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Bitcoin and other crypto-The CR thread


GRHorn

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2 minutes ago, Humble Beast said:

This will be one of the next big fights. Generally speaking, the government doesn’t want you holding your assets outside their control.

Of course they don't.  They also generally don't want their citizens raising armies and shit.

But you can absolutely hold assets outside of government control -- that option has been around as long as there have been shovels, holes in the ground, and coins/precious metals etc. being stashed in them.  So, like.....millennia.  

In that respect, "crypto" isn't new.  It's just dumber and a bigger scam.  

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1 hour ago, Humble Beast said:

I just want to be sure I’m reading this right. Are you implying that your team’s politicians have been drug against their will into the influence peddling game?

No. That is not what I'm saying. There will never be a person or party not tainted by some DEGREE by vice. 

Ever.

Here IS what I'm saying- In the realm of Few-In-Number-Large-In-Wealth influence peddling within a democracy, The Democrats have proven via actions (and inactions that Republicans have unapologetically taken) a significantly stronger commitment combatting said vice. 

Here's a fairly cut-and-dry Wiki refresher on the history of act the GQP majority SC overturned. If ya wanna dispute assertions cuz Wiki, go ahead. I'm happy to learn. But for whatever flaws the act had in mitigating influence peddling, it's obvious one party supported it more-

History of the billEdit

In the aftermath of Watergate, Congress passed the Federal Election Campaign Act Amendments of 1974, which put new limits on contributions to campaigns.[4] Four years later, the FEC ruled that donors could donate unlimited money to political parties (but not the candidates themselves) if the party used that money for "party building activities" such as voter registration drives, but not to directly support candidates.[4] Both the Republican and Democratic parties nonetheless used this money to support their candidates, and money donated to parties became known as soft money.[4] In 1992, President George H. W. Bush vetoed a bill passed by the Democratic Congress that would have, among other things, restricted the use of soft money.[5] President Clinton pushed for a similar bill, but was unable to get both houses to agree on one bill.[4]

In 1995, senators John McCain (R-AZ) and Russ Feingold (D-WI) jointly published an op-ed calling for campaign finance reform, and began working on their own bill.[4][6] In 1998, the Senate voted on the bill, but the bill failed to meet the 60 vote threshold to defeat a filibuster. All 45 Senate Democrats and 6 Senate Republicans voted to invoke cloture, but the remaining 49 Republicans voted against invoking cloture. This effectively killed the bill for the remainder of the 105th Congress.[7]

McCain's 2000 campaign for president and a series of scandals (including the Enron scandal) brought the issue of campaign finance to the fore of public consciousness in 2001.[4] McCain and Feingold pushed the bill in the Senate, while Chris Shays (R-CT) and Marty Meehan (D-MA) led the effort to pass the bill in the House.[4] In just the second successful use of the discharge petition since the 1980s, a mixture of Democrats and Republicans defied Speaker Dennis Hastert* and passed a campaign finance reform bill.[8] The House approved the bill with a 240–189 vote, sending the bill to the Senate.[9] The bill passed the Senate in a 60–40 vote, the bare minimum required to overcome the filibuster.[6] Throughout the congressional battle on the bill, President Bush declined to take a strong position,[9] but Bush signed the law in March 2002 after it cleared both houses of Congress.

Now tell me.

Which co-sponsor of that bill is a pariah in their party of today? Which co-sponsor is a lightning rod? Which party nominates candidates who draw attention to and proclaim they've driven the stake through the heart of said co-sponsor?

 

 

* convicted pedophile

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32 minutes ago, Brisketexan said:

Of course they don't.  They also generally don't want their citizens raising armies and shit.

But you can absolutely hold assets outside of government control -- that option has been around as long as there have been shovels, holes in the ground, and coins/precious metals etc. being stashed in them.  So, like.....millennia.  

In that respect, "crypto" isn't new.  It's just dumber and a bigger scam.  

Equating self custody of assets with civilians raising armies. Also, precious metals are a scam. Interesting. 
 

