If you do not know a lot about “crypto” then I would say the main thing to understand is that there is Bitcoin (not owned by any single entity) and then there is everything else. Other “coins” are owned by corporations that can make decisions about it and change it to some extent. These are extremely risky.
Bitcoin (btc) does have risk but much less. It is not owned by any company or person or country. It is like the internet, only exists because tens of thousands of internet providers(miners for Bitcoin) around the world make it possible. Bitcoin has, in its codebase, a limitation that any change must be agreed upon by 95% of these providers(miners). This way security patches and bug fixes can be added because everyone agrees those are good. Other harmful changes would never reach 95% agreement therefor could never be implemented. There is a limit of 21 million Bitcoin and this number can never increase unless 95% agree to it… which they never would. This is in stark contrast to normal money which is constantly printed(at random rates depending on who happens to be in control at that moment) so that the supply increases making its value drop.
Scamming happens with cryptos, Bitcoin, euros, dollars,yuan… and always will.
The one is used by the mafia, the other is the mafia. Which one are you siding with?
Yes let’s definitely side with the scam that’s been around for two decades and its only practical use is to rug pull chumps yes this is good advice
Bitcoin is a lot of things, it’s not a scam. Some cryptocoins aren’t scams either or didn’t start as one.
A lot of crypto coins are scams
Bitcoin and any blockchain based payment system is not a viable alternative to payment processors at world scale. Unless power requirements per transaction go down literally exponentially, it will never be.
Having said all that: Bitcoin does work on the current limited scale, it works better and easier and faster han all payment processors, and most importantly: Bitcoin isn’t a giant dick wanting to insert itself into every orifice of your body
Fuck Visa, fuck MasterCard, fuck American Express, fuck all of them you fucking psychopathic narcissistic assholes
Credit card companies should be nonprofits under democratic control.
Euro has PSD2 which seems to be a step in the right direction
Could’ve would’ve should’ve
So many things could be so much better.
Poverty could end tomorrow if we wanted to.
War could end tomorrow if we wanted to
Healthcare could be free if we wanted to
Same for schools and education in general
“If we wanted to”
Let me rephrase that: if either the top 1% would let us, or if the 99% would just stand up and take what’s theirs, we could…
This is a heated topic it seems, to crypto or not to crypto.
The cartoon is misleading. There are more alternatives to Mastercard/Visa than crypto.
Yeah I know, that’s just mostly the debate I’m seeing.
I think the most viable good solution is EU regulation, maybe through citizen initiative, seeing as payment processors are one of the biggest Gatekeeper around.
Isn’t this a right wing meme about centrists, but with the text changed?
The Bitcoin side wouldn’t catch you, because that interferes with the user’s choice to hit the ground.
This doesn’t even make any sense. Just use cash if you hate cards. Most places actually will love you for this.
Fuck crypto.
Congratulations, you have the same ideas than Bitcoin’s creator. And he created Bitcoin just for that to also happen online
Doesn’t work for online stuff. This is probably referencing how steam was recently forced to can a bunch of its porn games to appease payment processors.
Crypto is to peacocking men what MLMs is to american housemoms.
A lot of crypto relies on greater fools, but not all of it.
Bitcoin bros are acting like little pushed around victims now?
I think this is bit what the post is trying to say.
A few days ago, visa and MasterCard forced steam to stop selling some games they didn’t like, and is not the first time. For many of us (I’m not a bitcoiner nor a crypto bro, my entire crypto wallet is 1usd) the first thought was “this is ridiculous. They have a duopoly so they get to decide the rules of the internet. This can be solved with crypto to remove all the unnecessary middlemen”. I felt the push. It reignited my interest in the tech and am once again seeing what’s out there, fees, and transaction times looking for a good balance
Needlessly antagonistic interpretation presented not for good faith discussion but for your own fragile emotional needs. Reap what you sow.
Trying so hard to sound smart, just like a bitcoin bro
I can dumb it down if you want.
