"However today cryptocurrency is nothing more than an ecosystem of thinly veiled gambling products that is preying on the vulnerable, perpetuating economic inequality and deepening the existing problems in our society. It is time for us in the software engineering profession to decide how history will tell the story of our participation in this madness. If we choose to make short-term decisions based on indifference and greed then history will not judge us kindly."
The author probably thinks the only speculation happening is in crypto... What do you think the whole of the stock market is doing? What about software developers working on wall street should they resign as well...?
I suggest you go and talk to a software dev about what they’re building for wall street- because the last thing they’re doing is gambling and this “well everything is gambling” is the exact kind of thinking the article warns about. There is a difference between an investment strategy; which has a plan, an understanding of the market, a set of risk limits and an exit strategy, and gambling.
I don't think people share your reverence for wall street.. or the oh so sophisticated financial risk management. The 2001 dotcom bubble was market wisdom? We're the 2008 frauds better than the "gamblers"? People shorting a stock more than a hundred percent thought through everything?
Its besides the point, but, infact the whole of the USD and the American economy is one massive ponzi scheme ripe a massive crash any decade... Printing and exporting USDs with nothing to back it except the military is not going to last forever..
Speculation vs Investment can only be determined on a trade to trade basis. It is just too simplistic and frankly impossible to judge the motivations of markets and claim to know intentions of all the traders of a given market.. so I'm not buying, markets are not speculation only these crypto guys are..
Yeah this is exactly what the author was talking about - this absurd “well actually everything is a Ponzi scheme!”.
If you think that wall street investors are the same as gamblers and the entire American economy is a Ponzi scheme then you have lost touch with reality. You have quite literally got to the point where your definitions have expanded to the point of being meaningless.
US govt is printing paper like there is no tomorrow. Obama printed more money than all previous presidents and trump outdid him. You guys are doing it for your internal problems. The world currencies are pegged to the dollar. Anytime money is added it reduces the value of existing money. Any country that manages it's currency this badly faces consequences of hyper-infaltion. US is shielded by this by being the reserve currency. The moment it loses this status, and any major power decides to reject the dollar because the value is getting inflated away the whole house of cards will come crashing down. Sure, it's not happening tomorrow. Is it never going to happen, I don't think so..
I’m going to come back to this because I think it’s an important point that you’re missing from the article. I mentioned 4 attributes of an investment strategy (each of which we could dig into in incredible detail). You’ve taken 1 and gone “well if we squint at it you do that in a ponzu scheme too”. Which is exactly the point the article is making - if you decide to completely ignore the facts that distinguish these things then yes, yes they are exactly the same. It reminds me of the Reddit debate about whether a hot pocket is a ravioli or a sandwich - it’s a fun mental game to abstract away definitions until you get unexpected results, but it’s also kind of stupid.
Are those strategies worth anything if handpicked basket of the best hedge funds can't outperform index fund as illustrate by long bet of Warren Buffet and some hedge fund guy?
Because if they are not worth anything then stock market is ONLY about timing your entry and exit correctly by sheer luck. Same as bitcoin.
"However today cryptocurrency is nothing more than an ecosystem of thinly veiled gambling products that is preying on the vulnerable, perpetuating economic inequality and deepening the existing problems in our society. It is time for us in the software engineering profession to decide how history will tell the story of our participation in this madness. If we choose to make short-term decisions based on indifference and greed then history will not judge us kindly."
The author probably thinks the only speculation happening is in crypto... What do you think the whole of the stock market is doing? What about software developers working on wall street should they resign as well...?