[Tainari88]

Well folks I saw this documentary recently and it is eye popping with the loneliness factor, the lack of real friendships and the craziness of that Zhang man of trusting people and bragging about having cash and bitcoins in his house.

This whole story is also a warning about trusting cops to come into your house and help you out when you are a thief steal for a living as well. Someone steals from you and you want your money back but the money you have is stolen in a way as well.

This Bitcoin stuff is shady. I really think you need to really think about why people are so naive and lonely and stupid in some things and very intelligent in other ways?

What is your opinion about this crazy dude?

[Puffer Fish]

This Bitcoin stuff is shady.

To be fair, cases like this are not really about Bitcoin. It's about financial speculation.

Unbelievably a lot of younger people are so dumb they think the whole point of Bitcoin is to be able to buy it and then sell it to get a lot of money, expecting it to keep increasing in price.

The whole nature of that is a pyramid scheme. You can read about the Dutch history of "Tulip mania".

This is the type of mentality that appeals to wacky progressive males. The same with gambling.
I can guarantee you there are almost no Conservative males who got into Bitcoin.

[Potemkin]

To be fair, cases like this are not really about Bitcoin. It's about financial speculation.

Unbelievably a lot of younger people are so dumb they think the whole point of Bitcoin is to be able to buy it and then sell it to get a lot of money, expecting it to keep increasing in price.

The whole nature of that is a pyramid scheme. You can read about the Dutch history of "Tulip mania".

I agree with this.

This is the type of mentality that appeals to wacky progressive males. The same with gambling.
I can guarantee you there are almost no Conservative males who got into Bitcoin.

[Unthinking Majority]

I'm still waiting for my collection of Beanie Babies to recover in value. It's going to happen eventually, I just have to be patient.

Anyone here like dolphins?

[Tainari88]

I agree with this.

Zhang man in the video had a flag of Trump 2024 in his house. He is conservative. Puffer Fish is wrong. Bitcoin is full of lonely conservative males.

[wat0n]

This is the type of mentality that appeals to wacky progressive males. The same with gambling.
I can guarantee you there are almost no Conservative males who got into Bitcoin.

The biggest bitcoin advocates I've seen are libertarians

[Potemkin]

The biggest bitcoin advocates I've seen are libertarians

The whole concept of Bitcoin was designed to appeal to Libertarians. A currency with no government control… or underlying value… or any purpose other than as a giant Ponzi scheme…. Let freedom ring!!

[Tainari88]

The whole concept of Bitcoin was designed to appeal to Libertarians. A currency with no government control… or underlying value… or any purpose other than as a giant Ponzi scheme…. Let freedom ring!!

Are you going to buy bitcoin Potemkin? I have not bought a single dollar of bitcoin crap. Never trusted it. Hee hee. But a bunch of people have been ripped off with $250 dollar investments that disappear and shit. It is weird.

[Potemkin]

Are you going to buy bitcoin Potemkin? I have not bought a single dollar of bitcoin crap. Never trusted it. Hee hee. But a bunch of people have been ripped off with $250 dollar investments that disappear and shit. It is weird.

As PT Barnum said, Tainari, “There’s one born every minute!”

[ingliz]

@Potemkin

The world has gone mad.

Who'd have thought the price of gold would rise to be six times higher than it was? $350 -> $2,000+ an ounce. And to think I thought I was doing well when I sold my stash a few years ago and doubled my money.

And the price of houses?

Thirty years ago, a townhouse would cost around 30,000 euros. Now, it's going to set you back well over half a million.

[Potemkin]

@Potemkin

The world has gone mad.

Who'd have thought the price of gold would rise to be six times higher than it was? $350 -> $2,000+ an ounce. And to think I thought I was doing well when I sold my stash a few years ago and doubled my money.

And the price of houses?

Thirty years ago, a townhouse would cost around 30,000 euros. Now, it's going to set you back well over half a million.

Every generation has thought the world was going mad, and every generation has been correct. The world goes mad every 25 years or so, regular as clockwork. We call it “progress” instead of “madness”, so as not to alarm people unnecessarily. Lol.

[Skinny Bob]

Well folks I saw this documentary recently and it is eye popping with the loneliness factor, the lack of real friendships and the craziness of that Zhang man of trusting people and bragging about having cash and bitcoins in his house.

This whole story is also a warning about trusting cops to come into your house and help you out when you are a thief steal for a living as well. Someone steals from you and you want your money back but the money you have is stolen in a way as well.

This Bitcoin stuff is shady. I really think you need to really think about why people are so naive and lonely and stupid in some things and very intelligent in other ways?

What is your opinion about this crazy dude?

Well, history is replete with the very intelligent being very unwise. I'm sure Oppenheimer would chime in on that point, were he still with us in the flesh.

Ahh, bitcoin. In my view, bitcoin is a ponzi scheme and doomed to fail. It, to me, being a non-techie, appears to be some kind of complex chain letter, where success for the few at the head of the game depends on more and more people contributing to the chain. These types of financial delusions reward the few at the top of the chain, but at the expensive of everyone else. Nothing is being created, nothing is being produced, so whatever value your 'bitcoin' has, it is artificially created at someone's expense, and you are betting it won't be you, that it will be someone else. Eventually, as we have seen, a lot of folks will be left holding an empty bag. All that is happening is that wealth is being transferred from one sector to another. Not only that, with bitcoin, aggregate wealth (accrued and invested) could disappear in a flash. I would never trust a scheme like this, especially one that criminals love and they do love bitcoin. Go to the dark web and all payments seem to be in digital currency of one kind or another.

[Skinny Bob]

@Potemkin

The world has gone mad.

Who'd have thought the price of gold would rise to be six times higher than it was? $350 -> $2,000+ an ounce. And to think I thought I was doing well when I sold my stash a few years ago and doubled my money.

And the price of houses?

Thirty years ago, a townhouse would cost around 30,000 euros. Now, it's going to set you back well over half a million.

Yes, I purchased a home, years ago, for $18k, it is now worth $125k in bad condition. That's capitalism for you. It rewards those who can afford to hedge (the affluent and rich) and the expense of those who cannot (the poor). Now, I'm not a big fan of capitalism, insofar as it's inadequacies, though I do believe in free markets, noting that the two concepts are not exactly the same.

Bitcoin is a good example of how an unfettered/unregulated market can result in economic loss for many due to it's absence of regulation. The false idea is that all regulation is bad. Regulation's bad reputation is the result of bad regulation giving regulation, on the whole, a bad rap. Good regulation is vital to free markets. But, there isn't enough of it, and there is too much of the bad kind, unfortunately, ask anyone in the construction business, pharmacology business, restaurant business. The same goes for government. There is so much bad government it gives government, on the whole, a bad rap. People in government that regulate business, tend to say 'no' too easily, rather than 'how can we help your business get off the ground and contributing to society'? Bitcoin suffers for lack of regulation. Yeah, I know, the very idea is anathema to it's creators, but at some point, lovers of bitcoin will have to come to grips with that reality.