What? Nothing on the arrest of SBF? The silence is deafening!

In reply to Beer Baron :

The focus on legal is interesting here. Opposition is the real key. You dont always have to be breaking the law for financial institutions to shut you down.

By your account it would have been fine to sanction the northern states for not enforcing the Fugitive Slave Act, as in they werent capturing run away slaves and returning them to the southern states. They were legally required to and they weren't, but the southern states were acting within their legal rights to keep slaves and they had laws saying their slaves had to be returned.

Governments have done terrible things big and small all through human history, and most of them were perfectly legal. We used to try and mitigate this through protests and speech. These are increasingly frowned upon. Just because things are legal doesnt mean they are good, just because they are illegal doesnt mean they are bad.

If you oppose the power structure or the government today they have even more power to shut you down, up to and including your financial means. They can always find a legal justification to do it. Its not always the government sometimes its just the current establishment, you may say something that visa doesnt agree and they decide to dump you. I think crypto is useful as a way for the normal person to support the protestors pushing back against the govt or establishment if the idea isnt popular. Lots of good things werent popular at first.

If you dont like the truckers, another example is Ukraine. Crypto use has gone way up in Ukraine because of the war access to financial institutions may be limited, it is easier for foreign supporters to donate directly to the war effort, and when you are trying to survive an invasion its a benefit to not have to involve a third party to trade for your basic necessities or weapons.

Remember when prominent political figures were calling for the Trump Accountability Project, where they were going to list donors, appointees, and supporters so they could be blacklisted for supporting Trump. Or the people who lost their jobs based on who they donated to in the election (both sides). Maybe there is a place in our world for private transactions.

In reply to Opti :

You mean like the 4th amendment?

It offers protection from searches and seizures BY THE GOVERNMENT. It offers no protections against someone like SBF. 
 

As far as FDIC goes, the limit is $250,000 per person per asset class per institution. If you want to stick more than that in a cash account, all you have to do is open another account. 
 

Comparing the security of a bank to crypto is absurd. 

In reply to SV reX :

I meant the first, third, fourth, fifth and ninth amendments. Yes Im aware that limits the GOVERNMENT, i used it as an illustration of how important it USED to be in this country, thats why I said the founding fathers thought it was important.

I didnt compare the security of a bank to crypto, I simply stated the fact that your money might disappear, which you bought up, is also possible with the bank. Also not all banks are FDIC insured (most are), and not all accounts can be insured (most peoples are). I have said many times crypto is risky right now, like any emerging market, and will say absolutely that in general a bank is more safe than crypto. 

Keeping money in a bank isnt without risk though, or a better word would be cost. With inflation your money constantly becomes worth less and less, so smart money goes to an asset, and with ANY asset is risk, sometimes massive risk. Emerging markets/industries are always risky.  

Crypto will not replace FIAT currency, it will be around for the long haul.

I wonder if back in the day people were saying cars were a scam and dangerous because they were so E36 M3ty in the early days? Oh wait i know they were

Opti said:

In reply to GIRTHQUAKE :

Iran has applied to join and last I heard Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Afghanistan were also looking to join. I understand that the USD is the current global currency, but prior to WWI there wasnt enough USD for it to be the global currency either. To think because it currently is means it always will be is wrong, look back through history and stuff changes a bunch, especially in times of conflict, and we are in the middle of a conflict that people seem pretty on board to escalate.

Bro again, BRICS is not a group. It was just an acronym a writer for The Economist made up for a group of countries they thought were up-and-coming, that has since been taken over (mostly by Putinphiles) trying to claim their nation is going to overtake the USA in the next decade or whatever.

China is also trying to expand its reach and influence with the Belt and Road Initiative. Sure Russia is facing a lot of pressure because of the invasion, all the while our allies like Germany and India are relying on them to keep the lights on.

