Bitcoin & Other Cryptocurrencies

[kamalktk]

They are more way to agree a transfer of value

If I'm buying a sandwich, I get a sandwich for my dollars or pounds or euros. If I buy crypto, I get.. ? It's not a transfer of value unless I get a thing of value in return (such as a sandwich).

It reminds me of buying something like gold for a video game, except there's not even a video game to play, just some press releases by the developers. And Zombie Blaster 2021 will get replaced by Alien Blast 'Em 2022, and so Zombie Blaster 2021 gold wont be worth anything anymore. Ad infinitum....

 

[uair01]

There's a Coinbase bashing going on on Twitter and someone posted this horrible meme:

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1524241747848572929

 

[uair01]

And the CEO of Coinbase looks very cultish
Note: I'm not bashing, just looking at the pictures. Doesn't this look like Elisabeth Holmes?

 

[Coal]

And the CEO of Coinbase looks very cultish
Note: I'm not bashing, just looking at the pictures. Doesn't this look like Elisabeth Holmes?

View attachment 55210

A white cat short of a Bond villain.

 

[Ringo]

I see Crypto working as a kind of "virtual money", kind of like Disney Dollars or tokens for the arcade. You "buy" a certain amount of them to have in your "virtual wallet" and you can use these to buy products/services from people or in places anywhere in the world. It kind of negates exchange rates and fees having a universal virtual currency. The receiver can then sell their Crypto to other people wanting to "buy" crypto in exchange for "real" cash.

The only problem here is that Disney Dollars/tokens etc have value based on "real" money - you buy $100 dollars worth of tokens and get x number of tokens. You'll get the same amount of tokens tomorrow (although how many tokens it takes to buy a baseball cap may change it won't vary wildly day to day).

With crypto, you buy $100 dollars worth and get say 1 coin. Tomorrow however, that 1 coin may only be worth $10 and not enough to pay for the thing you wanted to get. So you buy 9 more coins ($90) and buy your thing which costs $100. The true cost of that purchase is obviously $190.

Or it may be that tomorrow, your 1 coin is now worth $500 and you only need to send 0.2 of a coin for a $100 purchase. Great for you but then the day after that, when the seller wakes up in Hong Kong or wherever, maybe the price has gone down again so that 1 coin is worth $10. The seller has received $2 for a $100 item and you lost $320 overnight.

 

[uair01]

I'm neither bashing nor gloating but there's now even a conspiracy theory about the tragic crash of Luna / Terra stablecoins. Long story here:
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-05...st-luna-stablecoin-evil-genius-plot/101062388

Quick summary here:

The two hedge funds deny everything.

 

[uair01]

This is a good and funny explanation. I follow this guy on YouTube:

 

[kamalktk]

Tldr:

Crypto: Stablecoins are tied to the US dollar and backed by our very large holdings of ultra safe things like US Treasury Bill's.
Investor: So you'll let me see your Treasury Bill's?
Crypto: No.

 

[uair01]

You probably should not believe headlines like this. But for the record:

People with dark personality traits tend to be more enthusiastic about Bitcoin, study finds​

https://www.psypost.org/2022/05/peo...-enthusiastic-about-bitcoin-study-finds-63131

If you want to know how you score for dark tetrad traits, you can do the Dark Triad Personality Test and Sadism Test online.

 

[EnolaGaia]

People with dark personality traits tend to be more enthusiastic about Bitcoin, study finds​

If you want to know how you score for dark tetrad traits, you can do the Dark Triad Personality Test and Sadism Test online.

See Also:

"D" / "D Factor": The Dark Factor In Human Personality
https://forums.forteana.org/index.php?threads/d-d-factor-the-dark-factor-in-human-personality.69046/

 

[Coal]

See Also:

"D" / "D Factor": The Dark Factor In Human Personality
https://forums.forteana.org/index.php?threads/d-d-factor-the-dark-factor-in-human-personality.69046/

I kinda felt this study really was a retread of the dark triad stuff from HEXACO traits. That said, these are the traits least likely to be honest on self-report questionnaires...

Integrity is a good life outcome predictor btw (statistically speaking), employers really should look harder at it.

 

[kamalktk]

You probably should not believe headlines like this. But for the record:

People with dark personality traits tend to be more enthusiastic about Bitcoin, study finds​

https://www.psypost.org/2022/05/peo...-enthusiastic-about-bitcoin-study-finds-63131

View attachment 55318

If you want to know how you score for dark tetrad traits, you can do the Dark Triad Personality Test and Sadism Test online.

