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Comment by dig1 | Hacker News Reader

> No one is hiding the fact that by buying crypto, you are exchanging your legal working currency for nothing more than an entry in a database with no real guarantees of any kind --- legal or otherwise

You just described the modern banking system. Yes, the government will give you guarantees for your stored funds to some extent, but when shit hits the fan, you are on your own (example 2008 financial crisis).

> All crypto really does is provide a quasi-viable excuse to entice people to lie to themselves about economic reality and what we call "money".

The same can be applied to the modern stock market. How many top players bring actual value, are sustainable, and can live more than 6 months without pumping stocks (and company valuation) through social media nonsense and other accounting tricks?

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> You just described the modern banking system. Yes, the government will give you guarantees for your stored funds to some extent, but when shit hits the fan, you are on your own (example 2008 financial crisis).

How much money did your savings account lose in 2008? Or your checking account?

Wrong question. Ask yourself how much value your saving/checking account lose in 2008. Check DXY history for that.

https://www.bls.gov/opub/ted/2009/jul/wk2/art04.htm

CPI was deflation for June 2008 to June 2009 yo.

Whatever cash you had that year gained value, not just from interest rates, but also from deflation.

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I dunno why you'd pick DXY when CPI or PCE are far more well regarded measures of price fluctuations.

Money market funds broke the buck in 2008:

https://www.investopedia.com/articles/economics/09/money-mar...

Cool story bro. But answer my question.

How much money did you lose in your SAVINGS account, or CHECKING account?

Don't move the goalposts on me. I know what you are trying to do rhetorically.

Dude

One money market fund, which was a tiny tiny percentage of overall money market funds, broke the buck by like 3%

Also money market funds aren't insured (typically)

Also, money market funds for sweep now have much stricter regulations to prevent even that from occurring again.

In 2008, who lost deposits in the US? Can you explain how, for example, Apple or Exxon are just pumping their stock and what the accounting tricks are?

I own stocks that pay me dividends - a share of the company profits. The company manufactures tangible goods, sells them to people, and then distributes some of the profits from these sales to shareholders. The shares I own are a claim on some portion of those profits.

There are plenty of companies that pay dividends. The logic behind stock buybacks is that it achieves a similar end for investors with favorable tax treatment.

In either case I am receiving some portion of the cash flows generated by a business. These cash flows are being generated independently of any stock market activity.

So tell me what claim on an underlying asset / cash flow does a cryptocurrency entitle me to?

The utility of a scarce token that can have ownership changed, permissionless (without a third party) to anyone, anywhere in the world, basically instantaneously. Some might call that "money".

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