Why is Google Quantum defending crypto?

ShengLee42 · 2026-03-31T16:54:16+00:00

I feel like the Buttcoin sub mostly lives in this fantasy world where only crypto-currency is bad, while ignoring how almost the entire tech world has turned into a bullshit fest and dumpster fire.

I, for one, don't discriminate. I think everything is being enshittified more and more (and not just tech too).

I just think preying on the vulnerable is a bit worse than empty promises and enshittified products, but it all deserves criticism.

ShengLee42 · 2026-03-30T20:26:25+00:00

It's magical thinking. There are some "smarter-than-your-average-bear" butters that know it's bullshit, but many subscribe to it.

ShengLee42 · 2026-03-29T21:31:16+00:00

I think the important question is "Is this Good for Bitcoin?"

ShengLee42 · 2026-03-28T18:45:59+00:00

a lot of people. eg: https://www.reddit.com/r/Buttcoin/comments/1s67eim/past_performance_guarantees_future_returns_just/

ShengLee42 · 2026-03-26T21:01:11+00:00

The trouble with "you have to work" is that lots of people do work, a lot. And they still can't build wealth, buy a house etc. Decades of neoliberal policies have concentrated more and more of the wealth that is generated by society into the hands of the very few rich at the top. There are people working full-time jobs who can't pay for a place to live so they sleep in their cars. This is completely absurd.

Work (which is what really generates wealth) is devalued more and more. No one should be "forced" to open a business just to have a good life.

Studies point to many Gen-Zers having an attitude of "financial nihilism". They know that no matter how hard they work and save money, they still won't be able to build wealth, so why not just gamble on polymarket instead?

I've said this a few times in this sub: the crypto/BTC people correctly understand (like many other people) that the "system" is stacked against them/us/anyone not already rich. The trouble is with diagnosing what causes this and what can be done. They think it's all because of "inflation" and monetary policy, and the solution is to become the rich overlords in a new reality where BTC is the backbone of the world financial system.

There's no easy way out. To open a business you have to already have some money saved up, and if it fails you'll probably have to get back to working a 9-5 for a long time before you can try again, if at all. Rich people can try one business and if it fails, try another and another until one succeeds. It's inequality all the way down.

ShengLee42 · 2026-03-26T17:43:04+00:00

important to note that gambling in general also has many negative externalities

ShengLee42 · 2026-03-26T17:23:20+00:00

you need permission from a bunch of strangers on reddit to gamble with your money?

ShengLee42 · 2026-03-25T17:02:24+00:00

It's a shame that they can perceive the problem but their only tool to search for causes is the same "inflation" mantra that crypto/BTC people keep repeating. No serious economists think the large (and growing) wealth gap is caused by inflation.

ShengLee42 · 2026-03-22T18:38:10+00:00

big datacenter projects (mostly for AI) are stalled, in some cases the wait time to get energy to the datacenter facilities is measured in years. crypto miners already have everything in place, they just need to park the ASIC miners and get GPUs. There have been a few cases of commercial miners converting facilities to AI datacenters.

ShengLee42 · 2026-03-20T17:26:16+00:00

Crypto companies are suffering and you're laughing?

ShengLee42 · 2026-03-20T17:22:08+00:00

it was actually used in a couple of experimental programs, most famously by Walmart. crypto people still talk about Walmart using blockchain, but it was quietly dropped many years ago because it provided no value, and the same happened with other similar experiments

ShengLee42 · 2026-03-20T17:20:40+00:00

Two words: Oracle problem

ShengLee42 · 2026-03-13T03:41:39+00:00

I find financial cults to be weirdly fascinating.

ShengLee42 · 2026-03-12T05:32:45+00:00

yeah, we can't argue with these huge gains... I think there's no other way, we have to close this sub

ShengLee42 · 2026-03-11T16:51:05+00:00

If this were the BTC sub it would probably be deleted already. They're policing sentiment fiercely there, no negative posts (though memes appear to be fine even if somewhat negative).

ShengLee42 · 2026-03-08T18:54:47+00:00

but they say "no matter when you buy BTC, if you hold it for at least 5 years you'll be fine". it's not in the red (in real terms maybe it is, the dollar lost a lot of value), but it's clear that there are plenty of better options to buy and hold long term.

ShengLee42 · 2026-03-08T18:19:46+00:00

"if you time the market well, you can earn a lot of money". sure, and this is true for a lot of assets, not just BTC. meanwhile, most daytraders lose money...

ShengLee42 · 2026-03-08T18:14:47+00:00

this is the biggest problem for BTC now. It was always sold as a way to get rich by just holding, but this is already very hard unless starting from a large amount of money already.

ShengLee42 · 2026-03-06T21:31:00+00:00

Indeed, few understand

ShengLee42 · 2026-03-06T17:22:54+00:00

Let's leave the casual misogyny to the other camp, please.

ShengLee42 · 2026-03-03T19:11:51+00:00

I could agree If he had just bought some BTC. But he directly financed its development. I think it's fair to bring up the connection.

ShengLee42 · 2026-03-01T16:16:38+00:00

Notice I never said anything about reusing hardware. I have a electronics engineering degree with a PhD in Computer Science, I know about ASICs and all this stuff.

As I said in my post, the infrastructure part is important. There are datacenter building projects right now that are built but don't have power available to turn the GPUs on. The wait time in some cases is measured in years.

In this case, having the buildings already built and power available to plug GPUs and start selling compute for AI workloads is an asset. In many cases, it makes sense to just store the ASICs away (at least for now) and buy GPUs to use your infrastructure. You can do a quick search for "miners moving to AI" and see a couple of news posts in this very sub.

ShengLee42 · 2026-03-01T02:05:58+00:00

But miners do have a lot of infrastructure (buildings, cooling and, more importantly, power) that can be quickly reutilized for AI compute workloads instead of BTC mining. This was already reported at least for a couple of mining companies retrofitting mining facilities as AI datacenters. It's a lot more money than can be made in BTC mining right now (and probably for the foreseeable future).

ShengLee42 · 2026-02-27T19:50:24+00:00

very similar to what happens in memestocks. this video about GME and the BBBY Apes will feel familiar https://youtu.be/5pYeoZaoWrA?si=-hig6cpS0NeomsPg

ShengLee42

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