I mean, yeah.... crypto has been huge in white supremacist circles.

https://www.vice.com/en/article/pkpjd9/crypto-crash-white-supremacist

 

[uair01]

This is funny and some of the reactions are funny too:



That's basically just boomer NFTs

https://www.reddit.com/r/rolex/comments/u07c3e

Reddit comments on > Current State of the Sock Drawer

If there are no socks in the sock drawer is it still a sock drawer?
Clearly you own no socks. Bare toes prove this point
At a glance thought ‘nice collection’ - you then zoom in and see what is actually there. My man - you have some heavy hitters . Love that they’re not safe queens and actually used >>> "used" is one thing, but even people's silverware drawers are more organized then this crap.

Spoiler: Politically incorrect questions and answers by OP

Where’s the coke? >>> In my nose
Look like a lot of fakes >>> Only thing fake in my life is my wife tits
Where’s your dildo >>> In my butt

 

[uair01]

What! This can't be true, can it?
https://www.ontier.digital/post/bit...-ip-claims-against-digital-currency-exchanges

BITCOIN CREATOR LAUNCHES IP CLAIMS AGAINST DIGITAL CURRENCY EXCHANGES​

London 3 May 2022 – Dr Craig Wright, the inventor of the first successful electronic cash system, Bitcoin, together with two companies associated with him, Wright International Investments Limited (WII) and Wright International Investments UK Limited (WIIUK), have filed intellectual property claims against two currency exchanges – Kraken and Coinbase (NASDAQ: COIN) – for misrepresenting that the digital asset “Bitcoin Core” (BTC) is Bitcoin. ...

Dr Wright wrote the White Paper “Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System” and published it in October 2008 under the pseudonym, Satoshi Nakamoto. He was involuntarily outed as Satoshi by Wired magazine in December 2015.

 

[uair01]

Sorry for my obsessive posting in this thread, but I find it all endlessly fascinating. (Disclosure: I have no cryptocurrencies and I'm sorry I never bought Dogecoin just for the lulz.)

Harvard professors did a MOnte Carlo simulation on Luna and concluded that it must be stable:


Nassim Taleb is (of course) all over them:

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1525791976486014976

 

[C.O.T.]

intellectual property claims against two currency exchanges – Kraken and Coinbase (NASDAQ: COIN) – for misrepresenting that the digital asset “Bitcoin Core” (BTC) is Bitcoin. ...

And why not for all the rest? Essentially the problem is what i said months ago, if you cant stop the growing of new ones you have an impossible problem of inflation all the time. So value will trend to zero. They would get rid of the authority f states and now realize, that what give value to the money are the capacity of states to limit currencies. What a bunch of genius.

 

[kamalktk]

And why not for all the rest? Essentially the problem is what i said months ago, if you cant stop the growing of new ones

Good thing creating a new coin was as easy as picking a logo and a name....

https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.th...coin-me-how-to-make-your-own-digital-currency

 

[charliebrown]

I am a nerd, but why would anyone get involved with cryptocurrency ?

It is fake money that changes value every day by thousands of dollars.

This is just my opinion.

 

[blessmycottonsocks]

Anyone tried HNT (Helium) crypto mining?

Looks almost too good to be true; once you install the radio cell hardware, you become part of the global "people's network" and just let that passive income roll in. £50 to £100 a month isn't exactly world shattering, but it should cover your up-front costs pretty quickly.
This site even offers the hardware free of charge, for a share of the future profits:

https://heliummininguk.co.uk/

Before I commit, would like to know if any of you guys has had good or bad experiences with this curious offshoot of cryptocurrency e.g. are there legal or security implications and do you need a bloody great antenna fitted to your house and is it a bit like a Ponzi scheme, where only the early adopters make the big money?

 

[Herr Cloaca]

Anyone tried HNT (Helium) crypto mining?

Looks almost too good to be true; once you install the radio cell hardware, you become part of the global "people's network" and just let that passive income roll in. £50 to £100 a month isn't exactly world shattering, but it should cover your up-front costs pretty quickly.
This site even offers the hardware free of charge, for a share of the future profits:

https://heliummininguk.co.uk/

Before I commit, would like to know if any of you guys has had good or bad experiences with this curious offshoot of cryptocurrency e.g. are there legal or security implications and do you need a bloody great antenna fitted to your house?

