• Cethin@lemmy.zip
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    5 days ago

    Value isn’t necessarily something tangible. It’s what other people think it’s worth. The USD doesn’t have any more value than the belief people put in it. Do you also think it has no value?

    I’m not defending crypto speculation, but it’s ignorant to say it doesn’t have value if you can buy things with it. Basically all modern money is based on faith, including crypto. Even when it’s based on gold or silver, that’s aren’t actually useful for most people so it’s still made up value worth however much people value that.

    • zalgotext@sh.itjust.works
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      5 days ago

      Basically all modern money is based on faith, including crypto.

      Ok, sure, however, fiat currencies are based on the faith that there’s at least one entire nation that you can use your currency in, and is motivated to ensure their currency is worth something, and has some semblance of stability. Crypto is based on the faith that there’s other dumbasses out there that will agree with you that these particular bits hold value for some reason.

      • TheEighthDoctor@lemmy.zip
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        5 days ago

        Crypto is based on the faith that there’s other dumbasses out there that will agree with you

        And that’s the most beautiful thing about crypto that got lost in all the speculation, shitcoin, scams, and nft bullshit. A currency of the people for the people, but of course, when the pigs came into power they were the same as the old farmers.

        • Cethin@lemmy.zip
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          5 days ago

          It was always a scam. When people were saying these things, that was part of the scam.

          There are good uses for the blockchain, just not really with currency.

          • technocrit@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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            5 days ago

            Keep telling yourself that crypto is a scam with no value, etc… While you loyally and unquestionably use your green paper money covered in pictures of slave masters.

        • zalgotext@sh.itjust.works
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          5 days ago

          Eh, it’s also the thing that makes it so vulnerable to speculation, shitcoin, scams, and nft bullshit

          • TheEighthDoctor@lemmy.zip
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            5 days ago

            Not really, I think the vulnerability is the lack of knowledge of the public.

            Binary Options and Forex use fiat and they are the exact same brand of scam.

      • Cethin@lemmy.zip
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        5 days ago

        Sure. I’m not disagreeing with that, just that it doesn’t have value. It does. Just because it’s made up doesn’t mean it doesn’t have value, as long as someone is willing to buy it from you.

        I don’t like these uses of crypto either. It’s just a really stupid argument to say it doesn’t have value. There are plenty of valid arguments that can be made against it without making something up like that.

        • zalgotext@sh.itjust.works
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          5 days ago

          Right, and I’m not arguing that cryptocurrency doesn’t have value, just that it’s value is based on a much less solid foundation than the value of fiat currency.

      • explodicle@sh.itjust.works
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        5 days ago

        I’m sorry, but at this point I honestly have more faith in the latter than the former. I just don’t have any faith in America at all.

        • zalgotext@sh.itjust.works
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          5 days ago

          Ok I’m talking about fiat currency as a concept though, not the USD specifically.

          If your point is that fiat currencies are still vulnerable to some instability, then sure, I guess I agree, but fiat currencies are still orders of magnitude more stable than cryptocurrencies.

          • technocrit@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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            5 days ago

            If a state converted from paper money to crypto, the only discernible differences would be like more computers, more transparency, less middlemen, etc. Crypto is literally just a new (distributed, open) form of accounting.

            • zalgotext@sh.itjust.works
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              5 days ago

              Sure, and that would make that cryptocurrency a fiat currency.

              *Also, it’s not even close to being new, the idea of distributed ledgers has been around for decades at this point.

          • explodicle@sh.itjust.works
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            5 days ago

            Serious question: do the Europeans here have more faith in your governments than you do in obsessive internet people?

            • zalgotext@sh.itjust.works
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              5 days ago

              I can’t answer for anyone but myself, and I’m not European, but I absolutely trust government more than anonymous obsessive Internet people. At least governments are theoretically held in check by those they govern. Internet randos don’t play by anyone’s rules but their own.

    • ubergeek@lemmy.today
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      5 days ago

      Basically all modern money is based on faith,

      Wrong.

      Fiat currencies are based on military might, not hopes and dreams.

    • Thorry84@feddit.nl
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      5 days ago

      I don’t think it’s worth the discussion, but comparing a fiat currency like the US dollar with crypto currency is a false equivalence argument. They aren’t even comparable.

      • Cethin@lemmy.zip
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        5 days ago

        I didn’t say they’re equivalent. I said both of them have value that is imaginary. Crypto currencies have value if you can purchase things with them. It just makes you sound dumb to say it doesn’t have value. That’s not the correct argument to make against it.