45 minutes ago, atomheartbevo said:

Somebody just discovered the libertarian party.

The original libtards?

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1 hour ago, Humble Beast said:

This will be one of the next big fights. Generally speaking, the government doesn’t want you holding your assets outside their control.

I don't know of any pending legislation or even theoretical legislation that would limit your ability to hold coins in your own wallet. Amazingly, we have had physical currency for hundreds of years, yet no law forces you to hold it in a bank. This isn't a serious law. Just a bit of look at me ism.

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The original libtards?

Are precious metals INHERENTLY a scam? Not at all. Are precious metals, as they are relentlessly marketed to your fellow Fox News viewers a scam? Yep. Same as Jim Bakker survival buckets and other “fear investments” that Fox specializes in selling. Except that actual physical precious metals, if that’s indeed what you’re buying, are indeed a store of time-honored value (just not the way and for the reasons Fox ads say they are).
Unlike crypto, which is made up bullshit that only has value to people on the front end of the Ponzi scheme.
Nobody with a lick of sense buys what you’re selling. But, good news for you: there are a SHITLOAD of people out there without a lick of sense. It’s easy to tell who they are; they’re the people loading up on crypto.
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1 hour ago, Humble Beast said:

The original libtards?

Oh my sweet child, almost every libertarian has a phase where they are wanting to get their money out of "the government control" in some way.  In 2022 it's crypto. In the 1990s and 2000s (and to present day if you're an old), as @Brisketexan points out, it was precious metals.

Today it's a little "getting my money out of the government's control" and next week it'll be "wow, I really like Gary Johnson's views, and the Republicans really are that bad" and next year it'll be "hmmm, I'm not a fan of the libertarians, maybe I should go with the Constitutional Party" (and eventually you'll start voting for more Democrats).

 

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Oh, and GRU, if you think Ted Cruz and Greg Abbot and other Republicans are buddying up to Crypto for altruistic reasons, you need to realize two things:

One, the crypto bros are donating to whatever politicians will help them the most (the party varies by state) which puts those politicians in their pockets (Abbott in particular, but Cruz has his ties).  The Republicans did not have an epiphany that crypt was the way to go, they had an epiphany that crypto types (and the associated industries/companies) are donating to them.

Two, there is money involved, so the Republicans want to control it in some form.  Republicans are doing a good job of pretending to be friends to the crypto industry, but if this FTX thing blows up like it's looking like, you can bet the Republicans want to shape the resulting legislation (all the while taking donations from the crypto bros).

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2 hours ago, atomheartbevo said:

Oh my sweet child, almost every libertarian has a phase where they are wanting to get their money out of "the government control" in some way.  In 2022 it's crypto. In the 1990s and 2000s (and to present day if you're an old), as @Brisketexan points out, it was precious metals.

Today it's a little "getting my money out of the government's control" and next week it'll be "wow, I really like Gary Johnson's views, and the Republicans really are that bad" and next year it'll be "hmmm, I'm not a fan of the libertarians, maybe I should go with the Constitutional Party" (and eventually you'll start voting for more Democrats).

 

 

Analysis: 'Slap in the face': Biden's fist bump with MBS fails to move the  OPEC needle significantly | CNN Business

 

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13 hours ago, Humble Beast said:

He can be out in the open with influence peddling and philanthropy while also being secretive about internal finances. I realize you may not be aware of a lot of the background, but he emergence story is shady. His co-founder lack of any story is shady. Who he owes money to being sealed is shady, even if Dahobbs says it’s legally justified. Why has he not been arrested already? It’s a pretty smelly situation.  
 

 

“Confirmed fraudster who fled the country was shady and opaque about his company’s finances.”

This is what you’re hanging on as evidence of an intel op? 

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3 hours ago, 956 Worldwide said:

“Confirmed fraudster who fled the country was shady and opaque about his company’s finances.”

This is what you’re hanging on as evidence of an intel op? 

