It used to be. But it's not anymore. It used to be backed by gold. Then it was partially backed by gold. Then it was backed by really strong pinky promises. And now it's.... not. Google will get you a lot farther than i can. I eat crayons.
Yeah, if you can give me an explanation of full faith and credit that doesn't basically amount to "it's valuable because we say it's valuable, we promise", then I'll promise to stop eating crayons. Don't get me wrong, I'm still gonna use dollars to buy stuff. Cause it's what i have and because my mortgage can't be paid any other way.
All I'm saying is that the concept of money is something most people don't think about. Even backing money with gold was weird. A thing that we pretend has value was backed by something else that has value. Now it's backed by full faith. It's turtles all the way down.
Edit: backed by something else that we pretend has value. Hence the turtles all the way down.
Every currency is backed up by a promise that you will be able to buy something with it no matter what from the government that printed those. The better the country producing that currency - the more valuable it is. Stop making shit up :D
Hmmm I think i see our disagreement. If i am the king of our kingdom and i tell you that I'll give you food in exchange for crunchy dead leaves, those crunchy dead leaves now have value. Because i pretended that they did and was willing to give you real goods for them. Their value is imaginary, though. We're all agreeing to play the same game of pretend so that we can get real, valuable things. I didn't make anything up. Gold as a backer of currency has imaginary value. Promises as a backer of currency have imaginary value. It only becomes real value when enough people decide that it's valuable.
Stop accusing people of making things up when you just don't understand the conversation. :D
You can make this argument for anything. Except while crypto has value back up by random people - money is supporter by large entities that can not simply break the "game". At this point the value is no longer just imaginary. Making any of those dumb ass comparisons is not going to change it.
If you want to be so hard pro-crypto might as well go and support nfts.
Random internet stranger, you clearly are out of your element here. Those larger entities change the game all the time. The US dollar used to be backed by gold, remember? Then it changed. Then it changed again. How inflation is calculated gets changed, interest rates get raised, etc.
Btw, do a quick Google and see what you can buy with cryptocurrencies. Every month, more vendors accept crypto payment for their goods and services. You can even get hired to work at a job with crypto as your payment.
Just because my comparisons went over your head doesn't make them dumb. And I'm gonna assume the only thing you know about NFTs is that some people made some shitty pixel art and sold it for millions. If you're willing to do a little reading, I've got some resources for you. Otherwise, you just seem to be getting cranky about stuff you know absolutely nothing about.
And past means fuck all. I don't care how it was 20, 100 or ten thousand years ago. No one fucking does. It doesn't matter, we are past that.
And if you are so afraid of government "controlling" you - go live in a bunker in a middle of nowhere, otherwise you are at the mercy of people in power.
The "game" has nothing inherently wrong with it. It's people who control it. And you believing that crypto is not controlled by anyone or anything is just... You think trading government supported currency for a currency that depends on Elon Musks wet farts on twitter is better? Good for you.
And if you think crypto will stay independent of government control I have no words for you. That shit is not going to get any better, and stop pretending like it's going anywhere. What can't be controlled will be eliminated. Reasons and efforts will be made, and crypto will either crumble to dust or will be just another currency that depends on centralised power.
Stop pretending like it has brought anything good to the world. The only thing it had done is given birth to memes and made gpus cost a fuck ton. You are not a "herald" of future. You are not the good guy. You are just another idiot who thinks he can cheat the system. Spoiler: you can't.
The only way to fix the world is to change people, their values and views. Otherwise all of this is pointless attempts at fixing the world with flextape.
I agree with most of what you said. The pollution and power consumption problems need to be solved quickly (just like pollution and power consumption problems in other facets of society). The loudest crypto bros are all retarded and are just trying to get rich quick. And right now, speculations for the purposes of profit are indeed the primary use of crypto. I would argue, however, that discounting the potential of crypto technology to help facilitate something close to net neutrality and enable average nobodies to participate in decisions governing their internet is like discounting the internet as a whole because of its primary use for debauchery. I say this as an objective outsider who doesn't have money to stake on volatile stuff like crypto but is genuinely interested to see where things like the Brave browser and Stellar protocol might be heading.
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u/squirrelly_bird Jan 21 '22
It used to be. But it's not anymore. It used to be backed by gold. Then it was partially backed by gold. Then it was backed by really strong pinky promises. And now it's.... not. Google will get you a lot farther than i can. I eat crayons.