Hacker Remix

Do people still think crypto is a scam in 2025?

16 points by to-too-two 16 hours ago | 47 comments

I'm late to the table, but I've been reading about blockchain. Searching 'blockchain' led to lots of discussions about what its purpose is and which problems it solves - if any.

The general consensus (in my opinion), seems to be that its only real useful application had been in cryptocurrencies. From my view, cryptocurrencies are here to stay, but there is still a lot of dissent that crypto is a ponzi scheme or for fraudsters.

riskyingo 28 minutes ago

In my circle, nobody with some education considers crypto a scam.. And more joiners every day.

The fact that backbone financial institutions are replacing their dinosaur infra with XRP is a big indication that crypto is here to stay.

All the arguments against crypto are still superficial and non-convincing. It seems like most financial institutions could be replaced by smart contracts. People who are into speculation also have a place away from the exclusive stocks club. Others who dont trust governments and banks have a solution now (truckers protest in Canada)..

We are somehow back to the "is internet a scam", or before it "is electricity a scam".. They are not, they are a necessary evolution to meet people'd needs.

ggm 16 hours ago

Ledgers and cryptographic chains and proofs aren't scam. But, the entire pig butchery and like, is scam.

POW is bad for the planet and turned out to have issues in 50%+1 capture. POS is dependent on real world value and constrains behaviour to loss of stake.

Quorum, usually overlooked. Your transaction is final!! Not if the quorum decides to repudiate.

Forensic accountants love cryptos. I row with one who said evidence chains are delightful even with mixers.

Went to meetings on the chain a decade or so back and the fin regulators said its a great mechanism if you distrust your peers, need to co-relate and don't want a regulator in the transactions. So as settlement logic between central banks, or for certainty in complex supply chains where people repudiate the 90 day settlement they can help. Or where middlemen take bites out of transactions as they flow but regarding that, the big vig on transaction processing suggests nothing is free.

Merkle was smart. The logical structure is interesting for all kinds of things. PQC in dnnsec includes models using them.

kirubakaran 16 hours ago

> but there is still a lot of dissent crypto is a ponzi scheme or for fraudsters

There are a lot of other great use-cases you're missing: Money laundering, circumventing sanctions (North Korean missile program is not gonna fund itself), buying drugs online, ransomware, assassination markets, illegal political donations, hard to trace bribery, and I'm sure a ton more.

But it's not fair to paint with too broad a brush.

It's just the 99% that give the 1% a bad name.

diogenes_atx 13 hours ago

Is crypto a scam? It basically works as advertised, so technically it's not a scam.

But the real question to consider is whether society is better off with crypto. Using cost-benefit analysis, we can draw up a simple balance sheet showing the positive benefits and the negative externalities:

POSITIVE SOCIAL BENEFITS

1. Money can be transferred from one person to another without intermediaries such as banks.

2. It provides an alternative to hyper-inflating currencies in places like Venezuela.

NEGATIVE SOCIAL COSTS

1. Data centers waste enormous amounts of energy mining crypto.

2. Crypto facilitates useless financial speculation and criminal activity, e.g., ransomware payments, illicit commerce, etc.

In the final analysis, the benefits are rather small, whereas the costs are significant and will continue to grow as the crypto industry expands.

duskwuff 12 hours ago

> 1. Money can be transferred from one person to another without intermediaries such as banks.

By replacing them with the intermediary of cryptocurrency exchanges and the blockchain itself - both of which charge fees on transfers which are often significantly higher than traditional banks. Is this actually a benefit?

> 2. It provides an alternative to hyper-inflating currencies in places like Venezuela.

Can you point to any evidence that cryptocurrency is actually used as a medium of exchange within these countries? Or is it primarily a means of capital flight?

WRT. negative social costs, I'd add that the anonymous and irreversible nature of cryptocurrency transactions leaves consumers with little to no recourse if they're scammed or make a mistake.

disqard 10 hours ago

> By replacing them with the intermediary of cryptocurrency exchanges and the blockchain itself - both of which charge fees on transfers which are often significantly higher than traditional banks. Is this actually a benefit?

Your puny brain can't grasp the 4D chess here... it's just like how those Federal agencies are so bloated, that completely bypassing them will fix everything (hint: follow the money -- who's going to get rich when they replace the "bloated" middleman with their own infrastructure? In the case of crypto, it rhymes with boin-case).

mrbombastic 12 hours ago

Can’t speak for Venezuela but I know it is fairly common in Argentina to use crypto for currency exchange and a hedge against inflation. Not sure about straight commerce but sure it happens as well.

czhu12 12 hours ago

Can someone help me understand: in the Venezuelan example, wouldn’t holding USD be the same as an inflation hedge if you live in Venezuela?

In countries that have strict currency control so you can’t hold USD at all, wouldn’t those areas also prevent you from buying crypto?

Do Venezuela s banks not allow you to open an account for USD, but allow you to on ramp into crypto currencies?

muzani 12 hours ago

I think the problem is also "Venezuelan banks". Bank runs tend to happen in these countries. A bank run is when people expect a bank to collapse, so they pull out money, forcing the bank into debt, and actually collapsing them. The patch for this is government insurance but Venezuelans likely don't trust their gov enough. Bank runs happen plenty in uninsured finance e.g. crypto too, but crypto exchanges today are more stable.

So crypto helps as an alternative method of holding money. You can buy/sell in USDT over some wallet or exchange. Your wallet is your own, in your device. The government can make it illegal, but that doesn't mean they can stop you. It doesn't collapse, but there's always the risk of being robbed, as with cash or jewelry.

muzani 12 hours ago

"works as advertised, so technically it's not a scam."

It often does not work as advertised. It is not an efficient form for transferring money compared to say, Wise. I used to be able to buy a game off Steam or a burger off a crypto wallet, but neither of these things are available today.

So the use case then becomes that they hodl on to something that increases in value in time. But that sounds a little like a scam as well.

Stablecoins are in actual use and not a scam, but they're effectively USD to USD, at a loss.

sdsd 13 hours ago

I'm not a crypto guy, but I wonder if:

>Data centers waste enormous amounts of energy mining crypto.

is still as relevant in the era of proof of stake and such?

hooverd 13 hours ago

If you're not Etheruem, yes.