As the AI market continues to balloon, experts are warning that its VC-driven rise is eerily similar to that of the dot com bubble.

    • higgs@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      NFTs yes but crypto is absolutely not a bubble. People are saying that for decades now and it hasn’t been truth. Yes there are shitcoins, just shitstocks. But in general, it’s definitely not a bubble but an alternative investing method beside stocks, gold etc.

      • qwertyWarlord@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Crypto is 100% a bubble. It’s not an investment so much as a ponzi, sure you can dump money into it and maybe even make money, doesn’t mean it doesn’t collapse on a whim when someone else decides to dip out or the government shuts it down. Its value is exactly that of NFT’s because it’s basically identical, just a string of characters showing “ownership” of something intangible

        • stealin@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          Whatever man, used electricity will become valuable someday, I just know it.

          • Freesoftwareenjoyer@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            Being able to pay for things anonymously is very valuable to me and to many other people. That’s just one example of what this technology can be used for.

            • zouden@lemmy.world
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              Bitcoin isn’t anonymous yet it’s the most valuable crypto. Monero is barely used. Most crypto people just want to get rich, they don’t actually care about using it.

              100% a bubble

              • Freesoftwareenjoyer@lemmy.world
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                I could go to the local ATM and buy Bitcoin anonymously right now. So, unlike a credit card, it can be used anonymously. Monero is better of course and it doesn’t matter how many people use it. Even if a store doesn’t accept it directly, you can use it to buy gift cards for any store.

                I don’t care what most crypto people do, it’s irrelevant, just like the price is irrelevant and doesn’t affect my ability to use this technology.

                • primalanimist@lemmy.today
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                  1 year ago

                  I could go to the local ATM and buy Bitcoin anonymously right now So you walk around the city with your face covered, only buy stuff with cash, and never ride in your personally owned vehicle or the vehicle of a friend?

                  The ATM has a transaction time and your bitcoin transaction record. There are enough cameras in the cities near ATMs (for this very reason) that you can be tracked if the government found you as interesting as you think you might be.

                  • aesthelete@lemmy.world
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                    1 year ago

                    This person probably thinks venmo is anonymous too.

                    You’d be better off going to the ATM and getting cash and then using that cash for your purchase if you wanted to remain anonymous.

                    Bitcoin keeps a transaction log that’s integral to the technology behind it, and is retained longer than fucking Chase Manhattan transaction logs.

        • Patius@lemmy.world
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          It’s not even a ponzi scheme, it’s just a good old fashioned bubble.

          It’s digital tulips.

      • Platomus@lemm.ee
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        1 year ago

        The only way for someone to make money in crypto is for someone else to lose it.

        Crypto is a scam.

        • higgs@lemmy.world
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          So what’s the difference to money, stocks or every other investing option? There’s has to be someone who loses so someone different can win. We’re living in a capitalistic system, that’s how it works.

          • bigschnitz@lemmy.world
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            Money isn’t an investment, it’s a currency. Of course it’s a bad investment and investing in forex is barely a better investment than crypto (purely because there’s less risk of a sovereign currency devaluing to 0).

            Investing in capital, like stocks, property, equipment etc does not require someone to lose money for the capital owner to profit. If I invest in a stock, each year I’m paid a dividend based on the profits of that organisation - no losers required. I could later sell that stock at the exact price I paid for it and come away with profit from those dividends. What determines whether it’s a good or bad investment, is the ratio of profit to the capital owner to cost of the asset. Crypto generates 0 profit, so it has 0 value as a capital investment.

        • Freesoftwareenjoyer@lemmy.world
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          How is distributed ledger a scam? It’s nothing new and we know exactly how it works. It has nothing to do with making money. If I use it to pay for things online how am I getting scammed? I’m sorry, but it seems you don’t fully understand what this technology is.

          • TurtleJoe@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            The blazing fast technology that allows for up to 7 transactions a second worldwide? Amazing.

            Don’t forget to pay your capital gains tax when you sell your butts online to buy your pizza.

            • Freesoftwareenjoyer@lemmy.world
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              The slow transaction speed is a valid criticism, but it doesn’t make this technology a scam. Different cryptocurrencies have different speeds. With Litecoin I think it takes me 40 minutes to pay for something. I still prefer that over being tracked by my bank or having to use PayPal. I think you can pay instantly with Dash, but I haven’t used it.

              I don’t sell anything online, so what are you talking about?

      • qaz@lemmy.world
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        NFTs yes but crypto is absolutely not a bubble. People are saying that for decades now and it hasn’t been truth. Yes there are shitcoins, just like shitstocks. But in general, it’s definitely not a bubble but an alternative investing method beside stocks, gold etc.

        What is the underlying mechanism that increases its value, like company earnings are to stocks? Otherwise, it’s just a reverse funnel scheme.

        • Freesoftwareenjoyer@lemmy.world
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          That video is probably the biggest piece of misinformation about cryptocurrency on YouTube and it’s sad to see that so many people have been fooled by it. Most people are so bad at understanding modern technology that they will believe a random youtuber who has no idea what he is talking about :(.

          Cryptocurrency is just a distributed ledger. NFT is just a certificate of ownership. Those technologies have real uses and nothing about them makes them a scam.

    • whispering_depths@lemmy.world
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      crypto and nft have nothing to do with AI, though. Investing in AI properly is like investing in Apple in the early 90’s.

      ultimately it won’t matter because if we get AGI, which is the whole point of investing in AI, stocks will become worthless.

      • Phlogiston@lemmy.world
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        “stock will become worthless”

        I’m thinking the opposite might happen.

        If big companies succeed in capturing the knowledge workers market share and transferring all those salaries into their own profits then it will be reflected in the stock prices of those big companies. People, mostly currently rich people, who own those stock will benefit.

        Same as it ever was for other forms of automation or job outsourcing. Why would this be any different?

      • gammasfor@sh.itjust.works
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        They meant in the sense that crypto/nft was the last fad that VCs were throwing money at.

        It’s actually hilariously transparent how dumb VCs are and how much tech companies exploit that. Every now and then they randomly get hyped by some big tech company over some ‘new’ Y idea, then suddenly they throw money at any company suggesting they are doing Y thinking they will be the next Google or Meta. Then they inevitably doesn’t materialise and they move onto the next fad.

        Through the years I’ve been in the industry we’ve had Big Data, followed by AI, followed by Cloud, followed by blockchain, followed by nfts, followed by metaverse and now back to AI again. And the tech companies don’t even need to implement any of this they just have to find a way to spin what they are doing to make it sound like the fad is what they’re doing.

    • gammasfor@sh.itjust.works
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      Yeah I was going to say VC throwing money at the newest fad isn’t anything new, in fact startups strive exploit the fuck out of it. No need to actually implement the fad tech, you just need to technobabble the magic words and a VC is like “here have 2 million dollars”.

      In our own company we half joked about calling a relatively simple decision flow in our back end an “AI system”.