In the original post I was referring mostly to Tether, but as for FTX…
 

His story about making huge money on the arbitrage trade is pretty vague. The silent Chinese billionaire partner with a limited internet footprint is shady. There’s also this interesting quote from the bankruptcy filing. 
 

Compromised by what, or whom? I’d love to know what they meant there. 
 

 

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28 minutes ago, Humble Beast said:

In the original post I was referring mostly to Tether, but as for FTX…
 

His story about making huge money on the arbitrage trade is pretty vague. The silent Chinese billionaire partner with a limited internet footprint is shady. There’s also this interesting quote from the bankruptcy filing. 
 

Compromised by what, or whom? I’d love to know what they meant there. 
 

 

LOL, always grasping at conspiratorial straws. Everything has to be bigger. It can never just be a fraud, it has to be fraud implicating three letter agencies, and some shadowy mastermind. Based on the the entire affidavit, I'm guessing he means morally and ethically compromised. It isn't an allusion to some as of yet undeclared secret. 

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19 minutes ago, Dahobbs said:

LOL, always grasping at conspiratorial straws. Everything has to be bigger. It can never just be a fraud, it has to be fraud implicating three letter agencies, and some shadowy mastermind. Based on the the entire affidavit, I'm guessing he means morally and ethically compromised. It isn't an allusion to some as of yet undeclared secret. 

One of the big things I always hear about is how cryptocurrency is just used for money laundering and illicit activities. That isn’t true but it sure can be used for those things. Our govt and intel agencies could definitely utilize something like that. Instead of using a shady bank like BCCI in the past, why not use Tethers to move money around globally? Quicker, easier. I realize that a technical and historical discussion of tether is beyond the scope of this thread, so I’ll just leave it at that. 

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30 minutes ago, Dahobbs said:

LOL, always grasping at conspiratorial straws. Everything has to be bigger. It can never just be a fraud, it has to be fraud implicating three letter agencies, and some shadowy mastermind. Based on the the entire affidavit, I'm guessing he means morally and ethically compromised. It isn't an allusion to some as of yet undeclared secret. 

What if John Ray was sent by Q and he's using coded messages in the bankruptcy filings to expose the cabal?

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4 hours ago, 956 Worldwide said:

“Confirmed fraudster who fled the country was shady and opaque about his company’s finances.”

This is what you’re hanging on as evidence of an intel op? 

How did the guy who was born to two law professors, had family connections to Harvard and Yale, and went to MIT ever start a business or make any money? It must be Hillary Clinton and the CIA!

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35 minutes ago, Humble Beast said:

 I realize that a technical and historical discussion of tether is beyond the scope of my shitbird soup of an intellect, so I will obfuscate and avoid direct discussions about the fundamental issues with crypto and why the current conversation/dunking on crypto is taking place

PS Elon is you are reading this then yummy yummy mmmmmm gimme your jizz edgelord daddy  

Fify

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1 hour ago, Dahobbs said:

LOL, always grasping at conspiratorial straws. Everything has to be bigger. It can never just be a fraud, it has to be fraud implicating three letter agencies, and some shadowy mastermind. Based on the the entire affidavit, I'm guessing he means morally and ethically compromised. It isn't an allusion to some as of yet undeclared secret. 

Most of the arguments for crypto come back to a conspiratorial world view and the urge to outsmart “them.”

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6 minutes ago, Chuckie Finster said:

That's the entire right-wing ecosystem.

Whether we are talking crypto or Q or election "fraud" or Kanye ranting about Jews controlling everything ... it all boils down a some deep desire to be "in" on a secret.

I used to wonder how I managed to disagree with the same people on almost every topic, no matter how unrelated the issues may appear to be on the surface, and then I made this connection. Will be a fascinating psychology study in 50 years.

Excellent post.  I hadn't ever really crystalized that common thread in my mind, but there we are.

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42 minutes ago, Chuckie Finster said:

That's the entire right-wing ecosystem.

Whether we are talking crypto or Q or election "fraud" or Kanye ranting about Jews controlling everything ... it all boils down a some deep desire to be "in" on a secret.

