• partial_accumen@lemmy.world
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    3 hours ago

    I grew up using the (actual paper) card catalog in the library to find books and yes I predate VHS. However, I even understand crypto, but I think my definition may vary slightly from younger folks “understanding”.

    Crypto has no intrinsic value like gold, and as fiat currency isn’t even backed by any nationstate. This means any appreciation is based upon the “greater fool” model. Its not an investment. Its a series of Ponzi schemes so repeated that the term “rug pull” is right at home in the crypto world. I’m old enough to see other Ponzi schemes and know how they end up.

    The only real value that I can see for crypto is bypassing of national monetary controls. As in, you can buy crypto in your home country with your home country’s currency, then travel to another country with just your coins (as hex values on paper if you want to go that far) and exchange those coins for fiat currency in the other country. This isn’t unique to crypto though. You could do the same with buying rare Pokemon cards and transporting them with a slightly higher risk of seizure at one nation’s border. There might even be less volatility in Pokemon cards than many crypto currencies.

    So many trends are variations on things we’ve already seen before. Bernie Madoff would have been right at home with cypto.