The very fact that it’s “fake money for criminals” is exactly why I didn’t pick up any BitCoin when it was 12p per coin… I could have been rich af off of £10
I too, ran across Bitcoin in the VERY early days, when it was pennies. I thought it was a scam and probably illegal, I mean “people can’t just set up their own currency, can they?” It didn’t help that I first found it when I was poking around in Tor, wondering what the “dark web” was all about.
It is very traceable. It’s just that the government doesn’t have a special position with tracing transactions, so there’s been a bunch of kludges built on top of the very transparent Bitcoin network to try to mask things.
For your lay: the government puts a significant fraction of the coins into these boxes and can use the statistical information gained from this to deobfuscate transactions. If you put enough money in, either at once or slowly over time, they can figure out who you are.
There are plenty of issues beyond that, especially BTC and similar coins being energy inefficient, just imagine if every single transaction ran through that. It wasn’t designed to be practical.
And on the less technical side, the biggest contributor to crypto being despised by most people is the massive prevalence of scammers, from companies that pretend to help you invest (while being a ponzi scheme) to rug pulls to other scammers being attracted to it for its perceived anonymity.
Afaik there’s legitimate uses for the underlying technology, but cryptocurrency is just inferior to regular digital currency from a practical standpoint, and you either have to put up with government regulation (defeating the purpose of a currency aside from government) or put up with fraud that can’t be stopped by our governments.
the biggest contributor to crypto being despised by most people is the massive prevalence of scammers
At risk of being called a crypto bro or something (I’m really not, I learned all this shit years before everything turned into what it is), I’d like to play Devil’s advocate here for the moment and ask how that’s different from fiat currency?
USD is practically untraceable, and people are being scammed out of it constantly with no recourse.
That’s very understandable, but impractical for investments and savings, the US insures some banks and the like but it doesn’t insure crypto funds, if people’s savings end up there based on false promises (or if their assets are managed by a third party) they can lose everything and have no recourse.
This isn’t a hypothetical, it’s the story of countless people who lost everything to grifters. I don’t think blaming individuals makes a lot of sense when it comes to emerging technology and when, again, regular finance is generally insured by the state. The biggest reason for scammers to flock to crypto is that there’s a lot less regulation, making it harder to prosecute them. And that’s my original point on the choice we have right now, even if ideally we want better choices in the future. Right now you either go with a traditional institution for financial services, which includes government oversight, or you operate on your own and assume a lot of risks, whether you’re even aware of that or not (and financial actors purposely deceive people on this end, as it’s in their best interest to do so).
The very fact that it’s “fake money for criminals” is exactly why I didn’t pick up any BitCoin when it was 12p per coin… I could have been rich af off of £10
I too, ran across Bitcoin in the VERY early days, when it was pennies. I thought it was a scam and probably illegal, I mean “people can’t just set up their own currency, can they?” It didn’t help that I first found it when I was poking around in Tor, wondering what the “dark web” was all about.
Haha, what an idiot!
Yeah, I didn’t get any either. :-/
“criminals” = people the goverment doesnt like crypto is untraceable (mostly)
I think thats why there are so many smear campaigns against it
Super super incorrect.
It is very traceable. It’s just that the government doesn’t have a special position with tracing transactions, so there’s been a bunch of kludges built on top of the very transparent Bitcoin network to try to mask things.
For laypersons: they put all the coins in a box and shake the box.
For your lay: the government puts a significant fraction of the coins into these boxes and can use the statistical information gained from this to deobfuscate transactions. If you put enough money in, either at once or slowly over time, they can figure out who you are.
thats the point, its decentralized
anything is traceable IF you have a special position in the transactions
monero, as an example, lets you run your own node
Monero is untraceable (if you don’t use a KYC exchange to get it), but Monero isn’t “most” crypto.
You said crypto, in general, is mostly untraceable and that’s very very wrong.
Monero is the exception, not the rule.
There are plenty of issues beyond that, especially BTC and similar coins being energy inefficient, just imagine if every single transaction ran through that. It wasn’t designed to be practical.
And on the less technical side, the biggest contributor to crypto being despised by most people is the massive prevalence of scammers, from companies that pretend to help you invest (while being a ponzi scheme) to rug pulls to other scammers being attracted to it for its perceived anonymity.
Afaik there’s legitimate uses for the underlying technology, but cryptocurrency is just inferior to regular digital currency from a practical standpoint, and you either have to put up with government regulation (defeating the purpose of a currency aside from government) or put up with fraud that can’t be stopped by our governments.
At risk of being called a crypto bro or something (I’m really not, I learned all this shit years before everything turned into what it is), I’d like to play Devil’s advocate here for the moment and ask how that’s different from fiat currency?
USD is practically untraceable, and people are being scammed out of it constantly with no recourse.
Bitcoin energy use doesn’t scale with the number of transactions but based upon the competition for mining.
so you have to put up with surveillance or put up with freedom?
I dont think the state should be able to trace transactions
That’s very understandable, but impractical for investments and savings, the US insures some banks and the like but it doesn’t insure crypto funds, if people’s savings end up there based on false promises (or if their assets are managed by a third party) they can lose everything and have no recourse.
This isn’t a hypothetical, it’s the story of countless people who lost everything to grifters. I don’t think blaming individuals makes a lot of sense when it comes to emerging technology and when, again, regular finance is generally insured by the state. The biggest reason for scammers to flock to crypto is that there’s a lot less regulation, making it harder to prosecute them. And that’s my original point on the choice we have right now, even if ideally we want better choices in the future. Right now you either go with a traditional institution for financial services, which includes government oversight, or you operate on your own and assume a lot of risks, whether you’re even aware of that or not (and financial actors purposely deceive people on this end, as it’s in their best interest to do so).
so basically, research the crypto you buy and practice basic cybersecurity?
sure, it wasnt designed for everybody, but that isnt a reason to smear it