WaPo gift article - no paywall

    • bquintb@midwest.social
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      3 months ago

      much of crypto is a scam…bitcoin is not. blackrock and fidelity are just two companies who are heavily invested in its success. the media shouldn’t portray bitcoin along with other crypto, but it does. it’s too bad.

      • WhatAmLemmy@lemmy.world
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        3 months ago

        Sorry, Bitcoin is a scam. Blockchain technology is not a scam, but 99% are simply because they have little to no utility; their value is entirely speculative. Bitcoin is not anonymous, transactions take forever, are more expensive than banks (for transferring normal sums of money), and the energy required to secure the network is a non-starter. It’s like calling a Model-T the best car ever made. Monero is the best cryptocurrency implementation so far, because it is the opposite of all of Bitcoin’s failures I just listed — that’s why governments around the world are trying to delist and outlaw it, and block institutional investment in it.

        • bquintb@midwest.social
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          3 months ago
          1. it’s pseudo anonymous and that doesn’t make it a scam. it actually is a great way to track transactions and protect privacy at the same time.

          2.transactions take about 8-10 mins… this makes it a better store of value than spending cash. However, this has been remedied with a 2nd layer application called Lightning Network. And again, this doesnt make it a scam.

          1. more expensive for some, less for others. for instance, it is a very cheap way to transfer money overseas like for many immigrants who support their families in their native country. where Western Union would take a large cut just to move the money, Bitcoin accomplishes the same exact thing, for pennies.

          Maybe you mean you just don’t like Bitcoin? That’s fair, doesn’t make it a scam. Maybe you prefer more anonymous cryptos like monero? That’s fair also, still doesn’t make Bitcoin a scam.

          Personally I prefer Bitcoin because it’s decentralized. Nobody owns it or controls it. The people closest to the money printer don’t have an advantage over the common people who save in it. Not to mention you aren’t surrendering your purchasing power to the government via inflation.