Pump and dump. Not illegal.... and I'll day billions

What did I say about a weekend ?

Interesting situation concerning cryptocurrency
https://www.foxbusiness.com/financials/cryptocurrency-expert-says-us-should-watch-what-canadian-government-is-doing-to-protesters-no-one-is-safe

I know the govt can do the same with you checking account but if the SHTF and the leaders decide your political opinion is dangerous to them it would be tempting to weaponize the "regulation" of funds. You can't easily do that with hard cash, precious metals, or Tab's dragonazz jeans.

Yes, I've been watching this from afar and it's definitely quite concerning. What's to stop the government from seizing funds from people who donate to pro-life organizations just because someone from that organization might be a little wacky and overzealous and cross the line when protesting.

However, I don't really understand something - how can the government "seize" crypto assets? I guess if one holds coins in a Canadian exchange or some type of organization that falls under Canadian law, then they might be able to do what they please. But if you have your own private keys for your crypto, then there's nothing any government can do or say about it, as far as I know?

-Wayne

That’s my understanding too. Yes, if you “hold” the coins indirectly at Coinbase, PayPal etc. the govt can get it. But in a private wallet I don’t think they have the technical ability to reach it. Yet.

Or that they are willing to admit to being able to do it until the 'right time'.
I don't want to join the tinfoil hat club but a healthy dose of distrust of the govt is becoming more needful as we see event unfold.

How anyone can not have some concerns at this point is very surprising.

What should concern you more is that it is a giant Ponzi scheme filled with morons.

If concerned...change to a diff currency.
Coinstar is safe. SmileWavy

Which are you speaking of? Cryptocurrency or the US dollar?

Case in point

But (and someone can correct me if I'm incorrect in this assumption), any ponzi scheme is a closed-loop system. I.E. for every dollar put in, someone else takes a dollar out. Yes, the "artificial" worth of something like Bitcoin, etc. can create a virtual "trillion dollar" valuation of the aggregate of all coins, but at the end of the day, for every "dollar" (or other fiat currency) put in, there is someone taking it out.

With the banking crisis of 2008, there were loans made on houses with then jeopardized banks and left people with monthly debt that they couldn't sustain. This crypto bubble and/or rise seems to be somewhat different and less likely to cause global contagion?

-Wayne

The business model for a ponzi scheme is a lot of people putting lots of dollars in but only a few people taking lots of dollars out-but not all of the dollars.

Cryptocurrency is ephemeral. It’s not real. It’s not tangible. It only exists as a string of electircal impulses going through a server someplace. Without that server, or an electronic device to send and receive those impulses, you got nothing.

That means, IMO, somebody can gum up the signals a whole lot easier than hauling away your cash or gold or even your dragonazz jeans.

It's also not regulated and protected from insider trading and what not.
for instance crypto.com advertisements, you wouldn't be allowed to advertise regular stock trading like they do..

and runs 24/7
and causes massive energy waste
and facilitates criminal financing hidden, black money that never has to be laundered.

To many people buying 'investments' on margin. Directly and indirectly.

There are three things a man can count on. An old dog, an old wife, and ready cash.

yeah, except anybody who ever heard country can tell you all those will part ways with you
usually in a combined series of events.

You're right, calling it a Ponzi is too legitimate. Crypto is not even a closed loop Ponzi, since it is generated out of thin air. There are thousands of worthless cryptos.

I can create a new cryptocurrency today, create 50 million tokens, buy 3 of them for $1 each, and viola, $50 million marketcap out of thin air. There is far less real money money in the system than the marketcaps suggest.

So, I read the two major anti-Bitcoin and pro-Bitcoin Reddit forums for entertainment, and this stuck out to me the other day:

So, it's a simple tale, but the meaning is definitely applicable to the current situation. If there is no new money coming in, then there will be no one to sell to when the music stops playing and everyone wants to sell. Although, there is an element of people who will hold until it goes down to near zero - we have seen this with the "meme stocks" that went up to $400+ like GameStop. These guys just hold and don't ever want to sell. So, maybe there will be some exits for the "smart money" in crypto (you know, the people who are not supposed to win from this "decentralized" stuff - the wealthy traders, hedge funds, etc.).

I think that eventually (not sure when), this will turn into a very expensive lesson for some people.

-Wayne

I always wondered who the guy was that one day said something like "hey I am going to start a cryptocurrency" and he invented the entire process from his head. He got a few folks to buy in and it grew. When is he going to bail out, or has he. It all seems to be smoke and mirrors and I wonder who is really in control. Have the main inventors and backers of the house of cards just quietly sold and left the building leaving nothing at all but smoke and no no mirrors? If not now, when?

Elon Musk did that with PayPal and he sold it for a bunch of money. Just an idea, move other people's money around. Sell if for billions.

Elon Musk bought PayPal, he had his own payment company, but it wasn't getting anywhere. Then he sold it to Ebay for buttloads of money.

Speaking of Paypal, they are more alike than one would expect but that’s consistent behavior on his part.

