Hacker Read top | best | new | newcomments | leaders | about | bookmarklet login

> Yeah if someone is telling you that crypto is immune to regulation they’re lying and probably trying to scam you.

Isn't crypto synonymous with scams?

https://time.com/personal-finance/article/popular-crypto-sca...



sort by: page size:

> But when you have two funding systems, where one is completely open, and the other requires certain guarantees (identity, legal responsibility), the first is always going to be full of scammers.

Exactly. It always cracks me up when people tout the completely deregulated nature of cryptocurrencies as a good thing.


>> I think crypto currencies are for the most part a scam

> enough of a reason to not accept it.

Not if that's simply another instance of Sturgeon's law ("90% of everything is crap"): https://nitter.net/mycoliza/status/1451992293532004355


> “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.


> 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’m sure there are legitimate crypto businesses.

I’m increasingly sure there aren’t.


> Why would this make someone question crypto?

I don’t know, I am not into crypto. I assume you might have to ask one of the many thousands of people that have lost untold quantities of money to a nearly infinite number of scams why they might question the practical value of the crypto ecosystem.


> I don't like crypto because there's essentially zero accountability for issuers and that kind of environment is optimal for scammers.

Please expand on this as I'm almost certain this doesn't apply to BTC, ETH, and other reputable chains.


> However, a lot of crypto is legit and this piece reeks of bias.

Reminds me of the fortune teller admitting that most fortune tellers are scammers, you just have to go to the legit ones.


> What makes you anti-crypto specifically? To me, crypto means cryptography, that enables both digital signatures and encryption. Are you against end-to-end encryption as well, for the same reasons?

This is an unreasonable contortion of the OP’s comment. Conflating cryptocurrency (an industry rife with scams) to cryptography (a branch of discrete mathematics) belies precisely the reason people don’t take cryptocurrency boosters seriously.


> Not everything in crypto is a scam

but if you assume it is, you'll basically be correct


> I am pro crypto because I think banks and VC and hedge funds [...] are scammy

Liking Crypto because you think hedge funds are scammy is kind of like enjoying swimming because rain makes you wet.

Today's crypto is much more rife with scams and Ponzi schemes than hedge funds currently are (because of actual legislation).


> Go back and read it.

I did re-read it. That's how I could quote your words.

> You threw barbs and used the word "scam" as often as you could

Because that's what the absolute vast majority of crypto is.

> This is exactly like every crypto discussion on the internet today, it's very frustrating.

Yes. Every crypto discussion on goes like this:

- Crypto claims are refuted or questioned

- Crypto maximalist spouts some grandiose bullshit

- Crypto maximalist gets called out

- Crypto maximalist disappears

I've yet to see you actually address anything I said in my very first comment here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32850112

> I'm talking about deliverable perpetual futures.

It's a nonsensical term (like many other nonsensical terms) that only exists in the crypto space. And only works in the highly volatile market like crypto. This is short-to-medium term currency speculation, and I'm sure there are plenty of services that allow you to do that in "traditional finance". As I'm not interested in currency speculation, I couldn't tell you what they are.

> Now perhaps you see what I am getting at? It's not accessible

You've selected a single service revolving around currency speculation and you call "traditional finance" inaccessible because of that. That... is not what accessibility to financial services means. Or what "levelling the playing field" is.

> Is there some reason the system is the way it is? Yes, I'm sure there is.

You're sure, but at the same time you are completely uninterested to learn why it is that way, and you dismiss anyone telling you why it is the way it is because, let me quote, "it's an awful exploitative global financial system".

> There are a million and one ways to lose all your money, plus a million new ones that weren't possible before.

Indeed. And that makes this "accessible and a level playing field" unlike traditional finance which offers fraud protection, deposit insurance, etc. etc.

> And soon a new technology will come, and everyone who understands the current landscape will know immediately what to do with it

So, the "accessible system" will be accessible to those who understand current landscape, who have already lost money a million ways and cut themselves on sharp corners.

That is neither accessible nor a level playing field.

If you claim that it is "global financial system which can be participated in by anyone", where are the protections for those who "did not have access to existing systems" (I keep quoting you).

I'm a programmer, I earn quite a lot. And I still cannot afford to just go ahead and "lose my money in a million ways" and "cut myself when working with a sharp object". Where's your accessibility, huh?

> and everyone who has had their head in the sand will wait for the SEC for guidance

Ah yes. Instead we can just not wait and lose the money a million and one ways for the sake of.... something.

There's a reason for SEC guidances, but, again, you're entirely unwilling to learn why they exist. Perhaps, you will learn it the hard way.


> > This is a Wall Street corruption story.

>No, stop trying to spin this. It's a stereotypical crypto story.

It’s worth considering that these things are not mutually exclusive. Why can’t it be both?


> Cryptocurrencies are a brilliant scam.

Quite a bit too broad of a generalization.


> This has almost nothing to do with crypto

Can we please not No True Scotsman this? Crypto “the future of money” is completely unregulated and nothing but full of scams hitherto unseen since the days before banking regulations.

You’d be hard pressed find a bank that can execute a rug pull like this. While I’m no fan of Bank of America, I’ll keep my “dirty fiat” there and sleep soundly, just like I slept soundly in though the Great Recession.


> Crypto is a Ponzi scheme.

I've never heard anybody educated on the matter make this statement. It's always from someone that doesn't understand it and therefore thinks it's a scam.


> What it sounds like you're saying is that Average Joe should really understand that crypto implicitly carries a risk of fraud and you are likely to lose your money

That is what a lot of people have been saying for a very long time now!

I don't mean this in a way to blame the victims of the crypto fraudsters, merely to explain the somewhat exasperated responses by people who feel like they've been trying to warn people who have been ignoring them.

> I'm starting to think that these organizations need to be regulated as banks, stat.

I mean, why do you think they don't want to be regulated and brag that they aren't? To make you more money?


> 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).


> Stinks of manipulation.

Yeah, we're all paid by BIG FIAT to descredit crypto on a technical news comment site.

next

Legal | privacy