Good article that details exactly why the bitcoin is a pyramid scheme

[Elder Iptuous]

right.

[navkat]

Oh I'm so glad to know Bitcoin is as crooked as it is stupid. It reaffirms my larger worldview, especially considering the FEAR the Fed has about it, if my Internets read accurate.

Which is to say, why would anyone be afraid of something so foolish? And obviously flawed? And just...just stupid.

How many things do people fear that have a rational basis for that fear?

They're not afraid of anything that leaves a paper trail and chomps readily at the hook. They just ain't had a reason to start reeling yet. Saving that for the big 'un, I think.

[navkat]

In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if the orders here are "Stand down. We wanna catch these Silk Road junkies first...but not until we clean up this Tor problem."

[Faust]

Finance is a really BAAAAD area for me to for hard-and-fast opinions. I realize this and moderate myself. I probably won't understand half the shit on that wiki because OFUK MATH.

Which is funny because no matter what a persons beliefs, the finance side basically dictates the reality of what is and is not possible.

[navkat]

Finance is a really BAAAAD area for me to for hard-and-fast opinions. I realize this and moderate myself. I probably won't understand half the shit on that wiki because OFUK MATH.

Which is funny because no matter what a persons beliefs, the finance side basically dictates the reality of what is and is not possible.

That doesn't make my ideas less valid.

Look, as I see it, this world is made up of number-crunchers, ideas people, philosophers, etcetera. Leaving all the decisions about how "reality" should be defined up to the money people is part of why my country's in this mess.

I do the best I can to keep myself informed. Some areas are easier than others but I'm no idiot, either.

[The Good Reverend Roger]

Finance is a really BAAAAD area for me to for hard-and-fast opinions. I realize this and moderate myself. I probably won't understand half the shit on that wiki because OFUK MATH.

Which is funny because no matter what a persons beliefs, the finance side basically dictates the reality of what is and is not possible.

That doesn't make my ideas less valid.

Look, as I see it, this world is made up of number-crunchers, ideas people, philosophers, etcetera. Leaving all the decisions about how "reality" should be defined up to the money people is part of why my country's in this mess.

I do the best I can to keep myself informed. Some areas are easier than others but I'm no idiot, either.

No, what made the country a mess is that we didn't demand accountability from the money people.  Any system without oversight will garner the EXACT same results.

[Faust]

Finance is a really BAAAAD area for me to for hard-and-fast opinions. I realize this and moderate myself. I probably won't understand half the shit on that wiki because OFUK MATH.

Which is funny because no matter what a persons beliefs, the finance side basically dictates the reality of what is and is not possible.

That doesn't make my ideas less valid.

Look, as I see it, this world is made up of number-crunchers, ideas people, philosophers, etcetera. Leaving all the decisions about how "reality" should be defined up to the money people is part of why my country's in this mess.

I do the best I can to keep myself informed. Some areas are easier than others but I'm no idiot, either.

I'm not saying it makes anyone's ideas less valid. But it's a complicated mess, and with finance there are hidden pitfalls everywhere. The game is loaded in their favour.
The bitcoin is tragic because it uses peoples mistrust of the systems that have fucked up their respective countries, and in turn robs them blind. It's not just a misstep on a first attempt, it's a cruel and cynical way of stopping people from ever trying again.

[The Good Reverend Roger]

Finance is a really BAAAAD area for me to for hard-and-fast opinions. I realize this and moderate myself. I probably won't understand half the shit on that wiki because OFUK MATH.

Which is funny because no matter what a persons beliefs, the finance side basically dictates the reality of what is and is not possible.

That doesn't make my ideas less valid.

Look, as I see it, this world is made up of number-crunchers, ideas people, philosophers, etcetera. Leaving all the decisions about how "reality" should be defined up to the money people is part of why my country's in this mess.

I do the best I can to keep myself informed. Some areas are easier than others but I'm no idiot, either.

I'm not saying it makes anyone's ideas less valid. But it's a complicated mess, and with finance there are hidden pitfalls everywhere. The game is loaded in their favour.
The bitcoin is tragic because it uses peoples mistrust of the systems that have fucked up their respective countries, and in turn robs them blind. It's not just a misstep on a first attempt, it's a cruel and cynical way of stopping people from ever trying again.

Also, why on Earth would I trust some currency created by some internet slob?  That has even LESS accountability than the current system.

