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According to the article, Trump is coming from a "bitcoin conference" in Tennessee. You gotta admit the hustle of someone who's simultaneously dedicated to so many different forms of graft.
If anyone is still harboring doubts that bitcoin isn't a scam, look at who's pushing for it now.
I'm always confused about what this means, "bitcoin is a scam." It isn't. It does the thing it says it does. The fact that some bad actors use it for nefarious purposes doesn't mean the technology is lying, either
Crypto does the thing it says it does: enable peer-to-peer transactions that require the advance permission of no third party or government. It really is digital cash.
The problem is that's the best medium for scams. No matter which crypto you transact in, there is always a point where the transaction becomes immutable, no backsies, no "reverse the charges", no "court order to confiscate funds". The money is gone, and can't be compelled to come back unless the scammer is compelled to send it back. And if the scammer is outside the reach if the victim's governmental law enforcement, the literally nothing can be done.
The correct thing to say is “there are a majority of cryptocurrencies that are scams”. I think the problem is “Bitcoin” is being used like “kleenex”, as a catch all for blockchain or cryptocurrency. Bitcoin itself is not a scam.
Want to buy an NFT?
People who buy NFTs are getting what they pay for, too. We can debate whether they are paying way too much for bits, but people also pay too much for jewelery and yet there are lots of jewelery stores.
I probably have one to sell you too.
I won’t charge you a penny more than I bought it for in 2021.
Yeah but if we're being real most people primarily consider bitcoin to be an investment and not a method for making discrete transactions.
So it's 90% a get-rich-quick pyramid scheme, 9% a method for making illegal transactions, 1% a method for people that are paranoid about the gub'ment to make transactions in a convoluted way to make it more difficult for the government to track transactions they didn't bother looking at anyway.
I've heard nation based currencies have also been used for scams. But yeah, BTC is the problem, let's all keep Janet Yellin in charge of our collective net worth. (/s) smh.
Janet Yellen is not in charge of the United States money supply. You’re thinking of the Federal Open Market Committee, which is comprised of the seven members of the Federal Reserve Board, the president of the New York Federal Reserve Bank, and four of the eleven regional Federal Reserve Bank presidents on a yearly rotating basis.
And I’m not sure why you’re bringing up a criticism of our collective net worth on a discussion around whether Bitcoin is used in scams, unless you’re trying to push the narrative that traditional fiat currency is somehow worth less than an unbacked security. Which is both irrelevant to the conversation, and a pretty good indication that you don’t really understand how currency works.
Thanks for your input. You are correct. I'm pretty sure I don't understand how currency works. My point, which you ignore, is that all forms of of currency have been used in scams. Did you notice the (/s) at the end of the second sentence, which I used to indicate the snarky, and sarcastic nature of that sentence? Do you disagree, specifically that all forms of currency can, probably all have been, and all will continue to be used in scams?
Sure, and I’ll even broaden that. I’m pretty sure everything that has ever been used as a medium of exchange has been used in a scam somewhere, and the easier it is to use that medium of exchange, the more scams have been perpetrated using it.
Fair enough.
It makes sense that Trump was a cryptocurrency sceptic. He made (and lost) money in real estate, where you own somethng tangible, and was justifiably skeptical about how bits in a blockchain could have any value. But there are two reasons why Trump has done a 180:
There are a handful of people who ran the right software in 2010 on a whim, netting 50 BTC every time they hit a block, which wasn't even worth $1 when they mined it but is now worth over 3 Million. And blocks were (and are) found every 10 minutes or so. These people are sitting on billions of dollars in unrealized gains, and will funnel it to the candidate that will give it the best tax treatment (ideally zero) when they sell. And Trump is always willing to listen to people willing to give him money.
Crypto is useful to transfer money without any intermediary, so if Trump wants to accept funds of questionable legality from foreign sources, crypto can enable that. Simply using crypto for it doesn't make it any less illegal, but can make it harder for authorities to discover, which is what Trump is all about. He doesn't care about the law or ethics, but only what he can get away with.
I know I'll probably get downvoted but so what.
Bitcoin itself (and Ethereum) have become so valuable that they are considered investments, in a way that Beanie Babies and Cabbage Patch dolls only dreamed of.
They are currencies and are used that way but are also traded and invested just as millions of people do with Forex.
The blockchain records and validates every transaction so it is traceable. Your anonymity comes down to what kind of wallet you're using.
Many smaller cryptos are definitely "pump and dump" scams. If you get in at the bottom of the wave, you can make money.
If you want anonymity, Monero (XMR) is the crypto you want. This is what the currency of "the dark web" is.
Once I saw that the organizers of this conference invited T**** to speak, I got rid off all my BTC. It's not enough to affect the price but I don't want to be associated with it anymore.
As someone else mentioned, these cryptobros are supporting Cheeto Dick Don out of greed.
He's interested in it bc he thinks he'll get away with receiving illegal contributions. The FEC and IRS will be able to track those payments if they ever decide to get involved.