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Crypto is about to go mainstream by no longer being crypto

Over at New York, Kevin Dugan notes that BlackRock, a huge investment company, is close to getting SEC approval for a Bitcoin ETF (Exchange Traded Fund). An ETF is a fund that invests in related securities—the S&P 500, for example, or maybe a collection of health care companies—but is traded like an ordinary stock.

By itself this isn't too unexpected. What cracks me up is Dugan's explanation of what it all means:

At its core, a crypto ETF would make it easier for financial institutions (your pensions, mutual funds, hedge funds, and the like), and the average 401(k) holder, to easily trade and profit from the digital currencies without having to worry about encryption keys, or getting hacked, or anything like that.

In other words, a boring old ETF is great because it's fundamentally safer than a supposedly bulletproof, blockchain-based cryptocurrency. How the worm has turned!

It's all true, of course. The foundational blockchain itself might be technically impregnable, but in practice you still have to store your encryption keys somewhere. You still have to keep your crypto in a wallet somewhere. You still have to rely on your broker staying solvent. You still have to rely on all of these middlemen not to be outright crooks.

Sadly, these are all very real vulnerabilities, as we've learned over the past decade. Crypto is harder to buy and sell than ordinary securities and less safe than ordinary banks. BlackRock, by contrast, is easy to do business with and has a long history of being reliable and properly regulated.

Crypto continues to have no real use case outside of criminal activity. Money is safer in an ordinary bank. Dollars are far more widely accepted than Bitcoin. Money transfers are quicker and cheaper with PayPal or Western Union. Stocks and bonds are a better inflation hedge. There are niche cases where crypto is a good option, but they remain tiny and scattered. After more than a decade, crypto is still a solution in search of a problem.

22 thoughts on “Crypto is about to go mainstream by no longer being crypto

    1. D_Ohrk_E1

      Is true, but I think maybe 10% of the world really gives a shit about climate change and is desperately trying to change the world; 20% does not care at all; 70% can't be inconvenienced by higher prices or stricter regulations to effect an interruption of rising temperatures.

      In total, countries that hold the world’s oil, gas, and coal deposits still plan to produce 69 percent more fossil fuels than is compatible with keeping warming under 2 degrees Celsius, the riskier cousin to the 1.5-degree-Celsius goal each of those countries pledged to aim for. -- The Atlantic, "One Huge Contradiction Is Undoing Our Best Climate Efforts"

      People refuse to believe that we are running headlong into massive global changes that are going to accelerate even before we hit 2050 -- our supposed net zero target. There are millions of dipshits who still think carbon offsets work, after all.

    2. DButch

      Wait till you learn about "gas fees". There was an interesting article a year or two ago in the Seattle Times. The reporter decided to buy a friend a fractional bitcoin worth $50 - and found out that it got very complex, very quickly. I imagine that given the number of bitcoin issues out there there are a lot of variants, but I think he chose one of the better known ones. But you didn't just plunk down X dollars to buy the equivalent value in his chosen "coin". He was actually bidding against others, and got outbid on the first try. So he offered more on the next round and after a couple of attempts, got a coin for his friend.

      But then he found out that getting that coin safely into the hands of his friend meant setting up wallets (with fees) and the actual transfer required paying fees to extend the block chain to cover the energy required for the computation to extend the block chain to indicate the new owner.

      Bottom line - after a lot of running around he would up paying $300 dollars for that fractional bitcoin. But he did get an interesting story out of it - I hope his editor let him expense the costs. 🙂

    1. peterlorre

      In the meantime, you can use this simple ETF to speculate on criminal activity.

      It’s going to exacerbate some already problematic lobbying incentives.

    2. Lounsbury

      Well, probably sheer ponzi-linked speculation supports more than money laundering although money-laundering is the sole real use case outside of pure ponzi-speculation.

  1. Adam Strange

    There are people who will gamble on anything. Some of them wear suits and act like they know what the hell they are doing.

    No currency is worth anything if the issuer doesn't have an army to enforce that value.

  2. lower-case

    "i'd rather lose all my money to a non-government entity than keep it in an fdic-backed account"

    (said every glibertarian who loves crypto)

  3. Joseph Harbin

    Crypto needing government approval for a crypto ETF to legitimize/popularize a replacement for debased government fiat currency feels like whoever is writing the crypto story has lost the plot.

  4. lower-case

    the most cherished of all trumpist freedoms is shitting on people they don't like

    ###
    The 17-year-old had just been offered a main role in his Texas high school’s production of “Oklahoma!” playing a peddler who is a love interest opposite one of the musical’s female leads. After having held only singing ensemble roles for years, Max, who is transgender, was set to star as a lead with his own song. He’d already started picturing himself onstage, imagining ways he’d make the character his own.

    “I’m Ali Hakim,” he whispered to his friends, who erupted in screams and cheered him on for so long that Max had to ask his theater director for a late pass to his next class.

    But the next week, the role was no longer his.

    An administrator told the Hightower family Nov. 3 that Max would have to be recast because of a new policy that required Sherman High School students to portray characters that align with their sex assigned at birth, his parents told The Washington Post.
    ###

    https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2023/11/10/texas-transgender-student-musical-role-policy/

  5. golack

    One born every minute....

    If the "mining" actually did something, maybe even something useful, then maybe it wouldn't be sooo bad....

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