Crypto remains a pyramid scheme masquerading as a resistance against tyranny
Ironically you know what ACTUALLY protects from powergrabs by payment processors? A fully centralised, government backed form of digital cash that is fully equivalent to paper money.
Ask a Brazilian about pix. Super low fees (often feeling non existant). And transactions can’t be invalidated on the whims of a corporate board. For something to not be buyable by pix it has to be illegal, thus having to go through every layer of checks and balances a democracy has.
The problem with visa and their ilk is that finance has been privatised. Too much power in the hands of corporations that have deftly dodged regulation that would keep them neutral and honest. Thinking privatising things further and turning everyone into a fully unregulated petty digital landlord is gonna solve anything rather than make it worse is foolhardy.
you know what ACTUALLY protects from powergrabs by payment processors? A fully centralised, government backed form of digital cash that is fully equivalent to paper money.
Only if the government is democratic, many governments seems to be autocratizing these days, which wouldn’t help when they start enacting puritan policies and refuse payment transfers. Not to mention, even some democracies banned porn (South Korea, for example).
You’re not wrong
But keeping a government democratic and under check is a lot easier than trying to do the same to a series of corporations with anonymous investors calling the shots. Every corporation is in and of itself a dictatorship, dangerously close to an old noble clan, and we pretend we don’t see it because it’s been hypernormalised.
I’d much rather take my chances with a government, that can in fact respond to the will of the people from time to time, than with a corporation that only ever responds to money with exactly no exceptions ever.
But I want to buy and sell illegal goods and services.
Sorry, the only illegal shit I do is free illegal shit (piracy)
WELL actually, it’s not illegal here in Brazil. It’s only a crime if you can be proven to be making money off of it. Downloading/copying is free game. :^)
that’s what cash is for
Do I look like I’m cool enough for that‽
As far as I know monero didn’t really have that issue, of being a pyarmid scheme, while also being privacy-respecting way more than Bitcoin.
Which is also why it’s starting to get banned in Europe. As far as I know, most brokers don’t even sell it.
Adding a few more points to fully kill crypto as a “freedom currency”
- Generating crypto requires capital; people with computers and access to energy will instantly get the ability to outgenerate any other crypto participant
- Energy-centric currency just empowers the same rich lobbies; oil and gaz lobbies are delighted to see that there’s an uptick in energy demand
- People with right material (read, capital) can track you, but low chance to track anyone doing crime at a national level (due to odds of them having a competent IT (baring the Hegseth drunkards out there))
Your post applies to Bitcoin specifically, not crypto in general.
So according to you, there’s a crypto that 1. doesn’t need any capital (computers), 2. doesn’t need wastable energy (power that wouldn’t otherwise be used) and 3. is actually impossible to track across the board?
“Difficulty adjustment” minimizes profits. You get a much higher return on the stock market than you do holding dollars.
Also because the entire thing is backed financially by energy wasted, crypto has actually been slowing down the adoption of cheaper, safer renewable energy.
People spend x dollars on generating crypto, they expect to sell it for x+profit
Ergo if energy became cheaper, crypto would devalue and we can’t have that.
Mining hardware is the bigger cost for bitcoin. Tokens are the largest cost for PoS.
I have an ignorant question: is gaz a French-Canadian spelling? I always thought it was Russian.
As far as I know it’s just french spelling, not limited to French-Canadian.
You’ve done it! You’ve fully killed Bitcoin! Now it will certainly become irrelevant! In 5 years, the top answer for “what would you do if you had a time machine and went back 5 years?” definitely won’t still be “Buy more Bitcoin.”
deleted by creator
Of course cryptocurrencies will exist in the future. Same as simpler pyramid schemes, corruption, human trafficking, and banging your finger on a corner of a table. It’s not an indication of any positive quality of those things.
It’s Avon for Cis Dudes that make fun of Avon ladies
It’s the Lottery for STEM Majors that make fun of grandpas that play the lottery.
