The crypto thread

[warpus]

Are those really currencies, though? Gold (and other commodities) can be used as money, but is not really a currency until someone mints their head on it and thus becoming responsible for the value of the resulting coins.

Yeah, isn't this a part of the reason why a lot of countries never used or don't use gold as a reserve? It's expensive to ship around to other countries to settle your debts, it's not straightforward to buy things with it, it's big and bulky and you have to store and guard it somewhere, etc.. Didn't a lot of countries rely on another country to store their gold too? That seems like a risky proposition too, especially if you have a conflict with that country of some sort..

I could be way off of course.. but it seems that gold as a currency worked better on a smaller scale, back when "hey it's shiny and has the stamp of our dude on it" was good enough as far as value goes

 

[Samson]

Terra decides to release "Terra 2.0", because apparently the way to fix a crypto catastrophe is with more crypto

Following the dramatic collapse of Terra earlier this month, the Terra ecosystem voted to pass a proposal by Do Kwon to create "Terra 2.0". The project intends to "effectively create a new Terra chain without the algorithmic stablecoin"—an odd choice given that the whole point of the original Terra was the stablecoin. The proposal also involves renaming the existing Luna ($LUNA) coin to "Luna Classic" ($LUNC), so that Luna 2.0 can take its place—a change that I'm sure will not cause any confusion whatsoever.

Billy Markus, one of the original creators of the Dogecoin cryptocurrency (both of whom have since left the project), tweeted, "luna 2.0 will show the world just how truly dumb crypto gamblers really are".

Terra tweet Billy Markus tweet

 

[RobAnybody]

Though most of human history the value of currency has been determined by peoples belief in the value of something, be that cowries, stones with holes in or gold. Also very few things have been "accepted universally", I guess gold comes close but many currencies have been localised, both geographically and by sector of the economy.

Agreed. I think it's a mistake to think of Crypto as "currency". Even though in very limited spheres it can be used to actually purchase stuff. It's far better to think of it as a collectible - like baseball cards, or stamps, or... you know by now.

Its only value is what people are willing to pay for it.

Also, re: Terra 2.0. Just in keeping with my previous reasoning: Terra 2.0 was sloppily reintroduced in the DC Universe but was killed by Black Adam, which is a movie coming out in October, 22 starring The Rock as Black Adam, so... clearly, by comic book reasoning, Terra 2.0 will suffer a horrible death in 5 months.

 

[amadeus]

Yeah, isn't this a part of the reason why a lot of countries never used or don't use gold as a reserve? It's expensive to ship around to other countries to settle your debts, it's not straightforward to buy things with it, it's big and bulky and you have to store and guard it somewhere, etc.. Didn't a lot of countries rely on another country to store their gold too? That seems like a risky proposition too, especially if you have a conflict with that country of some sort..

A lot of countries have kept their gold reserves in America for this reason, being that it is bulky and this facilitates gold exchanges; rather than moving all the gold, bank officials just switched a faceplate next to where it sat.

These countries as recently as they held a gold reserve did not keep a 100% reserve: there was not an ounce of gold for every $35 in circulation, and individual holders of $ could not receive specie. Given that an ounce of gold today costs $1850, the reserve would run out pretty quickly if we put it back on its last peg from the seventies! (about $40/oz)

I mean, who wouldn’t like an instant 4,600% return on an investment?

 

[Birdjaguar]

Pick your poison:

https://coinmarketcap.com/all/views/all/

 

[amadeus]

Pork bellies, which is used to make bacon, which you might find in a 'bacon, lettuce and tomato' sandwich.

 

[Samson]

Agreed. I think it's a mistake to think of Crypto as "currency". Even though in very limited spheres it can be used to actually purchase stuff. It's far better to think of it as a collectible - like baseball cards, or stamps, or... you know by now.

Its only value is what people are willing to pay for it.

You could be right, but if you are I think they have no future. They only have real medium to long term value if they can do stuff.

 

[FriendlyFire]

Pork bellies, which is used to make bacon, which you might find in a 'bacon, lettuce and tomato' sandwich.