Not to turn this into some of the discussions we've had in the Ukraine thread, but Russia really had nothing even before the war- their economy produced less GDP than New York and their biggest exports were Vodka and car parts. China's Belt and Road is trying to expand, but now too many nations see the project as being either a corrupt means to weasel into regional politics or an attempt at debt slavery- or it could also be an attempt to prop up government contracts for concrete and steel since they can't build as many ghost cities anymore. It's all very questionable, and you can ask Enron what happens when you don't know where your wealth comes from.

The only thing propping up the US dollar is the petrodollar and our military, the reason USD is everywhere is because all oil was traded in USD,

And Markets. And because we have the guns to make everyone buy things and play nice- and keep everyone from using war as a policy- that's a lot of people using our market.

now we have our adversaries (one who is soon to be able to rival us economically,

The united states can get clean drinking water to nearly anyone in the nation, excepting those in extreme rural areas or the reservations. The Chinese do not drink the tap water, anywhere, even if they have it- that is not a nation that is going to overtake us, when it cannot focus even on "small" living standards like that.

and debatably militarily)

Have you seen the seething about the F-35 and newest B-2? 

trading oil in other currencies and opening calling for the replacement of USD, all happening at what could be (but hopefully isnt) a widespread conflict. Im not saying USD will be replaced, Im saying we have a series of events that could lead to its replacement.

The reserve currency used to be the pound. Im sure the contemporaries thought it wasnt going to be replaced either.

To be replaced, it would have to take America's place- militarily, economically, and in enough quantity throughout enough banks to make said nations switch over. That means said nation would have to replace the function of 11 aircraft carrier groups, would have to replace trillions in cash worldwide, and would have to have a big enough market of imports and exports to be a major controller of said markets. So... the EU, if they became a Federation and somehow set up their own NATO that wasn't purely defensive- and if you ignore that they wouldn't have the Pacific. 

Anyway, back to crypto.

Opti said:

In reply to Beer Baron :

Standard Disclaimer: This is not financial advice, do your own research

USD is backed by the petro dollar and our military.

That, as well as every government around the world plus almost all businesses around the world.  And the sum of the latter is pretty darned important.  

To me, the biggest crypto problem is the total lack of regulation.  So the current lack of oversight lead to this situation.  Again, who is regulating the number of crypto options?  You complain about the trillions of US$ dumped on the market- what about the billions of crypto units being dumped into the market?  With nothing backing them at all.  In a market that you can claim that your crypto has value, and people will end up buying into it, even though it can be taken back by the creator at any moment.

You make an example of China, at least they WANT US$ as a government entity.  But Canada is our largest trading partner.  

But the certificates you speak of have regulation behind them, even if they laws are not enforced.  Crypto is not defined by anything, and anyone who is a decent coder can just make up their crypto and sell it.  You don't have to have a business or corporation (which is needed to sell stocks and bonds).  Just some code people pretend there is value to it.  The total lack of oversight by even the industry is the real problem with crypto.

Bro again, BRICS is not a group. It was just an acronym a writer for The Economist made up for a group of countries they thought were up-and-coming, that has since been taken over (mostly by Putinphiles) trying to claim their nation is going to overtake the USA in the next decade or whatever.

I have no idea where you are getting your information. I dont know who introduced the name, but it is definitly a group that has been having summits since like 2009, where they do thinks like trying to come up with an alternative to the SWIFT system, decide to trade oil in alternatives to the USD, and advocate for the replacement of USD as the global currency. Maybe it started as merely a description for emerging markets but today it is a real group that countries apply to join, and other countries use the term BRICS to refer to it.

Here is reuters talking about Iran applying to join BRICS

https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/iran-applies-join-brics-group-emerging-countries-2022-06-27/

Not to turn this into some of the discussions we've had in the Ukraine thread, but Russia really had nothing even before the war- their economy produced less GDP than New York and their biggest exports were Vodka and car parts. China's Belt and Road is trying to expand, but now too many nations see the project as being either a corrupt means to weasel into regional politics or an attempt at debt slavery- or it could also be an attempt to prop up government contracts for concrete and steel since they can't build as many ghost cities anymore. It's all very questionable, and you can ask Enron what happens when you don't know where your wealth comes from.

