Cryptocurrency

[Yung]

Look no further than the FTX debacle.

It looks like back in 2019 some of the business and investment posters on 4chan and reddit knew things were amiss.

[JCS]

Twitter: CBP officers discovered $33K in unreported currency possessed by an Egypt-bound traveler at Washington Dulles International Airport during a baggage examination on November 8. The traveler verbally reported that he had $20K.

Just another perk of Bitcoin. Govt. can’t touch it and I can take it all over the world and no one ever will know.

[JCS]

It looks like back in 2019 some of the business and investment posters on 4chan and reddit knew things were amiss.

He basically bragged about having a Ponzi scheme in an interview a couple months ago detailed here: https://finbold.com/ftx-founder-acci...-before-crash/

[David S.]

[Darth_Uno]

The consensus here seems to be a good bit of distrust towards BTC or any crypto's long term viability. Whether that's so or not, if you were ever thinking putting a small part of your investments into crypto now would be a good time. I would personally hold them in a wallet, although there are ETF's that have crypto exposure to varying degrees of methods and risk. It's a way to get in on the potential gains without having to ever buy the crypto itself.

But if you think there might be something to Bitcoin after all, a small allocation wouldn't be completely silly right now. Currently I'd say it falls right on the razor edge of investing and speculation.

[the Schwartz]

The infrastructure with which we verify and transfer value is inefficient and outdated. It's too big of an industry to remain inefficient.

It's going to change.

I can transfer the US Dollar electronically very efficiently and have done so for years. Why it is better done with an instrument (crypto) that is not backed by a hard asset or the US government has yet to be proven especially in light of the latest hijinks with FTX.

Crypto is great if you're into extremely high risk vaporware that might give you something back if you're lucky enough to speculate correctly that day. Or not.

[Borderland]

Here's a good article from Forbes about crypto from a week ago.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/ninabam...h=3c19e7a61c39

I can't paste it here but they've done the research on 13 companies in the last year. The loses range anywhere from 16% to 97%. Average is around 64%. None of them had any gains.

At the peak in 2021 FTT had a market value of $9.6 billion, but unlike a common stock, which represents legal ownership in the assets of a corporation, FTT does not represent any equity ownership in the FTX company. If FTT had any intrinsic value, it was in the form of discounts that FTX customers using these tokens could get trading on the exchange–as much as 60% for active traders. You can think of these exchange tokens as being akin to loyalty or reward points you might get as a frequent customer of Starbucks or the UnitedMiles by flying on that airline. They have value, but it's unlikely that a bank would allow you to use them as collateral if you wanted to purchase a home. Forbes

[RoyGBiv]

I can transfer the US Dollar electronically very efficiently and have done so for years. Why it is better done with an instrument (crypto) that is not backed by a hard asset or the US government has yet to be proven especially in light of the latest hijinks with FTX.

Crypto is great if you're into extremely high risk vaporware that might give you something back if you're lucky enough to speculate correctly that day. Or not.

The ability to move funds without government supervision appeals to me if for no other reason than "none of your business what i do with my money after my taxes are paid"... In the gig economy, I certainly understand why Governments want to monopolize digital currency, but for me, privacy is a factor. Although, I assume it's not impossible to trace crypto if the user isn't paying attention to their personal privacy.

I had to loan my kid $20 to pay for a cash-only admission to some event last weekend. They paid me back via Zelle. Easier than an ATM and more convenient than carrying cash. Kids these days are cashless... Me? I pay for my sin products (ATF) in cash.

[GJM]

The ability to move funds without government supervision appeals to me if for no other reason than "none of your business what i do with my money after my taxes are paid"... In the gig economy, I certainly understand why Governments want to monopolize digital currency, but for me, privacy is a factor. Although, I assume it's not impossible to trace crypto if the user isn't paying attention to their personal privacy.

I had to loan my kid $20 to pay for a cash-only admission to some event last weekend. They paid me back via Zelle. Easier than an ATM and more convenient than carrying cash. Kids these days are cashless... Me? I pay for my sin products (ATF) in cash.

The flip side of being able to transfer without government supervision is exactly what happened when you trust a new company without government supervision!

Question for those with crypto holdings -- where do you keep these crypto holdings and what assurances do you have the crypto will be there when you want to access it?

[the Schwartz]

The ability to move funds without government supervision appeals to me if for no other reason than "none of your business what i do with my money after my taxes are paid"... In the gig economy, I certainly understand why Governments want to monopolize digital currency, but for me, privacy is a factor. Although, I assume it's not impossible to trace crypto if the user isn't paying attention to their personal privacy.

I'm willing to bet that our government is capable of tracing transacted crypto if the need arises. I'm certainly not important enough, nor do I have anything that I need to hide, to rise to that level, so the rather slim benefit of ''opacity'' is far outweighed by the risks that accompany the use of crypto as an investment or as currency. The ''juice'' just ain't worth the ''squeeze'', IMHO.

I had to loan my kid $20 to pay for a cash-only admission to some event last weekend. They paid me back via Zelle. Easier than an ATM and more convenient than carrying cash. Kids these days are cashless... Me? I pay for my sin products (ATF) in cash.

As I stated earlier, I'm fine with the electronic transfer of funds by legitimate service providers. It's the ready potential of crypto to turn into vaporware that keeps me from considering it as a serious option for anything that I want to do.