I'm ready to get downvoted to oblivion but... The beauty of cryptocurrency is that no central authority can dictate what you can and cannot do with those funds. They cannot freeze those funds in your account, provided you have those funds in your own wallet under your control. This would be like holding cash, unless they literally raid your house, they can't touch that crypto.
If you had a family member in Russia who was struggling to get by, you could send them crypto right now, but you could not wire the money internationally. That's only an example, but imagine if you were in that situation right now and your family was destitute with no way to get out. Crypto is basically the only tool that would allow you to instantly send them funds from anywhere in the world. The same is true for transactions, we see PayPal freeze accounts for businesses and people out of nowhere, but that simply cannot be done with a crypto wallet that you control.
Why do people think it's a scam? Because a bunch of people decided to start treating it like a speculative investment, and then lost a bunch of money. No surprise, it was never intended to be a speculative asset, rather a currency. Of course, people figured out that they could make money by pumping and dumping, furthering people's view that it's a scam. I send crypto to a bunch of the podcasts that I listen to, nobody can ever shut that down just because they don't like what the podcasters talk about on the show. It is a direct way for the listeners to support the podcasters with minimal fees and no government intervention. Just because people have abused it, does not mean the technology is bad. It means the way people are using it is bad, and that is thankfully changing over time as more utility companies accept crypto (for example).
You should specify that not all crypto is created equal. Not all crypto is decentralized. You need to research to determine which crypto is actually worth something and what is just fiat like the current system.
All crypto is fiat. Which crypto has hard assets on deposit to back up its value. All the obscure value formulas used to support real value are ridiculous. It makes sense that the idea of cryptocurrency was ushered in by central bankers to familiarize the masses with the concept then introduce their own centralized digital currency.
The simple fact that bitcoin can not be artificially inflated and is forever limited to the maximum 21 million coins is enough reason alone to make your statement that “all crypto is fiat” absolutely retarded :D
What makes gold valuable? It’s not that it’s pretty… it’s that it is not infinite… is expensive to obtain / extract it.
Bitcoin is no different….
Computers running 24/7 are hashing math calculations via sha256 algorithm… they have to get lucky to find the correct calculation and extract new some of the remaining unminted bitcoins from the max 21m.
This costs electricity.
This same process is what makes the network secure, decentralized, and accessible from anywhere in the world.
Bitcoin mining is effectively no different than mining for gold…. The key difference is bitcoin is actually usable and easy to transact globally than some gold nuggets are.
Then this comment is -5 in the chat:
I'm ready to get downvoted to oblivion but... The beauty of cryptocurrency is that no central authority can dictate what you can and cannot do with those funds. They cannot freeze those funds in your account, provided you have those funds in your own wallet under your control. This would be like holding cash, unless they literally raid your house, they can't touch that crypto.
If you had a family member in Russia who was struggling to get by, you could send them crypto right now, but you could not wire the money internationally. That's only an example, but imagine if you were in that situation right now and your family was destitute with no way to get out. Crypto is basically the only tool that would allow you to instantly send them funds from anywhere in the world. The same is true for transactions, we see PayPal freeze accounts for businesses and people out of nowhere, but that simply cannot be done with a crypto wallet that you control.
Why do people think it's a scam? Because a bunch of people decided to start treating it like a speculative investment, and then lost a bunch of money. No surprise, it was never intended to be a speculative asset, rather a currency. Of course, people figured out that they could make money by pumping and dumping, furthering people's view that it's a scam. I send crypto to a bunch of the podcasts that I listen to, nobody can ever shut that down just because they don't like what the podcasters talk about on the show. It is a direct way for the listeners to support the podcasters with minimal fees and no government intervention. Just because people have abused it, does not mean the technology is bad. It means the way people are using it is bad, and that is thankfully changing over time as more utility companies accept crypto (for example).
You should specify that not all crypto is created equal. Not all crypto is decentralized. You need to research to determine which crypto is actually worth something and what is just fiat like the current system.
All crypto is fiat. Which crypto has hard assets on deposit to back up its value. All the obscure value formulas used to support real value are ridiculous. It makes sense that the idea of cryptocurrency was ushered in by central bankers to familiarize the masses with the concept then introduce their own centralized digital currency.
The simple fact that bitcoin can not be artificially inflated and is forever limited to the maximum 21 million coins is enough reason alone to make your statement that “all crypto is fiat” absolutely retarded :D
What makes gold valuable? It’s not that it’s pretty… it’s that it is not infinite… is expensive to obtain / extract it.
Bitcoin is no different….
Computers running 24/7 are hashing math calculations via sha256 algorithm… they have to get lucky to find the correct calculation and extract new some of the remaining unminted bitcoins from the max 21m.
This costs electricity.
This same process is what makes the network secure, decentralized, and accessible from anywhere in the world.
Bitcoin mining is effectively no different than mining for gold…. The key difference is bitcoin is actually usable and easy to transact globally than some gold nuggets are.
I thought gold was valuable because it doesn't oxidize, it has staying power.