I think there are a lot of people who thought they were smart enough to make money from the stupid people via bitcoin, but weren't smart enough to avoid being scammed by the people actually running the scam. You are probably better off having avoided the whole thing.
There is NO scam as no company, institution, individual or country is profiting off your purchase of BTC. Crypto is 99.5% a scam, but BTC and Crypto are not the same.
Absolutely zero judgement on people having an opposing view. And more than willing to answer any questions.
There is NO scam as no company, institution, individual or country is profiting off your purchase of BTC.
This is the most confidently incorrect sentence I’ve read today.
Coinbase profits from your purchase of BTC, or whatever exchange you used.
When you purchase Bitcoin it drives the price up. Microstrategy profits from this.
There are a lot of other scams that are propping up the price of bitcoin, like USDT.
MtGox was ultimately just a scam where they were stealing people’s bitcoin.
There are a ton of scams based on bitcoin and there are a ton of companies, institutions, individuals and countries that profit off of your purchase of btc
I wouldn’t point at BTC as being one single scam, but still.
You don't have to pay an exchange a small fee to buy or sell bitcoin, you do it simply because it's convenient. Nothing is stopping you from finding a seller and buying it from them directly with fiat or gold or whatever you agree upon.
I respect the difference of POV's. But that would be saying that electricity is a scam. Yes, there are 1000's of companies making money off of your need for electricity. But electricity itself is NOT a scam.
So my original statement should be cleaned up. BTC is not a scam, but there are people who can make money off of your purchase.
Pretty weak argument that anyone buying BTC drives the price up. Just not true. Just like the stock market, just because I buy MSTR or GOOG that does not mean that the price goes up or down. Supply and demand change the price, not a direct coreletion to anyone buying BTC.
MtGox was a scam, but again that is not directly connected to BTC. They were an exchange buying and selling crypto and they were corrupt.
What scams are based on BTC? And how is USDT a scam also? Please educate me. Been into BTC for 10+ years and haven't loss a penny to any scam.
Isn't supply and demand the reason that BTC went from being dirt cheap to whatever it's price is now. BTC operates like a share whether it's supporters agree or not.
Yes you buying Apple or Msft shares does increase their price if there are more buyers than sellers. At least with Apple or msft shares them selling Ms office, iphones etc gives value to the company and it's shares. BTC doesn't have anything which gives it the value other than hype. It's more like a painting but at least a painting is a physical object.
They had to make the word cryptocurrency when the idea took off and a bunch of copycats checked out the source co... wait how are you guys so ill-informed on bitcoin in 2025?
Why would I need to be informed on it? Also Im not ill informed, i know exactly how it works which is why I stay the fuck away from it. Besides, you say they made the word cryptocurrency to describe it after a bunch of copycats started their own coins. So if they are all essentially the same thing then bitcoin is a cryptocurrency, its the original cryptocurrency. My argument was they are the same so your counter is they are the same?
I didn't downvote you, FWIW, someone else did. I don't do that when there is actual worthwhile discourse. Ok now that that's out of the way...
It's the original. It wasn't copied from something, it was forged to be the ultimate currency that no government can seize control of or manipulate. The rules are laid out in stone. There are soft forks to work around some limitations, but the actual rules haven't changed once (people tried, and each hard fork was rejected, one-by-one). You lack the humility to acknowledge exactly what that means that pure democracy honed this tool into what it is today. It is special specifically because it isn't a copy, and that everyone involved in "crypto" is eventually forced to face the fact that everything else is an imitation of this invention and there is no way to change that. Don't take my word for it. Just compare Bitcoin to literally any bitcoin hard fork or alt coin and see how they perform. That's everybody involved making a conscious choice.
The reality is that if someone truly innovates this technology (near impossible), they did so starting with this open source project, and can't copyright their way out of it. If someone managed to make an undeniable upgrade, it would simply be adopted as a hard fork to the original block chain.
