Technology

70996 readers

3565 users here now

This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.

Our Rules

Follow the lemmy.world rules.
Only tech related news or articles.
Be excellent to each other!
Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
Politics threads may be removed.
No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
Only approved bots from the list below, this includes using AI responses and summaries. To ask if your bot can be added please contact a mod.
Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed
Accounts 7 days and younger will have their posts automatically removed.

Approved Bots

founded 2 years ago

MODERATORS

[email protected]

743

Meta shareholders overwhelmingly rejected a proposal to explore adding Bitcoin to the company's treasury, with less than 1% voting in favor of the measure (www.dlnews.com)

submitted 6 days ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

237 comments fedilink hide all child comments

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] [email protected] 1 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Someone could say crypto "is a scam" in that the proof of work aspect encourages miners to keep adding more hash rate to the network so long as it is profitable to do so and not whether the network actually needs it. It takes crazy amounts of energy for simple transactions.

I don’t see how it makes it a scam. But anyways, by definition, a bigger hash rate is always good.

Someone could say crypto "is a scam" in that proof of stake algorithms (like Ether) is just a plot for the rich to get richer and favor early adopters who have more coins.

You mean just like stocks, and banks, and real estate, and investing? Doesn’t make it a scam either. Find better algorithms. Crypto works because people use it. If something is better for everyone, it’ll end up gaining traction.

Someone could say crypto "is a scam" in that it's controlled by technology and not laws and can't be fixed. Someone stealing it is more likely to get away with it because it's not like a company can just revert fraud.

I could see a valid reason in this but when you get into crypto, you know what to expect. I feel like I have been personally scammed by the banking system and PayPal through abusive reversals, which funnily enough, is fraud caused by the anti fraud system. Many people abuse this stuff.

For the crypto value thing. Well yea. Not everyone agrees it has value, but that stands for pretty much everything. You could draw a parallel with art. Most people don’t give a fuck about your black and blue painting that apparently costs millions. People might also not care about a blue spider hat. It doesn’t make it a scam in any way. If people pay, then it has value to them. No one forced them to buy crypto. They’re not a great value store, they’re a risky investment and usage product, just like stocks. It doesn’t make it a scam.

Someone could say crypto "is a scam" because it is often used in scams and makes it easier for scammers to be anonymous and lock down funds they steal.

Not a scam but it would be a valid reason to hate it. Cash is the same. Government seizing crypto because it was linked at some point to a scam even though you’re not linked to it is a scam imo.

I’m not really convinced by any of these reasons. They’re valid reason not to like crypto, but none of them makes it a scam.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Someone could say crypto "is a scam" in that proof of stake algorithms (like Ether) is just a plot for the rich to get richer and favor early adopters who have more coins.

You mean just like stocks, and banks, and real estate, and investing? Doesn’t make it a scam either. Find better algorithms. Crypto works because people use it. If something is better for everyone, it’ll end up gaining traction.

No, stocks, banks, and real estate do not give you more of themselves by mere fact of owning them. Some stocks pay dividends, but you don't get more stock for owning it, setting something up to buy more with dividends is your own decision. Banks give you interest, but that is not a function of how money works, that's something the bank does. Owning property does not give you more property over time. None of these are like how a proof of stake algorithm works.

Do I think it makes it a scam? No, not really. Do I think people saying it's a scam because of that are wildly off base? Fuck no. It's valid to be concerned about it. Do I think it's better than proof of work? Yeah, probably. The arms race of increasing hash rate so long as it's profitable energy wise is pretty nasty.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

I don’t agree with your first paragraph. It’s virtually the same as banks and stocks.

Banks give you interest, but that is not a function of how money works, that's something the bank does

So is owning ETH… all ETH is not staked. And even if it was, how does it matter? In the end everyone gains the same percentage.

Apart from that, everyone uses compounding interests and most people reinvests dividends.

You’re free to unstake your ETH at any point.