Topic: Testimonial during cryptocurrency hearing -Ben McKenzie Crypto is a ponzi scheme - page 2. (Read 356 times)

says the LN defence brigade
.. dang i need to store your quote for prosperity as a reminder of each time you defend the sub are network of weak pegs, fractional reserve features and a unit of account thats not even the same as that its suppose to represent and it does not even have a blockchain or network wide security to protect said iou value

so where was your cynic hat when it came to LN

The collapse of 1907 shows this to be the truth as it was capitalized in the last video I posted at the very end:

And that is your prerogative as so many others will take this avenue.
I am sure.
People don't like bad actors and Ben McKenzie certainly falls into this category. And I doubt anyone would disagree with this statement here as he is against all cryptocurrency including bitcoin with the publication of his book against it months before the collapse of FTX.
Now he is singing it's praises for foretelling of it's demise as a whole.
Which is far from the truth.

It will strengthen bitcoin in the coming months as I see it.

I personally find it more sincere to call every cryptocurrency a scam, bitcoin included, rather than embracing every crypto and find everything in this sector totally honest.

However, a ponzi scheme has a leader, promised returns and is characterized by lack of transparency. While most crypto-projects have the former, I doubt there's one that fulfills all three. Therefore, disregard to Ben for that. As if we didn't already know that politicians take out the ponzi narrative once a while.

Nothing new. Haven't wasted a sec to watch the video though.

Yeah, bet he was practising in front of the mirror for a long time, but it's easy to preach to the choir, and that's more or less what he was doing.

One thing I do feel, though, these hearings at least get the popular opinion out there and provide the grounds for myth-busting and disproving, which is what Bitcoin (unfortunately or not) has been steadily doing.

Once you win people over, the converts are more useful than those who bought in from the start (I'm a convert, so I have no qualms in saying this).

He is right to a point, right now post projects are scam ponzi's, pyramids and so on. But the crypto itself, the blockchain, has nothing to do with individuals. This is what people need to understand.
The yield and such opportunities appeared as for the idea of mining or earn crypto easily as the OG's did first with bitcoin. When the ideea of getting rich quick with crypto will dissapear, mass adoption will take place.

"golden" age of fraud

hmm he is about 300 years out of date with that title
he forgets the fiat age of fraud last 100 years
and now the digital age of fraud

yes frauds happen. but thats at the business level of business owners scamming people into their business schemes

the underlying asset has no brain or arm or leg or mouth to scam people.
bitcoin does not set up a business.

there is a massive difference between bitcoin, the real intrinsic value asset. vs FTT a company created token

its as if he is trying to say, and compare all company shares are ponzi because maddoff sold shares in a ponzi business, thus shares are ponzi

yes bitcoin is an asset/security
yes bitcoin can be transacted/ownership transfered thus it is a currency. however he does not understand that many things are a currency. he mixes up "common money" descriptor vs currency descriptor

yes bitcoin is not main stream common money.
but it does not mean that its a ponzi and does not mean its not a currency

bitcoin has utility function and underlying costs.
its not stored in some business where investors of old are paid interest via investors of new. where there is no other function/utility bar "robbing peter to pay paul"(ponzi)
showing he does not even understand how ponzi's work

bitcoin as a economic currency system is a simple ownership swap. much the same as shares and commodities and assets.
the price:cost of the swap has different markets and methods of acquisition and transfer. where some businesses do so at a premium or sometimes in 1% of cases maliciously steal from customers of their business

he has failed to recognise the difference between a business failure vs bitcoins success.

There was something which came a few days ago that caught my eye since it does call upon the aftermath of what had transpired in the cryptospace within the last two months of the articles published by coindesk of FTX's commingling of funds between the two companies.
"The end of crypto?" - The Agenda with Steve Paikin
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OCNfltV5S1U

This video asks the speakers opinion's on how the industry will recover the reputation in the eyes of corporate entities in the space.
It always seems to come down to the question "Can you buy coffee with it?"

Watch it as it is not an anti-crypto video just like the previous one was with Ben McKenzie, who was in the court and sitting besides Kevin Oleary in the FTX hearing a few weeks ago.
They discuss about how this will impact retail investors and not just the VCs in the cryptospace.

