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Is Crypto Dead?

b7676

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I’ve yet to see a compelling case for how or even if cryptocurrencies add real economic value, and until/unless I do I’m hard pressed to consider it anything less than a 16th century Dutch tulip minus the 2 week splash of color.
Those regular Dutch proles had been cut out of all speculative vehicles by their government.
The rare virus which causes the unique tulip patternings is a good analogy for hyperelliptic curve public key cryptography.
 

LeftCoastTim

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Is crypto:

Decentralized?
Private/anonymous?
Store of value?
Inflation hedge?
Secure?

Is it even money?
 

blueone

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Dang! I was thinking of flipping my ASUS RTX 3070Ti non low hash rate video card so I can upgrade to a better card. I can nix that plan now. It has no value to a miner if crypto is tanking.
If crypto prices stay low Nvidia stock prices may be relatively weak. Nvidia's revenue crypto mining exposure is thought to be $6B-8B per year, and very profitable. It looks like there's a decent correlation between NVDA stock price and the value of Bitcoin.

 
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valerianf

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Well "Dr Doom" is a very famous economist that predicted the 2008 economic crisis.
Here is what he said in 2019 about the crypto currencies:
In fine 2022:
 
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JJB70

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It's interesting to think about what money is, some of the legitimate criticism of cryptocurrency (it's an abstraction and only valuable when people believe it to be so) are equally applicable to the fiat currencies of central banks.
 

majingotan

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SPY and whole stock market will be next to sink on Tuesday following crypto sentiment

Capture.PNG
 

Fregly

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Those regular Dutch proles had been cut out of all speculative vehicles by their government.
The rare virus which causes the unique tulip patternings is a good analogy for hyperelliptic curve public key cryptography.
I wish you would redo your last two posts without the hyper specialed jargon and insider stuff so there isn't such a barrier from me learning something......
 

Fregly

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Tangential but this is a very good critique and deep explainer of NFTs


(don’t be put off by the length, it’s worth it)
Thanks for posting this. I have only started but he is giving an even handed non political take on things so far, and I felt a sense of relief when realizing it would be a proper exploration without the usual cheap competitive rhetoric I have grown so weary of....
 

Unground

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It's interesting to think about what money is, some of the legitimate criticism of cryptocurrency (it's an abstraction and only valuable when people believe it to be so) are equally applicable to the fiat currencies of central banks.
No, that sounds right but isn't. Fiat currencies are backed by real assets, labour and the tax revenues associated with them. There is underlying value in things we can see and touch and use to live. Fiat currencies are a means of exchange and a store of value. None of that is true with crypto. The crypto world conflates price with value. I believe it is well understood that prices converge on fundamental value, save for specific exceptions like Veblen goods (economists please correct me). Sadly, even a well-produced crypto YouTube channel that I follow talked about the 'fundamental value' of BTC the other day as it dipped below $20k. As many clever people have stated, the inherent value of one BTC is zero, no matter what the price. The price pumped due to speculation, but the value did not change.

Edit: Watching the Line Goes Up vid now. Not come across this before. Looks very good.
 

Katji

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Centralised?
It seems the financial speculation business is centralised in NYC and London. With connections to banks in Switzerland and those islands.
 

Somafunk

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Trying to kill the "BTC" is good for the BTC. It has weaknesses.

Hoping for applied cryptography to die is like hoping for the end of free will or free association or the incompleteness theorem, the end of network effect. The end of locks and keys. The end of the begining of the end of infinite rehypothecation.

Immutable tally sticks which contain uncensorable hardest storage secured by the largest and reasonably anti-fragile computer.

Whales aren't really into the fork which is called BTC anymore.

Speculation was the first killer app regretably.

Layer One of BTC was not intended to be a fast settlement coin for micro transactions. This is being done in a second layer or by other coins. Getting the consensus layer hardened, how the chain recognizes/organizes the selection of the next correct solution or rare number across the network quickly enough was/is the biggest or most delicate challenge.

Absolutely meaningless word salad
 

Destination: Moon

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The other reason to wish for the demise of crapto - power


It's speculated that each btc transaction consumes 700kw of electricity. Seems insane to support anything this wasteful
 

Katji

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Perhaps that [incease in demand for electricity/energy] benefits the financial speculation business.
 
OP
Ron Texas

Ron Texas

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One of the more interesting comments above is about Nvidia. It does have a general correlation with bitcoin prices, but the recent slide has not been as severe. My observation is Nvidia still has a market for gaming and datacenter users while bitcoin has no intrinsic value.
 

FrantzM

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Too early to tell.
But when you think about it, there is something absurd about the notion of speculating on Crypto... However much we twist and rationalize it, Stock Markets have become a gigantic network of casinos on which a good portion of the World Economy lies...
Also , looking at what crypto-currencies really are. They are the future of money. Inescapable and much more in the financial system than we realize, or, perhaps want to admit.

Peace.
 

AdamG

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Tangential but this is a very good critique and deep explainer of NFTs


(don’t be put off by the length, it’s worth it)
Best Digital shell game Vid I have ever seen. A must watch before you invest, ahem I mean Gamble your money. Thanks for posting this. Yeah it’s long but worth the time.
 

Gorgonzola

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This afternoon Bitcoin dove below $20,000 and Etherium is below $1,000. It's been a tough year for stocks (except oil companies) and bonds too. I don't think the world is falling apart, but most days it feels that way.

So, is crypto dead? It's probably below the level where mining it is profitable.
Let's hope so.

Although Bitcoin and the like are often described as "currencies", they are NOT currencies and fail multiple criteria or attributes that constitute real money. They are in actuality merely vehicles for speculation. Their closest analogy is perhaps gold; (gold is also, obviously not full-fledged money); gold, though, does has a reality and function beyond the Internet aether.

Wikipedia defines the functions of money as follows:
  1. Medium of exchange
  2. Measure of value
  3. Standard of deferred payment
  4. Store of value.
Crypto-"currencies" fail all of these criteria except to an extent, medium of exchange. This is ought to be obvious given their volitivity. Meanwhile there are thousands of other way to gamble, do we also need Bitcoin, et al.?
 
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