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domino2064 t1_j3raij8 wrote

Thank you FTX, Luna, Logan Paul, the crypto isle team and everybody else who turned crypto into the predictable shit show that it is and for proving why regulation and centralization are not bad things to have, especially when it comes to investments and finances.

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TurboSalsa t1_j3ri5d0 wrote

Every time one of these exchanges goes belly up there are cryptobros unironically asking for government investigations and bailouts, from the government whose regulatory regime they are explicitly operating outside of.

Right now, we're at the "lender of last resort" chapter of learning why the financial system is the way it is, except the lender of last resort in this case isn't the US Treasury, it's some shady exchange whose "reserves" are just illiquid shitcoins.

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pomaj46808 t1_j3rlfd4 wrote

It's because crypto sucks for petty cash, and the only people who want to move large amounts of money around without the security of government regulation are criminals. Even if someone says otherwise when it's their cash in jeopardy they find their beliefs have a spending limit.

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Zombie_Harambe t1_j3rohru wrote

It started that way. It will end that way. I still remember when the only thing I could buy with bitcoins was weed, sex slaves, and assassins.

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jnads t1_j3stw6b wrote

Actually IIRC the first public Bitcoin exchange was a pizza.

Back in the early days of Bitcoin (before it was $1) someone paid 20 BTC to someone else to order them a pizza.

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sillycyco t1_j3t2fyc wrote

It was 10,000 BTC on two pizzas. This was when btc was a fraction of a penny.

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jnads t1_j3t4bbh wrote

Yeah, I was tracking Bitcoin back in those Digg days. Wish I'd mined some then.

But the whole concept seemed stupid at the time. It still seems stupid.

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lovely_sombrero t1_j3rf5xi wrote

The whole point of crypto (especially the exchanges) is just to take cash away from users and encourage more users to pour in actual $$$, get worthless tokens in exchange, while they run away with the $$$. Being mad at a few specific actors in the fraud chain just makes no sense, the problem is the fraud chain itself. Luna and FTX just happened to be the first big dominos to fall. Of course, there are smaller fraudtokens that fail constantly, and on purpose!

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thatoneguy889 t1_j3rflxc wrote

> take cash away from users and encourage more users to pour in actual $$$, get worthless tokens in exchange, while they run away with the $$$.

Also known as a Ponzi Scheme

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Elcactus t1_j3s8k8u wrote

Pyramid scheme. A ponzi scheme is something specific where the schemer pretends that their payouts are coming from a legitimate business venture. Poinzi himself pretended to be arbitraging mail coupons, for example, while simply paying out from the money people put in. A pyramid scheme can openly state its value is from the perception of its value, as most coins tend to.

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[deleted] t1_j3rgbfr wrote

[removed]

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sjfiuauqadfj t1_j3rjepm wrote

hate to say it but i think venture capital actually brings some real world value to society while with crypto the most you get is a jpeg of my mom

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domino2064 t1_j3rk295 wrote

That ended up using a fuck ton of more electricity and ewaste to produce than what a 90s digital camera, and the process to get that photo onto a modern device and touched up, would use.

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[deleted] t1_j3rn0b9 wrote

[removed]

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NikeSwish t1_j3rucvm wrote

Venture capitalists don’t just pour money into something that obviously won’t work hoping it’ll be propped up long enough to go public. Do they bet on risky companies? Yes. But that’s not what a Ponzi scheme is.

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zjm555 t1_j3rjd0f wrote

There's this hilarious ad that keeps being shown to me on reddit that says: "<Brand name> is the fastest way to turn your cash into NFTs" and I just crack up every time I read it thinking about how dumb people have to be to read that and think "hey I'm interested".

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V-Right_In_2-V t1_j3rr13u wrote

Imagine taking your hard earned money and turning it into worthless NFTs. Like why would you ever do that

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domino2064 t1_j3rfilj wrote

>The whole point of crypto (especially the exchanges) is just to take cash away from users and encourage more users to pour in actual $$$, get worthless tokens in exchange, while they run away with the $$$. Being mad at a few specific actors in the fraud chain just makes no sense, the problem is the fraud chain itself. Luna and FTX just happened to be the first big dominos to fall. Of course, there are smaller fraudtokens that fail constantly, and on purpose!

Oh I'm not mad at these specific players per se. I'm just glad that they fell, and fell hard in order to confirm and prove what actual, financial experts had been warning for many years, while the crypto cult screamed fud and sucked more people into, what is at best, an MLM and at worst, a Ponzi scheme.

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SatanLifeProTips t1_j3scdt4 wrote

Crypto was never an ‘investment’. It was gambling in a pyramid scheme that generates no value. It’s money is simply generated by the biggest idiot in the chain. And the biggest idiot is left holding the bag.

Who knew a 1920’s style unregulated financial market would end poorly? History is repeating itself in a hundred year cycle. Pandemic, depression, oligarchs, financial implosion looming.

I for one am looking forward to the return of art deco.

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dopey_giraffe t1_j3sekwm wrote

Dude art deco is so cool. I would totally love a return to that. Mix it with some cyberpunk too and we'd have the best version of the dystopia we're headed for.

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yamirzmmdx t1_j3raukj wrote

Square Enix has entered the chat

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WalkerBRiley t1_j3rwcdv wrote

For a major AAA game developer and publisher to misread the room so goddamn hard.....

It was Diablo Infinity reveal levels of dumbassery....

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BigBradWolf77 t1_j3ui44w wrote

regulation: yes

centralization: hell no

Just say no to CBDCs

NFA

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[deleted] t1_j3rsynt wrote

[deleted]

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domino2064 t1_j3rxq7j wrote

It's one thing to lose money because of regular, trading situations. It's another to lose it because of pump n dump schemes, lies about backing, etc and then to have no legal recourse let alone any chance to regain what was taken.

No offense man, but your whataboutism reads like a cope.

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ellus1onist t1_j3s20wb wrote

Scams can obviously happen in any industry.

In crypto it's particularly egregious/funny however because

  1. A central ideology of many crypto fans is the desire to get away from regulation and government oversight, only to be immediately informed as to why those regulations and oversights exist.

  2. Other scams are usually based off of a reasonable underlying premise. Crypto however, IS the scam. It's funny how shocked people are about things like Celsius and FTX, as if a company whose entire business plan is trading meaningless internet tokens generated by pollution could be anything else. I do not know how many of these companies, like FTX, are being propped up due to outright fraud, what I do know is that it's simply a matter of time before they all collapse.

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