Comment by jollybean | Hacker News Reader

Comment by jollybean | Hacker News Reader

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"you would do yourself a huge favour by learning what they are."

Yes, please do that.

Cryptos are about economics, capital, greed, manias than they are anything technical or block chain.

Cryptos are de-facto scams, irrespective of what some founders or participants might think, at least as of today.

That you can theoretical buy cleaning supplies from Amway does not make it not a scam.

There is nary any value in any of them, and given some of their costs vis-a-vis electricity usage, their 'net value' is definitely very negative.

Anyone with a shred of understanding of actual monetary finance and human nature can see them for what they are.

I think most people do.

Digital currencies have a future in some form, but most (all?) of the cryptos we see today are just straight up 'hustles'.

For me, knowing that a contract will be followed regardless of the wishes of any party involved is very valuable. Knowing that an asset will remain scarce, its issuance predictable, and that I can store it securely at extremely low cost, is very valuable.

Crypto are a scam these days. The contract can be changed, it isn't set in stone. Look at the Ethererum and Ethereum Classic.

While they are called crypto currencies, most of them if not all aren't used as currencies.

I just to give a hint I am involved since 2011 and just dumped all crypto. When I get crypto tips from strangers at my son's swimming team, it's about time to quit it.

"Knowing that an asset will remain scarce, its issuance predictable, and that I can store it securely at extremely low cost, is very valuable."

You can achieve this any number of ways and it has nothing to do with currency or money. FYI Gold, which you can buy a million different ways.

But since prices are crazy volatile, and it could be worth $0 tomorrow, it can't be used as currency, and it makes a terrible store of value.

For every 'practical reason' to use a crypto, there are already many other better solutions.

The only 'real reason' people buy them is because they want to make money flipping it and that's it.

Bitcoin has outperformed gold significantly in the past, so that can't be the reason why people buy it. They'd stop buying it because it is overpriced.

Now that inflation is up again, people are realizing that fact. Gold is going up, Bitcoin is going down.

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