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Merged Bitcoin - Part 3

Show me one that isn't.
Bitcoin.

Everyone involved seems to be either a scumbag or criminal
Maybe you are perfectly happy for a big brother government to monitor your every financial transaction and to be able to demand that you prove that all your money was obtained legitimately but there are still people who believe in the right to privacy.
 
you don't have to worry about that anyway. the scammers have won, they're free to scam all they want with no repercussions. and you get your private transactions. so, you know, make them count.
 
you don't have to worry about that anyway. the scammers have won, they're free to scam all they want with no repercussions. and you get your private transactions. so, you know, make them count.
That is not even close to the stupidest comment made on this thread.
 
Melania has launched her own Meme Coin and Donald's has just dropped again.

It's all a giant scam. Donald's Meme Coin was already 80% allocated before it was launched. It's a classic pump and dump rugpull.
I console myself that it is almost certain that Trampy is himself being scammed. The man has neither the intelligence, the skills nor the experience to run one of these.
 
I mean, I generally don't mind crypto. Bitcoin withstood test of time quite well. NFTs collapsed by itself and nothing was really lost.
But this is something new. Trump coin had $39B trading volume in last 24 hours, and I suspect it's on the one exchange only (Binance).
Even Malenia coin which was started yesterday already has about $9B 24h volume.
Are really people that stupid or is China (or who knows who) pumping Trump so hard ?
So did Bernie Madoff, until he didn't.
 
Out comes the woo again. "Something else failed therefore bitcoin will fail". :rolleyes:
No scams A through to Z failed, scam AA will also fail. It is in the nature of scams that they will fail, as it's the best way for the scammers to make money.

Bitcoin has no purpose except to fleece idiots of their money, it's a scam.
 
Bitcoin has no purpose except to fleece idiots of their money, it's a scam.
Bitcoin has actual worth in the sense that people think it has worth. That does not make it a scam. It is exactly the same as buying any other thing that has worth far above its usefulness. Gold is not priced according to its use, but according to what people are willing to pay for it. That does not make Bitcoin or gold a scam.

To me, Bitcoin is worthless, but I could theoretically buy it as an investment. I do not that makes me a scammer. It would just make me a risk taker. As I see it, Bitcoin is bad for the planet, and should be forbidden somehow. If sufficiently many people thought like I do, Bitcoin’s value would drop, and many would lose their money, but I still do not think it would make Bitcoin a scam.
 
to me crypto has much in common with an mlm, it has enough of a veneer of a legitimate business endeavor that it's legal
 
Bitcoin has actual worth in the sense that people think it has worth. That does not make it a scam. It is exactly the same as buying any other thing that has worth far above its usefulness. Gold is not priced according to its use, but according to what people are willing to pay for it. That does not make Bitcoin or gold a scam.

To me, Bitcoin is worthless, but I could theoretically buy it as an investment. I do not that makes me a scammer. It would just make me a risk taker. As I see it, Bitcoin is bad for the planet, and should be forbidden somehow. If sufficiently many people thought like I do, Bitcoin’s value would drop, and many would lose their money, but I still do not think it would make Bitcoin a scam.
BItcoin has two large probelms in terms of perceived versus actual value 1) it has absolutely no assets backing it, thus it has no mecanism for ascertaining actual value and 2) the supply of bitcoins is absolutely controlled by five accounts of whom we know nothing. The whole system has all the hallmarks of a Ponzi scheme, except that in a traditional Ponzi scheme the object of the scam had a tangible value.
 
to me crypto has much in common with an mlm, it has enough of a veneer of a legitimate business endeavor that it's legal
The thing is MLMs are in a shadow zone where they show enough characteristics of illegal pyramid schemes that they could be challenged in courts. But no regulatory authority has seen fit to make that challenge, because the people being scammed are not rich enough to matter.

So MLMs are in the grey zone where they areboth not quite legal and not quite illegal.
 
BItcoin has two large probelms in terms of perceived versus actual value 1) it has absolutely no assets backing it, thus it has no mecanism for ascertaining actual value and 2) the supply of bitcoins is absolutely controlled by five accounts of whom we know nothing. The whole system has all the hallmarks of a Ponzi scheme, except that in a traditional Ponzi scheme the object of the scam had a tangible value.
About 1), you could compare it to artworks that are sold for huge prices even though they may have practically no assets to back them. For instance the work ‘Comedian’ by Maurizio Cattelan that was recently recently sold for 6.2 million dollars. This work consists of a banana duct-taped to a wall, but the banana and the duct-tape is not what was sold: by buying the work you acquired the right to duct-tape a banana to a wall, and call it ‘Comedian’. Is this a scam? I think not, but for me it is worthless, in every sense of the word.

About 2), I don’t know anything about it, so you may have a point there.

ETA: ‘Comedian’ was bought by a crypto-millionaire. There is some irony in this.
 
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Actually, the only question is whether you can pay your taxes or buy US treasury bonds in Bitcoin - which, AFAIK, you can't.

The fact that you have to convert to Dollars means that it has no intrinsic value in the US.
 
No scams A through to Z failed, scam AA will also fail. It is in the nature of scams that they will fail, as it's the best way for the scammers to make money.
Scams exist therefore bitcoin is a scam is even an even stupider claim to make. In any other thread, you would be pilloried for making such non sequiturs.

