Explain cryptocurrency to me like I am from another planet.

[milestogo]

[Torchlight]

1. The dealer tricks the mark into betting money

on their ability to find the "money card" (usually the Queen of Hearts) among three face-down cards. The mark has no chance whatsoever of winning at any point in the game. In fact, anyone who is observed winning anything in the game can be presumed to be a shill.

(Wiki, Three Card Monte (apologies to anyone named Monte who pretends to be offended by benign word-usage))

[milestogo]

2. So its a grift?

[rampartd]

11. yep.

pure ponzified

"the more you pay, the ore it is worth"

[flvegan]

3. If you were from another planet

then you're way WAY too intelligent to be asking about nor caring about crypto.

[milestogo]

4. 😍

[Prairie_Seagull]

34. Wish I could rec more than once. So good.

Edit. oops, you know.

[legallyblondeNYC]

5. think of a casino chip that's in the form of a piece of software.

You go to the casino cashier. You give dollars and in exchange you get physical chips to use in the casino. The chip represents money.

Now, in stead of physical chips, you get access to a piece of software. This software "chip" can do certain things -- can be used for certain types of transactions. Some of these chips can only be used in the casino where you got them. Others can be used at any casino on the strip -- or those that have agreed to accept them. They have software that reads your piece of software (your chip), and you can engage in certain transaction at that other casino.

That's it.

[House of Roberts]

7. That's after the creation of the cryptocurrency.

My question, in addition to miles', is how does a particular 'crypto' come into existence? I used to hear about bitcoin being 'mined' and wondered how it is possible to create something from nothing, and then how is its value determined?

[rampartd]

12. not nothing

the mining of bitcoin involves immense computer systems burning incredible kilowatts to solve the blockchain equation, solution of which does not seem to be particularly useful in science or engineering.

here is a number ...

Dividing the daily consumption by the daily BTC yield:
~384.48 GWh/day ÷ 450 BTC/day ≈ 854.4 kWh per Bitcoin.

the value, of course, is determined by the invisible hand of the market.

[legallyblondeNYC]

20. good questions

The crypto comes into existence because a technology company makes it available. That's it, and it's one of the reasons it's hard to regulate. Software access isn't necessarily an asset. The prior SEC considered them investments (securities). The current SEC approach is more nuanced.

When it becomes available, a participant can exchange $ for the crypto (the software with these capabilities).

Because there is no actual central company (just a platform that provides functionality for private trades), many networks rely on users to offer their computing power. What do the users get? More coins.

How is value determined? Supply and demand. That's it. Market forces.

The category of stablecoins are a bit different. They are backed by reserve assets so that the price doesn't fluctuate - it's a digital representation that is purportedly designed to keep a $1 value.

This is a very, very basic description that relies on analogies.

[hunter]

14. I simplify that to magic numbers.

You buy a magic number in a magic envelope at an auction, or you accept it as money. These magic numbers and envelopes have certain properties that make them extremely difficult to duplicate but they are easy to authenticate using a computer. These magic numbers have no more value than what the holders attribute to them.

Currencies like the U.S.A. dollar or the Euro are anchored in some type of debt. The value of the money is dependent on the quality of this debt. A central authority regulates the quality of the debt that's allowed to be monetized. In the U.S.A. this is the Federal Reserve.

[dweller]

6. ghotI' pegh

notlhbeH DarSek , boghHa' DarSeq

pegh Hol Huch

SoQmey chIm , mu'qaD Do’Ha



✌🏻

[surfered]

9. Is that Klingon?

[dweller]

10. AI KLINGON

😐



✌🏻

[surfered]

15. 😁

[vapor2]

8. I LOVE this explanation by John Oliver (2018)

[gab13by13]

13. An easy way for crooks to launder money

It makes it much easier for Krasnov to do quid pro quos when he is being bribed with crypto which is hard to trace.

Krasnov wants the Fed to lower interest rates to crash the dollar and strengthen crypto.

[JCMach1]

17. Not correct, most crypto is easier to trace than cash

Because of the blockchain. What Trump has done is found a way for people to bribe him that is perfectly legal. And involves a slightly more evolved system of crypto rug pull.

What you won't find on DU is a real explanation as DU is profoundly anti-crypto and in many ways anti-tech in general.

Really not worth the effort to discuss anything about it here as the next thing you will get are the obnoxious tulip comments.

[RandomNumbers]

27. Can you provide a link to an accurate, unbiased, easy to understand explanation?

for anyone here who needs it.

[JCMach1]

33. It is pretty complicated, I know what I do know

Because of mining, investing and running a ⚡ Node over the years.

I personally have never lost money on BTC, or crypto. I actually paid 80K of my home down payment from crypto proceeds.

However, scams became endemic in recent years, as well as most of the left abandoning the technology.

?is=MuAr4DpcwPhYO348

[struggle4progress]

16. If you're looking for an asshole to abduct and probe, follow the meme coins

[ImNotGod]

18. Crypto explained in 24 seconds.

Link to tweet

[milestogo]

21. It could have been dog shit.

[BlueWaveNeverEnd]

22. Lol

[hunter]

24. I don't do tweets, embedded or otherwise.

All I see is a blue Link to tweet and I sure as hell ain't gonna click that.

[multigraincracker]

19. Get a history book about "tulip mania of the

17th century”. Then sell yours before it’s too late.

[BlueWaveNeverEnd]

23. Currency not attached to a country or institution. Value is whatever someone will pay for it

[Fichefinder]

25. It's like owning shares in a company that doesn't make anything.

[David__77]

26. That's exactly right.

[usonian]

28. There's a cryptocurrency cookbook for you extraterrestrials.

[Tommy Carcetti]

29. The thing is, after about a decade of existence it still appears worthless as a legitimate currency.

Due to its crazy swings and volatility.

It appears to be essentially a high-risk investment at this point, except that there's nothing that you're investing into.

So it's an investment without an actual investment.

It's stupid.

[Deminpenn]

30. This story from the new Yorker might help

https://www.newyorker.com/news/the-financial-page/what-happens-when-an-infinite-money-machine-unravels

[OC375]

31. It's a tax dodge and laundering, funded by a get rick quick scheme.

[Jacson6]

32. All it is doing is creating a unit of the crypto.

The unit is made up using prime numbers. It only has worth because of speculation. People start not buying the units then it drops in value.