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No; but he could make bets on it, and increase the odds in his favour by designing the enterprise to be attractive to a targeted category of victims: millions of libertarians are still being sucked in by this Ponzi scheme that masquerades as a better alternative to 'fiat' currency". I think that's what's being argued. If that is what happened it is poetic justice.
The main force we have to protect us from swindlers and assailants is the government, with its repressive and regulatory legal and enforcement powers. In a democracy deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. Libertarians see this as tyranny, and refuse to offer their consent. Not only, therefore, can they not resist swindles designed to negate and usurp the social functions of government - they positively embrace them. They have for example elected an "anti-President" in the USA.
Is bitcoin a scam intentionally conceived, and cleverly designed, to exploit this ideological prejudice?
psionl0
Skeptical about skeptics
Bitcoin is NOT a ponzi scheme and it doesn't "masquerade" as anything other than exactly what it is.
The fact that you have to consistently find new adjectives to make bitcoin seem worse than it is is your problem.
Good. So what's your reasoning. Is this it?
I'm not at all impressed with that argument. Recall mine? Bitcoin and Ponzi schemes have a prime essential similarity. They are both arrangements for taking money out of an enterprise without putting any new real value into it.
All you have to do to refute that, is to show the value added, or revenue generated, by Bitcoin. As you have been invited to do: tell us what its price to earnings ratio is, for example. That would settle the matter.
psionl0
Skeptical about skeptics
You should have paid attention the last time I explained why they are totally different.
Give it up! Bitcoin is nothing more than buying something at one price and selling it at another. It has more similarity to stamp collecting than any of the nefarious schemes that you want to shoehorn bitcoin into.
PartSkeptic
Illuminator
Bitcoin now the biggest bubble ever. RTTV
Max Keiser interviewed Michael Pento. See episode 1170. Max has been pushing Bitcoin for years, and still is. Pento was very skeptical.
While I am pretty much in agreement with Max on a number of issues, Bitcoin is one I am not.
Max Keiser interviewed Michael Pento. See episode 1170. Max has been pushing Bitcoin for years, and still is. Pento was very skeptical.
While I am pretty much in agreement with Max on a number of issues, Bitcoin is one I am not.
I suppose there could be a speculative bubble in the price of old or rare stamps. If Bitcoin is as you say, then you are admitting that it is a bubble.
Because current stamps used to cover postage charges don't behave like bitcoin. Things providing a service don't shoot up in price to that degree; because the extent of the service gives them an intrinsic measurable value, which Bitcoin doesn't have.
Pure speculation. "Buying at one price and selling at another" can create a bubble, if it gets out of hand and becomes a mania unrelated to the object's value, assuming that it has a value in the first place.
PartSkeptic
Illuminator
What stops hackers from hacking exchanges to steal crypto-currency? Including bitcoin?
psionl0
Skeptical about skeptics
So what? I have always said that bitcoin is in a bubble and that it has gone through many bubbles in its lifetime. Some were minor and some were spectacular. It is your assertion that bitcoin will go through a final bubble then have no lasting value that is without merit.
Collecting cancelled stamps that have no "intrinsic value" (whatever that means) and have practical use whatsoever is an exact analogy. Many stamp buyers are only in it for the money (ie speculators). There seems to be no end in sight to the number of "greater fools" who are willing to buy rare and expensive stamps.
Never! Unless that's one
It does have a meaning, believe me.
I agree with all that. It's the degree of social consequence that distinguishes the two kinds of speculation. I can't think of a case in which Joe Kennedy was advised by his shoe shine boy: buy Penny Blacks, and then Joe said, "when the shoe shine boy is giving advice on stamp collecting, it's time to get out."
Then the price of penny blacks crashed and brought the economy down with it.
Not likely. But it is the same thing, one on a socially and economically insignificant scale, the other not. Bitcoin, like 1840 penny stamps, has no intrinsic or use value giving it any particular price at all.Also unlike old cancelled stamps, Bitcoin has been made the darling of the extreme libertarian right, who support it on ideological grounds. Nobody treats stamps like that, AFAIK.
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Oh. Sounds like you're not as caring as I thought. Surprise.
What happens when the swindlers run the monetary system, and the government?
I don't know, what happens? Why don't you tell me? You're putting in a lot of work around here. Are you getting paid?
The only thing surprising is that you think the expression "poetic justice" is an indication of lack of concern. It isn't. It merely indicates that the punishment is deserved and appropriate, not that it mustn't excite sympathy.
Are you?
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Octavo
Illuminator
Btc still trading @ 14 —15 k
Dead cat bounce 2 continues?
Dead cat bounce 2 continues?
PartSkeptic
Illuminator
Looks like it might have reached its peak and starting to drop. If is is a DCB then the peak should not exceed the previous one.
psionl0
Skeptical about skeptics
When did TA become a valid tool to analyze the future of bitcoin?Freely traded markets go up for a while then down for a while.
It is pleasing to note bitcoin is a slave to TA.
The reason this time it's different is straightforward,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2AzEY6ZqkuE
PartSkeptic
Illuminator
I am researching some of the issues about currency, and taking one issue at a time.
Here is a false claim:
When a person buys a house and takes out a loan from the bank, the debt is backed by a physical asset. The house. The bank can ask the Reserve Bank for cash and use the debt/asset. The dollar cash is backed by an asset.
When a bitcoin is created, electricity is used which creates nothing but a number. That is not "work". It is the same as burning down a tree and getting nothing but smoke and carbon dioxide as proof or work.
Here is a false claim:
When a person buys a house and takes out a loan from the bank, the debt is backed by a physical asset. The house. The bank can ask the Reserve Bank for cash and use the debt/asset. The dollar cash is backed by an asset.
When a bitcoin is created, electricity is used which creates nothing but a number. That is not "work". It is the same as burning down a tree and getting nothing but smoke and carbon dioxide as proof or work.
Last small bounce peaked at $15,803, now around $14,750.
It's holding up quite well, rising from a level of around $13,500, which it held for a day or two. Is this the credit card-funded last gasp, or a do or die holdout by libertarian anarchocapitalists? Or is there a higher peak beyond $20,000 to be attained? Perhaps, but I rule out the fantasy levels of $100,000.
PartSkeptic
Illuminator
This whole crypto-currency craze is remarkable. I am seeing articles on how to develop your own currency.
I just checked out Ripple. They decided that they would start with 100 billion coins and kept 20 billions coins for themselves "as a fee".
At the beginning of 2017 thevalue price was about USD 0.006. On 4 Dec 2017 it took off from a price of 0.23 and has now reached about 2.47.
Wow. Crazy.
People taking REAL money and buying this and that hoping to get rich. It sure is entertaining to watch it.
I just checked out Ripple. They decided that they would start with 100 billion coins and kept 20 billions coins for themselves "as a fee".
At the beginning of 2017 the
Wow. Crazy.
People taking REAL money and buying this and that hoping to get rich. It sure is entertaining to watch it.
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