I’d say ‘it’s religion for reddit atheists’, but it’s not. AI is religion for reddit atheists. “
The raptureAGI is right around the corner and when it comes aroundGod will save the righteous and punish the sinnerswe will live in post-scarcity utopia. Just please ignore all thepriests committing horrid crimes on childrenactual AIs being owned by technocrats with fascist leanings who seem very horny for the idea of never having to pay a worker again.”
Have you heard of the lottery?
Whole-ass time travel to “buy more bitcoin”, what a clown.
Yeah but I don’t already know the winning lotto numbers
With time machine you can create the first lotto and be John Lotto himself
When I heard elon is the primary holder of bit, I knew it was to be trusted. He’s a liar and insecure. Plus his penis looks like a sick dogs vomit.
The main reason I don’t care for bitcoin is I have to count a bunch zeros after the decimal point, before reaching a useful number. $1 = 0.000006128921 btc? Really? Screw those zeroes. Bitcoin is inefficient in so many ways.
If you’re paying for small good (25-50$) you usually pay in “Satoshis” 0.00000001 BTC. If you convert it to dollars, 10 satoshis is 1 cent.
I still haven’t come across anywhere, or any reason, to buy goods with BTC. I look for things I need, not ways to spend. I have these beautiful apps showing me clearly how to buy bitcoin, but no one is giving me any reason to do it. What am I supposed to do with a satoshi? Groceries? Nope. Furniture? Nope. Housing? Nope. A T-shirt with some BTC logo on it? 🤨
Anything you can buy cocaine with is fiat currency imo
The only reason I’ve ever used crypto is to buy DIY HRT and other drugs off the internet :)
Case in point
And twenty bucks to the Chinese miners as a “transaction free”.
Lightning network, taproot, all that shit, just paper over the fact that Bitcoin cannot, by design, handle enough transaction volume to become a general purpose currency without reinventing a lot of mostly centralized payment infrastructure.
Lightning is generally pretty stupid
It’s a catch 22 solution. It only allows bitcoin to scale if hardly anyone settles back on the bitcoin network.
Things are often measured in mBTC or µBTC for this exact reason.
Just as you don’t measure the length of an ant in meters, you measure it in millimeters.
But you never see milliBTC or µBTC. Your post is literally the first time I see µBTC. No normal person knows how to type µ, let alone knowing what it means or how many eggs that buys. My crypto currency converter doesn’t even use µBTC.
If that’s the biggest complaint you have about it, it’s probably not that bad.
I don’t mind Bitcoin itself, but I do hate NFTs and pump and dump scams, obviously
Bitcoin is its own worst enemy. It’s deflationary, speculative, and largely interacted with by centralized entities. Those things means its unlikely to be successful as an actual currency; even one it hopes to be.
It’s been surpassed by new blockchains in all dimensions except market cap
They should bring in subunits like an MMO. 1 bitcoin (118905USD) = 100 bitsilver 1 bitsilver (1189.05USD) = 100 bitcopper 1 bitcopper = 11.89USD
It doesn’t even make any different to the number of bitcoin used, its just a more user friendly way of displaying it for small purchases.
This already exists. 1 bitcoin = 1,000 mBTC = 100,000,000 satoshi. The exchange rate as of writing is about 846 satoshis = 1 USD or 982 satoshis = 1 EUR. The current usage is thusly:
- Transaction fees on the main network are measured in sats/B (satoshis per [virtual] byte [of transaction size]).
- Transactions on the Lightning Network, a lower-fee instant payment network that runs on top of the ordinary Bitcoin network, are all denominated in respect to satoshis. So a payment on the Lightning Network is traditionally regarded as, for example, 50,000 satoshis rather than 0.5 mBTC or 0.0005 BTC. And the fee on that payment is usually in the range of 50-100 satoshis.
- Goods sold on the Lightning Network are typically priced in satoshis.
They already do that with SI prefixes.
Transfer failed.
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It was far less valuable when it first started becoming trendy. 1 BTC for a pizza, or whatever. Now it’s turned into a hyperinflation wheelbarrow kind of situation.
