I know it’s my age/generation but whenever I hear anything about cryptocurrency, it seems like fake money to me. I don’t get it. And I do realize that our paper money is no longer backed by precious metals so in effect its value is debatable too. I admit that I’m an old fogie in this area.
So recently DS2 installed something on DS5’s computer that earns cryptocurrency. The best I can understand after asking for an explanation is that DS5’s graphics card is being rented out for processing power when he isn’t using it. He’s making the equivalent of $2/day by having his computer run this. That piqued my interest. DS2 has his computer set up with multiple graphics cards connected to a single motherboard and he’s making a few hundred dollars a month while he’s at his real mechanical engineering job. That’s wild to me. He occasionally converts the crypto to dollars and transfers them to his bank account. Apparently the only gotcha is that you have to have a quality graphics card and they’re hard to come by now because lots of people are doing this. I assume that all that processing uses some electricity too.
I just find it interesting that young adults have discovered an automated income stream. Kids today!
Life of leisure
November 8th, 2021 at 05:53 pm 1636394015
November 8th, 2021 at 06:43 pm 1636396996
Currency issued by a government is really a way to convert units of work to an agreed to value to make bartering easier. What gives the currency value is the ability of the country’s people to work. That ability is based on the skill, education, health of the people, access to and control of raw materials, and an exchange system to facilitate trading.
Crypto has none of these. What people ‘earn’ is from providing computer time to track who holds currency. The value is based on convincing people to convert the crypto to/from a government issued currency, or enough people willing to accept crypto instead of a government backed currency. The regulation is nearly non existent.
People earning and converting to dollars are facilitating the currency without supporting its use. To me, it’s a pyramid scheme because the value depends on people thinking it is better/easier to use than any government issued currency. It has been a pretty untraceable asset, so good for illegal activities but governments are changing that. Once it is regulated so it can be traced and tracked, it loses that use.
I think the bubble will burst in an ugly way...but maybe not.
November 8th, 2021 at 10:17 pm 1636409877
November 9th, 2021 at 12:34 am 1636418083
I realize the US currency in my wallet changes value over time due to inflation, but overall it's quite stable. I don't want to buy "currency" that could be worth $10 today, $14 the next day, and $8 the day after that. I don't want "currency" that shoots up or down in value based on something someone tweets.
Until there is solid government regulation, I'm not even thinking about getting involved. If others are making money with it, more power to them, but it's not for me.