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Re:The Ethereum merge is done by jollybean on Thursday September 15, 2022 @07:16AM (#32850056)
Gaming does something i.e. entertain.

Crypto does nothing. Or you could argue, it 'entertains'. But in a way that is unnecessary (it's a distraction, not entertainment), and in a manner that creates unnecessary energy costs (PoW vs PoS).

Re:The Ethereum merge is done by santiagobasulto on Thursday September 15, 2022 @07:25AM (#32850126)
You definitively live in the first world. As a person that lived in a third-world, dictator infested country for 3 decades, I can tell you, OWNING your own money is LIFE CHANGING. I prefer not to have games, or netflix, or anything, but have financial certainty.

For you guys money is a done deal. For a HUGE part of the world, something as basic as money (or even water) is not. Try to be a little bit more empathic.

Re:The Ethereum merge is done by nix23 on Thursday September 15, 2022 @07:35AM (#32850213)
I live in a 3rd world country too (Switzerland) and i can tell you that the stability of our money (politics?) is 90% of our wealth, otherwise we would have literary nothing (with the exception of water (but who knows for how much longer)).

EDIT:

https://www.nationsonline.org/oneworld/third_world.htm

>>The term Third World was originally coined in times of the Cold War to distinguish those nations that are neither aligned with the West (NATO) nor with the East, the Communist bloc.

Re:The Ethereum merge is done by santiagobasulto on Thursday September 15, 2022 @08:14AM (#32850570)
Sorry, I don’t understand your comment. And I don’t think Switzerland is a 3rd world country (6th country by GDP per capita).
Re:The Ethereum merge is done by CTDOCodebases on Thursday September 15, 2022 @06:22PM (#32859200)
They are making a joke.

“Third world” was just a grouping of nations that didn’t align themselves with the USA or USSR during the cold war.

Over time labelling a country as “3rd world” become the de facto way of categorising it as a “developing country”.

Re:The Ethereum merge is done by jollybean on Thursday September 15, 2022 @07:28AM (#32850149)
Crypto is the 'least good' solution for people in regimes with crap currency.

There are at least a dozen 'very solid' currencies that people anywhere should be able to transact in, notably the USD.

All of which you 'own'.

If there are helpful things they can do, 'digital' currencies, especially USD, (one that is not mess) would be imminently useful.

If you thought the 'petro dollar' was a big thing wait until the 'digital dollar' and entire economies de facto switch to USD.

Re:The Ethereum merge is done by CTDOCodebases on Thursday September 15, 2022 @07:29PM (#32859851)
The people in Lebanon, Turkey, Venezuela holding USDT on Tron would hard disagree with your statement.

There are capital controls in place in these countries that make holding foreign currency simultaneously difficult and illegal.

This is why I believe a US CBDC and CBDC wars are highly likely.

A CBDC allows nations to control those nations that use their currency and the increasing it’s use allows the issuing nation to debase the currency to their advantage.

The only problem is distribution of technology but this is only a matter of time.

Re:The Ethereum merge is done by santiagobasulto on Thursday September 15, 2022 @08:12AM (#32850552)
My friend, you keep showing your “ignorance” and lack of empathy. Or course that I’d prefer to use USD. But we CAN NOT! It’s literally ilegal.

Your comment is like telling someone poor “just go to work”, or telling people dying of hunger: “you don’t need to die of hunger, you can eat!”.

Re:The Ethereum merge is done by nix23 on Thursday September 15, 2022 @07:38AM (#32850238)
In Zimbabwe it's illegal to use US-dollars, and some others maybe too.
Re:The Ethereum merge is done by killerstorm on Thursday September 15, 2022 @07:28AM (#32850146)
It's unnecessary to you - a person living in a developed country with democracy and stable banks.

It might work as a backup option to people who are less lucky. That's the majority of the world. Whether it's a good option depends on a situation.

In any case, it's not for you to judge if it's necessary or not.

Re:The Ethereum merge is done by everfree on Thursday September 15, 2022 @12:46PM (#32854734)
Please don't try to tell me what's entertaining to me and what isn't.
Re:The Ethereum merge is done by dreen on Thursday September 15, 2022 @07:24AM (#32850114)
Nah, it's just gambling but with a veneer of investing.
Re:The Ethereum merge is done by seydor on Thursday September 15, 2022 @07:20AM (#32850092)
people pay for nothing?
Re:The Ethereum merge is done by polygamous_bat on Thursday September 15, 2022 @07:41AM (#32850253)
Yes, although more concretely put, people pay for nothing of value. See [1] [2] for some more historical occurrences.

[1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tulip_mania [2] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beanie_Babies

Before you get all worked up about "crypto is better than tulips!", I'm primarily responding to your question by saying that _just because_ people are willing to pay (sometimes exorbitant amounts) for something doesn't imply it has that value.

Re:The Ethereum merge is done by CTDOCodebases on Friday September 16, 2022 @06:16AM (#32864282)
People will pay for something that they value but others do not.

I prefer to think of value as a function of rarity and utility. I'll skip over rarity but utility can include the possibility of selling something for more than it was purchased at some time in the future.

If someone pays an exorbitant amount for something it has that value to them at the time of purchasing. Whether that value is reflected in the market price or persists over time is something else though. Value is not static. Value is dynamic. You can observe this both personally and in the markets.