Exact opposite of hyperinflation
1 BTC for a pizza, or whatever
10 000 BTC for 1 pizza…
hyperinflation
Deflation . This is literally what happens to any volute that cannot be printed indefinitely. The situation is complicated by the fact that many wallets are simply lost and bitcoins will never be recovered from them.
1 dollar is currently worth .0000084 BTC; or, 840 Satoshi if zeros scare you.
What if foreign words scare me more?
The person you’re replying to loves republicans, so they should be familiar with the concept.
This person I’m replying to loves eating their own poop.
I’m using the same amount of proof they did for this claim.
It’s one of the least bad things about it, and if not for approximately twelve thousand bad things about it, would be easily fixable.
Lmao, crypto tech bros coming out of the woodwork trying to get popularity for their bag holder’s game…
Also pretending that shit hasn’t been bought up by wall street
What? They have like 5%. You should revisit your stance
It’s modern commerce. Participating in it at all associates you with shady characters. It’s unavoidable.
Yeah, but one is extra bad for our enviroment while being a scam.
That’s what i thought, too. I would never believed if someone telled me some years ago that there will be another scam (ai) that wastes even more power.
I seriously thought your punchline was going to be the pacific garbage patch from all that extra consumption we’ve encouraged.
Just wait until somebody proposes an AI powered blockchain…
The ultimate techbro venn diagram.
💀. Thats darker than anything else.
Stop giving them ideas
totally agree re bitcoin, and also am very sceptical of crypto as a mass-adopted currency in general
however there are plenty of networks that don’t use proof of work to validate their chains, and they aren’t bad for the environment to nearly the same degree
Why use them and not… normal fiat currency?
- You’re a criminal who wants to evade tracking by law enforcement
- You live in a country subject to sanctions and need to move a large sum of money transnationally
- You are the tinfoil-hat type who doesn’t trust Government-issued money for one of many real or imagined reasons
- You want to make digital purchases while staying relatively anonymous
- You’re a gambler who went all-in on crypto and are hoping it will increase in value later on
- You just think it’s more fun to pay with futuristic magic Internet money (yes, some people actually do it for this reason)
- You are a business in a (the) country whose laws legally require the acceptance of Bitcoin
No bank or goverment can control it. It is the benefit of being able to send money to anyone around the world while maintaining ownership of your money as if it were cash in hand.
Anti-inflationary to keep cash in BTC as opposed to sitting in an account at a bank
Until some guy in LA hires a bunch of moonlighting police officers to steel your laptop
Yup, just like cash.
Banks or governments as opposed to who though? There’s a reason we usually want those publicly owned and regulated institutions to handle our transactions. Obviously, it depends what country you live in, and what currency you’re talking about. But I don’t think Bitcoin or any other cryptocurrency actually solves the problem it purports to.
Ideally, no one controls it. It’s just exists as a medium for exchange.
There are both good and bad points to currency have value that can be adjusted by gov’ts; crypto currency solves one set of problems, but has it’s own, inherent issues.
You’re not really selling it for me, which I guess is the point aye? 😂
What I imagine as ideal is an open-source and transparent bank and payment system that issues its own currency backed by ties to its investment portfolio that is properly regulated by its host country. i.e. you would use their currency to trade among others on the platform according to the percentage value of their portfolio that you own as measured by the currency to which you which to convert your holdings for a given purchase. You could select different tiers of risk if you’d like your “savings” to grow in value over time but experience potential dips or even loss of value if there is major market stability.
I am not an expert on such things, but this at least has real links to tangible asset worth, and isn’t based on the artificial scarcity of an increasingly unsolvable math problem.
To an extent cryptos only value is it can be turned into currency.
And therefore no recourse if you are robbed, scammed, etc. Try going to your local, or even federal authorities and explain to them that you lost the digital equivalent of $10000 and they won’t do a thing.
You can opt in to an arbitrator before sending the money.
And that helps you how in the event of a theft?
