At slightly greater length: cryptocurrency has no legitimate uses not done better by other parts of the financial system. It is designed to be proof against legal recourse (and should be illegal for that reason alone); as a result it is perfect for ransomware, other extortions, and scams of all sorts. (The very first “smart contract” on Ethereum was for a Ponzi scheme.)
Like penny stocks and tulip bulbs, when someone tells you a thing is “sure to rise”, it already has risen. If you buy, you become the bagholder who converts the thing with no intrinsic worth back into real money. You may, if you’re lucky, find an even bigger sucker to sell to.
Buying cryptocurrency is a whole lot easier than selling it. Funny, that.
And that’s even before you get to the vile waste of energy that’s proof-of-work: bitcoin currently uses more energy than Hungary, in order to support 3-7 transactions per second.
Blockchains themselves are not entirely without use – for example the git version control system uses them. But if someone says “our product is on the blockchain”, slap them and leave.
I agree, on the whole, but I do have a more positive tale to tell about bitcoin.
TFD is a trustee of a local charity and in an attempt to raise more funds he set up a bitcoin account in the charity’s name, and put a link on their website for bitcoin donations alongside the more conventional links. It sat there unused for months and he got out of the habit of checking it regularly but a few months ago he had a quick look and discovered a single donation - worth over £18,000! An awful lot of money for a very small charity.
Someone obviously wanted to make a completely anonymous donation and bitcoin is perfect for the purpose, being completely untraceable.
The problem often comes when a cryptocurrency-booster gets in among a bunch of people who don’t know much about it, and goes on and on about what a great idea it is. (NFTs have done a great deal of good here; more people than ever know what a truly terrible idea cryptocurrencies are.)
No one is complaining - at least I don’t think they are - about the worthwhile cause having benefited. Personally, I’m delighted, while continuing with me general fear and loathing stance re the phenomenon as a whole.
Young Thai doctor of graceful moves and great beauty is trying to tell the Covid +be nun that bhudda was a caring soul who would have patience and love for her fellow men to endure a few days of incarceration with buns at frequent intervals
Interesting to watch the differing faith approaches
Actually if you learn what it is and know what you aredoing it can make money. Not now with bitcoin. That does use lots of energy and the time to buy it was 10 years ago and to sell it a couple of years ago. The people that did that did make a fortune.
There are useful currencies that are already underpinning paypal and most bit finance institutions and there are experimental ones that will make money, as well as ones that won’t. You need to know what you are doing but Rory could find out and could easily have had advice from someone who did know and could have made enough to buy Alice a holiday.
We landscaped our garden last year and furnished it too with the profits from crypto, after taking out our initial stake and are still in the game. We bought quite a lot of household stuff too and I set up accounts about 3 years ago for my grandkids, one of whom is old enough to manage his and has enjoyed learning how to do so. I’m just about grasping what is happening but get help.
I haven’t had the brain power to manage day to day life very well for the last 4 years, so wouldn’t touch it with a bargepole, but can see that with concentration, & knowledge & summat with which to gamble, that it could work.