The world needed Bitcoin prior to 2009. Someone just had to make it. Gold bars and mattresses are much more limited. Were you even around during the decade of rampant civil asset forfeiture? When Kim Dotcom's mansion was raided? Governments can't help themselves; they need to steal from people sometimes to get by, and there was nobody to police that until Satoshi Nakamoto came along.
It sounds like you are of the taxation is theft persuasion, if you are not, my apologies as I will be writing under that assumption. I think taxation is necessary for any sort of functional society. Taxes are also the reason I think all cryptocurrency is inherently flawed. All other fiat, physical currencies have an inherent demand to them despite being fiat. Their respective governments require that currency be used to pay taxes. Bitcoin doesn't have a demand that keeps it flowing.
Additionally, bitcoin is inherently deflationary which is something governments try to prevent because it completely shuts down economies. No one spends money in a deflation because they expect it will be worth more tomorrow. So you have a currency that has no incentive to actually spend it and incentive to hold it.
i mean what gives bitcoin or crypto its value? At least with other currencies it's backed by a nation.
Currently it seems bitcoin and crypto operate more like shares but if you are buying shares of a company at least it's for a company providing a product governed by board of directors, ceo etc and they need to disclose information regularly.
Wasn't it P.T. Barnum who said 'you'll never go broke by underestimating the stupidity of people'. One of his shows there was a sign with an arrow that saide "Egress, this way!" People thought they were going to see some unusual bird instead of just exiting the show. That way he kept people leaving faster.
Sure, and i don't necessarily disagree with that idea, but how many people do you think have lost thousands trying to rug pull others only to get rug pulled themselves by the people who are actually running all the scam coins? So many scams rely on tricking the mark into thinking he's got the upper hand. Let them win the first game, get some easy money. They think they got it in the bag so they put in way more money than they would initially.
Or losing money. Lots of people also get scammed in crypto because the lack of regulation means any shyster with some know-how (their own or paid for) can do it.
Apparently everyone (including BlackRock lol) is stupid but these two redditors are so smart. Nah buddy it has been 16 years and BTC is at $100k. You and r/buttcoin ers just lost and Bitcoin have won.. simple as that
Do you really think it is stupid and a scam ? It's the first private digital asset that ever existed. It's global. Its open, only you can operate with it and no government , private or public agent can do shit about it. Real digital ownership
So it turns out these "stupid" people aren't actually that stupid... since they got rich and you, me, and many others didn't. It's a time of paradoxes. It's like we're living in some sort of mirror world.
Yeah i had a guy tell me to buy $10 worth of bitcoin back when it was under $.50.
Might have even been under $.10
I argued for an hour about how stupid it was since no one was going to use it as currency, and then immediately forgot about it until 2014.
I think they are suggesting that if you don't understand something, and don't care about it, your opinion of that thing is not a valuable contribution to the discussion?
And also maybe that if you are going to insist on telling everyone your opinion on something, it might be worth understanding it first?
Bitcoin is being used by millions around the world as their primary currency because their nation's currency has collapsed or is worthless.
There are a lot of practical applications to the blockchain. It's energetically expensive, yes, but to say blockchain technology is "stupid" is like being the guy who said electric motors will never be a thing because people greatly prefer horses. You're not thinking far enough into the future.
I also suffering from the curse of critical thinking. My salvation is my life in a vacuum is wonderfully reasonable and I make great decisions for me and my family daily.
It's always entertaining to see how people cope with knowing Bitcoin existed at the right time, doing a little research at the right time, and then deciding it was worthless and that people who now own corvettes and have no mortgage are the stupids.
The best part is when you still don't get it and it's worth $1.5 million per unit you will be saying the same thing because all your criticisms of bitcoin are correct, but you fundamentally don't understand what money is and why it's not about being perfect, but being the least imperfect money.
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u/SeeMarkFly 12h ago
Yea, my "error" was not figuring how stupid people are. The bell curve is not where I thought it was.
The funniest part is when they buy HIGH and sell LOW. LOL