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Re: Bitcoin update.
But bitcoin has a purpose beyond speculation. In fact its entire purpose exists beyond speculation. If the project succeeds it will eliminate money laundering and fraud. It will do away with banks. Credit card fees will be a thing of the past, as will credit cards. It is not a ponzi scheme. It might be a bubble, but that is not the same as a Ponzi scheme.
But the underlying concept is excellent. The purpose was not to create an asset that people could speculate on, it was to fix a systemic problem. And blockchain can really do that. Crypto is using the blockchain to transfer value, but blockchain is increasingly being used to transfer assets directly as well through NFTs. Getting your head around swapping fiat currency for crypto takes quite a big step; getting your head around swapping crypto for the "ownership" of (for example) an image through an NFT takes a massive leap. And honestly, I've not made it yet. I had a small part to play in the creation of some NFTs recently but it does feel like something of a lottery as to what will blow up and what will whimper. For example would someone on here be willing to pay money to "own" this board's Bale sell-on clause post? Hockey, basketball etc cards go for MILLIONS of dollars and on the face of it they are just valueless pieces of card that have no utility - is it any more ridiculous that ownership of digital versions of these things could go for huge sums too? So you could have a blockchain-based panini album in future. It rather lacks the social benefits of trading physical cards in the playground, but this time the big kid can't nick them because you can prove they are yours. A trivial example maybe, but you can quite easily see how something like this could revolutionise the music industry (again).
I'm really struggling to get my head around the many and various use cases for blockchain, and in particular the taxation of cryptos and NFTs which is where I have a professional interest. But fundamentally - the concept of blockchain is absolutely brilliant and I really hope we do manage to make use of it as a society.
Originally posted by lardy
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But the underlying concept is excellent. The purpose was not to create an asset that people could speculate on, it was to fix a systemic problem. And blockchain can really do that. Crypto is using the blockchain to transfer value, but blockchain is increasingly being used to transfer assets directly as well through NFTs. Getting your head around swapping fiat currency for crypto takes quite a big step; getting your head around swapping crypto for the "ownership" of (for example) an image through an NFT takes a massive leap. And honestly, I've not made it yet. I had a small part to play in the creation of some NFTs recently but it does feel like something of a lottery as to what will blow up and what will whimper. For example would someone on here be willing to pay money to "own" this board's Bale sell-on clause post? Hockey, basketball etc cards go for MILLIONS of dollars and on the face of it they are just valueless pieces of card that have no utility - is it any more ridiculous that ownership of digital versions of these things could go for huge sums too? So you could have a blockchain-based panini album in future. It rather lacks the social benefits of trading physical cards in the playground, but this time the big kid can't nick them because you can prove they are yours. A trivial example maybe, but you can quite easily see how something like this could revolutionise the music industry (again).
I'm really struggling to get my head around the many and various use cases for blockchain, and in particular the taxation of cryptos and NFTs which is where I have a professional interest. But fundamentally - the concept of blockchain is absolutely brilliant and I really hope we do manage to make use of it as a society.
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