Nobody is expected to understand crypto. Same with the stock market and generally the economy. If it was simple and see thru you couldn’t run this many scams.
this post was submitted on 18 Mar 2025
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Same with the stock market and generally the economy.
Okay, you can tap the breaks on that one. There's a book from 1949 called "The Intelligent Investor" that's been the benchmark for savvy stock market analysis for generations. Hardly the only one (although a lot of the newer stuff is just variations on the core themes). Understanding price-to-earnings, market share, debt-to-asset ratios, and marginal return gets you a long way towards consistent middle-of-the-road long term safe returns.
Same with The Economy. Get a copy of Piketty's Capitalism in the 21st Century and you will have a firm grasp of macro-economic models and trends by the end of it. You'll get a core understanding of the difference between short-term investment returns and long term value creation. You'll get an idea for the broad reasoning behind different public policies and their impact on the broad growth and development trends seen over the last 500 years.
There's no need to mystify markets or economic systems. In the same way that a modern physician has a generally firm grasp of the human body (without knowing how every single cell is going to behave or every single genetic variant of human is going to respond to a given treatment), a modern business analyst has a generally firm grasp of their industrial or market focus.
Even crypto is something people can broadly understand as a modern iteration of a privatized experiment in currency manipulation. The thing about crypto is akin to understanding how a casino works. Analyzing the system doesn't mean you're going to be able to profit from it. Its like analyzing a grizzly bear with a plan to engage it in a boxing match. The best analysts will tell you "You're going to get horrible mauled if you interact with this thing, stay away."
If it was simple and see thru you couldn’t run this many scams.
The scams aren't a product of (lack of) transparency so much as they are the result of misinformation and market manipulation.
You've got a guy in a big wagon with a bullhorn selling "Better Than Aspirin!" for $10/pill right outside a pharmacy selling aspirin for $3/bottle in a bottom shelf at the back of the store. The moral of this isn't "Nobody will ever understand pharmaceuticals". It is that there's is a great deal of money in capturing people's attention and then lying to them.
In the same way that a modern physician has a generally firm grasp of the human body (without knowing how every single cell is going to behave or every single genetic variant of human is going to respond to a given treatment)
But the cells existed before us and we are simply trying to understand them.
We created the economic system and now we make conflicting theories about how it behaves.
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Is it really so hard to just stay somewhat connected to the world around you?
It's not like it was a rapid shift, this shit has been progressing for DECADES and some just refused to learn. I've talked to 30 yos who can't do anything beyond basic computer usage, and I've seen a 80 year old who was extremely with it and troubleshooting with me.
It's not an age problem, it's a lack of effort
Exactly. I'm 61, and I first used a computer in 1980. My uncle was receptive, so as I helped him over the years, he became more and more proficient until now. He can do most of his troubleshooting on his own, and he's ten years older than I.
I did not have any exposure to internet my until having to join online classes in 2020 pandemic, and it was still not as bad as some people make it seem.
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Crypto? Yes, I know what a pyrimid scheme is.
Okay, as someone born in 1988, I am not an elder (but also I will accept you being kind to me please, thank you 🫠)
I grew up using the (actual paper) card catalog in the library to find books and yes I predate VHS. However, I even understand crypto, but I think my definition may vary slightly from younger folks "understanding".
Crypto has no intrinsic value like gold, and as fiat currency isn't even backed by any nationstate. This means any appreciation is based upon the "greater fool" model. Its not an investment. Its a series of Ponzi schemes so repeated that the term "rug pull" is right at home in the crypto world. I'm old enough to see other Ponzi schemes and know how they end up.
The only real value that I can see for crypto is bypassing of national monetary controls. As in, you can buy crypto in your home country with your home country's currency, then travel to another country with just your coins (as hex values on paper if you want to go that far) and exchange those coins for fiat currency in the other country. This isn't unique to crypto though. You could do the same with buying rare Pokemon cards and transporting them with a slightly higher risk of seizure at one nation's border. There might even be less volatility in Pokemon cards than many crypto currencies.
So many trends are variations on things we've already seen before. Bernie Madoff would have been right at home with cypto.
I remember being happy to watch whatever came on one of the four channels that your TV could pick up with a rabbit ear antenna.
I understand that crypto is a scam that will rob millions of people of money they desperately need.
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Goddamn I'm not that elder! But also true
I got to be alive before mobile phones and social media.
Worth it!
I am immeasurably grateful that the entirety of my youth is not on record.
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- Fuck you
- Who the fuck do you think you are?
- crypto is a fucking scam
Crypto isn't a scam. It's a fantastic way to protect yourself online and HTTPS has been a game changer. Crypto currency is a scam though.
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To be fair, us elders had grifts and money laundering too, so crypto is nothing functionally new.
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i remember standing in line for dvds. we were hacking regionlocked discs before nft was just a scammer's wet dream. we were moulded by early modern technology.
Vhs? We used to be plopped into the local movie house to allow mom to go out on play. Videotape was something arcane used by the TV news crews
Before 1990?… fuck you.. I have kids born before 1990… elder my ass … I probably understand crypto better than you do…
I’m not bitter. Not at all.
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