this post was submitted on 12 Jun 2024
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Crypto isn't a scam, though lots of cryptocurrencies are scams. Don't buy crypto to try to get rich or even as an investment, get it if you want to buy stuff with it. Monero is a great cryptocurrency for that, and you can tell it's doing well by how many countries are threatened enough by it to make it harder to get (it has truly private transactions, just like cash).
I don't think he's doing any sort of pump and dump, he just wants crypto bros to vote for him. He tried courting libertarians at their convention (and rightfully got booed), and now he's courting crypto bros specifically (many libertarians are into crypto). He's just trying to expand his base a bit.
I didn't say crypto was a scam, but it is regarded as a scam in general and as you said, it's pretty easy to get scammed trading it or using it if you don't know what you're doing - which would definitely be true for anyone buying in on a public figure's advice.
It's also an incredibly volatile market which is relatively easily influenced by large players without much regulation. If he does have the influence to manage to impact it, I am pretty sure he would happily take his gains from his followers. If he doesn't, well let's just hope all the people who buy in without any research don't lose their money by selling as soon as the next crypto winter comes for a massive loss.
You're strongly implying it:
It is easy to get scammed, but it's also easy to get scammed with legitimate-sounding services. I just had a scammer try to steal my money from my bank by claiming to be the fraud department, does that mean the banking industry is a scam? People on the sidelines will try to make a buck in any industry. What about cosmetics? There are plenty of MLMs that peddle cosmetics, and they're scams, but that doesn't make all cosmetics or even MLMs scams (e.g. tupperware is an MLM and not a scam imo).
Whether crypto is a volatile market doesn't have anything to do with being a scam, it just increases the number of people trying to make a quick buck, and some of those will try to pump and dump or pull some other scam. Before crypto, that was more common with stocks, and it's fairly common today with third party resellers of various things.
I don't think Trump is trying to pull a crypto scam here, I think he's just trying to get elected. He wants the scammers to promote him, as well as the crypto apologists. He just wants more people talking about him so he can increase his chances of being elected.
Sorry, but I think you're reading into my words something they didn't say or imply. In fact I tried my best to avoid wording it in a way that implies crypto is a scam (because I don't believe it myself).
What you've quoted strictly implies 2 things:
The 2nd is definitely an exaggeration, but neither of them claim crypto is a scam only that it has an image that it is - which I maintain it does with a significant portion of people.
I do think trump picked crypto as a target for his attention because it's a volatile and under regulated market he may be able exploit to try to make money off of whoever listens to him. I hope I'm wrong though.
I apologize, there's a lot of anti-crypto group think here on Lemmy, and your comment read like that. There absolutely are a lot of crypto scams and reasons to dislike the technology generally, but there are real problems being solved and ways to use the technology productively, so I get a bit aggressive in pointing out that the group think is imprecise at best.
The second being an exaggeration is what made it look like group think.
Idk, I honestly think his entire focus is on getting elected. Yeah, he wouldn't say no to more money, but I think it's in service of getting himself onto office again, not to get even more rich. I think he saw hating crypto as advantageous in the past, and now he sees supporting crypto as advantageous.
Yeah, maybe it's just a grift. I guess we'll see.
Here's the evidence I see:
I think he's trying to convince conservative leaning libertarians, single-issue RFK voters (he's pro-crypto too), and other fringe voters to vote for him instead of whatever protest vote they'd normally go with. He's not trying to appeal to Biden voters, he's trying to pull protest votes back in.
No problem!
Your thinking seems more insightful than mine.
My reasoning that he is mainly after the money is that in the past year he has been paying a lot of legal fees and fines, while trying to run a campaign. He had his NFT collection which made him a quick buck to then immediately floor in value, same for trump media stocks - except they then skyrocketed again, and now flooring again. So.. Just seems like something he'd do.
The 2nd reason is that crypto is a very divisive topic with loads of people hating on it - including banks and some other financial institutions. I'd expect it's a double edged sword for supporters, but maybe he's gaining more from it than losing in terms of votes.
Considering that it's been a few days since he made his statement and there hasn't been massive movement on BTC price, he's either not influential enough to impact it or I was wrong.
/shrug
Yeah, you might have a point. Let's see which scam, electoral or financial, he's trying to pull. Or maybe it's both... I'm guessing things will heat up one way or another as we get closer to the election.