The crypto currency crash should not surprise anyone. There has never been any "there" there.

[Atticus]

Remember how the Seinfeld show was called "the series about nothing"? Crypto currencies are "Seinfeld money"---it's about owning "nothing".

At least "Pet Rocks" were admittedly jokes.

[Ocelot II]

1. It's a bit like Tulipmania in the Netherlands in the 17th century.

I've been expecting something like this.

[2naSalit]

2. +1

[myccrider]

20. My thought, exactly! n/t

[panader0]

3. Completely agree.

I never got the idea. And doesn't it cost a bunch of energy to "mine" the stuff?

[Bok_Tukalo]

4. I always thought it had utility for criminals.

I admit that I know little about Bitcoin but it appeared to work as a means for transactions between the real economy and overtly criminal behavior. That may have changed without me knowing but an anonymous currency has a utility other than simply being the penultimate person holding it.

[Thomas Hurt]

5. Another DUer made a comment to me that crypto is supposed to transparent in its

creation, sales, transfers etc. Never having dabbled in this stuff I don't how easy it is find that info. (shrug)

[FalloutShelter]

9. Exactly... unless you were

Shopping for drugs or paying a hit man, there was no way to actually spend it. That’s why they invented NFTs. (Also tanking)

[Amishman]

6. 'crashed' price is still well above the all time high of a few years ago

Bitcoin and crypto does this, it is a predictable boom / bust cycle.

I made quite a lot of money selling off as the price went up. I set aside part of that money to buy back after the crash, and I'm starting to do it.

Bitcoin is stupid and useless. However the more advanced smart contract platforms have a ton of potential.

[Caliman73]

7. Hey!! Don't bring Fluffy into this.

Fluffy was the most awesome friend I ever had, until that fateful day when he got run over...

Of course all money, at least fiat currency is kind of "made up", but you are right, the whole crypto currency has been pretty silly in my book. At least treasury notes are backed by the governments that put them into circulation. Crypto is just a drain on computing power.

[hunter]

12. I'll say it again, the value of "hard" currencies like the dollar is...

... the ability of a government to collect taxes, enforce contracts, and regulate markets.

"Softer" currencies are issued by governments that have less competence to do that because of corruption and/or impractical ideologies and economic theories.

Cryptocurrencies are nothing more than magic numbers. Individual users simply have to believe in them. Most users don't even understand how they supposedly work.

[BruceWane]

16. "Individual users simply have to believe in them"

The ultimate cryptocurrency -

JesusCoin.

[hunter]

19. Certain religions will harass, torture, or even kill you if you don't accept their coin.

The fascist Christians in the U.S.A. would really like to have more of that power.

They want to outlaw abortion, drive LGBQT people back into the closet, and generally make life miserable for anyone who doesn't believe in their cruel and capricious god.

Anyone who can't read the Bible as an insightful comedy because some grifter or despot told them it's a rule book is going to be fucked up, especially if they had their natural curiosity and critical thinking skills beaten out of them as children.

I'm glad I was never beaten as a child for my heresies and blasphemies about god or money.

[ProfessorGAC]

15. In Addition...

…the backing by the government of those currencies is supported by a functional economy & tangible assets, private & public. In the case of the United States, that asset base is nearly $270 trillion.
There is no such structural support for cryptocurrency.

[Caliman73]

18. Absolutely.

It reminds me of the idea behind so called Junk Bonds in the 80's or Derivatives (CDOs) in the 2000's. Just something to gamble on, get in, fleece the slow and dumb, and get out.

[andym]

8. The real utility some of it has is in the creation of a distributed computer languages/systems

Ethereum is the exemplar of crypto that potentially has some utility-- it can execute programs using a language which is Turing complete, which means it can can in theory compute anything a general purpose computer can. However, the model for using it and the monetary values it has achieved given what it does and its limitations are not competitive with competing conventional alternatives. Basically, it's all overvalued. Bitcoin and other distributed ledgers that lack the programmability aspect are almost worthless from a utilitarian POV.

[dalton99a]

10. What we need is a new stable guarded base protocol crypto algorithmic currency

chained to a 4x4 block and powered by real organically fed squirrels

the most transparent ever

[NewHendoLib]

11. Apparently, lots of already rich people are getting richer pushing it in ads

So there's that!

[eppur_se_muova]

13. A "consensual hallucination", to borrow a term from William Gibson's "Burning Chrome" ...

... and I'm using it in a much more derogatory sense, targeting a different subject, so no blame on Gibson. :/

[Johonny]

14. IDK Bitcoin is still worth 30K

This isn't the first time I've been told they're dead. I get a feeling the will come back to life as the rest of the markets do. Their well known volatility makes them unattractive as a currency, yet the type of thing that brings speculators like moths to a flame.

[moonshinegnomie]

17. bitcoin has crashed before

iits had multiple 50% crashes over the years and some of 80% or more.

this too shall pass..

and as to bitcoin being nothing its no more nothing than dollars..

why are dollars valuable? because people think they are theres nothing concrete backing them up

same with bitcoin