[gh55]

Tether, the 6th largest cryptocurrency has a market cap of ~$160B, seems pretty "popular" to me.

USDC TUSD and BUSD are further popular examples.

Cryptocurrencies are not MLMs, you would do yourself a huge favour by learning what they are.

In brief, Bitcoin is a scarce asset, and Ethereum is the credit required to run trustless logical conditions relating to a transaction, and also securing assets involved in those conditions.

[imtringued]

>Cryptocurrencies are not MLMs, you would do yourself a huge favour by learning what they are.

I did and it changed absolutely nothing. It's literally just the dot com bubble all over again but it keeps coming back every 3 years.

Here, I'll explain the core problem of the dot com bubble. People started internet companies with basically close to zero revenue. To convince investors to buy in they used weird non standard metrics that indicate popularity and growth potential like page views. The fact that these businesses were not earning money let the imagination of investors run wild. Companies that were actually earning money had much lower valuations back then, because people immediately understood the value proposition and that growth isn't endless.

It's the same with Bitcoin. There is no reason why it should have such a high market cap. It's only riding network effects but those are all there is to it, MLMs are exactly the same, they endlessly recruit members and that is how they make money.

Because there are no other reasons, the imaginations of speculators run wild. They will come up with an endless number of bullshit reasons that you have to cross check. When the initial pitch turns out to be wrong, they just shift goalposts and come up with another reason. Remember, Bitcoin started out as a currency, then became a store of value and now it is becoming a settlement layer.

Really, if you want to gamble your money in Bitcoin, do it with the realization that it's just that, a gamble with better odds than a conventional casino.

The vast majority of people don't buy Bitcoin because they want a deflationary currency that goes up slightly faster than inflation, they buy into it because of its volatility and ability to generate otherwise impossibly large returns fueled by future investors.

[sombremesa]

I buy bitcoin because I want to own bitcoin and have the money to burn - there can only ever be 21 million, so it has a collector appeal. I don't really give a shit about selling or using it, so the valuation doesn't matter to me.

To me, bitcoin is first and foremost a brand.

[softawre]

You buy bitcoin and don't care at all about how much it is valued at? I call malarkey.

[DonHopkins]

I roll coal because I want people I don't like to breath coal smoke and I want to contribute to global warming and I have the coal and money to burn.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rYPMbLO4pAY

[Barrin92]

>Tether, the 6th largest cryptocurrency has a market cap of ~$160B, seems pretty "popular" to me.

MLM creates tens of billions in revenue per year in the US alone. Cryptocurrencies aren't inherently marketing schemes but they're pretty close to it and most of the value they have on markets today is basically a case of a 'greater fool' mechanism.

Also market caps for crypto is pretty meaningless. If I mint a trillion random coins and manage to sell a bunch for a dollar I'm the richest man on earth by market cap. Market cap without considering liquidity is meaningless and most if not all of these coins will go to zero as soon as someone actually tries to sell them en masse.

[jollybean]

"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'.

[gh55]

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.

[free652]

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.

[jollybean]

"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.

[imtringued]

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.

[TazeTSchnitzel]

The vast majority of the Tether market cap is fake money (not actually backed by USD). It will collapse if enough people try to cash out.

[gh55]

As per terms of settlement with NYAG, Tether will be disclosing details of their reserves on a regular basis from now on to NYAG, let's see how fake USDT is - NYAG seem satisfied for now that it is backed by full reserves.

[TazeTSchnitzel]

They recently released “details” and less than 3% of Tethers are backed by actual USD.

[kemonocode]

I don't like Tether as it's no different from fractional reserve banks, but as long as the NYAG remains content with what she sees, it's sound money. Been waiting its supposed collapse for half a decade now with bated breath, but it still has yet to happen.

Disclaimer: I own zero USDT and an insignificant amount of USDC, being rather skeptical on "stablecoins" in general.

[Clewza313]

NYAG stated that "Tether’s claims that its virtual currency was fully backed by U.S. dollars at all times was a lie" and banned it entirely from New York.

[jollybean]

"I don't like Tether as it's no different from fractional reserve banks,"

That reserves don't add up to the currency in circulation is somewhat similar to a central bank but the similarities end there and they are basically nothing alike.

[imtringued]

Will a government bail out Tether when its institution goes bust? If not then, then it is far worse than fractional reserve banks.