this post was submitted on 13 Aug 2023
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How is distributed ledger a scam? It's nothing new and we know exactly how it works. It has nothing to do with making money. If I use it to pay for things online how am I getting scammed? I'm sorry, but it seems you don't fully understand what this technology is.
The blazing fast technology that allows for up to 7 transactions a second worldwide? Amazing.
Don't forget to pay your capital gains tax when you sell your butts online to buy your pizza.
The slow transaction speed is a valid criticism, but it doesn't make this technology a scam. Different cryptocurrencies have different speeds. With Litecoin I think it takes me 40 minutes to pay for something. I still prefer that over being tracked by my bank or having to use PayPal. I think you can pay instantly with Dash, but I haven't used it.
I don't sell anything online, so what are you talking about?
I think people are using the word scam not in it's strictest sense - that is to say, I don't think Satoshi personally invented BTC to defraud everyone who bought it so in that sense, no, it is not a scam technically. A better way to describe it would be via the greater fool theory: the only way to make money is to find someone even more foolish than yourself to buy it.
Crypto as it is currently implemented is inefficient, riddled with problems, and is deflationary which you can argue about but most economists would say deflationary currencies are bad as they lead to shrinking economies and do not encourage investment.
There also aren't that many problems that it 'solves' that aren't already solvable by existing tech. And even in the case of things it's useful for, if it were to be widely adopted the 'benefits' would be overshadowed by the massive new problems that would be created.
I think crypto will always have a niche, especially for black markers. I don't think anything similar to currently existing crypto currencies will ever be adopted for widespread use as legal tender.
And as the other commenter pointed out, the tax situation is a nightmare. Even if you don't sell online yourself, that's a big hurdle to crypto achieving what many supporters claim it can do.
Cryptocurrency is not about making money. It's a distributed ledger. Technology like that could maybe be a scam if it didn't do what its creators claim it does. But it's been around for a long time and we know exactly how it works.
It has problems, but like every technology it keeps improving. I choose to use it despite its flaws and will probably use it even more in the future.
It gives me privacy and anonymity when paying online. No other online payment technology does. It also doesn't require trust, since it's decentralized. I'm not aware of any other technology that solves those problems.
That's possible, but over time it is accepted by more and more stores. So it keeps growing. But even if it didn't, you can use crypto to buy gift cards for any store. It doesn't have to be popular.
When someone wants to invest in crypto, I can see how that could be a problem. I just use it to pay for things online.
I would venture that the majority of people see it as an investment of one sort or another. I think the insane market cap, and the devestating effect the recent crash had on its reputation and use, are evidence of that.
Most cryptos have fundamental problems that I don't see being fixed, eg it's deflationary properties, BTC's wasteful PoW, ETH skirting/crossing the boundary of being a security, etc.
This is like the one thing they are good for, and Monero is the best at it. This is an arguable point though, others may say that this is a negative due to the implications and governments have cracked down on privacy enhancing tools like Tornado Cash for this reason. I personally value privacy to an extent, but do not see the need in my life to use Monero. I certainly wouldn't fault you for using it, though.
I think adoption has stagnated. And look at El Salvador, they basically had to force crypto on the populace and they use their own proprietary wallet, nullifying privacy benefits. And again, it is treated as an investment by the government there who are buying BTC to speculate.
Yeh this is dependant on your country. Here in Australia every crypto transaction is a capital gains event 🙄
You are right, but it doesn't matter what most people think. I mean we should educate them about it, but their opinion is irrelevant.
Etherum has already switched from proof of work algorithm to less wasteful proof of stake. So it seems that at least that problem can be solved.
You should be able to buy any of the popular cryptocurrencies anonymously. They won't make your payment history private like Monero does, but you will still be anonymous when paying.
I don't know exact stats, but it's bigger than I expected before I started looking into it. There are a lot of crypto ATMs now in cities, which you can see at https://coinatmradar.com. There are also some stores and restaurants that accept crypto, especially in the US (https://coinmap.org/view). You can also find some online services on https://cryptwerk.com. El Salvador is certainly messed up. Bitcoin probably isn't even a good choice, because of its big transaction fees. Other cryptocurrencies are faster, can handle more transactions and have smaller fees.
Damn, that's crazy. So you can't even buy something without paying an extra tax?