Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Apple Looking for a Manager With Experience in Cryptocurrency
- Thread starter MacRumors
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
All nonsense, because I understood the Bitcoin very well and studied it for a long time, with the result that this is a kind of fraud, a criminal pyramid scheme with an expiry date. The fairy tale of "Sokoschi Yakamoto", which nobody knows personally or has ever seen, but and the alleged limit to 21 million Bitcoins, whoever believes that, doesn't have them all anymore, only greed eats the brain ... ., and in the end you only have worthless digital data garbage, but no real physical value, like gold & silver, which can never become worthless. There are now over 4,000 private crypto currencies, where someone you don't know has their pockets, but also only from the idiots who understood Bitcoin & Co. "
Typical no-coiner boomer mentality. Enjoy total governmental control and endless inflation of your garbage currency.
That's been debunked an unbelievable number of times. If you actually cared in making a rational argument, you'd look into it. Until then you're just repeating the verbal diarrhea of your billionaire overloads (aka the Buffetts and Gates of the world).
Right, but even still it took time because serviceable, familiar, less expensive, easier to use infrastructure existed. It took a long while to recognize, realize, and accept the limitations and/or inefficiencies. It also takes companies to make an approachable product, like AOL. So that more people can move away from a mindset of "I don't understand any of this. I'm not a techie person. So I'll just stick with what works for me."
Perhaps said differently, "This internet thing is just a more complicated, or more expensive, or worse way to do what I can already do." Sure, they may have, "the world's information at their fingertips" but if it's too confusing either physically, logically, or mentally. They'll just avoid it.
I mean, you and I know, that an SSD is way superior to a mechanical spinner HDD. The use case is already there. But, it's non-impactful to a non-technical or average person, as massive as it is, until it bites them in the face. But, even when it does ... to switch to an SSD isn't non-trivial. So it'll get put off until the HDD crashes, they buy a new PC, or such.
So I can't really fault anyone, today, for saying or having the same attitude about crypto assets and crypto currencies. Way easier to ignore it, make up an excuse, buy into / believe in FUD and or make up your own, right now.
Let's just be honest here: You and I have existing banking infrastructure, but not everyone does. Even when they do - Banking in developing or collapsing countries is riddled with corruption and very suspect so you probably don't want to use it. Blockchain banking, i.e. bitcoin, would be far more accessible and safe since almost everyone has a mobile phone today.
So instead of businesses or techies having the problem - perhaps its the other way around this time. If that makes any sense.
You could say that about literally anything that protects privacy though. You could say that about not allowing cameras in bathrooms allows people to get raped... are you SURE you want to go down that path that? I don't think it will end the way you think it will end.
The U.S dollar, supported by illegal wars and the source of a constant hidden tax on the poor via inflation. The preferred currency of drug lords.
Bitcoin uses a fraction of the energy that would be WASTED as spillover to provide a stable investment for many and a chance to have a decent way to save for billions of poor around the world. Don't talk about things you don't understand.
It's truly hard to fathom how truly ignorant some people can be to make blanket statements like these. There are so many cutting-edge cryptocurrencies that do not require mining and employ instead some variant of proof of stake instead of proof of work. Check Nano (Nano currency), Stellar Lumens, Hedera Hashgraph, Cardano, Solana, Polkadot among many others. Even the number two biggest cryptocurrency by market cap, Ethereum, will be moving to proof of stake some time around the end of 2022.
Moderate inflation is good. It incentivises people not to hoard money, thus making it circulate. The opposite is the HODL mentality, which is only good for early speculative investors.
Governmental control is good too, it helps preventing exchange rates that look like a sawtooth wave and having people like McAfee or Musk from doing their pump and dump schemes. "CeNtRalIsaTioN iS bAd" until there's another Mt Gox debacle and people lose their money.
I don't want to generalise but often I see statements like this (claiming regulation/government control is "bad") from Americans, who don't really have any experience with good (or even not terrible) regulation of banking/etc, because the trend seems to be:
The rest of the 'western' developed World does X. We've tried doing X in a completely different way and the results are a spectacular failure. **** trying it any other way, the idea itself must be flawed.
Any assumptions about "problems" with traditional banking systems that are based on the US are flawed from the start.
Let's see how the central banks are doing on moderation, shall we? What does it mean when the line goes straight up?
Attachments
You may have only called out Bitcoin, but that's a particularly relevant callout when Bitcoin dominance is around 43% of the market right now (and has been as high as the 70's in 2021, SOURCE). It's the single largest driver of monetary value in crypto right now, so Bitcoin blockchain technology improvements and renewable energy initiatives tied to it are worth reviewing. I'll repost a few links here since this is the type of critical discussion and evaluation of technology use that leads to smarter, more efficient, and more environmentally friendly tech policies.
Business Insider: BTC Bridge to Renewable Future
CNBC: Ark Analyst Says 76% of Crypto Energy Use from Renewables
BBC: Bitcoin Mining Council to report renewable energy usage
Pyramid schemes rely on getting people under you to recruit additional people under them and them pushing profits from those schemes upward. Blockchain is a technology that allows for the rapid transfer of data across systems in a public, verifiable, and (in optimal scenarios) in a decentralized fashion. The currencies built on those blockchains exist as a method to facilitate those transactions. Network transactions aren't free, which is why we have to pay centralized companies like Internet Service Providers, web hosts, datacenters, etc. These tokens are the economy by which blockchain transactions are funded, and their price in fiat currency is (in a best-case scenario) a reflection of the value of that particular blockchain.