It prevents the theft in the first place because they’d need to hack two parties instead of just one.
i do think they hold some value for things like bank to bank, where each party is kiiiiind of untrusted and unrelated (not on a public chain - it’s just a private consensus between collaborating parties)
it also undeniably provides payment outside of standard card networks and the finance sector (people have been using crypto to buy drugs for decades now), so can be used to circumvent things like this mastercard/visa morality police garbage… i think in that, it’d be useful to have a strongish cryptocurrency somewhere at least to be able to provide uncensorable competition (the alternative to that being some global EU network that everyone accepted in the same manner)
but i think the value in blockchain in general is minimally about currency: that was just the first implementation… it’s a distributed, trustworthy log between untrusted individual entities. the benefits of that are honestly pretty niche, but i think it does solve some valuable problems… just most people should never even know that blockchain was involved
Fair points, cheers.
Over 52% of the bitcoin network is renewable energy and growing. Y’all need to update your info, damn
It’s wasting useful energy, and you think that’s a good thing?
Yes, but that still means that the other half is fossil fuel.
Bitcoin mining’s distribution makes it difficult for researchers to identify the location of miners and electricity use. It is therefore difficult to translate energy consumption into carbon emissions. As of 2025, a non-peer-reviewed study by the Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance (CCAF) estimated that bitcoin consumed 138 TWh (500 PJ) annually, representing 0.5% of the world’s electricity consumption and resulting in annual greenhouse gas emissions of 39.8 Mt CO2, representing 0.08% of global emissions and comparable to Slovakia’s emissions.
I think people should really reconsider using PoW cryptocurrencies. Ethereum was able to reduce their energy consumption by 99.95% by switching to PoS and it’s still doing fine. IMO Bitcoin is outdated technology that is just used as a pyramid scheme due to its name recognition.
Compared to our current system though? How much does the entire banking and credit card industry contribute to emissions for almost the same service? Bitcoin incentivises energy companies to mine BTC with excess energy.
The current systems used by VISA use significantly less energy compared to PoW cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin
Ethereum was able to cut their energy usage down drastically by moving away of PoW. Windmills and clean energy aren’t the solution, getting rid of PoW is. Why build more solar farms if you could just not use so much electricity?
BULLSHIT.
You aren’t computing the cost in blood, censorship, wasted time, the lives employed by these evil orgs wasting their lives scamming people, the loss of revenue from value-producing business, the waste of banking cards, and the COUNTLESS other energy-guzzling mechanisms involved.
Bitcoin eliminates ALL these problems. It is by far more efficient, it isn’t even close. Also, it isn’t a payment system like visa, what an ignorant ass comparison. It is literally a sovereign currency with publicly auditable minting & ledgers. It replaces MONEY. Payment processors are built on top of it.
Yea, even the shit visa and mastercard can switch to payment processing on top of Bitcoin. It would actually be beneficial. When they decline a transaction you just directly use the network instead.
Btw PoS is also bullshit, in a completely different and inferior class of crypto. It requires HUMAN CONSENT to enter the network. PoW requires COMPUTATIONAL CONSENT. PoW lets anyone into the network if they can follow the rules of minting. This is HUGE when talking about a freedom-preserving system.
Put more simply, PoS systems are aristocracy owning an apple orchard (you ask an authority if they are allowed to take an apple), PoW is like an apple orchard deep in the woods that anyone can take from (you just have to walk there). Understand the difference?
One OWNS THE ORCHARD. They will protect it from people they deem unauthorized. They demand people go through them for permission. It is no different than what we have now, abstracted further and digitized.
Btw PoS is also bullshit, in a completely different and inferior class of crypto. It requires HUMAN CONSENT to enter the network.
That is specific to delegated proof of stake, not PoS in general.
Proof of Stake = I have a stake in preserving this network, and I am rewarded by receiving an increased stake in the network.
You cannot organically enter a PoS network without having a stake in it. That requires acquiring the network’s token somehow. That means you must use a different token to purchase it, do work for someone who will pay you in it, or otherwise perform an operation organized by people in order to acquire the token to have a stake.
That’s what I mean by human consent.
What a bunch of bullshit Bitcoin is not more efficient and gets less efficient the more coins get mined.