Bitcoin has no purpose except to fleece idiots of their money, it's a scam.
This forum has 15 years of posts that show why this is just pure ignorance.
 
to me crypto has much in common with an mlm, it has enough of a veneer of a legitimate business endeavor that it's legal
List all of the common features. In particular, decribe each level, explain who is recruiting the sellers and how a seller moves up to the next level.
 
that’s not what they have in common and if you can’t figure out what i meant with that comparison then the comment wasn’t aimed at you.
 
no, what i said was it is similar in that a thin veneer of legitimate business is the only thing keep it legal. a few people make money by tricking more foolish people out of their money.
 
no, what i said was it is similar in that a thin veneer of legitimate business is the only thing keep it legal. a few people make money by tricking more foolish people out of their money.
Ah! So something else is barely legal therefore bitcoin is barely legal. People are being tricked out of their money but there are no actual tricksters.
 
no, but its a means to facilitate scams. 30 year old tech and you can use it to buy fortnite skins, gamble on offshore crypto casinos, give it to scammers, or buy other crypto of which many are blatant scams. and not much else.
 
no, but its a means to facilitate scams. 30 year old tech and you can use it to buy fortnite skins, gamble on offshore crypto casinos, give it to scammers, or buy other crypto of which many are blatant scams. and not much else.
All of your posts on this page have been shown to be nonsense. There is no need to repeat what I have already posted on this page about the "only uses" for bitcoin. You are just making things up.
 
i beg to differ. for example, "only uses" isn't the phrase i used. this whole page is you repeatedly getting things wrong to make your arguments work. and you can stop repeating yourself, that would be fine.
 
i beg to differ. for example, "only uses" isn't the phrase i used. this whole page is you repeatedly getting things wrong to make your arguments work. and you can stop repeating yourself, that would be fine.
Pointing out the consequences of your faulty analogies doesn't mean that I am getting things "wrong". It just means that you have to backtrack each time. This is a consequence of your attempts to draw links between bitcoin and bad things where no such links exist.
 
i feel like we've been having a completely different interaction than the one you are describing
 
Bitcoin itself might not be a scam but everyone I see promoting and using it is a scammer or criminal
 
Bitcoin is a scam, but it's possible that it was created in ignorance, not malicious intent.

But there is a simple test: regulate it like any other financial asset, and see if it survives.
 
Bitcoin is a scam, but it's possible that it was created in ignorance, not malicious intent.

But there is a simple test: regulate it like any other financial asset, and see if it survives.
Only bitcoin haters say that. Bitcoin is no more a scam than a piece of metal is. It is a digital asset that has some utility due to its unique properties.

What regulations exactly did you have in mind?
 
No, it's nothing like metal y and it's nothing like a currency - until a government says it is.

Money is only money once someone in power is willing to exchange it for something you need, like a way to pay your taxes and fines.
That's why governments issue their own money, so you have to pay it back to them.
Without some level of coercion, crypto is just a way for people to rip each other off.

If you want to make Bitcoin actually useful, you have to have the State run the exchanges.
 
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About 1), you could compare it to artworks that are sold for huge prices even though they may have practically no assets to back them. For instance the work ‘Comedian’ by Maurizio Cattelan that was recently recently sold for 6.2 million dollars. This work consists of a banana duct-taped to a wall, but the banana and the duct-tape is not what was sold: by buying the work you acquired the right to duct-tape a banana to a wall, and call it ‘Comedian’. Is this a scam? I think not, but for me it is worthless, in every sense of the word.

About 2), I don’t know anything about it, so you may have a point there.

ETA: ‘Comedian’ was bought by a crypto-millionaire. There is some irony in this.
1) The modern art market is largely a tax dodge, a scam played by the ultra rich on the rest of us. Hence why you've got stuff with no artistic merit, thought or quality like the above named item going for astronomical sums or the career of Damien Hirst.

In terms of 2) five accounts hold over 51% of the bitcoins in existence, therefore they can dictate what goes on the blockchain, up to and including changing the number of bitcoins that can be mined.
 
In terms of 2) five accounts hold over 51% of the bitcoins in existence, therefore they can dictate what goes on the blockchain, up to and including changing the number of bitcoins that can be mined.
I don’t understand this part. How can these accounts dictate anything. I thought that if somebody mines a new Bitcoin it will go on the blockchain if it comes first with the proof of work. Are you saying there is a vote, and the 51% win?
 
1) The modern art market is largely a tax dodge, a scam played by the ultra rich on the rest of us. Hence why you've got stuff with no artistic merit, thought or quality like the above named item going for astronomical sums or the career of Damien Hirst.
Come to think of it, I do understand that this can work as a tax dodge, but if we go down the price level I don’t think it is true. A lot of worthless art (I am a notorious philistine) is sold at rather high prices to museums and public offices simply because somebody genuinely thinks it is good. But I knew an artist who openly told his friends that for him it was a money-earning trick: he tore old posters in pieces, glued them to a canvas, and lo and behold, they fetched good prices at galleries even though he himself didn’t think it was anything but junk. But value is in the eyes that see, and I don’t think that the buyers primarily bought them as a tax dodge.
 

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