Dev reply please - Stonks

Discussion in 'Time Locked Progression Servers' started by HoodenShuklak, Jun 15, 2021.

  1. Accipiter Old Timer


    Wanna bet? Put $100 on it. You pick a time when this all comes crashing down.

    Honestly, I don't know what is going to happen with the cryptocurrencies. But it is in no way a Ponzi scheme or even related in any way. I got in late (the first time Bitcoin hit $34k) and I've made plenty on cryptocurrencies.
    Machen likes this.
  2. Accipiter Old Timer


    Don't read it. /shrug
  3. Allworth Elder

    So anything goes on these forums? Interesting...
  4. Skuz I am become Wrath, the Destroyer of Worlds.

    All you did was pass on your gambling losses to someone else, I'm not a betting man so I won't be taking you up on your offer of a wager though.
  5. Stymie Pendragon

    How is a currency based solely on hype different from a ponzi scheme? As old investors lose the hype new ones show up. There is no way that I would take that kind of a risk, and it seems that most legitimate businesses feel the same way, but if someone can make a buck with it I say Go You!
  6. Strawberry Augur

    The fact these cryptocurrencies are even a thing is due to central banks printing money. 0% interest rates and 5%+ inflation due to money printing and unprecedented stimulus, means saving money in a bank results in losses. Your purchasing power goes down instead of up when you put money in a bank.

    Cryptocurrencies are a ponzi scheme, and a serious problem. But they were enabled by central banks and governments. Governments that are handing out money like crazy and spending billions on "green energy" (mining for batteries which is polluting half the planet), governments with trillions in debt.

    People no longer have faith in their own banks, governments or money. And why would they have faith, central banks said first there was no inflation, then they said it was temporary, no one believes them anymore. They have more faith in a cryptocurrency scammer than central banks at this point.

    People have no faith that the government will be able to get a handle on inflation, they believe the central banks will keep printing money and the governments will keep overspending. And those fears are justified, governments don't seem to be willing to stop inflation, even 5%+ inflation doesn't phase them. When the price of lumber goes up not everyone notices, but when food prices do the same, it ain't so funny anymore for most people, people get scared, rightfully so. High government spending and rising food prices makes some people remember perestroika.

    Powell is talking about *maybe* tapering in 2024, meanwhile you have the highest inflation since the 1980 recession. People realize fiat money is losing its value, and those people are being driven to stocks and cryptocurrencies, with dire consequences when the music stops and the markets crash.
    code-zero, Fell, Stymie and 1 other person like this.
  7. Accipiter Old Timer


    Huh? What losses? So do you take the same view of investing in gold? Silver? Diamonds?
  8. Accipiter Old Timer


    How is the US dollar different from cryptocurrency? It doesn't really exist, either. It's all just numbers on paper. I neither believe nor doubt cryptocurrency. I'm just looking to make a few bucks. I definitely don't have any feelings about it.
  9. Bullsnooze Augur

    I Lol'd IRL... :p
  10. Skuz I am become Wrath, the Destroyer of Worlds.

    You speculated & won, meaning someone else will speculate & lose, not rocket science, the crypto are not generating anything of value people are simply making speculative bets upon their future value increasing.
    Should a crypto crash all of those holding the currency when it does are the losers, you just got out before it did.
    Stymie likes this.
  11. Skuz I am become Wrath, the Destroyer of Worlds.

    https://www.forbes.com/sites/karlwh...in-different-from-the-dollar/?sh=94754b1398f4

    in reference to Bitcoin:

    Stymie likes this.
  12. Strawberry Augur

    I don't think most people actually realise how special gold and silver are. Neither of them contain any iron in pure form, neither of them rust. Gold doesn't tarnish either. On top of that, both are very good at conducting energy.

    If it wasn't for the fact that both gold and silver are so rare, they would replace copper almost everywhere, they are extraordinary precious metals with incredible properties that no other metal has. Old CPU contained much higher amounts of gold and silver than they do today. If it wasn't for the price, CPU would contain much more gold and silver, it is much easier to shape gold than copper and silver is a much better conductor. CPU would be much faster if we could use as much gold and silver as we wanted in them, they would be exponentially faster, a lot of CPU package issues would be solved.

