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Re:Crypto leads to surge in online scams by danuker on Thursday January 27, 2022 @04:46PM (#30107187)
A legitimate use of crypto "currencies" is defense against hyperinflation. Ask anyone in Venezuela.
Re:Crypto leads to surge in online scams by curtisf on Thursday January 27, 2022 @04:55PM (#30107337)
You can't spend cryptocurrency at the grocery store. So your "money" can only at best be _backed_ by cryptocurrency.

But if all you want is your money to be backed by something that intrinsically retains value, there are many standard choices. Like _foreign currency_. Or something more involved, like stocks and bonds and commodities contracts.

Or you could just plain use precious metals.

Cryptocurrency doesn't uniquely solve the problem of inflation, but it does introduce a lot of others. (Including the risk that a country's entire Treasury gets drained because an office worker plugs a USB stick they found in the parking lot into the wrong computer)

Re:Crypto leads to surge in online scams by betwixthewires on Thursday January 27, 2022 @05:09PM (#30107555)
In Venezuela and Argentina you can absolutely buy goods at the store with cryptocurrency, if you whisper low enough to the owner. In El Salvador the government mandates it be an option. Money is money where it's accepted, everywhere else it's not. That's not really a point at all.
Re:Crypto leads to surge in online scams by danuker on Saturday January 29, 2022 @12:39AM (#30124068)
> _backed_ by cryptocurrency.

Governments have fallen for the siren call of inflation ever since Nixon. They won't give it up and adopt any standard, gold or otherwise, because it would imply they have to be accountable for finances.

This is why private individuals have to use more creative ways of storing their value.

Re:Crypto leads to surge in online scams by AlexandrB on Thursday January 27, 2022 @05:00PM (#30107403)
This is true about any asset that's not undergoing hyperinflation itself including stocks, bonds, commodities, real-estate, and foreign currencies. What's special about cryptocurrencies in this regard?
Re:Crypto leads to surge in online scams by floren on Thursday January 27, 2022 @05:15PM (#30107670)
The answer is usually "well, I happen to own cryptocurrencies, but not those other things you're suggesting"
Re:Crypto leads to surge in online scams by danuker on Saturday January 29, 2022 @12:36AM (#30124056)
The ease of sending it.

Stocks and bonds are not bearer assets, so you have to sell them before spending them.

Commodities are inconvenient to carry (though in some cases maybe more convenient than wheelbarrowing cash).

Real-estate is much less liquid, you can't sell or spend 0.01% of an apartment.

Re:Crypto leads to surge in online scams by masegod on Thursday January 27, 2022 @05:23PM (#30107771)
the supply of bitcoin is mathematically guaranteed, also much harder to steal
Re:Crypto leads to surge in online scams by bradjohnson on Thursday January 27, 2022 @05:27PM (#30107829)
> much harder to steal

This is objectively false given that the article is about how easy it is to scam people out of their bitcoins.

Re:Crypto leads to surge in online scams by bradjohnson on Thursday January 27, 2022 @05:16PM (#30107681)
What is the advantage of this over investing in GME? Both backed by strength of a meme, both highly speculative, except at least converting GME to actual money doesn't require you to burn energy equivalent to the average US household's monthly consumption.
Re:Crypto leads to surge in online scams by knorker on Thursday January 27, 2022 @04:52PM (#30107286)
So Venezuela is all fine now, thanks to blockchain?
Re:Crypto leads to surge in online scams by betwixthewires on Thursday January 27, 2022 @05:09PM (#30107563)
No, but people there have options thanks to it.