Imagine being so fleeced by a scam that you post messages pretending others are dumb for not falling for the scam lmao

Saying crypto is pretty much the same as cash is disingenuous.

You don’t need to make an account to spend cash. You don’t need to pay fees to give cash to someone else. You don’t need to pay fees to process cash transactions. You don’t need an internet connection to acquire or spend cash. Cash transactions are executed in person, where mistakes can be reversed. If my personal info is compromised, my cash on hand is safe. Cash is generally much more stable, and is generally accepted everywhere.

And let’s address a biggie- cash doesn’t destroy the earth, unlike crypto. For all the protest I see about AI’s energy consumption, crypto was worse in 2022 than AI is projected to be in 2027. Let that sink in.

What is needed before crypto can actually be useful:

• needs to be as easy to use as real currency
• needs to be able to be spent freely on basic necessities
• recourse for fraud
• recourse to recover lost keys instead of losing funds permanently
• protection against market manipulation
• widespread merchant adoption
• address liquidity concerns
• actionable process to protect from illegal activities
• MASSIVE environmental protections- crypto was worse for the environment 4 years ago than AI is projected to be in 2027

There’s more, but I won’t bother as the above issues are more than enough to confirm that crypto is a scam.

How is it convenient? Its not simple setting up a wallet, picking a coin, registering with a market, hoping that the merchant you want something for happens to take your type of coin? And being anonymous is a turn off for most people- the vast majority of people want consumer protection. Merchants carry higher risk with a volatile, unregulated market, so they are hesitant to accept it.

Why would I pay fees to buy a faux currency, to pay for a pre-paid card of the same currency I used to buy to the faux currency, to spend it on things that can’t be paid for with the faux currency anyway? What?!?!

You might have had a salient point if the ancient Greeks made it popular for “solving thirst across the known world,” but really it was a novelty. Or if crypto was marketed as a novelty. But crypto was hyped to be the next big things, spreading around the world, no monetary boundaries. The same people making those claims are spending hundreds of millions on the election to making sure it stay unregulated with no consumer protection.

But sure, crypto somehow parallels steam?

99.9% of people could not pay for what they want or need except the handful of niche places that happen to accept it. Can’t pay medical bills with it, can’t buy my food at the grocery store with it, can’t buy my gas with it, can’t really apply it where I want to, only in the few spaces I get to.

That’s not what the developers claimed it would do, or what the investors wanted it to do. It’s not cost effective or simple. It’s created more problems than it’s solved. It flat out a scam.

Until there is an actual use case for Crypto, it’s definitely a scam as a technology. It exists only for investors and scammers, anyone attempting to actually use it is getting reamed.

He pointed at Twitter’s “success” after Elon took it over as reasons why he is enshittifying Reddit. That comment is why I left Reddit and haven’t looked back.

Ok, techbro lmao. Crypto using more fossil fuels in 2020 than AI will three years from now is a heck of a hill to die on.

So any other fiat currency not your own is not real?

No, any currency that is not widely accepted and is not able to be used to pay for necessities is not a real currency. Fiat currency is government issued. Crypto is in no way a fiat currency.

If you end up with “real” money, where’s the scam?

Let’s see… extreme volatility, lack of regulation, lack of consumer protection, the fact that many ICO’s have turned out to be scams really points to crypto being a scam. Not to mention that whatever profit you think you made in no way offsets the damage to the Earth from using more non-renewable energy than even AI (which is saying A LOT).

Got evidence to support that? Sure, you can also confirm with 30 seconds of Duck Duck Go.

Bitcoin- 173.42 terawatt-hours used in 2020-2021. It has increased since then.

UN Study: https://unu.edu/press-release/un-study-reveals-hidden-environmental-impacts-bitcoin-carbon-not-only-harmful-product

AI is estimated to ramp up to using 134 terawatt-hours by 2027. This means they use much less than that now, and are estimated to be below 2020’s bitcoin power consumption after ramping up for 3 more years.

Study, paywalled but with sources listed:

https://www.cell.com/joule/abstract/S2542-4351(23)00365-3?_returnURL=https%3A%2F%2Flinkinghub.elsevier.com%2Fretrieve%2Fpii%2FS2542435123003653%3Fshowall%3Dtrue

Bitcoin also uses over 60% non-renewable resources compared to AI which much more heavily leans into renewable in data centers. It’s not even a contest, crypto is extremely bad for the environment.

Oh, are you talking about the insanely high non-renewable energy used to mine coin and distribute, which is way beyond even AI?

Because I think it’s pretty evident that the coin halving heavily impacts our environment as it now takes twice as much energy to create the same value.

Actually giving a shit about the Earth 101 for ya.

Ah, making a mistake is spouting misinformation. I see you love hyperbole! I’ll be sure to tell my high school students when they get quiz question wrong their answers are misinformation because they didn’t study. See, I like hyperbole, too

If I can’t buy groceries, pay rent or medical bills with it, it’s in not a real currency. If I can’t bail myself out with it, it’s not a real currency. But sure, somehow paying money to get faux money that can’t really practically pay for my needs, and then needs to be reconverted to real currency to take care of my needs is somehow not a scam.

Also, I’m sure you’re super cool with the insane non-renewable energy cost of bitcoin mining and distribution. It far outweighs the energy cost of AI that everyone is complaining about.

Ah, so the people creating essentially get paid half for the same amount of work. That’s WAY better lol. Yeah, I’m not super into knowing so much about faux currency. I tend to deal with the real kind. So please pardon my mistake 🙏

What, you mean I read a headline and repeated it in the wrong context? Damnit. I totally should have wasted 20 minutes reading further about a faux currency that I can’t even buy groceries with

I mean, I don’t think accepting crypto would make or break any organization beyond a niche mom and pop operation. If they would die without accepting crypto, they are likely not going to be saved by it. I doubt there are many people, especially in the USA, who would or could only donate via that option.

In my personal opinion, crypto IS a scam and every organization would be best served dealing in real currency.

Probably because the overwhelming majority of people see crypto as a scam, and the market share for its use is trivial and better facilitated by actual currency. As well, it’s extremely volatile and the flagship coin recently halfed itself. It’s probably one of the worst things a company can accept in exchange for goods or services.

Thanks for clarifying. Cool project! I’ve been looking for a guilt free LLM that sourced its training data in an ethical way. Tell me if I’m way off base, but I take it your app is to the LLMs similar to how the Ice Cubes is an interface for the fediverse. Nice!

I wish you well with your project. If any of the models you work with fit what I’m looking for, or you know of any such models please let me know!

Sounds interesting! May I ask where the data used to train came from?

Implementing a better system would effectively abolish copyright, but I’m pretty sure most people agree with your sentiment.

I’m an edge case where I don’t believe ideas/land/medicine/stars etc can’t or shouldn’t be “owned” by any one entity. It’s not feasible to expect it in practice, of course. But humans love to carve things up and arbitrarily assert ownership. Some traditional Native American ideas on this are the closest to what I’m chipping away at.