I used to wonder how I managed to disagree with the same people on almost every topic, no matter how unrelated the issues may appear to be on the surface, and then I made this connection. Will be a fascinating psychology study in 50 years.

The funniest thing is that they created this whole separate financial ecosystem as an attempt to end-around (((them))) and then a Jew comes in, robs them blind, and destroys the whole system.

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2 hours ago, Chuckie Finster said:

That's the entire right-wing ecosystem.

Whether we are talking crypto or Q or election "fraud" or Kanye ranting about Jews controlling everything ... it all boils down a some deep desire to be "in" on a secret.

I used to wonder how I managed to disagree with the same people on almost every topic, no matter how unrelated the issues may appear to be on the surface, and then I made this connection. Will be a fascinating psychology study in 50 years.

That's an interesting topic. You posit that many right right factions (crypto, Q, election fraud, Jew controlling cabals, sovereign citizen, anti-vax, anti-gov, anti-fed, flat-earth) coalesce around the desire to be "in" on a secret. My counter is they do this because of their desire to escape the realities of life. It's a form of escapism.

Yes, they want to be in on the secret because it's more exciting than there not being in on a secret. Reality is not exciting. Reality is depressing. So they believe the lie.  If they didn't get that media job or a news story didn't get the attention they wanted, instead of facing the reality that maybe they're not that talented or the story wasn't a complete lie, it's easier to believe the fairytale that a junta of powerful Jews are controlling the media to keep them down. It's easier to believe the election was rigged than more people don't want the country to be what you want it to be. It's easier to believe you can make tons of money and keep your money away from the government through this magical investment called crypto. 

 

Edited by Neonmoon
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49 minutes ago, Neonmoon said:

That's an interesting topic. You posit that many right right factions (crypto, Q, election fraud, Jew controlling cabals, sovereign citizen, anti-vax, anti-gov, anti-fed, flat-earth) coalesce around the desire to be "in" on a secret. My counter is they do this because of their desire to escape the realities of life. It's a form of escapism.

Yes, they want to be in on the secret because it's more exciting than there not being in on a secret. Realty is not exciting. Realty is depressing. So they believe the lie.  If they didn't get that media job or a news story didn't get the attention they wanted, instead of facing the realty that maybe they're not that talented or the story wasn't a complete lie, it's easier to believe the fairytale that a junta of powerful Jews are controlling the media to keep them down. It's easier to believe the election was rigged than more people don't want the country to be what you want it to be. It's easier to believe you can make tons of money  and keep your money away from the government through this magical investment called crypto. 

 

I think (not my original thought) that it is the collapse of a real deity-centered view of reality (even religious people don’t have it any more) and a deep inability to cope with the fact that impersonal, uncontrollable forces like “the global economy” have such a profound impact on daily life.  There’s a need to believe that some intelligence must be in control, somewhere because the alternative of complex systems that we may be able to marginally influence but not control determine our fates is uncomfortable. 
 

And secondary to that is a feeling of disenfranchisement and powerlessness. Around the world, powerless people who believe that they rightfully should be in control succumb to conspiratorial thinking. I could do a miniseries of conspiracies in the non-elite Pakistani world, but think also of people who lose wars or struggles (Russians, interwar Germans, Balkans of all types).  It’s no coincidence that non-elite whites in America who find themselves in perilous economic straits and losing demographic influence turn this direction. Powerless people who are not in control naturally seek to identify some unjust, unfair but logical system that is responsible for their humiliation. 
 

So as conspiracy theorists try to frame their thinking as “independent,” it is ironically a desperate search for control, even nefarious control, as opposed to the horror of impersonal, implacable forces acting upon them. 

Edited by 956 Worldwide
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Crypto bros have always told me that bitcoin is designed to be out of the control of any person or government. The blockchain can't be altered or faked. If there's legislation out there to try and regulate its creation then either the politician doesn't understand crypto or they do understand it and have the ability to manipulate it. If it's the latter then bitcoin's true value is $0. 