Im not saying Russia is some huge super power, but they do have energy. Since most of our allies in Europe dont want to produce fossil fuels but dont have the means to run without them, they buy them from Russia. This gives them more power than their GDP would make you think. Its hard for Germany to do anything real important to Russia when they supplied over half of Germanys natural gas. Even with the big push to get off Russia energy because of the war, Germany has admitted they cant phase out Russia gas until atleast 2024. Its hard to fight a war if your enemy can turn your lights off. Everyone knows what the belt and road initiative is. It is exactly as you subscribed, debt slavery, prop up Chinas economy, all in the name of increased geopolitical influence. If you owe China too much money and they do something crazy like invade Taiwan, your probably not going to call them out and have them come knocking for their debt. Something like 150 countries have signed endorsements or agreements for the Belt and Road Initiative. Enron is the perfect illustration of what people will do for money, you dont think an incredibly poor country would take a billion dollars from China under shady circumstances.

And Markets. And because we have the guns to make everyone buy things and play nice- and keep everyone from using war as a policy- that's a lot of people using our market

Did it stop Russia, im talking about war as a policy and bucking the petrodollar? China is also been escalating rhetoric about Taiwan.

 The united states can get clean drinking water to nearly anyone in the nation, excepting those in extreme rural areas or the reservations. The Chinese do not drink the tap water, anywhere, even if they have it- that is not a nation that is going to overtake us, when it cannot focus even on "small" living standards like that.

 Except for the places they cant right, like Flint for years or Jackson. Its pretty alarming if you look at the number of public water systems in the US full of things like lead. In a lot of places you are much better off not drinking straight from the tap. Better than most of the world, sure, but lots of places have real bad tap water. Authoritarian regimes dont have to worry about living standards as much to exert their power (im not endorsing this, its just a fact), thats a representative government thing. Perfect illustration is they are the second largest economy in the world and do all kinds of things with that power, while most of their citizens are poor and have terrible tap water.

Have you seen the seething about the F-35 and newest B-2? 

I not sure what seething your talking about. What I do know is the F35 is an overpriced plane they tried to make the answer to everything and because of that it excels at nothing. Since we abandoned the F22 we have nothing for air to air supremacy except a small aging fleet we cant support. The F35 is real useful when your fighting nations without modern planes. 

To be replaced, it would have to take America's place- militarily, economically, and in enough quantity throughout enough banks to make said nations switch over. That means said nation would have to replace the function of 11 aircraft carrier groups, would have to replace trillions in cash worldwide, and would have to have a big enough market of imports and exports to be a major controller of said markets. So... the EU, if they became a Federation and somehow set up their own NATO that wasn't purely defensive- and if you ignore that they wouldn't have the Pacific. 

Well considering they are about to surpass us as the largest economy in the world that just leaves militarily, which I will admit is a stretch, but wild E36 M3 happens in a world war. China is already the largest exporter in the world, and second largest importer, so Id say they have some control over those markets. Plus they are pretty well known to manipulate their currency, and banks go where the winds blow. There was a point when the british army was the largest in the world, they were the reserve currency, and had the largest economy in the world. All of these sound like arguments Brits would have made before the world war, its called normalcy bias. History is full of super powers that fell economically or militarily, all with just as much hubris as the USA

"In 2021, a study by Cambridge University determined that Bitcoin (at 121 terawatt-hours per year) used more electricity than Argentina (at 121TWh) and the Netherlands (109TWh)."

Meant to look this up earlier

Argentina GDP 2021 491.5 Billion

Netherlands GDP 2021 1.018 Trillion

Bitcoin Market Cap Nov 9 2021 1.28 Trillion

alfadriver said:

Opti said:

In reply to Beer Baron :

Standard Disclaimer: This is not financial advice, do your own research

USD is backed by the petro dollar and our military.

