I trust the provider, and it’s a small amount I’m willing to risk. Just don’t want to throw it away, be frustrated, or get involved with shady people.
Android/Windows user, btw.
For those people who are wondering why I would ask Lemmy strangers about my money decisions, let me tell you my thinking.
I am in the decision making process. One of the things I do when making decisions is gather information from a variety of sources. I then weigh that information as to how useful I find it, research any possible leads, and use it as a launching point for my own investigation. I find that beats the hell out of googling whatever I can think up on my own in a field where I have no experience whatsoever.
For clarification, I’m not telling anyone else how to do anything. You humans live your life however you want, and I respect you as individuals with opinions of your own. Live how you want to live, choose how you want to choose, be how you want to be.
Much peace to all ✌️
You’re buying pornhub premium, aren’t you? Unfortunately, I also wanted to buy something from a site that only took crypto as payment.
I ended up creating an account on Coinbase, which required a whole bunch of personal information from me. That was very concerning, but they seem like one of the few crypto sites that aren’t totally shady. It’s apparently a law they must follow to tie my personal information to all my crypto trades to prevent crime or something. After they verified my government IDs and bank account details, which took a day or so, I was authorized to buy crypto.
I bought the exact amount I needed. It took about 35 minutes to confirm the transfer, and only then did I realize coinbase takes a fee, which means I actually had less than I needed. I buy slightly more crypto, wait another 30 minutes for all the super cool futuristic cryptoblock hashing to be completed, and now I finally have enough crypto to buy that $20 thing I wanted.
I tell coinbase to send my 0.0000018364929038484920385 coins to xhfhfosnjwifbgnsoahdbfiaojdbfidhsbdmfodhsbd and the site eventually confirms the transfer after yet another 30 minutes of hashblocking.
It took me about 2 days and $30 to buy something for $20 using crypto, and I have never hated crypto bros so much ever for believing this is how all payments will work in the future.
Uh, noooo? Did my mom tell you that? She’s always lying about me!
Joking aside, people pay for porn? Are there upgrades?
I’m getting an invite for my son for one of the private servers I’m a member of. There’s a discount for Crypto and I’ve been trying to up my privacy online but it appears Crypto is not the way. I’ll pay with a card.
Why would you hate someone for their beliefs? Is it really such a bad thing to hope and advocate for a future where government doesn’t control the value of your money?
I get it philosophically, but…
crypto = no underlying value (unless it was a 1:1 ratio with some measurement of electricity like a bond almost, ideally being a unit of energy we exchange unto itself)
so for now…
money = government
Plus, we’d need someway to independently run, manage, and maintain an autonomous system outside of the government controlled infrastructure. Which, unless we make serious energy/education/resource breakthroughs is not going to happen anytime soon sadly.
Some good points there. I would say money is value backed by (state sanctioned) violence while crypto is money backed by a proof of electronic work.
Ultimately humans create value. Simply using crypto gives it value. Government money(fiat) only has value because people and and organizations agree it has value.
Monero is a crypto that tries to be like cash in its anonymity and commitment to nontracking. It has legimate and ‘illegimate’ uses just like cash. You can buy VPNs privately with monero or you can buy dark market goods.
Monero is to cash as lemmy is reddit. Similar to how social media platforms like facebook and reddit are prone to the network effect so is money.
It’s a good philosophy but that’s just it. Crypto should’ve remained closeto it’s philosophical roots.
The government legalizing manipulation of crypto by making them “assets” ruined any real implementation by tethering it to the fiat currencies. So crypto is now a moot point sadly that doesn’t retain it’s original anarchist intentions.
I know a lot about Monero and Ring Token technology. Used it plenty. Doesn’t matter. Still tied to fiat and manipulation by proxy. Even if private. What’s the real issue with this tethering you ask?
Authoritarian Control
Governmental overreach being able to examine any of your accounts and almost see a one-to-one with your deposits is a red flag. No, they cant see the amounts on the other end (Monero’s private ledger). But all security is an illusion, especially for the now government backed tech like this. Eventually Ring tech will be broken by AI, ML, Quantum, or many. Plus, the exchange reports your purchases and sells that data too (legally now).
Even if you use LocalMonero and do it in-person, you have IP Addresses (bc no VPNs usually), messages between seller and buyer, and purchase amounts potentially all under the authority of private entities. Unless you’ve some serious connections.
All the government has to do is make it illegal to participate in crypto at all and now it becomes dead tech again (for better or worse).
Thank you for your input though! Not trying to be defeatist or an alarmist. Just a clarification on my opinions of where the hypothetical train went off the rails.
Crypto is a capitalism scam, not an anarchist idea. You should read up why governments want to regulate currency.
True anarchism of value is about owning the means of value. The black market is common people eschewing government set value. Crypto is a grift like inflated stocks where the last one holding it is the loser.
Crypto is a capitalism scam, not an anarchist idea
Source?
Also ooh scary buzzwords, that mean nothing in this context.
You should read up why governments want to regulate currency.
I might if you link me to some recommend links or sources where I can. My understanding is it is mostly to control the money supply.
Crypto is a grift like inflated stocks where the last one holding it is the loser.
Most crypto projects are grifts, I acknowledge that. Even so a few cryptos have actual legitimate use cases like monero.
But I don’t see how stocks has anything to do with that. Cash is used for MLM scams does that mean I shouldn’t use cash for anything?