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10 minutes ago, 956 Worldwide said:

I think (not my original thought) that it is the collapse of a real deity-centered view of reality (even religious people don’t have it any more) and a deep inability to cope with the fact that impersonal, uncontrollable forces like “the global economy” have such a profound impact on daily life.  There’s a need to believe that some intelligence must be in control, somewhere because the alternative of complex systems that we may be able to marginally influence but not control determine our fates is uncomfortable. 
 

And secondary to that is a feeling of disenfranchisement and powerlessness. Around the world, powerless people who believe that they rightfully should be in control succumb to conspiratorial thinking. I could do a miniseries of conspiracies in the non-elite Pakistani world, but think also of people who lose wars or struggles (Russians, interwar Germans, Balkans of all types).  It’s no coincidence that non-elite whites in America who find themselves in perilous economic straits and losing demographic influence turn this direction. Powerless people who are not in control naturally seek to identify some unjust, unfair but logical system that is responsible for their humiliation. 
 

So as conspiracy theorists try to frame their thinking as “independent,” it is ironically a desperate search for control, even nefarious control, as opposed to the horror of impersonal, implacable forces acting upon them. 

I think these are excellent points. It's definitely about disenfranchisement and powerlessness. For example, when the economy is down, more people are without jobs and feel powerless, unable to feed their family or support themselves, thus more susceptible to indoctrination from religion, gangs, hate groups, etc. Incels feel powerless around women, and thus organize against them for keeping them down. 

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2 hours ago, Chuckie Finster said:

That's the entire right-wing ecosystem.

.. it all boils down a some deep desire to be "in" on a secret.

 

You can spend your whole life getting dunked on, left behind, unvalued, underpaid, not ready to move on to second grade, sir please put your shirt back on, etc - if you know what’s really happening and all those people in the suits on the tv thinking they are better than you don’t? That makes them the fools.

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1 hour ago, Neonmoon said:

That's an interesting topic. You posit that many right right factions (crypto, Q, election fraud, Jew controlling cabals, sovereign citizen, anti-vax, anti-gov, anti-fed, flat-earth) coalesce around the desire to be "in" on a secret. My counter is they do this because of their desire to escape the realities of life. It's a form of escapism.

I think you, Chuckie, and 956 are all onto it - it’s a combination of being afraid of not having control/agency, being insecure in some way (financially, etc.) and I’d toss in mental illness when you get to the extremes (Q followers, election deniers, holocaust deniers, etc,).  I’ve never seen a Qanon type or full-on election denier that didn’t have a mental illness or some kind, or that wasn’t ripping off those who do.  And it’s frustrating because Trump and Kari Lake know they lost, but they are taking advantage of the people that have mental issues.

Mix all of that together, and toss in the GOP of 2022 taking advantage of these people (not just Trump either), as well as the grifters ripping these people off, the Russians taking advantage of them, etc, and they are just absolutely bombarded with messages that everything is not their fault, that their lot in life is because of Jews, or liberals or the government rather than their own fuckups or their own unwillingness to take simple measures that could improve their lives and get them out of their financial insecurity, etc.

I think  a lot of this was laid bare with COVID-19.  A lot of these people were really vulnerable either mentally, physically (underlying conditions), or financially, and so it just wrecked them, and the GOP was all too happy to let them be used and abused by the anti-vaxxers/COVID-deniers in the GOP.

I would feel some empathy for these people, and having a Qanon in-law, I see how she’s taken advantage of by the GOP, grifters, etc. but I get fucking pissed because their inability to distinguish reality from what the GOP/Tucker/Qanon/etc, tells them directly impacts my life. Even when presented with rational explanations for simple things that go against what social media, Fox News, etc, tell them, they still hesitate because they don’t want their carefully constructed world views to collapse, and they don’t want to even flirt with the idea that what the GOP, etc. has been telling them might not be accurate, because that means they’ve been bamboozled and nobody wants to admit that.

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53 minutes ago, pantone159 said:

So why do so many of them become real estate agents? Answer me that one!

