Sure. It’s not like you’re wrong. I just thought why is shit like shit is there for a moment. 
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I’m out of the bet.
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Weapon of mass destruction and egregious cruelty has been hidden.
A somewhat less violent way to make the same point:
(for the pedantic, yes XKCD is talking about cryptography rather than cryptocurrency, but the it makes little difference when you are getting whacked by the $5 wrench)
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I felt lost in this world awash in a sea of destitution and misery until I heard the sweet sound of the ponzi scream which lead me to a rocket ship full of chilled snickers and luke warm chablis.
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What’s lost on me, and I’m sure some of you can chime in - why do we have to malign the entire concept of a secure digital currency that’s decentralized just because the current state of it is mostly corrupt? Is this not the fault of the user and not the actual coin? And the most important question off all - what IS the alternative to our current fiat currency/fractional reserve/centralized system?
On a lighter note, you jokers know if Elektron released a crypto coin we’d all buy it!
Fair question, and here is my best attempt at a reasonable answer:
Crypto is a fun toy for math nerds and the comfortably well off. It feels pretty shitty to talk up a thing that has a large scam component to it where the audience is likely to be both young and financially unsophisticated.
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I don’t know but often when someone is critical of crypto with a crypto lover it feels like a discussion with a radiohead fan when you tell them that you think they suck.
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I don’t expect that @heretical_audio or I will change each others’ mind, which is why I don’t want to take this to DMs.
But if a barista is thinking about putting their money into an Octatrack or a crypto coin, I would like the record to show that I’m recommending the Octatrack. (after I sell all my music gear, barista is my post-apocalypse career plan)
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Bad advice. Obviously they should be investing in aged puehr.
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OK so then we all agree that the way forward is to invest in Elektron Octocoin? To the moon HODL YOLO! …
*quietly goes off grid and grows food in a deep underground bunker
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You can’t take the human element out of the equation, or can you? Same reason our current socio-economic system is what it is.
Maybe the question should be how would you prefer to get fucked? Slowly and steadily, but in a more or less stable relationship or do you prefer the one night stand, you never want to see again, but still talk about?
Cue auto tune mumblics:
The scam dog wagon’s rollin, it’s rollin, da-da-da…
It’s rollin’, it come crashin’ lololol
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So that’s what’s in the trailer! Now the graphics makes sense. I take back everything I said 
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Honestly, this topic is kinda hard to argue productively about. Arguing with crypto lovers and crypto haters is a waste of time, and arguing with reasonable people is hardly possible as the points of view turn out to be more or less similar.
I’d rather have a dick saber fight on topic of best compact grooveboxes or something.
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I forgot to mention that the snickers are actually being used as corks in all the bottles.
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Umm, yeah. Exactly that. It’s the “well at least Madoff employed a few people” argument.
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probably bunch of graphic cards to mine crypto
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this aged well
Ok, leaving aside the fact that the entire field is ripe with grifters and scammers and ultra libertarians who think the way to help the unbanked is to expose them to anonymous grifters in a completely unregulated market …
Proof of Work is environmentally DISASTROUS and mining bitcoin (or any PoW coins) should be made illegal. Using as much energy as the whole of Austria just to be able to gamble on scam tokens, with absolutely no physical or financial benefit outside the crypto markets, is unacceptable. It’s not like they’re mining and producing minerals or cars or kitchen utensils, they’re just burning coal for bitcoin’s sake. There’s no intrinsic value, except as a volatile investment that might increase in price. Nobody uses bitcoin for buying groceries or salaries, its volatility makes that ridiculous. So let the planet burn to get rich. Great.
Proof of Stake avoids the massive environmental issue, but now it’s just a case of whoever has the biggest pile of coins gets to earn fees for validating transactions. So much for decentralisation, and so much for sticking it to the man. The rich get richer, where have we seen that before?
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Centralised power generally rests in the hands of Governments, Gangsters and Bankers.
I see at least 2 out of three all over this Crypto shit, so how is it decentralised?
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Fin25 is right above.
First: if we adopt crypto, the biggest benefits accrue to those who got in earliest - likely its creators - who are now sitting on a giant pile of cash. That’s enormously redistributive, towards a small number of already (relatively) wealthy people. If the problem with the current system is inequality, well this is a thousand times worse for anyone who hasn’t already loaded their bags. There is no incentive for anyone else to encourage the use of a system that will impoverish them.
Second: the problem that crypto solves (traceability, immutability) is not really a problem in our financial system. SWIFT et cetera work well in that regard. Banks can’t just rip each other off without anyone noticing.
Third: central bank/fiat policy is often shitty, but that’s a political not technical problem. Moving onto a gold standard would achieve the same thing, and also remind us why no one stuck to it - having a deflationary currency brings serious problems of its own.
So it’s a no from me. (Also, it’s all scams, with the biggest - Tether - yet to fall, which it definitely will.)
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