Hacker News Reader

Comment by oreo81 | Hacker News Reader

Just stop, you have no idea their intentions so don't assume they're gambling.

Intentions don't matter; it's a function of the underlying asset. The worst stock market crash in US history was Black Monday in 1987 which resulted in a 22.6% drop in the DJA. Bitcoin has already experienced much worse crashes than that, multiple times (like the time it dropped 94% in 2011).

I'm not saying don't put money into Bitcoin/cryptos; I'm saying don't put in more than you would feel comfortable losing at a casino.

Intentions do matter though, it's not about the money to some people. Some people understand how revolutionary a decentralized economy would be and want to take part in trying to implement something they believe in. If it's all about making a quick buck then yes, it's gambling. Don't assume money is everything to everyone.

I don't feel comfortable losing any money at a casino, that money goes to an industry that I don't care to support; But I'd be fine losing money in crypto because It's something I want to support.

Serious question.

How does buying and holding Bitcoin promote a decentralized economy?

It doesn't. It pushes the value up and certainly gets more eyes on it but a rising market cap of cryptos doesn't suddenly defeat fiat currencies when a magic threshold is reached.

That "magic" threshold that fiat operates on is a group of people(fed gov) with guns that force it onto people, and will literally imprison you if you don't. Some people consider this oppressive and would like for it to change.

Bitcoin works on a concept called a block-chain; which is essentially a publicly available ledger of transactions. Since this block-chain is distributed around the world, no central party is in control over the wealth represented by the transactions listed on the block-chain. This wealth is further abstracted to arbitrary units we all bitcoins.

Like any artificial representation of wealth(aka currency) it's only as strong as the group of people recognizing it as a representation of value.

So by storing labor or wealth inside bitcoin, you're strengthening the network of participants, thus strengthening bitcoin, thus strengthening(or supporting) decentralized currency.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com