It is always disastrous to fall into the snare of critics and enemies. FTX has given critics the floor to dance. Even people that do not know anything about the crypto industry would become instant Professors in the field. Ben McKenzie's statement is a baseless fallacy and this clown shouldn't be taken seriously.

Although I felt that the use of celebrities by exchanges and other crypto firms to advertise their services helps in bitcoin awareness and promotion. But one of the biggest challenges of using these celebrities is that the can also be used by anti-government forces to discredit the sector. All these investigations and hearings are just pointing in one direction: Regulation.

While I can't really blame people for making these kinds of statements because of the FTX debacle, it's always dumb over-generalization.

In the video, I hate how he looks so smug as if his opinions were something new and something so groundbreaking; because if anything, it's the common opinion.

Of course, but these people are in a committee meeting on regulation of the entire industry. That would be much different then a rebuttal between a teacher and politician because that is just casual conversation and not where they can put laws into place where it shapes where things go from here for anyone who even touches a satoshi when it comes to taxes and your finances.

This actor even says he is in an industry where he is paid to lie for a living.
So take that as you will.

I watched a debate a few months back between a teacher and a politician (I think) on whether trans people should be respected for the gender they wish to express as. I noticed both sides of the argument were awful because neither of them were knew the subject matter (neither had studied it well, neither were doctors or someone in a profession to know). I did not get those three minutes back and my opinion didn't change.

The same should be the case here. If you're listening to an actor over whether to invest in crypto or not, you're definitely listening to the wrong person for making your financial decisions. There's enough creatives I've known to be paid a royalty after producing something so much that regardless of how niche it is they've no need to make investments.

Scammers exist in the world, from the past to present and future.

Scammers can use many available tools in society to scam others. They can use tulip bulbs, stocks (Enron), Internet (e-commerce 20 years ago), cryptocurrency in the last 10 years.

Some scammers can try to compromise the advance and attraction of blockchain technology and cryptocurrency to run their Ponzi scam. Like Onecoin which does not have its blockchain. It is actually not a cryptocurrency but many victims believed in Onecoin and believed that it is built on a blockchain.

Ponzi will exist in society and if a scam team like Sam Bankman-Fried team did not use cryptocurrency, FTT and FTX, Alameda to scam others, they will use other tools which can be stocks, real estates or whatever.

Cryptocurrency can not be stopped! according to Senator Toomey and I agree with him.

Manhattan U.S. Attorney Announces Charges Against Leaders Of “OneCoin,” A Multibillion-Dollar Pyramid Scheme Involving The Sale Of A Fraudulent Cryptocurrency

Senate FTX hearing: calls for regulation and crypto criticisms aplenty

While the the Gotham actor who played Commissioner Gordon during the proceedings being held December 13th for the failed exchange FTX and the following day infront of the house makes a statement "Cryptocurrency is the largest ponzi scheme in history".

Link to the video from CNN:
'Actor rips crypto as 'largest Ponzi scheme in history'
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZpqreZlmHGU
direct source: https://www.cnn.com/videos/business/2022/12/15/cryptocurrency-actor-ben-mckenzie-intv-contd-cnntm-vpx.cnn
Other links to the story posted from yesterdays hearings about connections to FTX and the collapse of every company that had investments with them:
https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/currencies/crypto-ftx-oc-star-ben-mckenzie-largest-ponzi-scheme-market-2022-12
https://www.foxbusiness.com/politics/ftx-hearing-the-oc-actor-schenkkan-rips-cryptocurrency-largest-ponzi-scheme-history


He wrote a book about his opinion of cryptocurrencies named Easy Money: Cryptocurrency, Casino Capitalism and the Golden Age of Fraud. beforehand and saw this very instance coming to the crypto industry as a whole sooner or later.

Your thoughts, because this is just day two and with the SEC suing these type of celebrities in the past also currently for endorsing these failed companies and projects. There are bound to be more just like Ben McKenzie coming into these proceedings and voice their thoughts about crypto economy.