[thorwasdfasdf]

if crypto is a ponzi scheme, then isn't cash also a ponzi scheme? cash can become just as worthless, when no one believes in it anymore, just ask zimbabwae.

personally, if i'm going to be in a ponzi scheme, at the very least I want something with a limited supply.

Also, what other option do we have for store of value? Equities are way overvalued beyond reason. Fixed income/cash are becoming worthless very quickly. real estate is hard, very hard (just ask anyone that's bought in the last year). What else is there? put everything in gold?(the supply there is manipulated).

yes, crypto has some environmental cost. but, there's huge need for store of value. if you've been working your entire life and have 200K stored up. Losing 10K per year to inflation, year after year is not acceptable.

[imtringued]

>if crypto is a ponzi scheme, then isn't cash also a ponzi scheme? cash can become just as worthless, when no one believes in it anymore, just ask zimbabwae.

That's not how it works. You need to destroy the local economy first. For example, repossessing land of productive farmers and shutting farms down causes famines. If the local economy wasn't destroyed people would rush and start exporting their local products to markets that actually value them. You would end up with a lot of inflation but not Zimbabwe levels.

I recently read up on Venezuelan capital controls and honestly the only thing that came to my mind is that the politicians there want to destroy the currency as much as possible as if a functioning currency were the spawn of Satan that must be prevented at all costs. I'm personally surprised it takes that much to destroy a currency. You pretty much have to be actively evil to get to Venezuela levels.

Given enough care currencies can recover from pretty much anything as long as the local economy stays alive and relationships with foreign countries are being maintained. The only thing that cannot be recovered is the lost potential and time of all the individuals that make up the country.

[codyb]

How're you getting to 5% loss YoY due to inflation? Estimates on inflation for the USD rarely top 3% for years during the last few decades [0]. Certainly there might be an uptick this year but extrapolating that to "You'll lose 10k a year if you just hold 200k" doesn't really make sense. And certainly you'd hold that money in index funds which have pretty decent returns or even bonds which don't pay out so much these days but have some returns I believe.

https://www.macrotrends.net/2497/historical-inflation-rate-b...

[thorwasdfasdf]

For the last 20 years: - case shiller shows housing has gone up 4% every year on average - Big mac index also 4% per year for the last 20 years - Gas (tax was not inflation adjusted, so gas prices appear to be only 2.5%) but the underlying cost is going up faster than that. - cars, one of the lowest inflation categories according to the CPI (real actual inflation is 2.7% for the last 20 years)-> pick your favorite car and see for yourself. those quality adjustments aren't worth nearly what the cpi boys say they are.

So, we've already got 3-4% inflation for the last 20 years. Now with the official CPI almost 2% higher than last year, it means real inflation is probably 2% higher as well. 3% + 2% = 5%

Treasuries are at about 1 - 2% and unless you hold the actual treasury, you're taking a pretty big risk if you're going into the TLT right now with very little upside gain.

European bonds are negative.

The highest yielding bonds, aka junk bonds are returning 3-5% but those will dip nearly as hard as stocks when things get ugly (look at the last two crashes 2020, 2018), so you might as well hold stocks.

Stocks are at record high valuations according to the warren buffet indicator.