If I buy stock in GM or Chevron or Apple or Tesla, I’m buying a piece of something, a company, whether the stock goes up or down. I am helping that company, supporting it, not just milking it. If I buy gold or silver, they were mined out of the earth, and if I want, I can hold them in my hand and keep them in my safe deposit box. But crypto coins are “mined” out of what? I’ve never been able to understand the answer. What factory is helped by my investment? Why do I deserve to profit by the money I invest and the risk I take? Lots of computer transactions around the world and electricity are the “mine”? And I can’t actually hold one in my hand. It all reminds me of sleight-of-hand conjuring tricks, Ponzi schemes, sales of bridges, scams. I’d love to have my money grow that fast, but I’m worried about this. It sounds like it should be carefully regulated, and this new bill isn’t enough regulation. Plus, when it is promoted by a man whose family suddenly had billions in crypto-profits from “coins” in his honor where that money didn’t exist this time last year and will be helped a lot by this bill, I’m nervous. I didn’t buy the gold sneakers or the Bible or the virtual photos. Those were clearly scams. No crypto for me.

Why is anyone entitled to make a profit by shorting a stock?

And the USD is backed up how?

In the land of the blind, the one eyed man is King!

The US national debt is a disaster. Interest payments on that debt currently take 17% of all federal expenditures and it’s more accurately at 22% when you remove the self funded social security payments from the calculations. This year, we’ll spend more on interest payments than we do the defense budget.

Going forward the numbers only get worse and once we reach a tipping point, the USD could crash, with the interest rates on the debt spiraling. The most recent tax bill accelerates all that.

Gold and real estate are digital? I did not know that! Guess the matrix is real. Wish the programmer would give me a better program.

They just can't all live here. Not enough room, not enough resources (timber, ore, oil, heavy metals, steel, etc.) to support the entire bloody world. Let them improve their own countries. Wait, they haven't done that in centuries.

Maybe I'm old-school, maybe I'm unsophisticated, maybe I'm maladaptive, maybe I'm a luddite, but I agree with this 100%.

You’re not alone!

My problem with Bitcoin is that there seems to be very little in the area of good information about it. And it also seems to depend on current events . Not a good mixture unless you are playing a big role in how those events turn out. It just seems like the ultimate in insider trading.

FWIW (not much), in my mind I see it this way:

Owning Bitcoin is a bit like owning a stock. While you own a number of shares, the value goes up and down due to market influences. There are a few legitimate transactions you can make with Bitcoin but for the most part you hope to buy low and sell high.

Owning Stablecoin (there are several) is a bit like owning poker chips. In an environment that accepts them (growing?) you can use Stablecoin like money just as you can use poker chips as money within a casino. Unlike Bitcoin, the value of the Stablecoin is controlled to be be stable. When you are ready to cash out, whether chips or Stablecoin, you know that each chip/coin you own is worth the same as it did when you bought in.

Owning Memecoin is similar to owning Beanie Babies. When demand is high you can sell what you have and make money. When there is an owner-only convention you can buy your way in. You can hold them as long as you want but when the novelty wears off you have a curiosity piece. On the other hand, if you are part of the production or sales chain you make money regardless of the value.

As a consumer, I don't see much difference between Stablecoin and a Debit Card. Both tie back to a number representing my wealth in US dollars and both allow me to make transactions without carrying cash. I'm sure there are long articles or even books on why I should trust a USD-backed Stablecoin over a USD-funded bank account but I haven't taken the time to be persuaded.

https://x.com/Hannibal9972485/status...78909622194685

������Pay attention this GENIUS act wants your dollars sitting in stablecoins to silently fund U.S. debt…through enforced reserve purchases of Treasuries.
This is monetized surveillance and passive taxation wrapped in fintech packaging.

Basically the U.S. Treasury needs to sell trillions of dollars in bonds to fund deficits.
•Right now, China and Japan are backing away from buying more U.S. debt.
•The Fed is tapering its purchases too.
•So they need a new buyer: YOU, via your stablecoin.

Stablecoins are being redesigned as a passive debt-purchase mechanism.

