. Haven't looked back. It's a scheme.

[Aussie105]

25. Stay away from Bitcoin!

It's an empty currency, of no value if you can't find a buyer.
Much like gold, diamonds, and Dutch tulip bulbs.

[BOSSHOG]

26. Saw an ad on TV this afternoon

A book pushing the notion that trumps election was prophesized in the Bible. Read all about it, send us your credit card number. Or maybe it was a reference to locusts.

[underpants]

28. Harder to track income ....taxes

[dchill]

30. Crypto is the "You knew damn well I was a snake..."

...of currency. It is it's own warning.

[awesomerwb1]

32. I always get "the internet is a series of tubes" vibes

when reading comments about Bitcoin in this place.

It's not that complicated people.

[A HERETIC I AM]

33. I would no sooner buy Bitcoin or any other crypto currency...

than I would buy South African Rand or Swiss Francs, Euro, Rupee, Yen or Singapore Dollars.

I'm not a currency trader.

It's made up nonsense that is only redeemable in real, hard currency, so what's the fucking point? It's clearly a speculative bubble.

When 7/11 starts taking Bitcoin for Slurpee's, coffee and chocolate bars, I'll rethink my position.

[JCMach1]

34. No

💯%

[Jrsygrl96]

35. YES!

Prophecy that goes back to 1976-money will become obsolete. No one will be able to buy or sell anything without the mark of the beast.

[notinkansas]

36. Seems to me to be a

'take the money and run' scheme.

[Lulu KC]

43. Some people already do think he's the "chosen one"

I don't really see that growing much as a result of anything that happens with bitcoin. I think they are two separate groups of people who, very oddly, both find something special about him. Just as he is not like his followers, economically and socially, his followers are not all the same as each other. It's one of the strangest things about his "success."

[DFW]

44. For all the supposed activity in crypto

I have never really understood how or where one converts accepted legal tender (US$, Swiss Francs, whatever), into crypto, or, perhaps more importantly, back.

But Gold, I get. It has been a convertible store of value for 2500 years. No, you can’t eat it or live in it, but there is a world-wide market with a daily buy-sell quote. Now, that, at least, is a track record.

Of course, Bitcoin's rise from $25,000 to $100,000 within a year is an undeniable track record, too. Still, if someone were to make a gift of one Bitcoin to me, I would have no idea how to convert it into something I can actually spend. A Bitcoin is “worth” $100,000? That’s nice. If I don’t know how to get $100,000 worth of anything for it, give me nine hundred genuine $100 bills for it and keep the change!

[Alephy]

53. If someone gives you a bitcoin...

That person is just sending you an identifier (key) that identifies that one Bitcoin as yours.

In a crypto currency exchange, like Coinbase, you can sell that one Bitcoin for $100,000.

Then you can transfer those $100,000 to your checking account.

Sure, you can raise questions as to why you need to convert it into US Dollars (or other currencies.) You don't have to. But the mechanics of converting it into the type of money we all use is not complicated. It is almost as simple as when I make a bank transfer between my different bank accounts.

[Deep State Witch]

48. No

Cryptocurrency was invented in 1983. Bitcoin appeared in 2009.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cryptocurrency#History

In 1983, American cryptographer David Chaum conceived of a type of cryptographic electronic money called ecash.[10][11] Later, in 1995, he implemented it through Digicash,[12] an early form of cryptographic electronic payments. Digicash required user software in order to withdraw notes from a bank and designate specific encrypted keys before they could be sent to a recipient. This allowed the digital currency to be untraceable by a third party.

In 1998, Wei Dai described "b-money," an anonymous, distributed electronic cash system.[14] Shortly thereafter, Nick Szabo described bit gold.[15] Like bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies that would follow it, bit gold (not to be confused with the later gold-based exchange BitGold) was described as an electronic currency system that required users to complete a proof of work function with solutions being cryptographically put together and published.

In January 2009, bitcoin was created by pseudonymous developer Satoshi Nakamoto. It used SHA-256, a cryptographic hash function, in its proof-of-work scheme.[16][17] In April 2011, Namecoin was created as an attempt at forming a decentralized DNS. In October 2011, Litecoin was released, which used scrypt as its hash function instead of SHA-256. Peercoin, created in August 2012, used a hybrid of proof-of-work and proof-of-stake.[18]

It's always been a fetish of libertarians and anti-government types to have their own, unregulated currency.

[Xolodno]

49. Econ professor described gold as this...

...you dig a hole in the ground to extract a worthless mineral and then dig another hole to put this worthless mineral in and guard it.

Money is a medium of exchange. The value of the dollar is based on how confident you are for the USA to still be here tomorrow. Of course, that gets manipulated a bit, but if I could buy Rubles right now, believe me, I would, those damn things are on a fire sale right now. If the US government collapsed, our dollars would be worthless. You can go out and buy Confederate States of America dollars or Rubles of Imperial Russia, outside of collectors value, they are all worthless because those governments don't exist any more.

Bitcoin is a perceived value of a medium of exchange. A value that is derived as a safe haven because its not beholden to the stability of a nation. Plus its easy to hide, launder, avoid taxes, etc. You walk into an airport with a suitcase of cash, a lot of questions are going to be asked. Not to mention, it may be confiscated for awhile when the investigations go through. Have a million in Bitcoin in the USA, can be redeemed in virtually every nation without physically carrying any hard currency.

That's its appeal. But it can crash for whatever reason.

As for myself, I prefer very small gems. Easy to hide in your clothes, metal dectors don't go off, passing one off as payment doesn't attract too much attention, etc.

[FalloutShelter]

51. Crypto is for Criming - by Paul Krugman

https://paulkrugman.substack.com/p/crypto-is-for-criming