this post was submitted on 05 Oct 2024
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totally whiffed on crypto.
at least 130 countries are working on developing national cryptocurrencies.
Bitcoin goes from $15 to $62,000 in ten years
crypto market cap goes from $11 billion to two trillion dollars in ten years.
The only people calling crypto a failure are ig'nant or covered in salt.
CBDCs aren't cryptocurrencies.
As for the rest, "It's good because it's making lots of money" isn't as persuasive an argument as you think it is.
commenting again cause the other poster's remark prodded me into digging the numbers on fundraising and it's pretty interesting :
So the best year for crypto was 2021 with >30B$ raised. 2024 is projected for 10B$ raised so indeed that's a divide by 3, pretty grim picture, right ?
Except if you take a look across industries, it's obvious that 2021 was an anomaly year everywhere. For example Healthtech peaked around 60B$ in 2021 before going down to 15B$ in 2024. Surely you don't think that Healthtech is a dead fad, do you ? That pattern is consistent across industries.
Sorry, I'm a bit confused by the "fundraising" terminology. Is this in regards to investments in the cryptocurrency industry, such as exchanges and other corporations, or individual purchases of the raw assets?
Looking at market cap, Bitcoin peaked earlier this year at $1.43 trillion and is currently at $1.23 trillion. That's only a 14% drop. If you look at the global cryptocurrency market cap, it peaked in 2021 at $3.07 trillion and is currently at $2.26 trillion. That's a 26% drop. I understand that you don't think crypto is dead, but there's a lot of delusion in this thread. Surely, if cryptocurrencies are dead, Disney (down 53% from peak) and Intel (down 67% from peak) are on life support.
Good point, the health of the speculative market ("people buying and selling btc and other cryptos") is a different thing from the health of the industry ("people starting crypto projects and raising VC money to fund them").
By fundraising, i meant the second one. I find it to be a better indicator because it sends the message that people are building projects with promises of value convincing enough that VCs invest in them. I personally think those promises are bullshit but if VCs are pouring 10 billion bucks a year in an industry you cannot credibly call it dead or dying.
To the more general point of the meme... some people only consume headlines. Their pattern is easily recognizable :
It's the same energy as QAnon when they were convinced that Trump would parachute from a helicopter at Biden's investiture to commandeer the US army and publicly execute Hilary Clinton. They really do believe the "AI hype" is about to simmer down and then they'll have been right all along lmao
I don't think GP is arguing that crypto is a good thing here. They are refuting the meme which calls crypto a dead fad.
As mind boggling as it may sound, crypto is still a very strong industry, raising about 10 billion per year. Sure fundraising has been divided by 3 since the hype years but that's still very comfortable numbers.
Again, not saying it is a good thing. But just because it doesn't make mainstream headlines anymore doesn't mean it's dead.
I agree with everything you're saying except crypto is not down by more than half since it's peak.
You know what you're right, i was mistakenly taking 2022 as a baseline. I'll edit my original comment to reflect that.
"CBDCs aren't cryptocurrencies"
Love to hear how you think cryptographic digital currencies aren't cryptographic digital currencies.
"As for the rest, "It's good because it's making lots of money""
cryptocurrencies are exceptionally popular tech with very active communities developing new technology that is constantly gaining popularity and value.
by your flawed metrics, solar power is "hype".
Not all digital currencies are cryptocurrencies. CBDCs are digital implementations of government-backed fiat currencies. If you don't understand the difference I don't have time to try to convince you, sorry.
Solar power produces energy. Cryptocurrency produces nothing and wastes energy doing it.
whiffwhiffff.
but hey, you swung.
Strange hill for them to die on... A quick search makes it obvious that CBDCs use cryptography
Strange hill to die on. A quick search makes it obvious that credit cards use cryptography.
Hey dude, cryptography != cryptocurrency. Cryptography just says "yes, this person made this transaction, I am sure of it as a computer because this math checks out".
Wait, so you're telling me that every time I swipe my VISA and smugly explain to the cashier that I'm a crypto bro, I've been the fool all along? Please excuse me while I begin to question everything in my life
yup, they must have realized the hole they're digging isn't getting any shallower.
but with six.