We are laughing at that, and it’s not just that profession that’s over-represented, but me thinks it has something to do with people who have a lot of unstructured time on their hands.  Plus, it may attract those who don’t want to risk having a libtard as their boss and can be somewhat self-employed or think it’s an easy way to make a lot of money.

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15 minutes ago, atomheartbevo said:

We are laughing at that, and it’s not just that profession that’s over-represented, but me thinks it has something to do with people who have a lot of unstructured time on their hands.  Plus, it may attract those who don’t want to risk having a libtard as their boss and can be somewhat self-employed or think it’s an easy way to make a lot of money.

It’s not that they have unstructured time, but more so they could not function in a structured environment. Obviously that’s not all realtors, but you can make an okay living making 3% and still be able to attend your weekly drag show protest. 

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1 hour ago, 956 Worldwide said:

I think (not my original thought) that it is the collapse of a real deity-centered view of reality (even religious people don’t have it any more) and a deep inability to cope with the fact that impersonal, uncontrollable forces like “the global economy” have such a profound impact on daily life.  There’s a need to believe that some intelligence must be in control, somewhere because the alternative of complex systems that we may be able to marginally influence but not control determine our fates is uncomfortable. 
 

 

This is funny because you kind of have it backwards. Bitcoiners specifically acknowledge that the global economy is a complex system. The fault lies with believing that you can centrally plan such a complex system. And there is a small group that does the central planning. The Federal Reserve Board pumped the economy for the better part of 14 years and now they’re slamming the brakes so hard that leaders from around the world are begging them to slow down. Powell’s statements are parsed down to the word and determine capital flows all over the world. That’s just reality. 
 

Bitcoin’s monetary policy is predetermined and therefore reliable. 
 

1 hour ago, HRSchenker said:

Crypto bros have always told me that bitcoin is designed to be out of the control of any person or government. The blockchain can't be altered or faked. If there's legislation out there to try and regulate its creation then either the politician doesn't understand crypto or they do understand it and have the ability to manipulate it. If it's the latter then bitcoin's true value is $0. 

There isn’t. Not possible in any case. 

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1 minute ago, Humble Beast said:

Bitcoin’s monetary policy is predetermined and therefore reliable. 

I'm sorry, you're gonna have to expand on this.  If I pull up a chart of BTC-USD, I see it launched ~ 400, climbed to a peak of over 65,000 and is now at something like 16,000.  How is that in any way reliable?  I doubt there are many stocks out there with that kind of variablity/volatility.

People are freaking out because the dollar buys ~ 10% less than it did a year or so ago.  THAT'S "reliable".

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12 minutes ago, jimmyjazz said:

I'm sorry, you're gonna have to expand on this.  If I pull up a chart of BTC-USD, I see it launched ~ 400, climbed to a peak of over 65,000 and is now at something like 16,000.  How is that in any way reliable?  I doubt there are many stocks out there with that kind of variablity/volatility.

People are freaking out because the dollar buys ~ 10% less than it did a year or so ago.  THAT'S "reliable".

Referring only to the monetary policy. You’ll never see a 30% YoY increase in the bitcoin monetary base. 

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12 minutes ago, Humble Beast said:

Referring only to the monetary policy. You’ll never see a 30% YoY increase in the bitcoin monetary base. 

The "monetary policy" may be predictable. But the results from it are not. And, since the things people actually care about is the purchasing power of the currency (meaning, the vast majority of people, not the small number of coinheads), a predictable policy with unpredictable results is the exact opposite of reliable.  

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On 11/22/2022 at 9:40 AM, Humble Beast said:

One of the big things I always hear about is how cryptocurrency is just used for money laundering and illicit activities. That isn’t true but it sure can be used for those things. Our govt and intel agencies could definitely utilize something like that. Instead of using a shady bank like BCCI in the past, why not use Tethers to move money around globally? Quicker, easier. I realize that a technical and historical discussion of tether is beyond the scope of this thread, so I’ll just leave it at that. 

 

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