• Not_mikey@slrpnk.net
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    6 months ago

    Trump said in a Truth Social post Tuesday. “Biden’s hatred of Bitcoin only helps China, Russia, and the Radical Communist Left. We want all the remaining Bitcoin to be MADE IN THE USA!!! It will help us be ENERGY DOMINANT!!!”

    Didn’t COMMUNIST China ban it mostly because it was putting strain on their grid? Not sure how wasting states worth of electricity to fuel a glorified ponzi scheme is going to help with energy dominance but who am I to question the self-proclaimed genius.

    • iopq@lemmy.world
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      6 months ago

      They banned exchanges because people were able to move their wealth out of China

    • Redex@lemmy.world
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      6 months ago

      I just… I… what goes through this man’s head? Why is literally every sentence he spews completed bullshit? And why do so many people fall for it?

    • technocrit@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      6 months ago

      Yeah it’s telling that this grifter is talking about Bitcoin when most other cryptos are massively more efficient. Even within crypto bitcoin is an obsolete technology. This is more for the like coal sector than crypto.

    • CosmoNova@lemmy.world
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      6 months ago

      Yes, some of the biggest crypto providers are de facto chinese. They trade big time, always have. When techno idealists in the west were still discussing Bitcoin as a free currency over a decade ago, china already ran gigantic crypto miner farms and saw it only as a speculative asset. They knew from the very first day it‘s not about using crypto, but making money trading and holding it.

  • treadful@lemmy.zip
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    6 months ago

    “Bitcoin mining may be our last line of defense against a CBDC [Central Bank Digital Currency],” Trump said in a Truth Social post Tuesday.

    lol, no shot he wrote this.

  • myliltoehurts@lemm.ee
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    6 months ago

    Everyone who has not regarded crypto as a scam will certainly do, once he’s done with the pump and dump he’s setting up here.

    • voracitude@lemmy.world
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      6 months ago

      I dunno man, the trumpets still buy whatever shit he shovels out and they don’t seem to have caught on that he’s a scammer yet…

    • technocrit@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      6 months ago

      Bitcoin is only a few points off it’s all time high… Who’s getting scammed by that?

      (On the other hand I would recommend switching to a sustainable crypto.)

      • myliltoehurts@lemm.ee
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        6 months ago

        What I expect will happen: have his followers buy in at current high price point -> price goes higher -> him and his rich whale friends sell -> price goes down -> the people who just invested because he promised big stonks but realistically can’t afford to leave their money in for years panic and sell -> price goes down -> him and rich friends buy in again.

        Sure, it’s mostly his followers getting scammed, but if this does happen I can’t imagine them not vocally blaming BTC for losing their money - which would likely fuel the crypto is a scam narrative.

        Maybe his words are not influential enough to actually sway the price and nothing will come of it though, but based on the previous things he has done (his NFTs, the truth social stocks) if he has the opportunity to take money from his supporters, he certainly will.

    • sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works
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      6 months ago

      Crypto isn’t a scam, though lots of cryptocurrencies are scams. Don’t buy crypto to try to get rich or even as an investment, get it if you want to buy stuff with it. Monero is a great cryptocurrency for that, and you can tell it’s doing well by how many countries are threatened enough by it to make it harder to get (it has truly private transactions, just like cash).

      I don’t think he’s doing any sort of pump and dump, he just wants crypto bros to vote for him. He tried courting libertarians at their convention (and rightfully got booed), and now he’s courting crypto bros specifically (many libertarians are into crypto). He’s just trying to expand his base a bit.

      • myliltoehurts@lemm.ee
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        6 months ago

        I didn’t say crypto was a scam, but it is regarded as a scam in general and as you said, it’s pretty easy to get scammed trading it or using it if you don’t know what you’re doing - which would definitely be true for anyone buying in on a public figure’s advice.

        It’s also an incredibly volatile market which is relatively easily influenced by large players without much regulation. If he does have the influence to manage to impact it, I am pretty sure he would happily take his gains from his followers. If he doesn’t, well let’s just hope all the people who buy in without any research don’t lose their money by selling as soon as the next crypto winter comes for a massive loss.

        • sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works
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          6 months ago

          You’re strongly implying it:

          Everyone who has not regarded crypto as a scam will certainly do

          It is easy to get scammed, but it’s also easy to get scammed with legitimate-sounding services. I just had a scammer try to steal my money from my bank by claiming to be the fraud department, does that mean the banking industry is a scam? People on the sidelines will try to make a buck in any industry. What about cosmetics? There are plenty of MLMs that peddle cosmetics, and they’re scams, but that doesn’t make all cosmetics or even MLMs scams (e.g. tupperware is an MLM and not a scam imo).

          Whether crypto is a volatile market doesn’t have anything to do with being a scam, it just increases the number of people trying to make a quick buck, and some of those will try to pump and dump or pull some other scam. Before crypto, that was more common with stocks, and it’s fairly common today with third party resellers of various things.

          I don’t think Trump is trying to pull a crypto scam here, I think he’s just trying to get elected. He wants the scammers to promote him, as well as the crypto apologists. He just wants more people talking about him so he can increase his chances of being elected.

          • myliltoehurts@lemm.ee
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            6 months ago

            Sorry, but I think you’re reading into my words something they didn’t say or imply. In fact I tried my best to avoid wording it in a way that implies crypto is a scam (because I don’t believe it myself).

            What you’ve quoted strictly implies 2 things:

            1. There are people who consider crypto a scam
            2. Everyone will regard crypto as a scam after trump’s future actions.

            The 2nd is definitely an exaggeration, but neither of them claim crypto is a scam only that it has an image that it is - which I maintain it does with a significant portion of people.

            I do think trump picked crypto as a target for his attention because it’s a volatile and under regulated market he may be able exploit to try to make money off of whoever listens to him. I hope I’m wrong though.

            • sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works
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              6 months ago

              I apologize, there’s a lot of anti-crypto group think here on Lemmy, and your comment read like that. There absolutely are a lot of crypto scams and reasons to dislike the technology generally, but there are real problems being solved and ways to use the technology productively, so I get a bit aggressive in pointing out that the group think is imprecise at best.

              The second being an exaggeration is what made it look like group think.

              trump… make money

              Idk, I honestly think his entire focus is on getting elected. Yeah, he wouldn’t say no to more money, but I think it’s in service of getting himself onto office again, not to get even more rich. I think he saw hating crypto as advantageous in the past, and now he sees supporting crypto as advantageous.

              Yeah, maybe it’s just a grift. I guess we’ll see.

              Here’s the evidence I see:

              • Trump and Biden are close in the polls
              • Trump speaks at the Libertarian convention (many are into crypto) and gets booed
              • with RFK in, the election could come down to a small number of votes

              I think he’s trying to convince conservative leaning libertarians, single-issue RFK voters (he’s pro-crypto too), and other fringe voters to vote for him instead of whatever protest vote they’d normally go with. He’s not trying to appeal to Biden voters, he’s trying to pull protest votes back in.

              • myliltoehurts@lemm.ee
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                6 months ago

                No problem!

                Your thinking seems more insightful than mine.

                My reasoning that he is mainly after the money is that in the past year he has been paying a lot of legal fees and fines, while trying to run a campaign. He had his NFT collection which made him a quick buck to then immediately floor in value, same for trump media stocks - except they then skyrocketed again, and now flooring again. So… Just seems like something he’d do.

                The 2nd reason is that crypto is a very divisive topic with loads of people hating on it - including banks and some other financial institutions. I’d expect it’s a double edged sword for supporters, but maybe he’s gaining more from it than losing in terms of votes.

                Considering that it’s been a few days since he made his statement and there hasn’t been massive movement on BTC price, he’s either not influential enough to impact it or I was wrong.

                /shrug

                • sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works
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                  6 months ago

                  Yeah, you might have a point. Let’s see which scam, electoral or financial, he’s trying to pull. Or maybe it’s both… I’m guessing things will heat up one way or another as we get closer to the election.

  • Willow.@discuss.tchncs.de
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    6 months ago

    Once again Trump proves himself to be a mere opportunist and grifter without principles or convictions. While in office Steven Mnuchin tried to kill crypto at the behest of the banking industry and Trump was vocal against Bitcoin. Once he left the White House he peddled his own NFTs.