I've just had a look at this, and as far as I can tell, it involves you reselling your Internet connection by bolting an aerial on your house. I would imagine your ISP would take a very dim view of this, that they would have something in the T&Cs to forbid this, and that they will see a difference in traffic.

It smells like a Ponzi scheme. The directors of the company also run some other "enterprises" and their registered address is one of those mail box places.
https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/13865825/officers

 

[uair01]

Reading about earlier coin mishaps and I see this. It is almost surreal:

https://www.reddit.com/r/CryptoCurrency/comments/sgwmnd

• This is when things start getting spicier. One fine day, the price of TIME tanks 50% from $1000 to about $500, yes in a single day.
• There was panic all around the community having the same question, "what the fuck happened".
• Basically there was a mass selling in a certain hour by whales.
• Daniel and Sifu, the founders of project did not do the buybacks because they were "sleeping". Alot of people who had kept TIME as a collateral to borrow stable coins from abracadabra.money (another Daniel's project) got liquidated. The people who used TIME to borrow crypto believed that the price would never tank so hard because the team would do buybacks.
• But since Daniel was sleeping and he forgot to do the buyback (lol), so many people got liquidated, including Daniel and Sifu themselves.
• Daniel tried to act all innocent tweeting he did not know any of this and he was just sleeping. And since he lost money too, noone doubted him.
• Just one day after this shitshow another news breaks out that Sifu, the treasury manager is the founder of a collapsed CEX called Quadriga and a known fraudster who has been scamming people for about 2 decades.
• The price of TIME falls to an all time low of $300 after this news.
• Daniel claimed that he knew about Sifu's identify from 1 month ago but he did not take any action because he believes in giving second chances.

 

[uair01]

Anyone tried HNT (Helium) crypto mining?

Looks almost too good to be true; once you install the radio cell hardware, you become part of the global "people's network" and just let that passive income roll in. £50 to £100 a month isn't exactly world shattering, but it should cover your up-front costs pretty quickly.
This site even offers the hardware free of charge, for a share of the future profits:

https://heliummininguk.co.uk/

Before I commit, would like to know if any of you guys has had good or bad experiences with this curious offshoot of cryptocurrency e.g. are there legal or security implications and do you need a bloody great antenna fitted to your house and is it a bit like a Ponzi scheme, where only the early adopters make the big money?

Thanks for pointing this out, it is very interesting. Sceptical Redditors say:

It is definitely a scam. It operates as a good ol ponzi where you need to buy X amount of the coin to start earning, but instead of coins you need to buy $50 hardware from the approved sellers for $600. This is supposedly done to prevent spoofing but spoofing happens anyway. Check out tacticalinvesting's videos on this. There are HNT farms on mountains in china which are perfectly spaced earning thousands of dollars everyday.

More scepsis here:

https://www.reddit.com/r/CryptoCurrency/comments/u4nwd1

The ponzinomics remark would be a red flag for me. I can't tell, but if it's a scam it's an original one.

 

[blessmycottonsocks]

Thanks for pointing this out, it is very interesting. Sceptical Redditors say:

It is definitely a scam. It operates as a good ol ponzi where you need to buy X amount of the coin to start earning, but instead of coins you need to buy $50 hardware from the approved sellers for $600. This is supposedly done to prevent spoofing but spoofing happens anyway. Check out tacticalinvesting's videos on this. There are HNT farms on mountains in china which are perfectly spaced earning thousands of dollars everyday.

More scepsis here:


The ponzinomics remark would be a red flag for me. I can't tell, but if it's a scam it's an original one.

I tend to think so too.
The companies offering the hardware for free, provided they get a share of any profit you make, do seem a bit strange and rather unlike a Ponzi scheme though.
I did find a few testimonies from people making modest profits.

 

[Mythopoeika]

I've decided to start my own digital currency, which I'm calling ThinAirBucks. It basically involves investors paying me all their worldly savings in exchange for digital images of ThinAirBucks coins, which can be spent anywhere that will accept ThinAirBucks.
I wonder how many customers I'll get, telling me to shut up and take their money.

 

[uair01]

I've decided to start my own digital currency, which I'm calling ThinAirBucks. It basically involves investors paying me all their worldly savings in exchange for digital images of ThinAirBucks coins, which can be spent anywhere that will accept ThinAirBucks.
I wonder how many customers I'll get, telling me to shut up and take their money.

You asked for it

And while we're bullshitting ... this joke was totally unavoidable. (Now I'll get all serious again.)