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Re:Green hackers around the world, let’s destroy Bitcoin by tsimionescu on Sunday February 07, 2021 @08:58AM (#26055048)
People also invested in Bernie Madoff's Ponzi scheme, and that one didn't cost as much energy as the Czech Republic. Even more interestingly, it seems likely that some people were investing in Bernie's scheme while knowning that it is fraud - they trusted that others trust it, not that it's secure.

Point being, trust and trust-worthiness are two separate things. Most people investing in Bitcoin have not in any way confirmed for themselves that the algorithm is trust-worthy, they just trust that others are also willing to buy it so that they won't be left defrauded. Hell, people have been defrauded by the likes of Mt Gox, and the network didn't collapse entirely.

Re:Green hackers around the world, let’s destroy Bitcoin by mckirk on Sunday February 07, 2021 @09:22AM (#26055187)
True, when you break it down, people will ultimately invest in anything they "trust" (well, hope) to rise in value, no matter how trustworthy they inherently are. So you will indeed have a lot of people that invest in BTC simply because they see others doing the same, since that means they might be able to make a profit.

But there's also the people that invest long-term because they think crypto currencies have a lot of potential to be adopted more widely in the future, which entirely depends on their trustworthiness. Without that second group, any sufficiently negative news would cause the BTC price to collapse completely -- and to be fair, there's always the risk of that happening (Tether sends its regards), but the underlying "trust in the benefits of the system itself" at least gives a floor for its price that's above $0.