Non Sequitur by Wiley Miller for June 15, 2021

What I find that most people moaning and groaning about the state of their investments and claimed gains or losses, don’t understand is that until they sell that investment its price can go up, down, or sideways at no gain or loss to them.

*Does that mean crypto-currency is divine?!?

Crypto is easy enough to explain. What’s hard for me is explaining why people will trade it for things of actual value. See also “NFTs”.

Cryptocurrency is alien.

The basic idea isn’t that difficult. First, look up fiat money. With these particular types of fiat money everyone agrees to keep a copy of all the transactions made with it. That way Joe goes to the store and offers to pay one crypto dollar, the store keeper looks at the ledger and sees Joe has 13 crypto dollars so he makes the sale. Everyone updates their ledgers to show that Joe now has 12 crypto dollars and the store keeper has one he got from Joe. The crypto part involves how you keep people from fiddling with the books.

When the sun wipes out the satellites with a strong emission,and the Cloud goes away, you won’t even be able to smell the absence of crypto.

Except, if you had bought one whole “Bitcoin” at the launch, you would be a very wealthy person now. Maybe the ones who understand it want to keep its workings a secret.

Clipto Currency, This is another mystery of life, how so many people are still buying pie in the sky! B.T. Barnum and W.C. Fields were right on!

From what I’ve read Crypto currencies really only benefit money launderers and rich people looking for a loss to write off on their taxes.

Cryptocurrency? You mean Kleptocurrency? The greatest Ponzi scheme of all time…

I like Bill Maher’s explanation of it.

Crypto currencies are like musical chairs. They’re great until you end up holding an empty space

In this use, “Crypto” means “pretend”.

I saw an ad on Ebay last week. Someone was offering to sell the Brooklyn Bridge…..Bitcoin only! (/s)

Nothing is new under the sun: “Tulip mania (Dutch: tulpenmanie) was a period during the Dutch Golden Age when contract prices for some bulbs of the recently introduced and fashionable tulip reached extraordinarily high levels, and then dramatically collapsed in February 1637. It is generally considered to have been the first recorded speculative bubble or asset bubble in history.”

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tulip_mania?wprov=sfti1

A single bitcoin transaction uses roughly 707.6 kilowatt-hours of electrical energy–equivalent to the power consumed by an average U.S. household over 24 days, according to Digiconomist.

Any kind of currency is worth only what people believe it is worth.

Watch out! The all-seeing Eye is watching you. I have not heard, but would not doubt Amazon has acquired it and is using it to gather information from all who read this comic.

I am so glad I am too ignorant to understand Bitcoins and crypto-currency, and too poor to invest in them, even if I knew!

I don’t mistrust everything I don’t understand, but I understand enough to mistrust bitcoin and its competitors. Money in the ether is money in the air. It goes whichever way the winds blow, with no guarantee it will ever settle.

They are exactly like tulip bulbs, except you can’t eat them after the crash.

Yet you understand a piece of paper the government says is money?

Anyone remember stock derivatives?

Crypto is where it is today because of the finite amount of actual blockchain additions. This is why it is currently up in the 10’s of thousand. Now then he buying and selling of bitcoins can be done fractionally using the stock exchange. You want to dump $50 bucks hey you can have 0.0014% of 1 bitcoin too. It isnt a ponzi scam at all. If you have a couple of years and a dedicated miner machine you too could crank out and add to the blockchain and have $35k.

Actually, it’s a very simple concept.

CrytoCurrency???? What’s next…paying big bucks for a digital picture that everyone else can look at for free?

In the news: El Salvador becomes the 1st country to approve Bitcoin as legal tender.

I’ve read what it is, and I understand the words … but I’m still not too clear or comfortable enough with it to put any of my normal currency in it.

Netflix’s June 6, 2018 14 minute Christian Slater narrated “Explained” episode’s lead-in teaser reads..

> Cryptocurrency has made people billionaires, but is digital cash the next revolution? Learn about this anonymous currency and why it’s so coveted

That’s why they call it Crypto.

It’s just like regular currency. It’s faith based.

Cool! Explain swept-wing dynamics.

Money is like art. What is art? It’s whatever I’m pointing at when I say “That’s art!” If somebody is willing to give you something tangible in return for what they think of as money, then it’s money. (BTW, the “fiat” in “fiat money” is from the Latin word for “faith”.)

Crypto is like a loan. I sell you a loan for $100, you use that loan to sell the loan to another, who gives you a product, then uses your loan for their own purposes, ad infinitum. While the loan shark keeps making more.

Kinda like the Federal Reserve.

Crypto currency’s pluses, no means of tracking it, is its draw back.

I am at a loss at the perceived values and absurd prices people are willing to shell out for crypto currency and FTP auctions.

It’s like the Italian artist, Salvatore Garau, who recently sold an “Invisible Sculpture” titled “lo Sono” — “I Am” in Italian, for €14,820 (about $18,030).

“You don’t see it but it exists; it is made of air and spirit.” — Salvatore Garau

https://news.artnet.com/art-world/italian-artist-auctioned-off-invisible-sculpture-18300-literally-made-nothing-1976181/amp-page

After the past four years of the previous U.S. Presidency and now his Republican allies trying to rewrite history of January 6, 2021, nothing surprises me about how gullible people truly are, or willing to ignore what their eyes saw, only to believe in fairy tales that supports their prejudices.

OK… Explain NFT’s then!

I read a newspaper article that tried to explain it. Halfway through my eyes glazed over.

CryptocurrencyDefinition: Great thing to outlaw to prevent ransomware attacks nationally.

Hey!!! I’m offering my new crypto, BATCOIN!!! This month only, 100 Batcoins/$7 (U. S.)