[Faust]

Because internet buddy trust lol, "we shared a meme once. might as well have been in 'nam together."

[The Good Reverend Roger]

Because internet buddy trust lol, "we shared a meme once. might as well have been in 'nam together."

[navkat]

Hrmmm...I think some brilliant ideas and brilliant minds come from the people who use the technology. There are plenty of enlightened, educated hopefuls who earnestly try to change the world from behind a screen. That's not what troubles me about ideas like Bitcoin. It's the equally-brilliant, black-hat exploiters that keep the shit-factory running. The unabashed takers who feel the weak and naive have it coming to them and rely on non-victims to agree and validate them ("You can't cheat an honest man! Yuk yuk!")...often for the same reasons the NOPD dispatcher suggested it was my own fault when my vehicle was smashed and burglarized this weekend.

Only in this case, there are more opportunities to be informed. That doesn't put the victims at fault, nor does it make them complicit in their own victimization. It just gives you a little more time to catch that dude walking towards your window with a spark-plug in his hand.

I think it's entirely possible Satoshi had the best of intentions here. I've heard it said that the safeguards against inflation were deliberate but at its best, it's a social experiment and that means someone's got to be the guinea pigs.

[The Good Reverend Roger]

Hrmmm...I think some brilliant ideas and brilliant minds come from the people who use the technology. There are plenty of enlightened, educated hopefuls who earnestly try to change the world from behind a screen. That's not what troubles me about ideas like Bitcoin. It's the equally-brilliant, black-hat exploiters that keep the shit-factory running. The unabashed takers who feel the weak and naive have it coming to them and rely on non-victims to agree and validate them ("You can't cheat an honest man! Yuk yuk!")...often for the same reasons the NOPD dispatcher suggested it was my own fault when my vehicle was smashed and burglarized this weekend.

Only in this case, there are more opportunities to be informed. That doesn't put the victims at fault, nor does it make them complicit in their own victimization. It just gives you a little more time to catch that dude walking towards your window with a spark-plug in his hand.

I think it's entirely possible Satoshi had the best of intentions here. I've heard it said that the safeguards against inflation were deliberate but at its best, it's a social experiment and that means someone's got to be the guinea pigs.

But it doesn't have to be me.

[navkat]

Nope. But it's not entirely dishonorable either for the experiment to reward its subjects (the early adopters) for taking the gamble by participating if it turns out the new drug works.

That's fine for them, not for you and me and if it gets corrupted, some people are going to be pretty fucked.

[Faust]

Hrmmm...I think some brilliant ideas and brilliant minds come from the people who use the technology. There are plenty of enlightened, educated hopefuls who earnestly try to change the world from behind a screen. That's not what troubles me about ideas like Bitcoin. It's the equally-brilliant, black-hat exploiters that keep the shit-factory running. The unabashed takers who feel the weak and naive have it coming to them and rely on non-victims to agree and validate them ("You can't cheat an honest man! Yuk yuk!")...often for the same reasons the NOPD dispatcher suggested it was my own fault when my vehicle was smashed and burglarized this weekend.

Only in this case, there are more opportunities to be informed. That doesn't put the victims at fault, nor does it make them complicit in their own victimization. It just gives you a little more time to catch that dude walking towards your window with a spark-plug in his hand.

I think it's entirely possible Satoshi had the best of intentions here. I've heard it said that the safeguards against inflation were deliberate but at its best, it's a social experiment and that means someone's got to be the guinea pigs.

Someone who's car gets burgled: not at fault.
Someone who gets swindled out of their savings: Not their fault.
Someone who puts their money into bitcoin: At fault, just as the man who sits down at blackjack table is at fault.

[Faust]

Nope. But it's not entirely dishonorable either for the experiment to reward its subjects (the early adopters) for taking the gamble by participating if it turns out the new drug works.

That's fine for them, not for you and me and if it gets corrupted, some people are going to be pretty fucked.

Early adopters at the top of a pyramid scheme didn't gamble on the success of the bitcoin. The way it works is it gets progressively more difficult to get bitcoins based on these cryptographic hashes, they could do this without ever investing any of their own money (read up on bitcoin mining).
They took little to NO risk, the currency rises based on the larger investment pool of people below them in the pyramid. They sell off and cash out their earnings that they never had to invest in.

It was worse then negligent or dishonerable, it is a calculated effort to separate people from their money.