Comment on AI Is Starting to Look Like the Dot Com Bubble

• TurtleJoe@lemmy.world ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  The blazing fast technology that allows for up to 7 transactions a second worldwide? Amazing.

  Don’t forget to pay your capital gains tax when you sell your butts online to buy your pizza.

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  • Freesoftwareenjoyer@lemmy.world ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    The slow transaction speed is a valid criticism, but it doesn’t make this technology a scam. Different cryptocurrencies have different speeds. With Litecoin I think it takes me 40 minutes to pay for something. I still prefer that over being tracked by my bank or having to use PayPal. I think you can pay instantly with Dash, but I haven’t used it.

    I don’t sell anything online, so what are you talking about?

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    • ZodiacSF1969@sh.itjust.works ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      I think people are using the word scam not in it’s strictest sense - that is to say, I don’t think Satoshi personally invented BTC to defraud everyone who bought it so in that sense, no, it is not a scam technically. A better way to describe it would be via the greater fool theory: the only way to make money is to find someone even more foolish than yourself to buy it.

      Crypto as it is currently implemented is inefficient, riddled with problems, and is deflationary which you can argue about but most economists would say deflationary currencies are bad as they lead to shrinking economies and do not encourage investment.

      There also aren’t that many problems that it ‘solves’ that aren’t already solvable by existing tech. And even in the case of things it’s useful for, if it were to be widely adopted the ‘benefits’ would be overshadowed by the massive new problems that would be created.

      I think crypto will always have a niche, especially for black markers. I don’t think anything similar to currently existing crypto currencies will ever be adopted for widespread use as legal tender.

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      • Freesoftwareenjoyer@lemmy.world ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

        A better way to describe it would be via the greater fool theory: the only way to make money is to find someone even more foolish than yourself to buy it.

        Cryptocurrency is not about making money. It’s a distributed ledger. Technology like that could maybe be a scam if it didn’t do what its creators claim it does. But it’s been around for a long time and we know exactly how it works.

        Crypto as it is currently implemented is inefficient, riddled with problems, and is deflationary which you can argue about but most economists would say deflationary currencies are bad as they lead to shrinking economies and do not encourage investment.

        It has problems, but like every technology it keeps improving. I choose to use it despite its flaws and will probably use it even more in the future.

        There also aren’t that many problems that it ‘solves’ that aren’t already solvable by existing tech.

        It gives me privacy and anonymity when paying online. No other online payment technology does. It also doesn’t require trust, since it’s decentralized. I’m not aware of any other technology that solves those problems.

        I think crypto will always have a niche, especially for black markers. I don’t think anything similar to currently existing crypto currencies will ever be adopted for widespread use as legal tender.

        That’s possible, but over time it is accepted by more and more stores. So it keeps growing. But even if it didn’t, you can use crypto to buy gift cards for any store. It doesn’t have to be popular.

        And as the other commenter pointed out, the tax situation is a nightmare. Even if you don’t sell online yourself, that’s a big hurdle to crypto achieving what many supporters claim it can do.

        When someone wants to invest in crypto, I can see how that could be a problem. I just use it to pay for things online.

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