this post was submitted on 21 Mar 2025
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[โ€“] brucethemoose@lemmy.world 35 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) (5 children)

Too bad about crypto.

This is the exact kind of situation it was meant to deal with: finance independent of bad entities. But itโ€™s such a dumpster fireโ€ฆ

I donโ€™t think thereโ€™s a purer example of social media engagement hype, predatory capitalism, and disinformation ruining something neat so quick.

[โ€“] 0x0@programming.dev 1 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Too bad about crypto. You mean cryptocurrencies? Which ones?

All of them?

Big/popular ones have been taking over by the day trading/tech bro crowd.

Small ones seem to be in the realm of scammers/hypers, and there is no way to sort through the sludge.

Those in the middle seem to spin with no traction, and even stablecoins or the GNU one have some inherit issues to adoption.

[โ€“] unexposedhazard@discuss.tchncs.de 17 points 5 days ago (1 children)

There is GNU Taler which is quite cool, but thats not really ready for use yet sadly.

[โ€“] brucethemoose@lemmy.world 7 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Oh yeah, that seems really cool. The core premise is much more practical.

[โ€“] oldfart@lemm.ee 4 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Yeah, money that expires is very practical

[โ€“] Iapar@feddit.org 1 points 4 days ago (2 children)
[โ€“] oldfart@lemm.ee 4 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Their very own FAQ says:

How to avoid digital cash expiration?

Taler e-money is issued with a validity period. One month before the expiration date, your wallet should automatically exchange any digital cash that is about to expire for new digital cash with an extended validity period. However, if your wallet is offline for an extended period of time, it may be unable to do so. Ensure your wallet is regularly online to avoid losing money due to expiration!

[โ€“] Iapar@feddit.org 3 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Jesus, that sounds like a catastroph waiting to happen.

Depending on the length of the period and when that period starts.

[โ€“] oldfart@lemm.ee 2 points 4 days ago (1 children)

People get sick, people get jailed, all kinds of events happen that can incapacicate you for extended periods of time

Meanwhile the bitcoin landfill guy has finally given up his search

[โ€“] oldfart@lemm.ee 1 points 4 days ago

Their very own FAQ says:

How to avoid digital cash expiration?

Taler e-money is issued with a validity period. One month before the expiration date, your wallet should automatically exchange any digital cash that is about to expire for new digital cash with an extended validity period. However, if your wallet is offline for an extended period of time, it may be unable to do so. Ensure your wallet is regularly online to avoid losing money due to expiration!

[โ€“] chicken@lemmy.dbzer0.com 13 points 5 days ago (3 children)

social media engagement hype, predatory capitalism, and disinformation ruining something

I mean, it still works for getting around Visa and Mastercard. For instance it can be used to make donations to various media piracy groups. It's just that it's so useful to scammers and many people see the technology as a whole as being one 'brand'.

[โ€“] 0x0@programming.dev 1 points 2 days ago (1 children)

media piracy

Do you mean privacy?

[โ€“] chicken@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

No I meant piracy, as it's an example of something good you can use crypto for that payment processors are liable to censor. For example Annas Archive, which is practically a modern Library of Alexandria, takes crypto. I don't think Visa is censoring the EFF etc. Yet.

[โ€“] brucethemoose@lemmy.world 2 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) (1 children)

Itโ€™s more than a perception problem now, itโ€™s a culture one within the crypto community (as far as I can tell).

Even if you treat the most prominent crypto as a utility, the sea of hype and speculation will affect you.

[โ€“] chicken@lemmy.dbzer0.com 5 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Maybe. I feel a bit out of the loop on "crypto community culture" because I understand that much of it largely exists on Twitter nowadays, and I don't go there. Still, it is a functional solution for a money equivalent of encrypted communication.

[โ€“] brucethemoose@lemmy.world 4 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

Or Discord! And investment TV! Itโ€™s so cultish, itโ€™s unreal.

I think this should be distinguished between "pure" crypto enthusiasts, in it for the utility, not speculation, which are probably like pink elephants now.

AI has a similar divide, where like 99% of the hype is on Twitter and TV with AI bros, but there are little niche communities messing with open weights, locally runnable models in a much more grounded way. /r/localllama used to be a hub for this (and there is a little branch on Lemmy), but unfortunately it seems to be getting strangled by Reddit enshittification .

[โ€“] 01011@monero.town 9 points 5 days ago

It really depends on the cryptocurrency in question. Some coins are much more credible than others. Lumping them all in together is like saying that the Japanese Yen and the Lebanese Pound are the same.

[โ€“] someguy3@lemmy.world 2 points 5 days ago (3 children)

Doesn't work when the valuation goes up and down like a yo-yo. You need same currency.

[โ€“] 01011@monero.town 2 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Unlike fiat currencies most of the credible cryptocurrencies have increased in value over the past 10 years.

These were the most credible cryptocurrencies 10 years ago. How many of them do people today recognize?

Beware survivorship bias.

[โ€“] brucethemoose@lemmy.world 3 points 5 days ago (2 children)

Stablecoin is a thing. So is a system to control inflation.

The more pressing issue to me is the core premise: a totally anonymized but publicly recorded financial system makes no sense, especially when the user generally wonโ€™t grasp it. Itโ€™s just begging for thieves and scammers, and thatโ€™s what it got.

[โ€“] 01011@monero.town 4 points 4 days ago (1 children)
[โ€“] BedSharkPal@lemmy.ca 0 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Doesn't it use proof of work? Why the hell would anyone torch the planet for crypto? If they switch to something like proof of stake then maybe... like Nano, but anonymized sounds great.

[โ€“] 01011@monero.town 1 points 3 days ago

And proof of stake provides yet another advantage to the already wealthy.

[โ€“] someguy3@lemmy.world 3 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) (1 children)

But if you can't get rich, no one wants to buy it or use it. This is the conundrum of crypto.

[โ€“] brucethemoose@lemmy.world 3 points 5 days ago

Yeah, and that toxic idea has completely poisoned the well.

[โ€“] MITM0@lemmy.world 1 points 5 days ago (1 children)

But you can use the technology behind it

[โ€“] someguy3@lemmy.world 1 points 5 days ago (2 children)
[โ€“] 0x0@programming.dev 1 points 2 days ago

Seriously? Blockchains are only useful for cryptocurrencies?

[โ€“] MITM0@lemmy.world 2 points 4 days ago

CBDCs & IPFS are a thing (even GNU-Jami uses it too)