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Comment by 29athrowaway | Hacker News Reader

What is wrong with crypto.

Even if entire books couldn't be written in answer to that question, that kind of market speculation has no place in a personal finance class. Such a class should teach students the basics they need to make and keep a budget, avoid unnecessary debt, save for retirement, maybe even buy a house, etc. Any kind of market speculation should be left until they thoroughly grasp those basics.

You could ask what's wrong with futures you can become super wealthy overnight. But you can also bankrupt yourself in an hour. Yes risk is part of investing but extreme risk is desperation, gambling, ignorance.

The main thing is that people think that "buying some amount of crypto currency is an investment".

It may be, but way too volatile, much more than people's actual desired risk profiles.

So they have unrealistic expectations where a few people end up winning and way too many end up holding the empty bag.

Statistically, that's not an investment, that's a scheme.

So, like investing your time, mental health and physical health in exchange for incentive stock options then? At least with crypto you don't have to necessarily waste years of your life in vain.

I have made a lot of money with crypto. There is nothing wrong with it, if you understand what you are doing.

People hoarding resources and abusing information asymmetry will always exist, either in the form of crypto pump and dumps, or ellaborate scams like collateralized debt obligations and subprime mortgages and fractional reserve banking and stuff.

Everything is a scam, inflation is legalized theft and just like casinos make their biggest profits from casual players/tourists that do not know how to play, every form of financial transaction takes advantage of people that do not know the rules or the optimal strategy.

> casinos make their biggest profits from casual players/tourists that do not know how to play

This is cute. Do you have a winning strategy at blackjack too?

Have you ever heard of advantage players?

It's not an investment. 1 BTC is always going to be worth 1 BTC.

I’ll take that bet

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