That, as well as every government around the world plus almost all businesses around the world.  And the sum of the latter is pretty darned important.  

To me, the biggest crypto problem is the total lack of regulation.  So the current lack of oversight lead to this situation.  Again, who is regulating the number of crypto options?  You complain about the trillions of US$ dumped on the market- what about the billions of crypto units being dumped into the market?  With nothing backing them at all.  In a market that you can claim that your crypto has value, and people will end up buying into it, even though it can be taken back by the creator at any moment.

You make an example of China, at least they WANT US$ as a government entity.  But Canada is our largest trading partner.  

But the certificates you speak of have regulation behind them, even if they laws are not enforced.  Crypto is not defined by anything, and anyone who is a decent coder can just make up their crypto and sell it.  You don't have to have a business or corporation (which is needed to sell stocks and bonds).  Just some code people pretend there is value to it.  The total lack of oversight by even the industry is the real problem with crypto.

Yes the lack of regulation is a problem, JUST LIKE EVERY OTHER EMERGING MARKET/INDUSTRY/ASSET, ive said like 5 times now. You know when cars came out there wasnt any regulation either. People act like this is something new, its happened thousands of times. Things like this will continue to happen and lead to increasing regulation, and they will happen less and less as they become more and more regulated and new exploits and loopholes get closed. Eventually like everything else it will become a normal part of life. Big money is in crypto, it is coming. It wont replace FIAT but it will be a part of our lives. Even governments want it.

Yes im not a fan of the trillions of US dollars dumped on us. Thats why I dont stay in cryptos that have an unlimited supply. If youre in bitcoin, and some E36 M3 coin dumps a trillion coins on the market it doesnt really effect bitcoin's price, beyond its affect on trust as a market as whole, but this effect is also at play in other assets like stocks. 

Yes you can be defrauded by crypto creators that why you do your research. Im pretty sure this was also a pretty big problem in the early days of the stock market, and still is to a lesser degree. Regulation led to it calming down and now here we are.

In reply to Opti :

what emerging market, industry, or asset?  Especially the assets?  Stocks and bonds have regulation to them, so any company in an emerging industry has to follow rules to put out any financial instrument.  

But what other industry do you think does not have regulations to follow???  Even when cars came out, there were a raft of new rules that owners and drivers had to follow- like yielding to horses.  Thanks to those implementations, there are actual rules for new stuff to come- product safety and impact to the environment are all over the place.

Cryptos do have an unlimited supply, as there's nothing stopping a group of coders to invent currency.  Bitcoin will suffer when people understand this rather massive problem.  Well, they have suffered.  BTW, you can do your research AND still be defrauded- again, this is happening live right now.  People who think they are smarter than you invested billions into this house of cards- do you honestly think all of them didn't do their research?  Seriously?  If that's the market you want to have, that's even more of a reason to stay as far away as possible. 

Stocks have reporting requirements that crypto doesn't right now.  So don't pretend they are anywhere near the same.

Still, if you want to risk your money- it's yours.  Go for it.  I'll wait until there are regulations that even define what in the world crypto currency actually is.  Until then, they are just trading cards or beanie babies.

But, hey, if you want to be part of the pyramid scheme, go for it- it's your money.  

Opti said:

 

"In 2021, a study by Cambridge University determined that Bitcoin (at 121 terawatt-hours per year) used more electricity than Argentina (at 121TWh) and the Netherlands (109TWh)."

Meant to look this up earlier

Argentina GDP 2021 491.5 Billion

Netherlands GDP 2021 1.018 Trillion

Bitcoin Market Cap Nov 9 2021 1.28 Trillion

You know that GDP is a real number, market cap is just a group of people pretending that valuation is real.  Apples and steak comparison.

alfadriver said:

Opti said:

 

"In 2021, a study by Cambridge University determined that Bitcoin (at 121 terawatt-hours per year) used more electricity than Argentina (at 121TWh) and the Netherlands (109TWh)."

