708
I feel dumb sometimes (lemmy.world)
submitted 1 month ago by to c/cat@lemmy.world
58 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] 3 points 1 month ago* (13 children)

For the most common type: It's like an infinite one dimensional puzzle where you can attach any piece for a bit (that's where the data goes), but then after each one of those you need to find a really specific piece that fits, which is so hard to find that it's unlikely that two people could ever do it. When someone randomly finds it, the puzzle can continue.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 13 child comments
    •
  • [–] 5 points 1 month ago (12 children)

    But where's the value in that?

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 12 child comments
    •
  • [–] 15 points 1 month ago (4 children)

    Sounds to me like you understand crypto just fine. You can see that there's no value, and therefore a scam. You've got this!

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 4 child comments
    •
  • [–] 1 point 1 month ago (1 child)

    It's always felt like a scam to me, but I can't even count the amount of people who have scoffed or laughed at me for saying so.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 1 child comment
    •
  • [–] 5 points 1 month ago

    It is for this reason, I always say "I'm surrounded by morons. Morons everywhere. Far as the eye can see....."

    Talking about those who laugh at you for saying it's a scam. Check back with them in 5 years, and ask them how much money they've profited from crypto. Just don't be surprised when they become hypocrites, and tell you to shut up about those scams.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • [–] 5 points 1 month ago (2 children)

    The value is that crypto allows you to purchase drugs on the Internet

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 2 child comments
    •
  • [–] 3 points 1 month ago*

    Well you can store any information in the data part, and given how hard it is to find a matching piece, it works as a reliable proof without having to trust any one person or company. So for example a criminal who can't trust regular banks can write "I owe Big Tony 100 schmeckles" and other criminals know it's genuine, so Big Tony can use those schmeckles to get a gun from Fat Fred, and in return writes "I owe Fat Fred 10 schmeckles". Think of it as a way to track favors online without anyone being able to say someone made it up.

    Now how does one convert between these made up schmeckles into other existing currency? Well, same as any central bank. As long as someone believes that favors to or from Big Tony or Fat fred are worth something, they will give dollars or euros or whatever to someone who already has one, and they can then use those as arcade tokens to e.g. buy drugs or hitmen or other things conventional currency trustees don't approve of.

    So value is directly dependant on the perceived utility of the people who agree to use it, and indirectly on those who then bet on how much utility it will have in the future, buying or selling schmeckles when it looks like Fat Fred's gonna get an offer he can't refuse. And that changes the scarcity of schmeckles on its own, which affects their perceived value too.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • [–] 2 points 1 month ago (2 children)

    The thing about money is that it only has value because we collectively agree that it does. If you have a dollar or a euro or a yuan, it's valuable literally only because other people will give you stuff for it. There's not really anything special about it otherwise, it's just really useful to have some way of trading things in easily-transferable numbers

    Crypto is theoretically the same in terms of what makes it valuable, except for that far fewer people agree that it is valuable and there's much less agreement on how valuable it is amongst those who do

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 2 child comments
    •
  • [–] 3 points 1 month ago (1 child)

    The money is backed by the government producing it though. Crypto is backed by opinion at best.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 1 child comment
    •
  • [–] 1 point 1 month ago

    If you want to be as far as possible to crypto (why would you? I'm just being conversational and slightly contrarian for fun - I hate crypto in general), you could argue that money is largely backed by the opinions of people about the governments claiming to back the currency.

    Even with that, though, I'll deal in currnecy any day of the week.

    Especially since most people buying crypto view it as a get-rich investment, not as currency. So even at best, it's like a super-volatile stupid gold or something. And at least gold has some inherent value.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent