• dx1@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Fundamental difference between a currency accruing value due to superior characteristics over its competitors, and a Ponzi scheme where a truly worthless good that only has transitory value because it’s “the next big thing” is passed along from original entrants to new entrants. USD has no “inherent” value (not even the “full faith and credit of the government”) either, and critical issues where the broader institution responsible for its issuance is a corrupt war-mongering police state. If we’re being honest here.

    • Astroturfed@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Yeah, I’ll just unlearn all the monetary theory books I read because, trust me bro money is worthless. I got this new money, it’s worth more money. I see now.

      • whoisearth@lemmy.ca
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        1 year ago

        Didnt you know that a 27 year old technobro is smarter than generations of monetary systems built upon since the dawn of man? Lol

        • Astroturfed@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          Hey, the guys who never took an econ class know more than you. Trust me bro. It’s amazing. It will change the world.

          Public has started to realize what a joke the entire concept is. The true believers are all so mad now. Hopefully new investors dry up soon and the entire clown show can collapse with no new money flowing in (you know how a ponzi scheme goes bust).

        • dx1@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          The society built on those monetary systems is literally destroying the planet. The history of those monetary systems is of the ruling class debasing currency and seizing as much value under the eyes of the law as possible for their private benefit going back thousands of years. Our entire legal system grew out of the Roman Empire, European feudalism, British Empire and then the slave-built corporatist state of the U.S.

          Is your argument that “tradition must be right”? Slavery is traditional, war is traditional, pollution is traditional, animal agriculture is traditional, oppression is traditional, class hierarchy is traditional.

          • Astroturfed@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            Thinking cryptocurrency is just a new dollar built on a ponzi scheme has nothing to do with supporting modern capitalism. New money has all the same issues as old money. Which it will be exchange for and values with. This entire circle jerk is ridiculous.

            You know who owns a ton of the Bitcoin? Hedge funds and investment banks. You’re supporting a system built on burning a whole bunch of fossil fuels to create a few lines of code that can be horded by the same people who horde all the wealth. You aren’t changing shit.

            Want to change something? Got get a gun and become a domestic terrorist or something. You aren’t changing the world by buying crypto.

      • dx1@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Am I supposed to treat this like a good faith comment? Let’s assume you’re wrong, how would I even reply? It’s basically “no u”.

        If you really know so much about monetary theory I’d expect you to lead with what you actually know, not just vaguely allude to how much you know. Right?

        • Astroturfed@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          I’d expect that I wouldn’t want to waste time trying to convince a brainwashed crypto bro or that I give a single fuck past making fun of you.

          Here’s some super basics of almost all monetary economic theory. Currency is a medium of exchange. It’s velocity (or rare it moves through the economy) is a vital measure of the health of the economy and effectiveness of the currency. How easy is it to go buy something with Bitcoin, and how fast is it moving through hands in an economy? Oh, it’s a joke as a currency you say? Description of how it is being used sounds exactly like a ponzi scheme for some reason.

          • dx1@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            See, this is the classic bad faith anti-blockchain argument. Article we’re talking about is about NFTs, which are based on Ethereum, an extremely sophisticated blockchain with proof-of-stake, smart contract capability, and a huge infrastructure of people who’ve built economic machinery on top of it and are using it actively. But you want to prove your point, so you cherry-pick Bitcoin, the very first “proof of concept” blockchain which has essentially had active development halt because the creator wanted anonymity, vanished into thin air, and the developers working on it largely refuse to hard-fork it, so which has no real smart contract capability, still uses wasteful proof-of-work, etc.

            It’s not “obvious” that it’s a ponzi scheme, it’s the point you want to make so you’re just bending the facts and cherry-picking things to try to prove it. I’m not impressed. And tossing “monetary velocity” out there as a term isn’t making me think you’re some brilliant economist - if anything, monetary velocity is an overstressed concept in modern econ because the government sits around trying to manipulate it via interest rates instead of letting people’s actual spending priorities dictate how the economy works, leading to a consumerist frenzy and catastrophic boom/bust cycle.

            • Astroturfed@lemmy.world
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              1 year ago

              Oh no, I used super basic short terms to explain something to someone I think is a moron. Let me detail flaws in every digital currency, NFT and type out an entire book for you cuz I give a fuck. I look forward to laughing at the collapse and truly believe all of you are beyond educating. So, yes I am arguing in bad faith. I don’t think you get that. Thought that was super obvious.

    • Uncle_Bagel@midwest.social
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      1 year ago

      USD had value in that it is how i pay my taxes. I can either use USD to pay taxes or go to jail. That’s about as concrete as value can get.

        • Astroturfed@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          So, your claiming that you need a constant new stream of people buying into it, to make it work? Man, that’s almost like the definition of a ponzi scheme. Weird.

          • dx1@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            Another “I know you are but what am I” class comment. I’m talking about actual adoption, usage, cyclical exchange, not buy low sell high, that should be obvious from what I wrote.

    • aidan@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      The issue is not much effort is put into developing price stability in cryptocurrencies, this is because it is counter to the incentives of the creators and early HODLers. They do not want price stability, they want significant price decreases, this causes people to speculate on the “currency” not use it as a currency. Until a cryptocurrency implements some form of MV=PY it will not really be successful as a currency.

      • dx1@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        How does one “implement” the equation for calculating GDP? All the (descriptive) variables in the equation are already present. IDK how that got 4 upvotes.

        Several major cryptos are already used as media of exchange. That’s the actual criteria for “success of a currency”, relative usage. They haven’t overtaken USD, but let’s not pretend it’s just a speculative vessel, Ethereum sees over a million transactions per day.

        • aidan@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          You cannot, but you can increase money supply money supply more stably when following average GDP growth, and increase money supply more when velocity decreased- and atrophy the supply when it increases. And a currency is much more than just what people can spend at a store. It is what people keep their savings in, what companies pay their employees in, what banks lend.

          This cannot be done with an unstable currency- you cannot have a debt that will either go up or down 20% in value in the same year. I do not think fiats are inherently more stable, but some fiats have proven to be somewhat more stable because of responsible central banking- its not a good idea to count on central banks being responsible for ever. But essentially all widely spread cryptos continue to have a significant amount held by speculators and therefore they cannot be stable currencies.