Meant to look this up earlier

Argentina GDP 2021 491.5 Billion

Netherlands GDP 2021 1.018 Trillion

Bitcoin Market Cap Nov 9 2021 1.28 Trillion

You know that GDP is a real number, market cap is just a group of people pretending that valuation is real.  Apples and steak comparison.

 

Well it was just a joke but lets look at it. GDP is the value of total finished goods and services produced in the country and in the netherlands case of about 17 million people.

Market Cap is the current market price of the asset multiplied by the quantity. Current bitcoin holders is about 106 million. Looks like there is much more participation in bitcoin than all of the Netherlands GDP

Let me rephrase it like this, Netherlands GDP is just a small group of people pretending their products have value.

All valuation is arbitrary and just a price agreed to by people. What makes a 600 dollar pair of pants made in Netherlands more real than bitcoin? Because pants are tangible? Well then what makes FIAT more real, most of it isnt real paper money you hold, most of it is digital 1s and 0s on banks systems? Is it its wide adoption? Looks like bitcoin has more adoption than participants in the Netherlands GDP

alfadriver said:

In reply to Opti :

what emerging market, industry, or asset?  Especially the assets?  Stocks and bonds have regulation to them, so any company in an emerging industry has to follow rules to put out any financial instrument.  

But what other industry do you think does not have regulations to follow???  Even when cars came out, there were a raft of new rules that owners and drivers had to follow- like yielding to horses.  Thanks to those implementations, there are actual rules for new stuff to come- product safety and impact to the environment are all over the place.

Cryptos do have an unlimited supply, as there's nothing stopping a group of coders to invent currency.  Bitcoin will suffer when people understand this rather massive problem.  Well, they have suffered.  BTW, you can do your research AND still be defrauded- again, this is happening live right now.  People who think they are smarter than you invested billions into this house of cards- do you honestly think all of them didn't do their research?  Seriously?  If that's the market you want to have, that's even more of a reason to stay as far away as possible. 

Stocks have reporting requirements that crypto doesn't right now.  So don't pretend they are anywhere near the same.

Still, if you want to risk your money- it's yours.  Go for it.  I'll wait until there are regulations that even define what in the world crypto currency actually is.  Until then, they are just trading cards or beanie babies.

But, hey, if you want to be part of the pyramid scheme, go for it- it's your money.  

The first car in the US predated the first traffic law by like 8 years. Emissions for cars is another example, when was the first automobile emission standard released 1963? First car? 1893.

All new things are like this. Something comes out, either people loose money or its dangerous. Government regulates it. It happens less but still happens. government regulates more, ad nauseam. Wide adoption. government continues to regulate it. 26 years in we are still trying to figure out how to regulate social media. It didnt exists so its regulations couldnt exist

You nailed it right there "crypto doesn't right now." Its definitely going to though. Things like this are what lead to regulation.

Ive said multiple times crypto is risky, because it is in its infancy. How many websites are around from pre .com bubble? How many auto manufacturers are still around?

There is an unlimited supply of types of crypto, but a specific crypto can be inflationary, deflationary, or have a set supply. Each crypto is traded differently, so a scammer making a E36 M3 coin with infinite supply doesnt hurt a completely different crypto, beyond its impact on the consumers faith in the rest of the system. This effect is also seen in other assets though. If a scam or junk product drives down faith in the rest of the market asset prices fall.

You are conflating an infinite supply of coins and an infinite supply of different cryptos.

alfadriver said:

Still, if you want to risk your money- it's yours.  Go for it.  I'll wait until there are regulations that even define what in the world crypto currency actually is.  Until then, they are just trading cards or beanie babies.

But, hey, if you want to be part of the pyramid scheme, go for it- it's your money.  

