Technology

58150 readers

4029 users here now

This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.

Our Rules

Follow the lemmy.world rules.
Only tech related content.
Be excellent to each another!
Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
Politics threads may be removed.
No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
Only approved bots from the list below, to ask if your bot can be added please contact us.
Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed

Approved Bots

founded 1 year ago

MODERATORS

1593

Linux Inventor Says He Doesn’t Believe in Crypto (u.today)

submitted 4 months ago by AnActOfCreation@programming.dev to c/technology@lemmy.world

646 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Linus Torvalds, creator of Linux, does not believe in cryptocurrencies, calling them a vehicle for scams and a Ponzi scheme.
Torvalds was once rumored to be Bitcoin creator Satoshi Nakamoto, but he clarified it was a joke and denied owning a Bitcoin fortune.
Torvalds also dismissed the idea of technological singularity as a bedtime story for children, saying continuous exponential growth does not make sense.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] the_doktor@lemmy.zip 67 points 4 months ago (3 children)

It is a Ponzi scheme. Very clearly one. How that garbage is legal, I will never know. I could have gotten into crypto from the ground floor eons ago and made tons of money but I didn't because I knew it was illegal and figured the whole thing was going to collapse as soon as governments found out about it. Imagine my shock when most legitimized the damn thing. Still wouldn't bother even if I could go back and do it again knowing the brain dead, money-greedy idiots are going to legalize a literal Ponzi scheme because I have values and morals.

[–] KevonLooney@lemm.ee 39 points 4 months ago (3 children)

Yeah, it's relatively easy to make good money in crypto if you understand investing. There are a lot of things that are illegal in regulated securities markets that are not yet illegal with crypto.

I intentionally don't invest in crypto, because it doesn't produce anything. Any money you make is just taken from another investor, usually because they don't know what they're doing. When you invest in a company, you make products and sell them to customers. Something is created and rarely are people cheated.

The people investing in crypto are intentionally cheating uninformed investors in a way that is not possible in regulated securities markets.

[–] piecat@lemmy.world 17 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (2 children)

When you invest in a company, you make products and sell them to customers.

You mean, executives with "fiduciary responsibility" take extremely irresponsible actions to "maximize shareholder profits" and gut the company that produces those products such that the product is minimally viable, borderline shit, and might even kill the end user (Boeing, Tesla, GE, etc etc). Oh and jobs and the economy are on the line too, so that's great.

[–] KevonLooney@lemm.ee 6 points 4 months ago (1 children)

All of that is way more productive than crypto because something actually gets produced. Crypto is literally only gambling and scams, plus it's bad for the Earth. And I have nothing against gambling, it's the fact that vulnerable people lose tons of money thinking it's an investment.

Plus actual gambling is way more fun.

[–] piecat@lemmy.world 1 points 4 months ago

You're not making the gambling more productive, you're making the production worse.

[–] Zacryon@lemmy.wtf 3 points 4 months ago

That's why you need to think about the company you're going to invest in.

Your critique is accurate for too many companies, yes. But by far not for all.

[–] lud@lemm.ee -4 points 4 months ago (1 children)

intentionally don't invest in crypto, because it doesn't produce anything. Any money you make is just taken from another investor, usually because they don't know what they're doing. When you invest in a company, you make products and sell them to customers. Something is created and rarely are people cheated.

Isn't that the same as investing in any currency?

[–] magic_lobster_party@kbin.run 1 points 4 months ago (2 children)

No one is investing in regular currencies. You’re supposed to use it to buy stuff.

[–] lud@lemm.ee 14 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

No, people absolutely do invest in currency. It's quite a big thing actually.

https://www.investopedia.com/financial-edge/0412/the-basics-of-currency-trading.aspx

[–] Zacryon@lemmy.wtf 8 points 4 months ago

Forex traders are shocked.

[–] shortwavesurfer@monero.town -4 points 4 months ago

See, the real crypto people are not in it for the number go up. They are in it for the technology and the human freedom that it can bring. So we don't like those people either.

[–] androogee@midwest.social 12 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

How many people got in early, made some money, lost it all getting scammed or just making bad choices, and will spend the rest of their lives chasing that dragon? How many drunks are at some bar right now talking about how much money they could have made if they had waited to sell, or how much their nft portfolio is gonna be worth when the market rebounds?

[–] shortwavesurfer@monero.town -1 points 4 months ago

I actually had the same thing happen to me because I discovered Bitcoin in 2011 and dismissed it as crazy and that the governments would never let it exist. And then several years later heard about it again in a news article and was like, wait, the government hasn't shut that down yet and started doing some reading and really understood