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Comment by mhitza | Hacker News Reader

What I expected to read about in this article, was about people using cryptocurrencies for something. But it's only briefly touched upon at the end of the article in a paragraph

> The increasing demand for cryptocurrency mining in Lebanon has prompted many shops across the country to accept payments in USDT, which is a cryptocurrency with a value that is meant to mirror the value of the US dollar.

How many? What can you buy? How often are they used? Demographics, any insight?

Otherwise this "turn to cryptocurrency" article seems to be just about an increase of local miners. The only two interesting aspects on that topic are that:

- hotels might connect to data mining operations to provide surplus electricity "bandwidth", as their occupancy is lower due to the pandemic

- Lebanon has an iffy electricity grid, and households are starting (have been for a while now?) to feel as consumers the extra strain on the grid caused by miners.

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So as usual, the cryptocurrency story here is that a few people may be finding an opportunity to make money, while it's acting as an overall negative for the society in general.

That is an all too common story in general these days.

Are they trying to make money,

or protect what they already had, and need?

Crytocurrency seems to have an extra amount of spamy / blog spam / low quality news sources surrounding it compared to other topics.

That may be true, but I don't think applies to al-monitor.

Yeah I meant generally. I don't know that site well enough to say. Although that particular story is pretty content free as it relates to the title.

Used to be that shilling snake-oil (or penny stocks) to gullible citizens required you to spend significant time and effort (and money) to be present in person. And the reach of any given huckster was limited by the strength of their voice and the number of handbills they could pass out.

The wonder of the internet is that now they can do it to a virtually unlimited degree, for minimal effort/outlay. No wonder we're drowning in it.

> for minimal effort/outlay.

Could you explain this part? I've always seen internet publicity the same as traditional, its a pay to play game and rich people have it locked up.

Yep.

I also find it very disingenuous how crypto enthusiasts use people in third world countries under oppressive regimes as their go to "why crypto matters" example while they themselves are only actually only in it for a big payday.

For the incumbents and newcomers it is impossible to exit without another huge ROI (10x, 100x) since crypto billionaires cannot cash out to billions of US dollars. They need to routinely pump & dump and hope that the music doesn't stop.

Somebody doing taxes this year is going to be on the hook for last year's BTC prices, and by god, they need it at least 100% ROI just to break even after paying taxes in the US.

Capital gains are paid on cash, not on unrealized gains against unsold assets.

So someone doing taxes this year either sold at a profit and has gains to pay on cash, sold at a loss and has no tax to pay, or bought and held, again, no taxes to pay.

There's no being "on the hook for last year's BTC prices" in any of these.

The part you're missing is that those people also believe "first world" countries are at risk of having the same things happen: hyperinflation, debt crises, confiscation of wealth/assets.

And if the risk of those things goes up, a rational person increases their bets as a hedge. Because the payday does go up, but only because everything around it is collapsing.

The difference is that you don't think those things could ever happen here; in our peaceful, stable, bourgeois society.

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