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> victims of mt gox hack

ok bro, I'm not sure we have the same definition of smart people if yours are people decided to buy a bunch of cryptocurrency and keep it all in a website built in php



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> Committed all my savings and blood into it.

Whenever I read comments like this I get flashbacks to the people deriding the stupidity of the people who had 500k in Bitcoin on Mt. Gox.


> You'd think but look at Mt. Gox.

Gox was a ridiculously amateurish affair run by a french pimply php hacker and manga lover teenager.

Bitmex is in a slightly different league.


> It’s only crypto-bros who are trying to push “web3” as even a “thing”.

I keep saying that there are only two kinds of people peddling crypto: scammers, and gullible fools with tenuous grasp of reality.


> People who are unable to discern scam from not scam get scammed.

So it’s just these people that have ever lost money in crypto?

Honestly, every crypto-successful person I know has ALSO invested in shitcoins and scams.


>I have no sympathy for these people.

A lot of everyday Joe's and Jane's put money into crypto. The amount of hype from crypto was pretty strong, including some governments adopting it.

You should have some sympathy for those people.


> What's really upsetting is this lie that these crypto people push

Yeah, thieving scum are upsetting to normal good people.


>he didn't really understand what Bitcoin was

He's not dumb for a scum that scam billions in profit


> It amazes me that on this forum for technologists, so few are familiar with the technology... and still try to tear down crypto so passionately.

I think this comment explains most of it: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31356857

Basically an emotional reaction.


> smartest people you know who are professional crypto investors

This is genuinely, if inadvertently, hilarious.


> This is one of those scary things with a cryptocurrency based society that I worry about.

No, not really. It is the same kind of story as people putting all their money in a bag in a chimney to find out their family decided to finally lighten the mood by making a fire in long unused fireplace. It is an actual story about my neighbour when I was a kid.

People have been doing stupid things with money for thousands of years.

You can store crypto safely. It is essentially the same problem as storing encrypted backups. It has been solved.

As much as I hate cryptocurrency, I would actually be more at peace having lots of crypto than lots of stock on my account (if not for the fact that crypto is just a scam).


> Crypto bros and con artists killed crypto

...but you repeat yourself


> I literally lost my entire life savings investing in cryptos. I put a HUGE amount in LUNA and UST.

What can one say? It’s just sad all around. Sad that naïve, greedy people fall for it, and sad that there are people who take advantage of them.


> “Crypto is super legitimate, bro.”

It’s really not. I’m so tired of people being surprised by articles like this. Scams like this and ransomware would simply not exist without cryptocurrency, and that’s enough for me to eschew their use entirely.

There is literally no legitimate excuse for cryptocurrency, and I don’t think there ever was.


> who in this 'crypto world' would be stupid enough

Never attribute to malice what can be explained by stupidity, and never underestimate just how stupid a person can be.


> I mined Bitcoin in 2012

You're the most reasonable crypto-enthusiast I think I've seen on this site but your position is tainted by this fact, for me.

I saw in a sibling comment that you suggest people not judge sub-cultures for their outliers - fair enough. Can I at least express concern for them? These people are getting scammed. Full stop. Not nearly enough is being done about it from within the crypto community and even from outside of it.


> This is one of the reasons I dropped out of crypto for years, most of its supporters were completely delusional and tragically uninformed about actual banks.

I don't think you understand bitcoin as well as you think you do. 51% attacks do not work like this.


>As someone who owns and believes in cryptocurrency, I'm actually glad this happened. I was getting sick of all the get rich quick people who've been driving the price lately, even for the coins that shouldn't be pumping.

you say this as if it won't happen again and again. 95%+ of crypto ownership is pure speculation. There are coins in the top 15 that don't even have existing networks yet.


> can you really blame people for investing

Yes, you can. You don't have to dig very deep into the crypto world to realize that a lot if not most of the participants have are not plain ol' honest folks making a big ol' mistake giving their hard-earned savings to a slick-talking salesman. They are conscious participants in what they know to be a get-rich quick scheme. They know it is shady, and they don't care, because they think they're going to get out before it crashes. They're motivated by greed, not innocence.

You can recognize this and still support regulation of the industry. One of the big reasons you need regulation is to protect people from their own stupid greed.


> Unrelated aside: why is the quality of Hacker News posts and comments on crypto so bad? I experience extreme Gell-Mann amnesia[4] almost every post I read.

It's because the posters think they are smart. With every passing day that cryptocurrencies become adopted/accepted, their smartness becomes questionable, even to themselves. For them, it is easier to double down on the flawed arguments - well over 10 years now - than accept that while they are smart in some areas, they are not in all.

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