this post was submitted on 21 Aug 2025
142 points (99.3% liked)

Privacy

42631 readers
440 users here now

A place to discuss privacy and freedom in the digital world.

Privacy has become a very important issue in modern society, with companies and governments constantly abusing their power, more and more people are waking up to the importance of digital privacy.

In this community everyone is welcome to post links and discuss topics related to privacy.

Some Rules

Related communities

much thanks to @gary_host_laptop for the logo design :)

founded 6 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] GasMaskedLunatic@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Okay buddy. Whatever you say.

[–] Five@slrpnk.net -1 points 1 month ago (3 children)

Why bitcoin is worse than a Madoff-style Ponzi scheme by Robert McCauley

Brazilian computer scientist Jorge Stolfi is one voice who has contended this. His view is based on the following observations:

  1. Investors buy in the expectation of profits.
  2. That expectation is sustained by the profits of those that cash out.
  3. But there is no external source for those profits; they come entirely from new investments.
  4. And the operators take away a large portion of the money.

All of this rings true true. But in calling bitcoin a Ponzi scheme, critics are arguably being too kind on two counts. First, bitcoin doesn’t have the same endgame as a Ponzi scheme. Second, it constitutes a deeply negative sum game from a broad social perspective.

Well, if Lord Robert McCauley says it, it must be true. I am truly humbled by your superior intellect and ability to determine a currency from a Ponzi scheme by citing essays that have nothing to do with Monero. Goodbye.

[–] ar1@lemmy.sdf.org 3 points 1 month ago

I think what you, and the people you believed, are making one wrong fundamental assumption (and I read it as your main point), which is "to evalute crypto currency one must compare it against fiat money".

[–] AmbiguousProps@lemmy.today 1 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Bitcoin = Monero in your mind. They aren't the same, not even close.

[–] Five@slrpnk.net 2 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Bitcoin = Monero in your mind. They aren’t the same, not even close.

LOL. I understand they are very different entities.

| Bitcoin | Monero | |


|


| | Proof of work | Proof of work | | Uses a blockchain ledger | Uses a blockchain ledger | | Extremely volatile exchange rate | Extremely volatile exchange rate | | Unregulated | Unregulated | | Price easily manipulated by wealthy investors | Price easily manipulated by wealthy investors | | "HODL" - unrealistic expectation that the endgame is general use as currency | "HODL" - unrealistic expectation that the endgame is general use as currency | | Heavily driven by FOMO | Heavily driven by FOMO | | Uses obscene amount of energy per coin | Aspires to use an obscene amount of energy per coin to prevent another 51% attack | | Ledger has become so large it is unwieldy to store and transfer | Ledger 200+ GiB, constantly expanding | | Represents an ecological catastrope | A currently smaller part of the ecological catastrope | | Most popular currency used to facilitate human trafficking | Has features that should make it more attractive for use in human trafficking | | Difficult and annoying to use | Even more difficult and annoying to use | | Available on most cryptocurrency exchanges | Available on fewer exchanges | | Claimed by early proponents that transactions were 'anonymous' but now frequently the subject of blockchain analysis | Proponents claim transactions to be anonymous | | Pre-mining began January 2009 | Pre-mining began April 2014 | | Advocates behave like people in an MLM cult | Advocates behave like people in an MLM cult | | Represents the vain hope to individually escape catastrophe while the world burns by using theoretically clever but practically unworkable technological solutions that create further social problems, while the real, difficult though not intractable social problems of government abuse, economic instability, and authoritarianism continue to increase because resources for real social solutions are starved of resources | Represents the vain hope to individually escape catastrophe while the world burns by using theoretically clever but practically unworkable technological solutions that create further social problems, while the real, difficult though not intractable social problems of government abuse, economic instability, and authoritarianism continue to increase because resources for real social solutions are starved of resources | | $116,760 / coin | $270 / coin | | 20M coins | 18.5M coins | | Logo is a circle with the letter "B" | Logo is a circle with the letter "M" |

One of the hilarious details I discovered while researching this is that according to the US Government Accountability Office report "Use of Online Marketplaces and Virtual Currencies in Drug and Human Trafficking" in 2022,

Representatives of two analytics firms and one exchange also noted that illicit actors use privacy coins less frequently, as they are more difficult to obtain and are supported by fewer exchanges compared to Bitcoin, making it difficult to convert funds to government-issued currency.

So whatever benefits Monero claims to have in protecting the privacy of illicit activities, the people who could face real time in jail don't consider the benefits worth how extremely annoying it is to use.