diff --git a/Jorge_Stolfi.yml b/Jorge_Stolfi.yml new file mode 100644 index 0000000..b2bab21 --- /dev/null +++ b/Jorge_Stolfi.yml @@ -0,0 +1,78 @@ +###################### +# +# Jorge Stolfi, Computer Scientist + +- quote: | + Bitcoin is a Ponzi. + Investing in bitcoin, like "investing" in lottery tickets, is a very negative-sum game. + Namely, at any time, the total amount that all investors have taken out is considerably + less than what they have put into the scheme; the difference being the amount that the operators have taken out. + Thus the investors, as a whole, are always in the red, and their collective loss only increases with time. + date: 2020-12-31 + source: https://www.ic.unicamp.br/~stolfi/bitcoin/2020-12-31-bitcoin-ponzi.html + +- quote: | + Bitcoin is a Ponzi. + As a minimum, the operators should warn investors of the negative-sum character and negative expected profit. + In the case of bitcoin (and all other cryptos), not only that does not happen, + but there are thousands of promoters and "investment experts" who predict impressive price increases + and/or claim that bitcoin will have massive uses in the future that would somehow make it valuable. + Apart from the mendacity of those claims, those promoters never point out that such massive uses + would not translate into revenue for the investors. + date: 2020-12-31 + source: https://www.ic.unicamp.br/~stolfi/bitcoin/2020-12-31-bitcoin-ponzi.html + +- quote: | + Bitcoin is a Ponzi. + The observation that investing in cryptocurrencies is a ponzi scheme is not new or a cheap shot. + Among many others, it was expressed in 2014 by economists Nouriel Roubini of New York University + and Kaushik Basu of the World Bank and echoed by investment analyst David Webb in 2017 + and by the World Bank's president Jim Yomh Kim in 2018. + date: 2020-12-31 + source: https://www.ic.unicamp.br/~stolfi/bitcoin/2020-12-31-bitcoin-ponzi.html + +- quote: | + Bitcoin is a Ponzi. + Objection! The operator must lie to investors about the source of profit in a Ponzi! + + Crypto promoters from Andreessen to Zhao actively spread many lies and misleading claims + about the scheme, through malice or ignorance. Investment "experts" like Tom Lee, Mike Novogratz + and Dan Morehead often give extremely optimistic predictions + for the price on business or mainstream media. Those predictions have no rational basis whatsoever, + and, while qualified with "perhapses" an "maybes" and "not investment advice" disclaimers, + they are obviously intended to promote investment in the coins. + date: 2020-12-31 + source: https://www.ic.unicamp.br/~stolfi/bitcoin/2020-12-31-bitcoin-ponzi.html + +- quote: | + Bitcoin is a Ponzi. + Objection! The operator must lie to investors about the source of profit in a Ponzi! + + Crypto promoters also make dozens of claims about the virtues of the currency and/or the payment system, + such as that it will "one day" replace credit cards, replace national currencies, + protect people's savings from inflation or confiscation by government, make banks obsolete, + starve governments to death by depriving them of taxes or "money printing", + enable support of dissidents in oppressive regimes, "bank the unbanked", + allow free internet trade of drugs and other illegal items, + end corruption, poverty, and inequality, etc. etc. etc. + date: 2020-12-31 + source: https://www.ic.unicamp.br/~stolfi/bitcoin/2020-12-31-bitcoin-ponzi.html + +- quote: | + Bitcoin is a Ponzi. + Objection! By that definition the U.S. Dollar (USD$) is a Ponzi! + + No, national currencies fail to fit the definition, because people do not "invest" + in them with the expectation of gain. In fact, governments make their currencies + slightly inflationary precisely to discourage hoarding. + date: 2020-12-31 + source: https://www.ic.unicamp.br/~stolfi/bitcoin/2020-12-31-bitcoin-ponzi.html + + +- quote: | + If a transaction has two inputs of 3 BTC and 1 BTC, + and two outputs of 2 BTC and 2 BTC, you cannot tell which output came from which input. + + That is the basic principle of ~~money laundering~~ coin mixing services. + date: 2021-01-04 + source: https://twitter.com/JorgeStolfi/status/1345873579116818437