As long as it’s treated as an investment rather than an actual currency, it will never be taken seriously by the general public and will never become mainstream. It’s also too volatile without regulation, so people will naturally be apprehensive with their money being at risk of completely losing value any time.
A few years back before Bitcoin crashed, EVERYBODY was making bullshit coins and tokens. Way too much hype. Bitcoin fell and a lot of the bullshit died off. Bitcoin, Etherium, and even little ol Dogecoin is climbing now. When the prices surge up, I sell a little, when the price dips back down, I buy it back.
I take little bits of profit at a time, and I hope the value keeps climbing so it can turn into a significant investment, but if not, it isn’t going to ruin me, it’s not my retirement plan.
Get rich quick schemes, gambling (speculation), rug pull and pump and dump fraud, dodging taxes, malware ransoms and other illegal activities. Just like it has always been.
Unfortunately while it has legitimate uses, realistically it is used more often for crime and gray area activities. Which is a shame because the technology that enables it is interesting.
I hope that more services will accept crypto as payments. For now they’re either used to gamble/invest or to funnel illegal money with a small percentage being used legitimately like maybe $5 for Mullvad or something.
It’s all a scam and the people who buy into it are idiots. Crypto is basically on par with the stock market, horse racing, and scratchy lottery tickets.
It has its fans and niche uses, but I think it has too many problems to be viable as a real currently. It’s volatile, is prone to hacks, lacks consumer protection, doesn’t scale well, and has a huge carbon footprint. If the global banking system had things like gas wars and a “possession is ownership” philosophy then society would collapse.
Yeah like isn’t there a guy sitting on millions and millions of dollars but he forgot his password and only has one attempt left before his account is wiped? Or another that lost his HDD with the details etc. I think it’s pretty stupid to invest in something with such little security or recovery.
Periods of high transaction volume cause transaction fees to skyrocket. If there’s a rush to buy something, then transaction fees will easily go 10x for an hour or so. It’s like if Taylor Swift tickets went on sale, then the entire global economy stopped until they were sold out.
They will be the only way to transact without being surveilled or without requiring the permission and approval of banks, payment providers, and governments. They will continue to displace banking systems in parts of the world where those are corrupt and do not have basic functionality. They will continue to enable people to do business and cooperate across borders. If we remain long enough without a unified world government, I believe the credible neutrality of cryptocurrency, which is higher than any fiat currency can have, will likely cause one of them to become the global reserve currency.
Paying for shit through my browser via an almost-immediately settled transaction is great and I wish it was more commonly accepted. Lots of growing pains ahead but the concept isn’t going anywhere. There’s also plenty of valid criticism of current implementations but writing off the entire idea is just foolish.
I’m sorry to be so blunt about this, but you’re kind of being a willing sucker. Inviting people to hate the banks has been the most underrated, under-the-radar, flawlessly effective political smoke-and-mirrors distraction, for generations. And here you go, just buying right into it.
As a distraction, it’s absolutely perfect, because it works from every possible political angle. If you’re a liberal/progressive/socialist, the banks can be a stand-in for capitalism. You can scream about the evils of the banking system, without actually using the word “capitalism,” and maybe get some people onto your side.
If you’re a libertarian/fiscal-conservative/anti-globalist-right-winger, you can accuse the banks of being covertly or overtly controlled by <insert group that you hate> and you can feature them in all kinds of conspiracy theories about The Libs™ weakening your native nation by coupling it to the monetary systems of other nations that you dislike, etc.
If you’re in the political middle (or claim to be), you can pick and choose from any of the above.
In reality, the banking system is going to be necessary for the next couple of centuries. Period. That’s a fact. Nothing can change that, even if it was a good idea to change it. Which I’m not really sure of, because of all the political distraction that always surrounds the whole thing.
The fact remains: people getting all riled up about “the bankers” is music to the ears of every politician who doesn’t actually have any intention of passing good laws, to help people’s lives. Or repealing shitty laws that are fucking up people’s lives.
If you think getting rid of the banking system would instantly solve all our problems, I’ve got an apparently very low-interest loan I can give you, to buy a bridge in Brooklyn.
They will continue to be used for shady business, they will eventually consume more energy than all of Europe combined, they will never be a legit currency used for normal stuff.
I expect that Elon or some other famous person is going to use Dogecoin again to scam their fans and make a quick buck in the near future.
I like that Ethereum’s system changed to use far less energy and thus emit less carbon.
I guess Monero can be useful if you want to buy drugs online or whatever, which I’m fine with.
I know that some people feel really strongly about crypto, either positively or negatively, but I’m mostly disinterested. It’s not going to become a particularly useful currency any time soon and it’s way too volatile, so if I ever decide to invest in something I’ll pick normal stocks instead.
I think that frankly, we need them around but solely for transactions. treating them as anything else or positively promoting them under some pump and dump scheme is a big NO. But for example, using something like monero over TOR to buy a VPN to avoid censorship under a dictatorship? yes, we begrudgingly need it around for stuff like that.
It’s really frustrating watching the furry community flip out every few months or so when a credit card company pulls the rug from under thousands of artists. All the problems that people complain about like power usage are solved by currencies that aren’t bitcoin. But nobody wants that to be true, because being right is the most important thing in the world.
One of the most brilliant things I've watched in a while, it's two years old, and it's over two hours long, but I found it both confirming things I already figured on my own, and illumination as to what's at the core of Web 3.0 : LINE GOES UP
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