Hahaha, this is so funny.
Neither of the C's stand for cryptography and they don't even require a blockchain, but can use one.
glad somebody's reading.
keep on.
Crypto is a speculative market. That doesn't make it a good currency - in fact, it makes it a very bad currency. Bitcoins changing in value so much and so rapidly makes them awful for use as a daily currency, and they're backed by fiat currencies anyways because otherwise, they'd have no value.
The only reason people care about crypto is because they think they can make a lot of money off of it when they hand the bag off to somebody else.
"[Fiat currency] is a speculative market. That doesn't make it a good currency - in fact, it makes it a very bad currency. [Dollars] changing in value so much and so rapidly makes them awful for use as a daily currency, and they're backed by [gold] anyways because otherwise, they'd have no value."
yes, yes, go on.
"The only reason people care about [fiat] is because they think they can make a lot of money off of it when they hand the bag off to somebody else."
It's good that fiat currency never really got a foothold or it looks like you wouldn't have any argument.
Bitcoin dropped 0.68% 2 days ago, rose 1.13% yesterday, and has dropped 0.93% today. By comparison, the dollar dropped 0.00995% in the last 24 hours compared to the Euro, with the largest change being a +0.14703% change compared to the Australian dollar.
On Jan 1st, 2018, 1 bitcoin was worth $15,196.60. One year later, it was worth $3,851.92. As of this moment, it's worth $61,721.47, has dropped 6.11% this week, and gone up 10% in the last 30 days - making it worth $5,613.31 more than it was at the start of September.
Since 2017, 1 bitcoin has gone up 1,291.05% in value. 1 USD in 2017 is worth $1.28 today - an increase of 28% over 7 years and an average inflation rate of 3.64%. The current inflation rate compared to the end of last year is now 2.53%. If this number holds, $1 today will be worth $1.03 next year.
Tell me which one is the more stable currency to base your product's prices on. Pricing things in Bitcoin is like pricing them in stocks.
or like The fluctuations in gold, silver, fiat or commodities when they first appeared in the market.
Good thing none of those panned out or you wouldn't have a leg to stand on.
Oh, yes, let me go and buy me weekly groceries with a lump of gold like I'm a fucking leprechaun, because clearly gold and silver are still used as currency all around the world. /s
good luck.
It's an interesting idea, but it'll be tricky to pull off because governments and corporations have convinced you and everybody else that pieces of paper and promissory digital notes are more valuable than material resources.
Let me clarify since apparently you're too fucking dense (or realistically, willfully obtuse for the purpose of trolling) to get the point:
There's not a single store, anywhere in the world, that will allow me to directly exchange gold for goods. At best, they will convert that gold into dollars using a third party exchange, and then conduct the transaction using dollars. If you're comparing crypto to gold, silver, or the commodities market, then that means cryptocurrency has failed at its stated goal of providing a digital currency.
"There's not a single store, anywhere in the world, that will allow me to directly exchange gold for goods."
although you are incorrect since pawn shops obviously accept gold as currency, It's cool that you're agreeing with me that most businesses won't take it because governments and companies have convinced you the digital promissory notes and paper are more valuable than material resources.
"If you're comparing crypto to gold, silver, or the commodities..."
I'm comparing cryptocurrency to other currencies.
It's very funny that currency confuses you the way it does, but cryptocurrency has very much succeeded at providing a digital currency.
they are literally digital currencies that you can use to exchange for goods.
The success, security and convenience of digital currency is the reason 130 countries are developing discrete central banking and national currencies.
it sounds like you are confusing cryptocurrency with some kind of archaic magic.
cryptocurrency is digital currency (a ledger of account balances on the computer) secured with cryptography (password protected).
digital currency started as bank accounts, moved on to debit cards, then credit cards, then direct payment systems like UPI in India or WeChat in China, and the newest iteration of digital currency is cryptocurrency.
cryptographically secure digital currency.
type your thoughts and assumptions into a search bar first.
you can read the information, critically analyze and adjust your assumptions, and then write down informed thoughts instead of regurgitating misinformation and uninformed opinion.