If it's not about cashing out then why is the primary hype mechanism talking about the dollar-equivalent value of anything crypto related? Why does it matter if an NFT was sold for $300k worth of ether?
The author of this blog post's claim that 99.99% of people in crypto are only participating because of expectations of future profit is unsourced and a fiction that he has created based on preconceived notions.
Don't participate if you don't want - I like participating in a system that isn't being tracked by agencies especially with news of Treasury actively building out systematic functionality to investigate any bank accounts with transactions exceeding $600
The crypto financial news community was writing about this long before Fortune picked it up.
You are exactly incorrect.
Cash represents the overwhelming supermajority of laundered funds and ongoing credit extended across criminal elements.
https://www.swift.com/sites/default/files/files/swift_bae_re...
Cash is the heart of the criminal economy, crypto is creating a transparency that doesn't exist in traditional peer to peer physical transaction systems like cash or IOUs.
I'm done with this, nothing productive is coming out of this conversation.
Your reply is also confused. Is the majority of money laundering denominated in USD and other real currencies? I'd believe it, because that's where the money is. But I'm saying the proportion of Bitcoin transactions that are fincrime-related is surely much higher than that of total USD transactions.
This seems pretty obvious to me given that Bitcoin is much less useful for quotidian transactions, but much more useful to people engaged in assorted financial crime. That's unsurprising given how much cryptocurrency advocates tout privacy/anonymity as features. But if you think otherwise, feel free to show the data that has convinced you otherwise.
Also, it's bad form to read something, go on a rant, and then declare the conversation over. Especially when the rant is incorrect.
> The estimated amount of money laundered globally in one year is 2 - 5% of global GDP, or $800 billion - $2 trillion in current US dollars. Due to the clandestine nature of money-laundering, it is however difficult to estimate the total amount of money that goes through the laundering cycle.
From Treasury via ABA Banking Journal (https://bankingjournal.aba.com/2015/06/treasury-u-s-money-la... and https://home.treasury.gov/system/files/136/2018NMLRA_12-18.p...):
> The United States continues to estimate that domestic financial crime, excluding tax evasion, generates approximately $300 billion of proceeds for potential laundering, based on the sources and analysis cited in the 2015 NMLRA. Criminal prosecutions and law enforcement investigations indicate that most of the money earned from crime in the United States stays in the United States, but also that the United States is an attractive destination for illicit funds generated abroad.
The news media did not create the gold rush mentality around crypto, it has been there almost from the beginning. Go and read the bitcointalk forums for evidence, if you want.
I like having spending power that isn't immediately based on CIA organized crime or boomers at the Fed/Treasury
Edit: Not sure why the downvotes, but it's still true and still likely true for the forseeable future.
It's a new shift, but I think quite profound.
Edit: If you're referring to mainstream media, the dollar value is all that most would be able to put into context. For those deep in the space, we're thinking about dollar values less and less. My primary benchmark on overall portfolio value is the value denominated in ETH, not USD.
Although USD might be your preferred, many would happily sell a vehicle for compensation in BTC, ETH, silver, gold, euros, etc.
"Oh shit, the internet went out. Hope the value of my ETH doesn't crash through the floor while the internet is down...."
For people that look at it like that, sure. That's not how everyone looks at it though. I personally look at it with the aim of acquiring as much ETH as possible because I can see that the future economy will be built on it and eventually things will be priced in ETH.
Just because the transitions are slow and you don't see it happening, doesn't mean that there's not a transition happening.