Yeah, somebody hasn’t refreshed their browser since 2010.
I think I haven’t explained myself properly. I will admit it seems bitcoin uses more energy in this case. However, we’re comparing Bitcoins entire currency system with that of a processor of fiat. I’m on mobile right now but I would like to see that comparison for arguments sake, bitcoin ecosystem vs fiat ecosystem (including mining, storing and transport of gold)
fiat ecosystem (including mining, storing and transport of gold)
Gathering / transporting valuables is not a part of the fiat ecosystem. The value of fiat currency does not depend on any underlying materials (like gold, silver, etc.) like the currencies before.
Ah, moving the goal posts, aren’t we?
Did you know that gold has nothing to do with the fiat ecosystem? In fact, the whole point of the word fiat in fiat ecosystem means that it is not based on gold at all. And if you include gold in the equation because some people use fiat to buy or sell gold, then you need to include gold in the energy costs of bitcoin as well, since people also use bitcoin to buy/sell gold.
They’re not moving the goalposts.
How much does the entire banking and credit card industry contribute to emissions for almost the same service?
The current systems used by VISA
bitcoin ecosystem vs fiat ecosystem
Ah, moving the goal posts, aren’t we?
So does the fiat system then get added to Bitcoin? Since it’s only value is it can be exchanged for fiat currency.
BTC can be used like fiat so no?
Don’t engage with these ignorant assholes man, they are all in banking’s pocket. We are at war, you know that right? Who the hell would be this passionate about protecting a slimy, evil ass legacy network without any audibility, responsible for countless wars, death, usurping of democratic governments, literally the death of this planet via global warming…
Traditional banking supports and incentives genocide.
It supports and incentivizes oil.
It shut down nuclear power.
It limits renewable power.
It is the engine of our destruction.
Do not justify yourself to it. You are the correct one. Anyone who cannot see this will never see it now. Leave them on their path to die. They will go down with the ship. I feel for them, but it is too late now.
they are all in banking’s pocket.
The fastest way to render your point invalid.
Oof yeah I looked back and noticed I’m arguing on memes😵💫 it’s amazing we’re on the fediverse but they can’t see the parallels
Don’t engage with these ignorant assholes man, they are all in banking’s pocket.
Shit you got me, you ruined our perfect psyop!
There is no excess energy though. They wouldn’t be making that energy if it wasn’t for Bitcoin.
I’ll see if I can link it but some companies do, I think specifically it has to do with renewable energies but don’t quote me on that
I think they’re referring to renewables that otherwise wouldn’t be cost effective.
Now those windfarm can be batch processing AI instead of BTC.
I think what I’d suggest is that the entire global banking and credit card industry is likely to contribute more in total to our climate catastrophe, just due to the difference in scale between that and a relatively small and lesser-used alternative like Bitcoin.
I do see where you’re coming from for sure. I just think it’s worth noting where it is and where it’s going given it’s managed to grow to 52% in an anti bitcoin world. If bitcoin allows to be “legitimatised” I think those goals are achievable
Bitcoin well never be legitimized it is to volatile.
It should also be noted, that using more power isn’t fine just because it’s renewable. It’s still worse for the environment, and especially not until it’s 100%
Even at 100%, there’s still better things to do with electricity than Bitcoin. Like hydrogen and fuel production (for planes, ships, heavy industry).
The ASICS also produce e-waste, the electricity could have been used for other things, and the energy use puts more strain on the energy grid when that is already an issue in many countries.
I agree, but it’s still early days. I’ll keep pushing for a greener development of the network, too
You cryptobitches have been saying it’s “early days” since 2009
It’s been 16 years. That bullshit don’t fly anymore.
also gnu taler should be next to bitcoin (ik not as widespread)
It’s not quite the same as a traditional cryptocurrency but I look forward to seeing the results of the EU trial
It’s not quite the same as a traditional cryptocurrency but I look forward to seeing the results of the EU trial
yeah its more like “Open source visa/mastercard”
Mostly yeah, but AFAIK it did have additional privacy advantages
