'Nine types of instruments with crazy names and functions.' Really, far far more types. Don't shoot the messenger: discussions of cryptos here -- like the CBDC discourse -- show that folks are confusing one crypto for another (just as I know no more about bullion than that silver is silver-coloured, and gold is gold). @shiney: wa ha ha -- the squabbles over what a real crypto is began years before Central Banks weighed in! XRP is a Foundation. Nuh. That's not a crypto! Venezuela got a monstrosity that they force on citizens. Nuh. Any token theoretically backed by sacks of potatoes in my basement? Well, ummm . . . [OMG OMG! My system is being used!!]
'Each type has a different purpose' And just to give you a giggle/wind up the bullion bugs: years ago, the Occupy movement launched a crypto based on the notion of 'demurrage.' Demurrage is a left-wing political principle. It holds that not using a crypto -- that is, storing it -- is capitalistic-ey, and therefore evil. So (wait for it . . . ) the crypto slowly disappears from your wallet. Sorry, what? The notion is that velocity is the primary purpose of money. And you can guess: A: the crypto was a massive success. B: it was briefly supported by a devoted few, then went to The Big Crypto Dumpster in The Sky.
Cryptos Buried in The Garden, and 'Paper Cryptos' The storing of cryptos has come up on threads several times. Crypto geeks never shut up saying, 'Don't store your coin on exchanges!!' Overall, it goes like this: There are gradations in security. But a major divide is, interestingly, quite similar to the physical bullion/paper bullion thing. If you download and set up a 'full blockchain' wallet*, and you then put funds into it (and correctly back it up) -- that's secure. That's 'silver in a Vegemite jar buried in the garden.' On the other end of the scale, there is storing your cryptos on Biggie Secure Well-Known and Trusted Exchange. It's the most basic failure of crypto security you can make. Heck, campers, my mob has been watching exchanges go down, with sickening regularity, since Mt. Gox. And a lot of twaddle about cryptos being 'at constant risk of theft' has come from clue-less journos who don't understand the difference between wallets and exchange accounts. So, having any amount of coin 'away from home' is, as I suggested, interestingly similar to paper bullion: if it's not safe at home on your laptop, you'd better be making profit trading it!! *Except with a couple of Biggie Coins, for which you'd use an 'Electrum' wallet, a 'lite' wallet.
[No Edit function?] Type Nine: trooly roooley anonymous. Many contenders. But one has stood the test of time. Type Ten: cryptos with sweet ranges of features: so, campers, a crypto is a currency riding on a blockchain; but an amazing array of 'features' can be coded in. For example, one coin was 'native Tor' -- anonymised by running on the Tor network -- had an exchange built into the wallet. And a transaction comments feature: a sort of baby email. (And the wallet may have an encryption engine. So messages can be encrypted and sent in the one wallet.)
'Type Nine: trooly roooley anonymous. Many contenders. But one has stood the test of time. Type Ten: cryptos with sweet ranges of features: so, campers, a crypto is a currency riding on a blockchain; but an amazing array of 'features' can be coded in. For example, one coin was 'native Tor' -- anonymised by running on the Tor network -- had an exchange built into the wallet. And a transaction comments feature: a sort of baby email. (And the wallet may have an encryption engine. So messages can be encrypted and sent in the one wallet.) So for type 10, that means the FBI can access my coins using their honey trap Tor exit nodes?' Good morning, 66. You have raised a valid point -- and I gotta swat up on the Tor exit thang. So, no, they can't access your coins. But yes, I have crypto colleagues who don't use Tor because they believe that Gubmint can see you entering and leaving The Dark Forest of Tor. But really I wanted Type Ten to example the fact that just oodles of stuff can 'piggyback' on a basic crypto.
I love the ethical philosophy of bitcoin. On one side of the ‘coin’ is it’s (current) practical uses - easy peasy laundering - instant international drug syndicate transfers - dark currency transfers (dark web drugs, child porn, weapons, espionage) - tax evasion And the other side is ‘store of value’. The paradox being that the ethical bitcoiners need to treat it like gold for long enough that its practical uses can actually manifest as useful in the real economy. In other words, the speculators owning bitcoin are piggybacking off the dark side of btc to justify value. The early days were great - buying pizza, tipping, exchanging novel ideas of using digital currency in gaming etc. But let’s face it, none of that is why it’s 10k. The scarcity, tracibility, transparency, decentralisation etc.. that’s not now, it’s coming later. I would love to be able to send money from bank to bank (US to AUS) instantly without having to drive to my bank, sign paperwork, pay a $50 fee, pay exchange rate, pay receiver bank fee and wait 4 hours. This is ARCHAIC! I wish btc luck but in the meantime I’ll hold god’s money gold whilst the devil plays digital and pray he is beaten, eventually.
[Edited] I'll stick to one point: 'The scarcity . . . . that’s not now, it’s coming later.' Nah. It's now.
“perception is reality” I can see this kind of convo would just turn into a Jordan Peterson vs Sam Harris debate and go nowhere.