Looks like BOTH the SEC and CFTC have filed against him, so my bet is that the fed is still trying to figure if they're gonna pursue this as either a commodity or a currency. Now, I would personally like to see more decentralization, but frankly I'm not sure how you *could* in the crypto market when this entire market has basically shown why the fed exists. Also as an addendum, the Legal Eagle video on him on youtube implies that plenty of time is going to be spent just trying to figure out what degree is malicious intent and what degree was him just, stupidly not knowing how to run anything. There's actual evidence that he had no idea what all accounts he had under their control lmao

This is the last discussion I'll have on this, because it's off topic. If you wanna continue it, we'll drag it to another thread. 

Opti said:

BRICS

Hah, egg on my face then! Still tho, doesn't detract from the fact that most of the nations in BRICS are at war with each other, or in the case of Iran and South Africa, themselves. India and China just had a border clash 4 days ago. Basically this ain't much of a partnership.

Im not saying Russia is some huge super power, but they do have energy. [...] Even with the big push to get off Russia energy because of the war, Germany has admitted they cant phase out Russia gas until atleast 2024. Its hard to fight a war if your enemy can turn your lights off.

Norway is supplying them, second to the USA and African nations. They never *needed* Russia- the fears of Russia "Shutting the lights off" is a Kremlin propaganda cope. There's also France restarting all their nukes, Germany restarting their remaining 3, ect...

If you owe China too much money and they do something crazy like invade Taiwan, your probably not going to call them out and have them come knocking for their debt.

Did it stop Russia, im talking about war as a policy and bucking the petrodollar? China is also been escalating rhetoric about Taiwan.

Bro Russia has lost the war, both in the short term and especially in the long, with most of Eastern Europe now joining NATO and their inability to support partner nations like Serbia. Against China, India is now forming the Diamond Necklace when the Chinese don't even own the South China sea.

 Except for the places they cant right, like Flint for years or Jackson. Its pretty alarming if you look at the number of public water systems in the US full of things like lead. 

It is, but that also means you cannot get fresh water for Industrial processes or for coal mining, which China is reliant on. America's deep problems is why I mentioned the reservations.

What I do know is the F35 is an overpriced plane they tried to make the answer to everything and because of that it excels at nothing. 

No, the F-35 has pushed American warfighting a generation ahead.  Says a lot when a "Failed" plane has dozens of nations lining up to be apart of the program.

Well considering they are about to surpass us as the largest economy in the world that just leaves

Missed GDP Growth goal for 2022.

militarily, which I will admit is a stretch, but wild E36 M3 happens in a world war.

They're reliant on using domestic vessels to land on Taiwan for an invasion- admittedly they built everything to a military spec for that, but it means they stop their fishing fleets and shipping, in an economy that is reliant on the USA (let alone the world) buying stuff from them. After the solidarity shown for Ukraine and the increasing reliance on Taiwan's semiconductor industry, I feel it's easy to see why China's cranking the rhetoric. 

Beer Baron said:

Inflation is where goods and service cost increasingly more money. Deflation is where goods and services cost *less*.

People "investing" in cryptocurrency want to see it shoot "to the moon". They want it to become more and more valuable.

Let's say I invest in GRMBucks. You make supercharger kits for Miatas. You sell your supercharge kit for 100-GRMBucks.

Because GRMBucks are the latest hot thing and everyone wants to "invest" in them. My GRMBucks are now worth DOUBLE.

That means, I can buy your supercharger kit for only 50-GRMBucks. Your materials and labor are only worth half of what they used to be. Deflation.

But what's the big deal? The relative value is still the same. Right? Wrong. Because you got a loan valued at 10,000-GRMBucks. Due to deflation, it's going to take you TWICE as much work to pay that off.

If cryptocurrencies gain in value like proponents want it to, that means it is better to be holding cryptocurrency and sitting on them, than it is to use them to invest in creating a company that provides goods or services to an economy.

This is the cryptocurrency deflation problem.

