So many commercials for tulip bulbs, I mean crypto currency

[edhopper]

Buying something with no intrinsic value and nothing backing it up that will only increase in value if enough suckers keep buying.

What am I missing here?

[Ocelot II]

1. At least if you buy tulip bulbs you can have a nice garden.

Crypto is nothing but vapor.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

2. The anonymity (more or less) does have some value to some people for some purposes. . . . nt

[edhopper]

5. Yes good for illicit purchases

But I wonder how attractive a currency that can fluctuate so much.
Do people really want a payment that could lose half it's value in a day?

[bucolic_frolic]

3. Crypto is the bubble that absorbed all the excess cash from Helicopter Ben's QE1-2-3-4

Now that production and supply constraints are bursting at the seams, all that crypto will emerge to spark phenomenal inflation. Crypto is a sponge of currency.

[EYESORE 9001]

4. I must be living in a fool's paradise

as I haven’t seen a single commercial touting cryptocurrency - not that it would influence me whatsoever. I’ll never invest so much as a penny into that sucker trap.

[edhopper]

6. Many on the Superbowl

People like Matt Damen, Larry David and Tom Brady shilling.

[brooklynite]

7. There are different valuations...

1) The ability to make payments to someone else immediately, without banking costs.

2) Investment in what is essentially a foreign currency (consider exchanging dollars for euros, and then exchanging them back when the exchange rate goes up

3) Lack of trust (for whatever reason) in Government-backed currency systems (even progressives have demanded we "audit the Fed&quot

[edhopper]

8. And all of those

Lead to a highly volatile and untrustworthy investment.

[brooklynite]

11. Volatility has always been an element of some investments

Risk/reward

[edhopper]

17. An element

Not the main characteristic.
Unlike national currencies, there is nothing behind these.
As in in the giant swings they take.

[Silent3]

29. That's a fundamental tension in using crypto as a currency

Not that traditional currencies aren't treated as investments by currency traders, but that's not their primary purpose. Being a stable store of value and trusted means of exchange is the aim of conventional currency.

Crypto is being treated more an investment, where people buy it hoping it will soar in value, not merely store some value.

[Blues Heron]

10. obviously it has value or nobody would bother. The pool of users is what backs it up.

I think the value is the ability to send vast quantities of money around the world outside of the banking system. The crypto part gives enough of a sense of security to the users. Obviously Satoshi nailed it eight ways to Sunday for better or worse or it would have dwindled away by now instead of chugging along year after year. The energy use is of course totally insane.

[edhopper]

18. Exactly like Tulips

If that pool of users becomes smaller than the buyers, it becomes worthless.

[Blues Heron]

20. I think the tulip craze analogy is catchy but overdone.

its pithy but doesnt really capture the robustness (for now that is-quantum computing could end crypto tomorrow ) of the open source cryptography at the heart of it.

[edhopper]

21. To me that is immaterial

That it is encrypted doesn't make it valuable. It's still a string of 0 and 1s assigned a value with nothing to back it.
But yes they are one computer breakthrough from worthless.

[Blues Heron]

25. it does make it valuable

its the heart of it all. Its what makes it verifiable and non forgeable. This isnt just sending random numbers around the internet.

[edhopper]

26. But the only thing that keeps it having

any value 8s more buyers than sellers.
No bank or nation supports it.
Are their enough drug lords and money laundered to keep all the cryptos afloat.

[Blues Heron]

27. the drug lords - they love it- its perfect for them

a verifiable payment system outside of the international banking system is pure gold for them and a lot of others. It is what it is but its not worthless.

[edhopper]

28. So when you pay a drug lord

With a currency that loses 75% of it's value overnight, no problems?

[Blues Heron]

30. not having to deal with mountains of currency might be worth a loss here and there

[edhopper]

31. But they only retain value

If a lot of people who aren drug lords keep buying them.
The moment enough people get burned, they collapse.
Really looks like a classic ponzi scheme to me.

[Blues Heron]

32. If it stops being useful it will be dropped like a hot potato

So far that doesnt seem to be the case, quite the opposite.

[edhopper]

33. Which is what a

Classic bubble looks like.

I heard too many of the same arguments from people in 2005-8 about how there was no housing bubble.

Been there done that

[Blues Heron]

34. its a bubble with benefits if you will

its inflated from nothing to whatever it is now over how many years?

[edhopper]

35. You don't think the last 2 years of bitcoin

Is highly inflated?

[Blues Heron]

36. when are the suckers going to wake up?

they cant seem to stop actually using it, day after day. I think for a lot of people it just has to hold its value for a short time like overnight.

[Phoenix61]

12. Not missing anything. It's a high-tech Ponzi scheme. nt

[RockRaven]

13. But if I don't use crypto, what am I gonna use to buy my NFTs?

Last edited Fri Feb 18, 2022, 11:01 PM - Edit history (1)

[womanofthehills]

19. I'm an artist/ photographer & some of my friends are getting into making NFT's

I want to try it too - so I was thinking of getting a crypto wallet and just putting in small amounts at a time - just to figure it all out. A Santa Fe photo gallery is expanding into NFT’s. Sounds like it’s the future for art. I read Whole Foods is accepting crypto and you can send it thru PayPal.

[edhopper]

23. NFTs

The Beanie Babies of today.

