UC-Berkeley’s Nicholas Weaver has been studying cryptocurrency for years. He thinks it’s a terrible idea that will end in disaster.

  • Sarcasmo220@lemmy.ml
    5·
    3 years ago

    I always find it interesting that many of the harsh criticisms of cryptocurrency can be said of traditional currency and other assets. In the interview he even stated that the crypto world is speeding through the growing pains traditional markets had when they were not regulated.

    • IΛM0DΛY@lemmy.ml
      2·
      3 years ago

      But now traditional currencies are regulated and no longer suffer from those problems, but cryptocurrencies are going through the same problems causing quite a few problems.

  • hanabatake@lemmy.ml
    55·
    3 years ago

    So the stock market and the bond market are a positive-sum game. There are more winners than losers. Cryptocurrency starts with zero-sum. So it starts with a world where there can be no more winning than losing. We have systems like this. It’s called the horse track. It’s called the casino. Cryptocurrency investing is really provably gambling in an economic sense. And then there’s designs where those power bills have to get paid somewhere. So instead of zero-sum, it becomes deeply negative-sum.

    • angarabebesi@lemmy.ml
      62·
      3 years ago

      anyone who thinks the stock and bond markets to be a positive sum game have skipped the last 100 years of financial history :)

      • poVoq@lemmy.ml
        7·
        3 years ago

        It depends. For the stock market investor it is basically another way to gamble with the money, but for the companies getting the money it can be a very good source for bootstrapping needed investments. Of course only if it is used for such and not only to pay off extreme profits by early VC investors or founders.