I agree that these are problems, but they are not "cryptocurrency" problems.  Rather, they are problems caused by trying to do "money" things with something that isn't money.  You would experience the same effects if you defined your mortgage as payment in a certain number of pork bellies or shares of Apple stock or whatever.  One of the necessary characteristics of "money" is that the value of that money is relatively stable.

There is nothing inherent to the nature of cryptocurrencies that causes the demand for them to be unstable -- it's just the fact that they are new.  If they were were in widespread use the way that the dollar is, demand for it would be relatively stable and the value would not shift by anywhere close to as much.  Also, one's paycheck would be in that same cryptocurrency so small shifts in demand would be largely canceled out.  Nobody is going to define a mortgage payment in terms of any cryptocurrency until and unless that currency is stable enough that the risk of the things you mention has diminished to the point of being negligible.

By contrast, the inflation problem of fiat currency IS inherent to its very nature, there is no effective way to prevent a national government from using its exclusive ability to create new money out of thin air.  I started writing a bunch more text here about "inflation" vs "deflation", supply vs demand, and why I think the blanket use of those terms to simply cover "pricing" is conflating two very different concepts, but then I realized it was a big tangent that most people probably don't want to read so I deleted it.

All of that said, cryptocurrencies like BTC do have negative attributes.  The transaction cost is very high, the energy spent on mining them is a perverse effect, and as mentioned earlier the decentralized nature can make theft harder to combat.  There is no perfect type of money, everything is a compromise.

Again, I'm not a proponent of cryptocurrencies.  I don't own any, never have, have no plans to do so, and wouldn't recommend anyone else buy them either.  I think it's interesting to discuss the tradeoffs in the abstract, but I don't think it's likely that any of the current cryptocurrencies will ever make the jump to being "money" in terms of widespread use.

Hah, egg on my face then! Still tho, doesn't detract from the fact that most of the nations in BRICS are at war with each other, or in the case of Iran and South Africa, themselves. India and China just had a border clash 4 days ago. Basically this ain't much of a partnership.

There are plenty of things in which we disagree with our allies. Most of the members of BRICS do agree on replacing the current geo political power structure, and there have been stranger bedfellows in history. The old saying is the enemy of my enemy is my friend.

 Norway is supplying them, second to the USA and African nations. They never *needed* Russia- the fears of Russia "Shutting the lights off" is a Kremlin propaganda cope. There's also France restarting all their nukes, Germany restarting their remaining 3, ect...

Did you even read the article? Russia provided 40% of the entire EU's gas before the war, and after it dropped to 20%. Norway went from 20% to 25%, they didnt replace Russia, they increased a little. Germany has said Russia was responsible for 55% of its gas, and has been in an energy crisis since they started trying to ween off of Russia energy, even with that they said they arent going to be able to completely phase out Russia gas til 2024. Russia is still supplying 20% of the EUs gas. Germans are complaining because they gas bills are going up literally 10x. Germany is trying to go back to coal. They are literally doing everything they can and still in the midst of an energy crisis. To say its just Russian propaganda is about as unaware as saying BRICS isnt a group.

Bro Russia has lost the war, both in the short term and especially in the long, with most of Eastern Europe now joining NATO and their inability to support partner nations like Serbia. Against China, India is now forming the Diamond Necklace when the Chinese don't even own the South China sea.

If theyve already lost the war how comes its still being fought. Its also pretty wild to say a nation with nukes has lost a ware before theyve surrendered.

It is, but that also means you cannot get fresh water for Industrial processes or for coal mining, which China is reliant on. America's deep problems is why I mentioned the reservations.

Youre conflating them not getting fresh water to citizens and not getting fresh water for coal plants. Thats why I mentioned an authoritarian regime, they dont have to get fresh water to the citizens (thats a representative government thing, you have to keep your voters happy), in China they dont care what people think because if they say anything they just "reeducate" them, BUT they do care about what CHINA needs to be a world power, and that includes electricity, so water goes to the power plants first.

No, the F-35 has pushed American warfighting a generation ahead.  Says a lot when a "Failed" plane has dozens of nations lining up to be apart of the program.