The founder / creator of Bitcoin is a big mystery, here's a Wikipedia entry on it:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satoshi_Nakamoto

-Wayne

Occam's razor says he doesn't exist.

What's the value of anything which can't be used ?

I was stuck in some tourist hell and met some people at next table that were 'into' crypto. A couple of older ladies (65+) and a 30 year old daughter with a dyed mohawk.

One of the older ladies had made a pretty sizable investment based on daughter's expert advice and they were all quivering with excitement about all the money they now 'had'. Were in town shopping for a retirement condo with their crypto winnings. Asked me if I'd 'heard of crypto', 'what I thought', 'which one was best', etc.

Told them my opinion: there's a transaction mechanism that is useful, its a new thing and 'its fine'.... as a currency... uh... seems sort of arbitrary... you can gamble on it but there's not a good reason for it to have value. The idea will be used by banks and commerce, for sure, but these random currencies won't gain value from that.

Man they didn't like that, there was some solid fundamental reason that it was going to take over as the worlds fiat currency or something. Ask for details and they're just tongue tied.

I felt so bad for them. Clearly had no idea what sort of ride they were on, were riding the euphoria spending their future gains, the power of un-reason. Greed just pouring out of them, they'd won the secret lottery. Was like adam sandler in 'uncut gems.' I told them to enjoy their success and make it real today but of course it was december 9th 2017 and two days later it started losing value.

Who knows what happened to them. Probably didn't buy the condo, but if they believed and stayed true over the next 5 years they'd be sitting pretty today.

In 2010 my son was a 15 and wanted to build a Crytpo Mining Rig to mine BTC.

I asked him to work up a build sheet, IIRC it was going to be $3-$5K depending on how nuts he went.

I told my wife, we should buy 5K in BTC, I had no idea how to buy it back then. My wife sounded like a lot in this thread, crapped all over the idea.

I dropped it and so did my son.

My buddy Alex was all in on it. He built mining rigs and had a quite a bit of it.

In 2017 when it hit 9K he cashed it all out and payed off his mortgage. IIRC he cashed out $140K in BTC he held about 15 BTC at the time.


He would go on to regret that move.

One should never regret cashing out a profit.
Not on stocks
Not on casino chips
Not on crypto

One should only regret NOT cashing out when there was profit

He essentially threw away $800K by cashing out too early.

We were just discussing this over beers about a month ago.

He said he wished he had only cashed out half and left half in.

He really did not need the money.

LOL! He told me last week he took a dividend payout on his business for his profits last year, the check was over 500K he does not need the money. He was just pissed he got excited and cashed out too soon.

One day I sat down and did the math on what my 5K invested in 2010 would have been worth even at 9K a coin, let alone 30K or 60K. It was depressing. I am still pissed I did not jump in back in 2010.

I have about 8K tossed around now in various crap crypto's hoping one will take off.

Pointless to live life regretting such things
He got 140k free money. He should be happy

We are good trust me. We are both in the same business and he does about 2x the revenue I do. I have a smaller company by design. I did not want the headaches of having so many employees again. I like my little 3 person company. He likes his 10 person company.

We just joke around about how we would both be done already if we had we been smart or more... prophetic concerning Crypto.

I hold 40 million SHIB. (Among several other cryptos) Hopefully in a couple years I can laugh at my good fortune. It only cost me $400 when I purchased SHIB. I do not need thar 400. I will let it sit there. If it ends up worthless no biggie.

Sent from my SM-G781U using Tapatalk

If you can't find the mark ...

I once heard a quote that many stocks are an investment in the "other sucker principle". You are betting on there being someone who is willing to pay more than you did.

I have a low pain threshold for financial risk and to me (and just me) crypto is another other sucker principle. Its all good until it isn't and then it really sucks. Someone is going to get left holding the back.

I admire those who are willing to take the big risks. I hope they enjoy the ride and know when to jump before the crash.

Can you say "Enron"?

its no different from playing black jack

everybody wants 21..
at 8 you know you want to hit it again
at 18 you'de have to be an idiot

only difference : it's not 21, the target number is blind.
and sometimes it goes down before it hits the target. that's when you double down

obviously, if you double down and it goes bust, like blackjack you loose double :D

If it makes you feel any better, you probably would have sold it all when it was worth $10k, just like your friend.

Well if I had a Time machine, and could tell myself 20 years ago what i know now, I'de have a 904 a 917 and a smoking hot blonde with a solid prenupt.

Yea, and just buy Apple, Microsoft shares. Well maybe 35 years ago.

If you had a time machine and could tell yourself then what you know now and ended up with only a 904 a 917 and a smoking hot rental, I would say you squandered a miracle.

And it would have really crushed your feelings when she told you that you had to sign the prenup her lawyer had written up.:p

Who said only.. you .. not me.. I have plenty of fantasy but didn't wanna write entire pages of jibber jabber here

I'm a big fan of Eddie Murphy
HALF

So no dice. Would have told her to pound sand get gtfo
NEXT!
Where's Mffuffu?