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Discussion (19 Comments)Read Original on HackerNews
I turned off when he said that Bitcoin is issued by corporations. The interviewer calls him out on it and he doubles down. That's blatantly false, and indicates poor research and / or poor understanding.
It may be true for plenty of other cryptocurrencies, but it's definitely not true for some, including Bitcoin. In fact, 99% of cryptocurrencies are scams, but that's because they can now be created in seconds with little knowledge or skill.
Feels like he's pushing an agenda, especially with the use of the term 'corporations'. Which is amusing, since it's the lack of trust of big-finance that (so the story goes) led to the creation of Bitcoin in the first place - the 2007 GFC in particular. Although electronic money was being dabbled with since the mid-late 90s, and that base formed the foundation of what Bitcoin was built on.
This is probably just advertising for his documentary, really.
He knows how bitcoin works. And what he said wasn't a lie, though you could argue it was a simplification, but he's not addressing the HN crowd with what he's saying and IMO his simplification is perfectly acceptable to the audience he is targeting.
The cost to mine a single BTC in 2026 is > $70k. Random individuals and hobbyists are not spending that kind of money mining bitcoin.
But the true scam is the complete debasement of the US dollar and people will slowly realize why the dollar will always be worth less than it was 40 years ago as it continues to be printed to zero and number go up with stocks and crypto.
It is also the reason why some people are crying that $1m is not enough to retire on, and they are right. Because $1m is worth less today than it was 40 years ago.
Hence why people here need >$500k and above a year to live, when in reality, it is the fiat currency becoming more worthless over time.
Sounds like a scam in the long term.
[0] https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2023/jul/15/ben-mck...
If so, that’s definitely the exception rather than the rule.
> Because $1m is worth less today than it was 40 years ago.
And? $1 is also worth less than it was 40 years ago. You also make more than the same person would doing the same thing 40 years ago, so that’s not a useful comparison. If you want to make statements about standards of living, you need to use the same measuring stick. You can use inflation adjusted values to do so.
at this point, you don't even have to go that far back.
By contrast, there was essentially no inflation in England from 1614 to the start of WW1.
[0] - https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=s78adWHXQ8U
its largely a scam yes, but that doesnt mean it has no utility. Happy for it to get this sort of marketing tho.
tftc.io
I'd be educational for him, I would think :)
Might have been good student. At the very least someone with an undergrad trying to understand crypto seems reasonable.
Yes, made a doco and is trying to make money. But could still be reasonable.