Everyone should watch this NOVA program on cryptocurrency. I’ve briefly written on crypto before, and given the recent collapse of FTX, I find it timely to repeat what I’ve said before about this fake money: It’s a scam. All of it is some sort of high-tech Ponzi scheme as it stands right now, which is in a world of the unregulated wild, wild west. I learned from NOVA that crypto was apparently created because a bunch of tin foil hat-wearing, conspiracy-minded techies wanted a means to circumvent the government from their privacy, which is just another way of saying they don’t want the government tracking their illegal activities. There is one especially batsh*t crazy guy in the program responsible for propagating the theory of cryptocurrency: Mark Miller. He basically recounted his motive for wanting to devise such a “monetary” system after reading George Orwell’s 1984 novel because why not! The usual “excuses” applied, such as returning power to the people and away from the banks and regulators. So they did, and this is what they got: Thousands of cryptocurrencies being circulated without any regulations whereby the value of the currency is created and sustained by its mere “popularity.” And if I have to hear one more f***tard point out that the U.S. dollar, for example, is not backed by anything except the good faith of the federal government, then I’m going to lose my f***ing G.D. mind because it’s not true. Oh, sure, the dollar is no longer backed by gold, but the dollar is supported by the U.S. economy and government (i.e., regulations). There is a reason why regulations exist. They are the well-established rules of the rule. They represent consistency and predictability. Regulations provide confidence in the system, and they, above all, provide stability. To say the dollar is not backed by anything really only evinces a person’s complete lack of understanding of a monetary system. Regulations are the benefits of a collective society. Like it or not, the federal reserve, banks, and government are the referees in the system; they are the expression of said regulations. Just because you don’t like them does not mean getting rid of them will create a better, utopian world. That sh*t has been and always will be for idiot dreamers who can’t face reality, so they create their own.
What you have with crypto is none of this consistency, predictability, and stability. When people give value to a “thing” — whatever that “thing” may be, even if it is widely traded and accepted — based on nothing more than demand by popularity, it is highly susceptible to the vicissitudes of individuals’ emotions. And without regulations, such emotional rollercoasters can be devastating rides. Hence FTX. Crypto: Created and destroyed by FOMO. Perfect for humanity! Oh, well. Welcome to stupid America!