
‘Bitcoin is a scam’ says Bill Harris, former CEO of PayPal and Intuit - senthil_rajasek
https://www.marketwatch.com/story/this-is-the-greatest-scam-ever-according-to-former-ceo-of-both-paypal-and-intuit-2018-04-24
======
nathanaldensr
Dupe:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16914632](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16914632)

------
justherefortart
I love it. It's just like all these MLM (Pyramid schemes) that have been
reborn. I guess every generation has to relearn the lessons of the prior
generations the hard way.

Comparing a nation's fiat to bitcoin is hilarious.

Here's what the USD is backed by. The nation's assets. And more importantly
the nation's power to enforce their will upon you legally (via courts, police,
military, etc.).

~~~
cfadvan
Most people don’t study history (or don’t learn its lessons) and as the saying
goes, are doomed to repeat it. I think it’s worth remember ping that plenty,
whatever they say publicly, are just trying to get rich and don’t really care
how. $30million from exploiting the next fool spends just like any other
money, as long as you’re not the last fool.

~~~
koonsolo
So I guess you didn't study the history of fiat

[https://echobtg.com/fiat-currency-graveyard-a-history-of-
mon...](https://echobtg.com/fiat-currency-graveyard-a-history-of-monetary-
folly/)

[https://steemit.com/money/@fluffy/fiat-currency-a-history-
of...](https://steemit.com/money/@fluffy/fiat-currency-a-history-of-fail)

~~~
cfadvan
_So I guess you didn 't study the history of fiat..._

...As written by two Blockchain sites. Ya got me.

~~~
koonsolo
You're shooting at the source, not the content.

~~~
cfadvan
“Consider the source.” Not to mention that the “conent” opening with “printing
money is wealth theft” isn’t worth the time it took to read, never mind
responding to it.

~~~
koonsolo
I just wanted to show you a quick glance over the history of fiat money, and
what happened after 2008 to the dollar.

> Most people don’t study history (or don’t learn its lessons) and as the
> saying goes, are doomed to repeat it.

Have a nice day.

------
marmot777
John Oliver has a well done bit on cryptocurrency markets as pyramid schemes:
[https://youtu.be/g6iDZspbRMg](https://youtu.be/g6iDZspbRMg)

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isaiahg
Okay lets just say bitcoin is a scam. What do we do about it? What can we do
about it?

Do we shut down the open source project? Do we make the algorithms illegal and
have a repeat of the fight of whether or not mathematics and programming is
free speech?

Without saying anything to support or not support bitcoin, the cat's out of
the bag. There will now always be bitcoin as long as there are anonymous
miners willing to keep the network running and it will always have value even
if it's not optimized perfectly. Even if that value can only be found on the
black market.

What I'm saying is bitcoin and cryptocurrencies are here to stay because the
knowledge of how to make them and run them is becoming saturated and anyone
can just fork the code. So even if it doesn't play by the rules we've come to
know, we better get used to it...

~~~
bb88
> Do we shut down the open source project? Do we make the algorithms illegal
> and have a repeat of the fight of whether or not mathematics and programming
> is free speech?

Actually, it's quite simple. The SEC and IRS could go after the exchanges. If
BTC can't be converted to US Dollars BTC is worthless on its face.

BTC only has value if it can be exchanged to another currency.

~~~
isaiahg
Okay lets do that. How do they enforce it? Many of the biggest exchanges are
not in the US. There are some exchanges that are decentralized themselves and
can't be taken down easily. Many countries are embracing cryptocurrencies like
Germany, South Korea, Japan, and will offer safe havens for exchanges.

Of course cryptocurrency can always go underground and hid their traffic.
Technically you could even run a cryptocurrency network through email.
Technology has and will always move faster than governments.

On another front, it might be hard to galvanize support to ban cryptocurrency
when many of the movers and shakers have embraced it. IBM is the largest tech
provider to the financial sector and is working on more than 400 blockchain
projects and runs its own cross border payment system that may already process
60% of all cross-border payments in the South Pacific using the Lumen crypto.
Word is also going around the JPMorgan might start up bitcoin futures trading
soon.

It seems like to me that the old world and gatekeepers have already decided
that this is the way the world is moving.

~~~
bb88
> Okay lets do that. How do they enforce it? There are some exchanges that are
> decentralized themselves and can't be taken down easily.

So your argument is "You can make it illegal all you want, but we'll just move
it underground and it will never die."

Arguments like that do little to win over regulators. The last time I checked
in the US, cryptocurrency fell within the jurisdiction of the CFTC, IRS, SEC,
and FinCEN agencies. Three of those agencies have already made policies
regarding cryptocurrencies without needing an act of congress.

> On another front, it might be hard to galvanize support to ban
> cryptocurrency when many of the movers and shakers have embraced it.

Again, this argument is not compelling enough. Popular things once done by
people or companies have been made illegal time and time again. Any argument
that allows companies to profit off illegal activities (money laundering comes
to mind) in a legal way without regulation, is DOA.

------
willio58
_Cryptocurrency is best-suited for one use: Criminal activity_

This is not a new idea. And it ignores the fact that most criminals still use
cash for transactions anyway.

~~~
asdsa5325
Of course most criminals use cash, since most people use cash. What's your
point?

~~~
koonsolo
Point is the pot calling the kettle black.

------
aresant
Here is the actual article that Bill Harris wrote vs the linkspam:

[https://www.recode.net/2018/4/24/17275202/bitcoin-scam-
crypt...](https://www.recode.net/2018/4/24/17275202/bitcoin-scam-
cryptocurrency-mining-pump-dump-fraud-ico-value)

------
andirk
PayPal and their underling Venmo have frozen my assets a couple times now in
the past couple of months. PayPal is a scam. Venmo is a scam, says I, former
user of those.

------
eof
Is bitcoin a scam? Or is the notion of decentralized money a scam?

Sad if we must bow to the various central banks that will rise, fall, and
inflate their currencies to nothing until the heat death of the universe.

~~~
asdsa5325
You have a narrow view of economics if you think inflation is a problem.
Inflation is great for our economy, since debt holders can use less purchasing
power to pay off their fixed-rate debts.

~~~
eof
I don't think inflation is (necessarily) a problem. I do think that some
people benefit immensely from being "close to the source" of money creation;
and especially when times get tough, those with access to this fountain
benefit at the peril of the masses who are using the currency.

There are cryptos with inflation built in, probably in whatever most ideal
form you or anyone thinks is correct.

Or, I might say: You have a narrow view of bitcoin if you think stopping
inflation is the problem that it's solving.