    • shortwavesurfer@monero.town
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      6 months ago

      We all know politicians have no morals. The reason he changed his stance is very simply because the crypto industry very well could get him elected. Crypto is a growing concern for a lot of people and he has to see that.

          • Kiernian@lemmy.world
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            6 months ago

            But they’re almost all using it STUPIDLY, aren’t they?

            How many people who purport to have Bitcoin actually hold their own private key?

            • shortwavesurfer@monero.town
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              6 months ago

              Now you make a very fair point there. If you hold Bitcoin on an exchange or an ETF or somebody else holds it for you, you don’t own Bitcoin. That’s for sure. In those cases, you hold an IOU for Bitcoin. And that’s worth just about as much as it sounds. In other words, shit.

              • Kiernian@lemmy.world
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                6 months ago

                Safe deposit box?

                Everyone who has one, I hope.

                It’s called a Bitcoin “wallet”, too. If someone else is holding yours, it’s not your money.

    • Lost_My_Mind@lemmy.world
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      6 months ago

      It’s like trying to watch a 5 year old lie about eatching chocolate, when theres chocolate on their nose.

      It would be funny and adorable if he weren’t so hateful and racist, with real world consequences.

    • fruitycoder@sh.itjust.works
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      6 months ago

      If this is a move to commit dark money campaign fraud again before his sentencing on the last case of it is even done I would want to see a live reaction of the judge when he hears that

  • the_doktor@lemmy.zip
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    6 months ago

    A criminal saying that a laughable scam that is mostly used for criminal activity is good? Who would have thought? Oh right, everyone.

    • Flying Squid@lemmy.worldOP
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      6 months ago

      He was anti-Bitcoin until recently though. Now suddenly he’s all-in on it. Obviously something major has changed. One person speculated that this is to appeal to libertarians. I’m suggesting that along with that, the Saudis, who are in tight with Trump, just announced that they are abandoning the petrodollar and are considering trading in Bitcoin.

  • tal@lemmy.today
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    6 months ago

    “Bitcoin mining may be our last line of defense against a CBDC [Central Bank Digital Currency],” Trump said in a Truth Social post Tuesday. “Biden’s hatred of Bitcoin only helps China, Russia, and the Radical Communist Left. We want all the remaining Bitcoin to be MADE IN THE USA!!! It will help us be ENERGY DOMINANT!!!”

    I love using social media, but I sure miss the politics of the pre-social-media era. The craziness levels were considerably lower.

    • crazyCat@sh.itjust.works
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      6 months ago

      I agree with you, but then I just thought of the political eras that gave us Nazis, Stalin and the gulags, Mao and the Cultural Revolution and thought hmm politics could be crazy before, also.

    • fruitycoder@sh.itjust.works
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      6 months ago

      Wait so the play is to make us push bitcoin BECAUSE its a huge energy hog to float fossil fuels prices UP?

      Honestly wtf kind of policy is this?

      Like at least white nationalist pull in 2016 was pretty clear cut, but who the hell is that even for? Like what chud libertarian wants to see the government artificial increase energy prices?

  • Fedizen@lemmy.world
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    6 months ago

    there was a time when conspiracy loons would fearmonger about “digital currency” and “cashless society” and yet here we are…

    • Toribor@corndog.social
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      6 months ago

      They still are.

      Bitcoin mining may be our last line of defense against a CBDC [Central Bank Digital Currency],” Trump said in a Truth Social post Tuesday

      Don’t use the imaginary digital currency made by the deep state. Use this specific digital currency that I have a huge financial interest in!

  • scarabic@lemmy.world
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    6 months ago

    He realized that if you have a large number of people on remote control, you can do pretty well with Ponzi schemes.

  • Treczoks@lemmy.world
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    6 months ago

    “Don’t use Bitcoins! They are EVIL! Give them to me, I’ll take care of them!”

  • Minarble@aussie.zone
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    6 months ago

    But what if the bitcoin is made on an electric boat that is being attacked by sharks?