It is funny that bitcoin millionaires quickly jump on real property with their gains… after all, land is one resource Mother Nature does not make more of (except maybe on the Big Island, 
).
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I meant no one here talking about their bitcoin is in this category: “As the author points out the perspective is different ‘If you are one of the tens of millions of people using it as a tool to escape monetary repression, hyper inflation or capital controls’.”
And again, these are the folks most likely in the path of the existential threat of climate change.
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Harder and harder to find - the world is awash in textiles, and “third world” doesn’t mean what it used to. Water’s the more difficult commodity to come by, but that’s beginning to be true in rich countries, too.
If you think about the infrastructure and educational systems required to make Bitcoin go, I think you’ll have your answer. You have to have the reliable high-volume grid, the hardware, the software, the design and promotional talent, this is not coming from dollar-a-day land where lines get stolen for their metal content and the power goes out on the regular.
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So let’s say you live in Caracas. You want Bitcoin instead of USD or some other stable currency why?
Or let’s say you live in Pakistan. You’re not some lone guy or a high roller, you’re trying to raise a family. You’re buying Bitcoin so you can buy food why? When you know people, and can barter, and do all the other things people do to get by without risking lots of their money in one go?
If you step back and look at the monetary repression etc. argument, this is another “government and NGOs, who needs 'em, tech will solve everything” argument. I mean why have diplomacy when you can have Bitcoin? Look up “twitter Arab Spring” and see how well it goes when you’re relying on apps to run your utopia.
In the end, if you’re trying to balance environmental cost with social benefit, you also have to ask whether there are other less costly, less damaging ways to get the social benefit, and whether the bits of social benefit you might get are worth global-scale environmental cost.
I’m guessing they also just don’t know what else to do with it. Part of the problem when you start from “I want to win biggest” rather than “here are the things I want to buy, now how much money will I need.”
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Because with dollars or other conventional currencies you would need to hold in physical form in a country like Venezuela vs Bitcoins non physical “digital wallet”.
“In the end, if you’re trying to balance environmental cost with social benefit, you also have to ask whether there are other less costly, less damaging ways to get the social benefit, and whether the bits of social benefit you might get are worth global-scale environmental cost.”
I hope China, Iran, Kazakhstan and Russia buy into your altruism.
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Because banking doesn’t work from Caracas? Many of us haven’t used physical cash in years, here or abroad.
That’s hardly a response – part “two wrongs is a great idea” and part ignorance of the unfortunate enthusiasm among some in environmental circles about just how fast China puts through environmental reform when it wants to. Not a lot of democracy standing in their way. In the meantime, the old West is the collection of actors who make a difference in consumption patterns – we’re still the world’s biggest consumers. The altruism-related dig is also inappropriate. It’s not altruism; it’s just not arrant, heedless selfishness.
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I’ve started playing around with apps on the ethereum blockchain and have bought some of the erc20 defi tokens as well as a few lower value NFTs. It’s fascinating technology! Every day I learn a little more about navigating the space and what the different apps can do.
The ethereum blockchain is moving toward proof of stake (away from proof of work) for its consensus layer. Once switched over, the blockchain won’t rely on “miners” (using computational energy) to validate transactions. Validation will happen through staking, which doesn’t involve solving complex mathematical problems. POS will use less energy and will allow more users to “stake” their eth which allows them to participate in validating blockchain transactions. POS will make the blockchain even more decentralized and thus ultimately more secure. It’s pretty mind blowing stuff, what these developers are building on ethereum’s blockchain.
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Only if you are willing to place your money in a state owned bank in a totalitarian country with a history of confiscation of “wealth” given they are socialists.
I will leave it at that as I don’t want to go back and forth.
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There are multiple competitors in the space with interesting tech. Algorand is another. It still doesn’t tell us anything about the worth of their token.
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Yes there are multiple other “layer ones” or so called “eth killers” like Algorand… each with different approaches to dealing with the “trilemma” of balancing blockchain security, decentralization, and block size. Each chooses/prioritizes one or two features at the expense of the third feature. No single “layer one” at the moment has the technology to max all three out simultaneously. So it makes sense for developers to try different protocols to see if they can find the best balance.
Regarding value, a lot is already known about the value of ethereum as a digital asset. IMO Ethereum has a huge advantage over the so called “eth killers” for a variety of reasons… not the least of which is that eth (the token) is the established fee/gas used for transactions across all ethereum compatible applications.
In addition, eth is becoming more scarce (post EIP-1559) since most of the eth used to pay for those transactions now gets burned by the protocol. According to websites that track this data, there were 1.345 million transactions throughout the ethereum ecosystem yesterday alone (in defi, smart contracts, NFT minting/trading etc.) with a burn rate of more than 14,840 eth. That is approximately $60M worth of eth burned in one day! I find it mind boggling how much money is already in this space, and eth is only getting more scarce.
Black swans and all that… it does feel a lot like March 2000 at the moment
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I remember like it was yesterday when my barber was justifying buying Qualcomm at some crazy valuation.
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How do you buy erc20 defi tokens? It seems like a broad category. The only way I know is to buy a specific token
@seal16 It’s a really broad category for sure! I’m still trying to wrap my head around how most of the defi protocols work so I’m not too invested other than small amounts in some of the “blue chip” defi tokens- (aave, Link, Uni). Mostly I feel like eth is the asset I want for the long term because of its utility and staying power.
One thing I’ve come across when using the Zerion.io app is that it gives you access to invest in any number of defi indexes that hold certain tokens. That seems like a nice way to get exposure to different types of defi tokens without having to purchase and hold the individual tokens in your wallet. So you might want to check out those indexes if you want to invest in “tokenized baskets of high quality defi projects” (as described by Zerion) 
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Yeah, but This Time It’s Different.
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Not me. I don’t really understand it, and it has an “interesting reputation” to say the least, IMHO. I may be mistaken, but I think the 2020 Form 1040 was the first time the IRS asked if the filer owned crypto. So, I suspect the regulatory oversight, at least from a federal tax perspective, is already here in the US.
I guess if you understand it’s fine, but it’s definitely specifically reportable now under US tax laws. It’s literally a yes or no question under oath, so anyone having cryptocurrency needs to disclose. That’s a clear sign the US is upping the ante and, at the very least, want to know if US filers have it.
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H spent a lot of money plus electricity “mining” bitcoin but never ended up with much. He lost track of whatever he was was able to “mine.” The computer and parts we bought surely cist much more than whatever he “mined.” Haven’t done anything further in crypto currencies.
There is no such thing as free lunch!
https://www.cnn.com/2021/11/01/investing/squid-game-cryptocurrency-scam/index.html
Don’t waste your money on that. Crypto is good in theory, but it’s too volatile and complicated to be useful for anyone except a handful of enthusiasts. It’s impossible to run a household or business if your money jumps up and down like a yo-yo on steroids. I certainly won’t be basing my savings or retirement on that thing. And no…it won’t be replacing the dollar. Crypto is a hedge fund at best. Inflation always precedes a recession, which deflates the dollar. Once that happens, crypto goes away along with every other hedge fund. If you want a hedge, buy something of actual value…gold, silver, puppy breeding…something.
That sounds like sage advice…except “puppy breeding”?!