Do people shill for the products they believe in, or that they believe will make them get rich quickly? Absolutely, and there are plenty of genuinely shady and questionable organizations out there trying to take advantage of people and the hype around blockchain unscrupulously. This is why research and conversations are so important. But I, as an early adopter, have not directly profited even $0.01 from any of my friends or family purchasing Bitcoin (or any other cryptocurrency). I do broadly believe that I (and the world) benefit from as many people getting involved, developing for, and understanding the tech, but that's a holistic viewpoint and founded more on Metcalfe's Law (SOURCE) than anything else.
You don't have to believe in blockchain technology enough to want to "invest" in their currencies. That's fine! And it's important to recognize that as a new technology and a new store of value, blockchain and cryptocurrencies are still quite speculative and in the very early stages of development. But I encourage you not to dismiss either outright. Rome wasn't built in a day, and every new technology has an adoption phase where people become exposed and educated.
A few final thoughts: "Ignorance" is not a bad word; it's the natural state of existence. I'm a technologist, a blockchain and crypto believer, an environmental advocate, and a social liberal. It is from this perspective that I hope to facilitate proactive discussions like this one. I want the greenest tech, I want the most equitable social and economic policies worldwide, and I want everyone I know and love to live financially free.
That there's been a major event and governments have taken action to mitigate it? Again because they have control over it and the power to take action. A hypothetical country based on a decentralised currency over which they'd have no control at all (like bitcoin proponents apparently claim is good) would be like this guy right here:
It's like the fallacy that debt is bad. It's not necessarily bad. Getting in debt and then squandering the money is obviously bad, but taking up debt can also be a way to build infrastructure, etc.
Last edited:
Well, sure - it's probably something along the lines of either, "Please dont make me deal with crypto because ..."
*sigh* Okay. Bitcoin is neither a pyramid scheme nor is it wrecking the environment. I believe market context and understanding of blockchain technology as a whole is necessary to have a more complete discussion about these points and how the technology is evolving. But if you'd prefer to stick to discussing only Bitcoin, we can do that.
Is Bitcoin energy-intensive? Yes. But so is, well, every other mining operation and financial system. Nasdaq - "A Comparison of Bitcoin's Environmental Impact With That of Gold and Banking"
Can energy efficiency improvements be made? Yes, and it's becoming insanely profitable to do so. Energy Monitor - "Bitcoin: Friend or Foe of the Clean Energy Transition", quote: "Miners are looking for excess, non-competitive electricity – and this means lots of wind, solar and hydroelectric power."
BTC as a Store of Value
Forbes - "The most compelling use case for Bitcoin today is as a store of value."
Investopedia - "Why do Bitcoins have value"
BTC Energy Usage
Visual Capitalist - "Visualizing the Power Consumption of Bitcoin Mining"
Harvard Business Review - "How Much Energy Does Bitcoin Actually Consume"
BTC Making Progress
BBC - "Bitcoin Mining Council to Report Renewable Energy Usage"
Medium - "Bitcoin Mining Just Became Extremely Efficient"
The report clearly says it includes aspects of banking like branches which aren’t really a facet of the type of currency used so much as a facet of how society works.
I don't agree with your comparisons. You're making it seem like Bitcoin is enabling criminal activity that isn't already, or wouldn't otherwise occur with fiat. Crypto isn't enabling behavior that isn't already possible with fiat.
A bitcoin/other crypto address doesn't directly identify an individual, no, but neither should it. However, if a person buys Bitcon or another crypto from an exchange and then does something with it, it's extremely easy for law enforcement to trace who it was, and where it went. Likewise, if you receive Bitcoin/another crypto and you cash out to fiat, the same applies. There's no need to act like it's impossible to do so. It's far more traceable than fiat.
It's not a big if. And no, for better or worse the answer isn't no. There's a reason you have plenty of massive finance and technology companies (JP Morgan, Microsoft, E&Y, etc) working with/building on top of, or becoming curious about blockchain.
There are plenty of terrific uses cases for crypto / blockchain. I'd argue the largest of them right now decentralized finance. Major financial players would back that argument. I doubt you'll read this, as you seem to be one of those people who've made up their minds before actually digging in, but in the event that I'm wrong, enjoy:
Outline.com
outline.com
This all reminds me of attitudes regarding the internet, and e-commerce in the mid to late 90's. I remember being told that using my credit card online to buy books on a site called "Amazon" would be my worst regret, and that companies trying to create commerce online would amount to nothing.
I often tell people that since the 90's, there have been 3 things that made me think "wow, this is going to be huge." The first was when my family got a computer with a modem. I used it to dial into local BBS's and was able to connect to the internet through Lynx. I knew what was coming was going to be huge. The second time was when the iPhone came out. I don't even need to explain that to you. The third time was when I finally took the time to look into/dig deeper into crypto and blockchain tech. I'm not worried at all that I'll be wrong here, and even though this isn't hugely relevant to the conversation, it's already been a wildly profitable bet on my part.