[womanofthehills]

38. Beeple sold an NFT for 69 million

Until October, the most Mike Winkelmann — the digital artist known as Beeple — had ever sold a print for was $100.

Today, an NFT of his work sold for $69 million at Christie’s. The sale positions him “among the top three most valuable living artists,” according to the auction house.

The record-smashing NFT sale comes after months of increasingly valuable auctions. In October, Winkelmann sold his first series of NFTs, with a pair going for $66,666.66 each. In December, he sold a series of works for $3.5 million total. And last month, one of the NFTs that originally sold for $66,666.6.

NFTs, or non-fungible tokens, are unique files that live on a blockchain and are able to verify ownership of a work of digital art. Buyers typically get limited rights to display the digital artwork they represent, but in many ways, they’re just buying bragging rights and an asset they may be able to resell later. The technology has absolutely exploded over the past few weeks — and Winkelmann, more than anyone else, has been at the forefront of its rapid rise. 6 was resold for $6.6 million.


https://www.theverge.com/2021/3/11/22325054/beeple-christies-nft-sale-cost-everydays-69-million

[GoneOffShore]

41. And Beeple's art is bad - in 'Thomas Kinkaid and Jon McNaughton bad

&t=35s

[edhopper]

43. It's either money laundering

or flushing $69 million down the drain.

[Baked Potato]

14. When the power goes out, crypto goes dark too.

I would rather line my bunker with gold bars, with greenbacks as backup.

[Lochloosa]

15. It's like gold commercials. The more there are is not the time to buy.

[ymetca]

16. Cryptocurrency

Reminds me of the Emperor's New Clothes.

Or, perhaps, when you run out of money to burn, ya just gotta start vaping it. I dunno.

It's either death-rattle Capitalism at its worst (since Eternal Salvation ROI numbers are diminishing), or an insidious plot to enlighten the masses that the pursuit of money is, indeed, quixotic.

Can we just automate Wall Street now, and evenly disperse all profits to everyone everywhere?

Askin' for a friend...

[tavernier]

22. Our neighbor is a photographer.

The famous kind… celebrities, sports, politics. They come to him.
He just flew to LA last week to discuss crypto currency for the sale of his products. He believes it is the thing of the future.
I’m just getting used to Venmo.

[edhopper]

24. Well

I hope tye crypto he choose doesn't lose 90% of it's value the day after he is paid.

[womanofthehills]

39. Whole Foods seems to have no problem with Bitcoin

How to use Bitcoin at Whole Foods

In this post we will guide you step by step on how to use Bitcoin at Whole Foods. Yes, you can use Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies such as DASH, ETH or stable coins such as USDT, USDC to shop natural and organic foods at Whole Foods.

Use Bitcoin (or other cryptocurrencies) at Whole Foods! Although there are a few brands in the world accepting crypto to pay for your stuff, you can’t really buy anything with Bitcoin or cryptocurrencies directly. Many brands still don’t accept cryptocurrencies as a payment method and it is still difficult to use Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies for your every day needs such as shopping for foods at your grocery store.

Whole Foods is no different. But there is a clever workaround and it is possible to pay for your food with Bitcoin and other crypto. It is also simple, faster and cheaper. The trick is to buy a Whole Foods gift card with Bitcoin and other crypto at CryptoRefills.

https://www.cryptorefills.com/blog/use-bitcoin-whole-foods/

[tavernier]

42. I don't know, he's pretty savvy.

His investments always seem to do very well. Don’t get me wrong, I’m too long in the tooth to start playing with Monopoly money, but I don’t see him as a sucker for a scam.

[edhopper]

44. A lot of "savy investors" and institutions

lost everything in the Housing Bubble of the Bush years.

[tavernier]

46. And many made money.

I guess it’s all about knowing when to hold ‘em and when to fold ‘em. I don’t have that knack.

[edhopper]

48. Few made money

mostly by shorting an insane market.

And again, their is little of worth in cryptos, only the hope that more fools keep buying. There is no asset, just code on a server.

Vegas has better odds.

[Spider Jerusalem]

37. I prefer the term "Dunning-Krugerrands" (n/t)

[hvn_nbr_2]

45. LOL

[Gidney N Cloyd]

47. +1

[GReedDiamond]

40. I was asked to create the art for an NFT, to be sold by Cheech & Chong...

...who sold 10,420 NFTs in one day a few weeks ago.

They all sold for around $400+ in equivalent USD, using the Ethereum crypto currency, which is widely used in "art" nft sales.

My friend, the artist known as GERMS, was invited by C&C to contribute an NFT.

I made the art for it.

Other than that, I recall that when I had Dish TV, maybe 10 years ago or more, I had the option of paying my bill in Bitcoin, which I had no idea what it was.

So, it's not like crypto currencies just came out of nowhere a year ago.

Also, my local Stater Bros has a crypto vending machine, which I have never used.

Click the link to see the Germs C&C NFT - very large image at link:

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FJ6PGRCVgAASeaB?format=jpg&name=4096x4096

ON EDIT: After the Germs NFT was sold by C&C, it immediately went on the secondary resale market (I think it was called "Open Seas," but not 100% sure on that), and the USD equivalent was now something like $43,000. Don't know what became of it after that.