We will have to agree to disagree on this on. The current F35 has avionics and stealth on the SU35 and the SU35 is faster, more maneuverable, longer range and better armaments. The pentagon seems to agree that air to air supremacy is important. They went from we dont need air to air supremacy, ground to air is more important (and started pushing the F35 as the end all be all), to OH E36 M3 the F22 cant survive into the 2030s and we need to fastrack the NGAD (Next Generation Air Dominance).

Missed GDP Growth goal for 2022.

You know who else will probably miss their GDP growth expectations, this year? The US. The only reason we are expected to be in the 1.8 range is because the 3rd quarter was good after having a flat second quarter. We still have the rest of the year to shake out, but it looks like the first time we wil have more growth than china in DECADES. Current estmations is next year we will be pretty flat.

ShawnG said:

Any time they can't answer the simple question: "where did the money come from?" It's a red flag.

This is a Google Maps photo of the bank that SBF, the Gemini guys and the Deltec guys bought.

At the end of the trial, the prosecution will show this photo of that converted back alley one stall garage "bank" and they will be convicted on all charges.

codrus (Forum Supporter) said:

I agree that these are problems, but they are not "cryptocurrency" problems.  Rather, they are problems caused by trying to do "money" things with something that isn't money.  You would experience the same effects if you defined your mortgage as payment in a certain number of pork bellies or shares of Apple stock or whatever.  One of the necessary characteristics of "money" is that the value of that money is relatively stable.

Exactly. Cryptocurrencies fail at being money. I was pointing out why one of the major "features" proponents of cryptocurrency like to tout is actually a major flar.

If they're not currency, then what are they?

You could say they're a commodity, but effectively everything traded as a commodity has some sort of intrinsic value. You don't need to "believe" in the value of oil, wheat, or precious metals. Even things of abstract subjective value like art, jewelry, classic cars, or tulips still have utility that gives them intrinsic value.

If cryptocurrency isn't money and doesn't have intrinsic value, what is it?

In reply to Beer Baron :

A scam. 

In reply to Beer Baron :

One could argue that NFTs have some value, inasmuch as art does. And by that logic, if someone values owning something called a Bitcoin, hey, maybe that has value, too. You don't need a climate-controlled museum or a garage to store it in, either. 

Few people truly invest in dollars, typically hoarders with a mattress full of money, Forex day traders, and other loons. But conversely, who gets paid in cryptocurrency, and uses it to buy groceries?

The advantage a dollar has is not that it will appreciate, but that it's liquid and relatively stable. And it will still be adequate for everyday use even if some other currency gets more popular for large international deals. I don't see cryptocurrency becoming useful for day to day transactions any time soon. The Ethereum Foundation at least looks like it's aware they have a problem with large transaction volumes and are trying to make some improvements, although they still have a very long way to go.

I can see a few possible uses. NFTs for easily transferred electronic tickets, for example. But a lot of blockchain looks like a solution looking for a problem, at best. And a pump and dump, at worst.

In reply to MadScientistMatt :

I dont think I disagree with anything you said here, but I would add a couple things.

1st the dollar is relatively stable but it isnt very stable anymore, it is very liquid though. I think its becoming less liquid though, piss a bank, your cc company, or someone like paypal off and its liquidity doesnt matter that much to you.

2nd if a different currency becomes common in large international trade and oil deals, there goes any stability or liquidity it still has. The wide spread use and our military is the only thing backing it.

I think the other problems with crypto are absolutely valid critiques, but I also think they are due to crypto being in its infancy. Pretty much everything we use today was pretty terrible when it came out. FIAT was pretty terrible when it came about, people widely just stuck to bartering until wide adoption and everyone agreed on its value.

Looks like two higher-ups have pleaded guilty. One faces 110 years, the other 50.

SBF free on $250 Million bond

Maybe he'd like a little home concert? If he hasn't escaped to a volcano lair by next week he is a total chump