Kinda depends on what you’re buying. If you’re buying something illicit, then there are a few extra steps that you need to worry about, like downloading the Monero blockchain, and finding an exchange where you can convert your Bitcoin (BTC) to Monero. Yes, BTC can be traced; Coinbase, Circle, et al. will close your account if the wallet address you’re sending money to is someone that you shouldn’t be sending money to. (And they need a lot of information about you because too many people have used crypto to try and circumvent money laundering laws.)
The nice thing about BTC (and Monero) is that you can buy things overseas–assuming that you have some level of trust with the seller–when credit cards, bank cards, etc., will likely forbid the transaction, or charge steep fees for it.
To do the basic things with Coinbase, etc., you’ll need to open an account, give them a lot of proof that you are who you say you are (because of regulations on banks), and link to a bank account. You will buy cryptocurrency either with a credit/debit card (high fees, low limits, and quick turnaround times) or bank transfer (lower fees, high limits, very slow turnaround time). Once the transaction is complete–which might take up to about two weeks), you will have a fixed amount of BTC; the value of that will vary based on what it’s currently trading at.
To send money, you’ll need a wallet address. Every time you send BTC, there will be a network fee; that’s a fraction of the funds that are used to pay the people that are doing the computations on their computers (mining rigs) needed to confirm the transfer of funds. The higher you opt to set the fees, the faster the transfer will confirm; it can be five minutes to about an hour. You should get confirmations.
If you’re setting up your own wallet, there are a few more steps to go through. Be aware that setting up offline storage can be a bit of a pain, but is quite a bit more secure than using an exchange to store your currency, as long as you don’t lose a hard drive, have a major computer crash, etc.
At this point with crypto, you’re going to give away the same amount of information when you buy it on an exchange versus just giving your credit card details over. If you like the extra steps and hassle then go for it, but if you’re just buying porn well then, it’s probably just easier to give them your credit card
I almost learned the hard way if you need a special payment method for something it’s probably for a good reason and you should stay away.
I’m not gonna speculate on what you’re buying, but I’m afraid you’re gonna get involved with shady people no matter what if you’re using cryptocurrency. the entire industry is in the midst of a cascade failure thanks to Three Arrows Capital going toes up, and con artists and thieves are cashing in. cryptocurrency exchanges are using their own customers’ money for not-so-good purposes, stablecoins are rapidly losing their pegs, and it seems like a bridge gets cracked every other way. my advice? if you don’t want to deal with shadiness, you really shouldn’t use cryptocurrency at all.
Oh, my mind is made up, and there’s clearly no reason to use Crypto for anything. A dumpster fire if there ever was one. I’ll be a spectator, not a participant.
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Open crypto app on phone
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Point phone at QR code
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Press okay
Watching people bitching and whine about technology like crypto and AI while I just use it like a normal human that’s uses technology to make my life easy is fun. My life is getting easier, if you learned how to use technology instead of bitch moan and drag your heels. You know old people that can’t send a email? You’ll be an old person that can’t pay for your food in 30 years.
You do realize that you’ve skipped about 70 steps, right? OP needs to figure out what currency the recipient wants, pick a wallet app (most of the ones people recommend are god-awful), install it, create a wallet, figure out how to store keys for the wallet safely (which is really not possible), figure out how to add funds to the wallet in the right currency, pay attention to the transaction to make sure the right amount of funds are being transacted… and each of those steps has a dozen substeps, and requires research in an industry that is constantly lying to people.
… plus, OP did not say that there was a QR code involved at all, that’s a very odd assumption on your part.
You have to choose a bank, then you have to pick which credit card you want based on credit limits rewards and invest rates. Either go to that bank or install their app to activate your credit card. Then you have to store those numbers which are visible right on the cards and transmitted wireless safely(which is not possible), figure out how to pay off your credit card. Make sure there aren’t any fraudulent charges, double, fees etc. And each of those steps has a dozen subsets, and requires trust in an industry that is
constantlywait, never lies to people.You sound like a boomer that still uses cash and doesn’t know your phone has been able to be your credit card for the last decade.
OP already has a bank. OP has a problem to solve and instead of trying to help OP, you decided to act like a dick and just whine about how easy you think crypto is and how everybody else should think it’s just as easy as you think it is.
By the way—you don’t have to store your credit card number anywhere. If you lose your card, or it gets stolen, or somebody else manages to guess it, or any other form of loss or fraud happens to your credit card, the company will keep you safe. The concern with crypto wallets is that most of them are actual scams, if you install one from the wrong place you will lose every penny as soon as you add it to the wallet. If you store your key in the wrong place, you’ll lose your money, and if you don’t store it in enough places, you’ll lose it and lose your money, but storing it in three secure places is basically its own fucking job.
And that’s not even to mention stuff like death—death is a hard problem for most crypto wallets, because it requires you to trust other human beings with your payment info, and the only wallets that can handle that are social recovery wallets, which aren’t even EOAs.
You have to be a fucking idiot to think crypto is anywhere near as convenient or straightforward or safe as traditional banking and credit cards.
I buy street food with bitcoin using 3 taps on my phone in 30s, but go ahead and continue your anti technology theater. Nobody actually using modern tech bitches and whines like those opposed to it. Bye bye boomer.
So you either pay an extra 20$ in fees to expedite the transaction, you’re not actually using bitcoin but some bank equivalent where you never actually hold your own keys, or that 30s is impossible in my experience.
Nobody actually using bitcoin bitches and whines because there are only six of them and they’re all neck-deep in the cult mentality promoted by the hundred thousand other guys who pump the culture to maximize their returns.
don’t forget the part after “open crypto app” where you find out your favorite coin crashed overnight and you now have 29 cents
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