I have invested in a large stockpile of SPAM. Due to incoming food price increases I am now slightly richer
Apparently the US has a very wide selection of SPAM flavors which they don't export,

 

[Samson]

Deep fake Elon Musk selling crypto stuffs. I am sure they only worked out it was not him because the audio is so bad, it does not look any more scammy that most of what he gets up to.

 

[Samson]

Do Kwon, creator of LUNA told everyone that the plan was for LUNA to go to zero, and they had a plan, called Luna armageddon, for when that happened. Sorry the only reference is youtube.

Spoiler 10 minute youtube about what a cluster_ LUNA was :

 

[amadeus]

People think commodities are a bad hedge against inflation, but what’s even worse are Wheel of Fortune vowels. If you were holding onto that “E” you got from Chuck Woolery in 1975 for $250, it would only be worth $45 today.

that’s a horrible investment

 

[stinkubus]

When did Chuck Woolery host Wheel of Fortune?

 

[amadeus]

When did Chuck Woolery host Wheel of Fortune?

He was the original host from 1975 to 1981 when Sajak took over. Woolery wanted a salary increase, which NBC (Wheel was not syndicated then) offered to pay but Merv Griffin threatened to move the show to CBS, NBC rescinded its offer, and Woolery left.

Woolery and then Sajak’s co-host, Susan Stafford, stayed on for another year before leaving and was replaced by Vanna White. Stafford actually went on to date Dan Enright, who was probably best known for his involvement of rigging game shows like Twenty-One with his partner Jack Barry. Barry and Enright would later come back to television in the sixties and seventies creating Tic-Tac-Dough and The Joker’s Wild.

Woolery later went on to host Scrabble, which I thought was a highly under-rated series. The show is actually nothing like the game except for the fact that it has letters.

 

[stinkubus]

I remember Scrabble. I'm a bit too young to have seen Woolery on Wheel of Fortune.

Obligatory

 

[Aiken_Drumn]

Friends who were talking a lot about their coins are awfully quiet these days...

 

[warpus]

My nieces' education fund portfolio is definitely down! By 40% I think.

Good thing she's still only 2 years old! The more volatile/risky parts of the portfolio def. dropped more, too.

We'll see where it's at in a year's time, and in two years time, which will be more or less when the next Bitcoin halving event is.. which usually leads to bear market runs. We'll see if it happens again, as it has after every single such event in the past.

But hey that's the thing. People buying altcoins are hoping to make a quick buck.. usually. Long term Hodlers aren't flinching. Just hold and wait

 

[innonimatu]

@warpus you should understand that no one is going to keep playing around with purely speculative stuff once interest rates rise. They go to their actual use value in that scenario, zero.

The people seeing them rising slowly are probably right, but rising they are. cryptocrap, as other speculative bubbles, is a product of the "quantitative easing" thing. It won't last past it.

 

[RobAnybody]

But hey that's the thing. People buying altcoins are hoping to make a quick buck.. usually. Long term Hodlers aren't flinching. Just hold and wait

Exactly! I will buy the occasional SHIBA-type coin hoping to make a mint, but I'm hodling my Etherium. Altcoin millionaires are purely "luck", & I have not been lucky in that respect, but it's worth holding (or hodling even) the big names.

Who knows? They may never recover. But we've been here before. The last time crypto "totally crashed" & was "over" was... two years ago, I think? I believe it happened in 2018 as well.

 

[Birdjaguar]

@warpus you should understand that no one is going to keep playing around with purely speculative stuff once interest rates rise. They go to their actual use value in that scenario, zero.

The people seeing them rising slowly are probably right, but rising they are. cryptocrap, as other speculative bubbles, is a product of the "quantitative easing" thing. It won't last past it.

So you are saying that rising interest rates will reduce the demand (which forces prices up/down) for crypto currencies such that prices plummet to near zero? And those already at near zero pricing?

 

[stinkubus]

Speculative assets would become relatively less attractive if interest rates go up and stay there. Demand for these things is completely irrational anyway. I don't think my bank raising the APR on their money market accounts from .05 to .10 or whatever is going to dissuade random people who are interested in crypto and the institutional investors probably have these markets nearly cornered, anyway. From what I've read ownership is overwhelmingly concentrated in a few hands and most of the volume on the exchanges is fraudulent.