This is what they mean when they say:

“Every digital dollar will create *trillions in demand for the Treasury.”
It’s not metaphor. It’s a debt trap disguised as digital innovation.
http://1.You buy a stablecoin (Bank of America Coin, CircleUSD, etc.)
2.That issuer — a “Permitted Payment Stablecoin Issuer” (PPSI) — is legally required to hold 1:1 reserves for every coin.
3.Where do they hold those reserves?
Not under a mattress. Not in cash.
→ They’re buying short-term U.S. Treasuries (T-bills, notes, etc.)
4.The bigger the stablecoin market, the bigger the pile of T-bill demand.

The GENIUS Act would basically force every dollar of digital cash to support the U.S. government’s debt.

You’re Being Turned Into a Bond-Backed Hostage Without Consent

Your Money Becomes Illiquid and Government-Controlled

When stablecoin reserves are forced into U.S. Treasuries:
•Your digital dollars are no longer “backed by cash” — they’re backed by government IOUs.
•You can’t redeem instantly if the Treasury market freezes (like in March 2020).
•You don’t control the yield. You don’t earn the interest. The issuer or bank does.

Translation: Your dollar’s sitting in jail earning interest for someone else.

You’re Funding the Government — Without Voting On It

This turns your stablecoin use into passive debt funding for:
•Endless wars
•Bailouts for megabanks
•Surveillance infrastructure (like IRS snooping or digital IDs)

All without legislation, vote, or consent.

You’re now a non-consensual bond buyer just for holding “digital cash.”

They’ll now have a financial motive to:
•Ban algorithmic coins (like DAI/RAI) that don’t support bond buying.
•Kill Bitcoin/ETH usage as stable alternatives.
•Force everyone onto “compliant” rails where bond buying is mandatory.

The system becomes addicted to your stablecoin being a bond buyer. That’s permanent economic capture.

⸻

More Neutral Money — It’s All Politicized

A real dollar — paper or bank cash — is neutral.

A stablecoin forced into Treasuries is:
•Politically tied
•Debt-dependent
•Surveillance-prone
•Built on yield extraction

You lose neutrality. You’re tied to whatever policies the Treasury supports.

This Creates a Hidden Layer of Risk That Could Blow Up

If stablecoin issuers only hold Treasuries, and rates spike or buyers vanish (like in 2023 mini-crises):
•The coins can de-peg if there’s a redemption run.
•Issuers could go under due to mark-to-market losses.
•That loss gets socialized to YOU, the holder — not the issuer.

They’re hijacking your digital dollars to:
•Fund a debt-addicted system,
•Remove your monetary agency,
•Deny you interest or yield,
•Force you onto rails they control.

You don’t get safety. You get surveillance-backed debt peonage.
This is financial servitude hiding under the word “stable.”

Stable coins are just lousy bank accounts…

“he thinks most USD-backed stablecoins are really just deposit accounts on which the depositor is paid no interest nor other consideration, but whose sponsor is able to generate net interest income by investing the deposited assets (typically in highly liquid and very short-duration assets), just like a typical checking account, but without FDIC insurance.”

-Morgan Stanley Research

This is financial servitude hiding under the word “stable.”[/QUOTE]

Not hiding. Stable = the place you will end up sleeping. In the stable. 🙂🙃🫠 Such fun.

I get what he is saying, but it doesn't seem all that different than cash or treasuries other than the additional control by the elites.

If you have $ in an account and the market freezes, you have no access. If the bank shuts down, you have no access. Etc.

I had a TradeKing account in 2008. Their MM sweep was The Reserve Fund, one of the largest, most well-respected funds available. When the financial crisis happened, Reserve "broke the buck" (NAV no longer $1.00) and a large sum of my money was locked up for months while the mess was sorted out. How is that any different?

I will also agree with the poster who commented that a digital currency backed by a USD that doesn't itself have anything backing it, is essentially no backing.

As to the casino chip analogy, not bad, until you realize that the chips are only good as long as the casino is willing to redeem them and that you can't spend them anywhere except at that casino. Will Publix accept casino chips for bread, eggs and milk?