    When companies like Umicore recycle cellphones, they do it because they can recover gold and silver, otherwise no one would recycle them.

    Gold and silver are worth so much, not just because they are rare, but because they are rare and have incredibly useful properties. There are lots of elements that are rare, but not nearly as useful.

    Diamonds are very different from gold and silver. Diamonds have very questionable long-term value because you can just create synthetic diamonds very easily, you will end up with the same physical properties as a mined diamond.

    You can't do that with gold or silver, the only way to create those elements would be a nuclear reaction.
  13. Accipiter Old Timer


    It doesn't work like that. Not at all.

    I didn't buy BTC per se, I bought shares in a publicly traded company (MARA). Does that change the equation? Am I now investing in a company or am I gambling on bitcoin?

    Look, this is just an intellectual discussion. I really don't have a strong opinion on crypto vs. other investment vehicles (or gambling vehicles if you like). Crypto is inherently risky. It could go away tomorrow. Will it? Unlikely. My opinion.

  14. Accipiter Old Timer


    My point was not comparing crypto with gold, sliver, etc. I was asking Skuz if his "you passed the losses on to someone else" philosophy also applied to those commodities.
  15. Skuz I am become Wrath, the Destroyer of Worlds.

    Those other commodities are physical/material goods & can be used to manufacture things, coins, jewellry, plating for electrical equipment etc.

    What can you make with Bitcoin? Nothing, except a bigger C02 problem.
  16. Strawberry Augur

    The way these crypto communities work is something to behold for psychologists. Especially now that crypto has been going down so much it is increasingly clear to me how they work.

    These Ponzi schemes work by promoting cryptocurrencies with bots on social media. They create a FOMO (fear-of-missing-out) environment where they show people with crypto who supposedly got rich, and they promise this to others. After they have pumped up those crypto, they sell, and take off with large profits, leaving everyone else with large losses.

    This causes panic among small investors who were duped by those Ponzi schemes. These communities realise they have lost a lot of money, and they react by trying to convince everyone else to hold onto their crypto, in the small hope that those cryptocurrencies will go up again. Instead, these people rack up more and more losses.

    I am fully in favor of government intervention at this point, these are the largest Ponzi schemes in human history.
    Stymie likes this.
  17. Fell Augur

    Off the mark as usual. A Ponzi scheme is any structure in which continued returns are financed, not through success of the venture itself, but through unsupportable fresh capital infusions, thus enriching early investors at the expense of later investors. Most such schemes do indeed have a "wizard" at the center, but it's not an essential element of the definition.

    Be that as it may, Bitcoin itself fails at least one of the tri-pronged legal SEC test for a Ponzi scheme. Whether it fulfills the basic ethical definition of one, though, remains to be seen.
  18. Fell Augur

    Gold and silver are useful and desirable for thousands of reasons beyond investment for its own sake. Very, very few of those purchasing Bitcoin, however, are doing so for its purported utility as a currency, however.
  19. Fell Augur

    While your other points are spot on, this isn't quite accurate. Both gold and silver do indeed rust (oxidize), although in gold's case it happens only spottily, and on geologic time. Silver, however, is far faster: indeed we make batteries out of silver oxide, which is nothing but the rust of the metal itself.
  20. Strawberry Augur

    Neither gold nor silver rust. Rust is the result of the specific reaction with iron and humid air or water, including alloys containing iron. Since gold and silver (in pure form) do not contain any iron, they do not rust.

    What does happen is that silver tarnishes. A metal that tarnishes is something very different from iron that rusts. Rust is very detrimental, while the resulting layer of patina from tarnishing can actually protect the metal.
    I think your confusion comes from the idea that rust is the same as oxidation. Rust is specific to iron, no other metal rusts. A lot of elements react with oxygen and use water as a catalyst, but only iron can rust. Gold and silver do not rust, no other element but iron rusts.
    Stymie likes this.