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   Alex Gleason (alex@gleasonator.com)'s status on Saturday, 30-Mar-2024 06:38:24 JST Alex Gleason
   >In 2013, this dude on YouTube begged everyone to buy just $1 worth of bitcoin
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     Alex Gleason (alex@gleasonator.com)'s status on Sunday, 31-Mar-2024 10:47:58 JST Alex Gleason

     in reply to

     • CarlBLatro
     • gentoobro
     @gentoobro @CarlBLatro Nah boomer politicians will die and then crypto will be fine.
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     CarlBLatro (carlblatro@gleasonator.com)'s status on Sunday, 31-Mar-2024 10:47:59 JST CarlBLatro

     in reply to

     • gentoobro
     @gentoobro @alex "Some people somewhere will have purchased bitcoins but never be able to cash out."
     Including someone called Satoshi Nakamoto who's decided not to be the world's first trillionare it would seem. :)
     
     There's possibly too many very wealthy people who have too much in bitcoin at any given time for it to be banned.
     
     Other than as a speculators' toy, it's possibly useful as a means to keep those managing their countries' currencies honest. And is useful to those locked out of the banking system.
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     gentoobro (gentoobro@gleasonator.com)'s status on Sunday, 31-Mar-2024 10:47:59 JST gentoobro

     in reply to

     • CarlBLatro
     @CarlBLatro @alex Maybe Satoshi lost his keys. Maybe he's waiting to be a quadrillionaire.
     
     The thing people miss is that governments won't straight-up ban crypto. They'll regulate it to death bit by bit. Oh, sure, you'll be allowed to own some. In a licensed exchange, which keeps your keys. And only interact with other fully KYC'd addresses. So long as you file all the proper tax forms and don't commit any wrongthink. Otherwise you're a Bad Man(TM) who's definitely doing Bad Things(TM). And over time people will use it less and less because it's a pain with no real benefits. Then one day it'll be finally banned as a footnote to a funding bill, and all 3 remaining users will be mildly annoyed. We already see the creep in the US and moreso in the EU.
     
     And of course, the wealthy insiders will know all the moves ahead of time. They'll buy in before the rises and cash out before the falls.
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     gentoobro (gentoobro@gleasonator.com)'s status on Sunday, 31-Mar-2024 10:48:00 JST gentoobro

     in reply to

     • CarlBLatro
     @CarlBLatro @alex If you include the entire life of Bitcoin, yes, it's zero-sum. Miners can even withdraw money without having to put any in. Assuming Bitcoin has an end and that one day it will be over and not worth anything (nobody wants to accept it in trade for anything else), some people somewhere will have purchased bitcoins but never be able to cash out. For all the speculative gains while it goes up, there will be equivalent speculative losses while it goes down.
     
     OTOH, if Bitcoin goes on (and up in net) forever, those losses will never happen. It's inherently deflationary in the long term, so it's possible.
     
     Most likely it will be effectively banned by all major countries by the end of the century, under penalty of being drugged and beaten with a $9 wrench until you give up your keys. Unfortunately.
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     CarlBLatro (carlblatro@gleasonator.com)'s status on Sunday, 31-Mar-2024 10:48:01 JST CarlBLatro

     in reply to
     @alex But doesn't it mean that for every speculator who gains X amount of dollars from dabbling in bitcoin there's others who've lost an equal amount of dollars by speculating in bitcoin? Some gain and some lose, but the net result is just a redistribution of wealth and not an increase in wealth.
     
     (I'm just talking about speculators here, and not those who use bitcoin for other purposes.)
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     @polarisera reposted your post (polarisera@spinster.xyz)'s status on Sunday, 31-Mar-2024 11:10:07 JST @polarisera reposted your post

     in reply to

     • CarlBLatro
     • gentoobro

     @alex @CarlBLatro @gentoobro We can all hope the boomers will die out. We must postpone all life extending technology until they have passed.

     Alex Gleason likes this.
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     Alex Gleason (alex@gleasonator.com)'s status on Sunday, 31-Mar-2024 11:10:25 JST Alex Gleason

     in reply to

     • @polarisera reposted your post
     • CarlBLatro
     • gentoobro
     @polarisera @CarlBLatro @gentoobro There are like 3 or 4 boomers that I like though.